Even though I took a week off from my Crack column, those feeding off the marketing hype definitely didn’t stop. We’ll look at the movers and shakers in the industry that clearly cry out for a good detoxing and we’ll look at the consumers that can’t get enough. This week on Who’s on Crack: DTV transition – 317,000 call for help? Palm ask devs to cool it on the tethering. Big government: there is an app for that. Nagging voices scare Apple fanboys.

The FCC is reporting that Friday’s transition from analog to digital TV transmissions was largely uneventful. No major outages or problems were reported. Their toll free helpline was flooded with calls – over 317,000 – from people who couldn’t figure out how to operate their new converter boxes, but the FCC said most problems were more »

So you have managed to not pay attention to any of the notices that today is the day that the digital transition is in full effect and old analog televisions cannot receive over-the-air signals without a converter box. What can you do if you’ve been affected? Well if you didn’t pay attention to all the news, then clearly you don’t care about television. So how about some suggestions what to do with all your free time?

This Friday, broadcasters will stop sending out analog signals and make the DTV transition. However, even with an extended digital TV deadline imposed, an estimated 3 million homes are not prepared to make the transition. This represents roughly 2.5 percent of the television market. Nielsen released the report this Wednesday and it showed that elderly more »

Welcome back to your favorite soap opera, “As the Digital Transition Turns.” So what’s in this latest installment? No, not another delay. This time, it’s all about notice. Analog and digital signals may not reach the same area. If that is the case, then television stations must tell their viewers about this problem. Here’s how more »

Banking on hopes that many consumers will use the now delayed digital transition as an opportunity to make the jump to HDTVs, Klipsch hopes to offer audio accompaniment at reasonable prices.

The only problem with Klipsch’s plan is that, of the three home audio systems it announced today, only one is south of the $500 mark. It is also interesting to note, that while Klipsch is seeking the the DTV set, they only expect their more modestly priced audio systems, the HD Theater 500 for $599.99 and the HD Theater 300 for $399.99, to be available for sale in March for the former and April for the latter.

Who knew that the DTV drama could be so exciting? First it was voted to delay by the Senate, voted down by the House Republicans, voted back again by the Democrats, and then the House finally approved with just a simple majority.

So far, we’ve had plenty of drama with the digital television transition. Washington D.C. has delayed, un-delayed, then delayed (pending a vote) the transition. If you’ve been reading Gadgetell, you know what we’re talking about.

Best Buy is joining the party by letting everyone know that the transition is still scheduled for February 17th. Televisions in Best Buy will show an ad talking about “Blackout Prevention Day.” The video will run two times every hour.

Here we go again, indeed. The DTV transition was originally scheduled for February 17, but Democrat Senators wanted to pass a bill that would postpone it for 4 months because they thought 6.5 million people were not ready yet.

I can imagine that, if Americans are anything like me, they would probably wait until Valentine’s day and give a loved one a converter box if they needed one. Then, a few days ago the House Republicans blocked the bill, because they did not get the necessary 2/3 to pass it, even though the majority was for it, so it’s back to the drawing board. Last night, the Senate unanimously passed the same bill, hoping this time it will get through the House.

It seems every day I write about the digital television transition. According to a study by The Nielsen Company, 6.5 million homes are not ready for the digital transition if it happened today. The last time there was a study on this, 7.8 million homes were unprepared. That study was in December of 2008.

The study is about readiness and not about awareness. There is also data on which markets are most and least prepared. Apparently the people of Albuquerque and Santa Fe are the most unready folks in the country with a whopping 12.24% completely unready.