Who’s on Crack in Tech: 5.15.09

This week in Gadgetell’s Who’s on Crack we’ll go on a journey into the dumb, silly places the tech world is all too happy to lead us. This past week sees some far too much that should have been left on the cutting room floor. Things like standards that are changing too fast; we’ve hit the ceiling on mobile content, Google goes broke, and adios speeding thanks to tech.

HDMI goes to 1.4

Really? 1.4? My cables are still warm from the store, why are we changing already? Was there a security breach that needed fixing? Was 1.3 favoring HD on only FOX News? What gives? Our Shawn Ingram explains it so commoners like me can understand:

HDMI will be going up to version 1.4 sometime next year. Not only will it export HD video, but it will be able of transferring data between devices using HDMI Ethernet Connection (“HEC”). HEC will be able to transfer data at 100Mbps which can be useful for devices in the same room or short distances. The upgrade also brings support for compressed surround sound so you won’t need optical sound cables if you don’t want them, and up to 4K resolution.

Right before this whole recession thing, I upgraded to HD and went to the stupidly priced HDMI cables. Throwing out a new standard with new features will only confuse those who finally made it through the Herculean task of picking a stupid LCD or Plasma. More things to figure out doesn’t help guys.

AT&T slaps Sling

If we are to believe AT&T, the iPhone app by Slingbox is too unwieldy. It will suck the life out of all available bandwidth and cause all others to get no connectivity. Really, we are there already? What other apps can’t we use because of bandwidth issues? Sure, mass congregations of iPhone users, like SWSX, are capable of bringing the deal to a grinding halt but what about here in the NorthEast? Aren’t we safe?

Maybe, maybe not. There are those that say AT&T is looking out for numero uno (themselves) and their I-Verse concept that has yet to make it to the iPhone that replicates the Sling service. Sneaky huh? Our Natesh Sood laid it down:

For iPhone owners who have a Slingbox, $30 bucks lying around, and usually in range of a Wi-Fi connection, you will probably be happy with the opportunity to use this app. For the rest of us, it is probably an app we would like to have, but not worth it at this point due to inefficiency/price.

Gmail Goes broke?

For many of us, about 14% according to Google, Gmail services were down for some time on Thursday. The ordeal was explained by our Sue Walsh:

According to their official blog, Google says this morning’s outage was caused by a “system error” that rerouted some traffic through Asia, causing a traffic jam. The bottleneck resulted in GMail, Blogger, and Google itself loading slowly and in some cases being totally unavailable.

Google, if you want all my stuff, all my secrets, my winning lottery numbers from Belguim, then take them. The deal is you stay up and running and I’ll look at a few of your ads now and then. You are breaking your part of the deal, don’t make me boycott your ads.

Apple’s run out of fashion ideas?

According to rumored info, the next iPhone will look just like the current iPhone. How boring! Have you run out of ideas already Apple? You were supposed to be this design team from a smarter, better planet. Seems you were a two trick pony.

Do I believe this rumor? No. Apple knows way better than to just changing things under the hood without making it lust-worthy on the outside for everyone that just plunked down a couple hundred just 6 months earlier. I would love to see these.

Goodbye speeding

Speeding is a God-given right. It is written into the Bill of Rights, “Article 7: No one shall inhibit drivers ability to exceed speed limits, so long as they are prepared to deal with the consequences.” It is written on the pyramids in hieroglyphics. Everyone knows this.

But some Brits have other ideas. Heather Wood tells us:

The Intelligent Speed Adaptation will use the information collected to determine when to limit a driver’s acceleration to ensure that he stays within the legal speed limit. The driver will have the opportunity to disable the limiting feature and will instead receive a verbal warning if he exceeds the speed limit. An override switch will be available as well to disable the device completely.

This is the beginning of the end. Soon, this device will loose it’s disable switch. Then it will report your speed to the authorities real time and you’ll just get the ticket emailed to you. Then the device will convince your cars computer to slow itself down despite your pedal-mashing power grinding it into the floorboard. Just like those darn race cars at Disney.

That’s what got in my bonnet this week. What got in yours? Let us know in the comments.