New road rules relating to the use of smart phones by drivers are threatening to kill off satellite navigation systems.

Iphone apps made by TomTom, Navigon and Sygic and Nokia phones using Ovi Maps, Telstra phones with Whereis Navigator GPS service have all been targeted by the new Aussie law. From November 9 you can been pulled over by the coppers if you use a smart phone to navigate. 

Apparently Victoria coppers have had a XXXX of people telling them that they were not using their phones to make a call when they were driving, but were using them to navigate. A spokesperson for VicRoads, the Victorian Government's roads and traffic authority, said a phone will only be allowed to be used for its primary purpose. “If it's a phone, it's a phone."

It is apparently not good enough if your iPhone voice-activated, turn-by-turn navigation apps does not require you to pick it up either. The law is still the law. It is equally no good that you tell the coppers that your iPhone has been approved by Steve Jobs and therefore you can even carry it to through the afterlife.

Australian coppers will tell you if it is not mounted you can't have it and they will fine you $234.