Strange New World: Tech Picks of the Week
Only 64 percent of people have taken steps to keep their TV service.
July 18, 2008 — -- If we weren't sure that we'd reached the true dog days of summer in a slow year for tech news, we certainly confirmed it this week. The preview of the annual E3 video game industry show went on this week and produced very little news of substance. Then we got word that a third of the country wasn't ready for February's switchover to digital TV signals. But at least there are always cool new sites and services on the Web to check out. Here, then, are our picks of the week:
E3 a No-Show
What on earth has happened to the E3 video game show? In case you missed it -- and you probably did -- this gaming event has been going on this week in Los Angeles.
Sure, this is the invitation only corporate version of the event. Public events will happen later in the fall. But still, one has to wonder what has happened to the gaming industry, which numerically speaking is bigger than the film industry. There was just no news of significance coming from the event.
The biggest "announcement" of the show was that Nintendo is working on an exclusive version of Grand Theft Auto for the DS portable system. Hey, call us nutty, but GTA is one game that just doesn't seem suited for a handheld gaming system. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced a deal with Netflix. Nintendo seems to be going after casual gamers, while Sony is headed in the opposite direction.
There was news from the PlayStation folks about downloadable custom content. And finally -- FINALLY -- they're talking about a new version of God of War for the PS3. We expect it to be nothing short of phenomenal. And mix that in with Sony's much-ballyhooed Home virtual community -- if it ever gets off the ground -- and this game could finally become the virtual world it always should have been. But honestly, what has taken so long?
But that, dear friends, is that. Unless something earth-shattering happens, this holiday season is going to be a complete no-show from the gaming world. And these are supposed to be the glory days of the video game. What the heck is going on?
One Out of Three Still Clueless on DTV Transition
If there is one bright shining beacon of how NOT to handle the challenges of the technosphere, it has been the transition to digital television. This week the National Association of Broadcasters released a survey on the state of readiness for broadcast-only households for the turn off of their analog TV service, set for early February of next year. Remarkably, out of more than 5,000 households surveyed that rely on broadcast TV, only 64 percent had taken any steps to keep their television service. Or, said another way, a little more than a third of the market simply would lose service if the switch happened today.
Now, let us stand back and marvel at the sheer dunderheadedness in play here. The transition away from analog television was predicted as early as the late 1980s. It has been a done deal technologically speaking since the late 1990s. Regulators, manufacturers, investors and consumers have spent literally an incalculable amount of money moving away from analog technology. And still, nearly 20 years after the process began, a full third of the market is not ready for the technology.
As fabulous as American innovations like the iPhone might appear, if we, as an economy, can't manage the obvious -- and relatively trivial -- upgrade of a TV format, what techno issues can we manage?
What's Cool Online
Here's another of our unscientific surveys of neat and newsworthy sites and services on the Web. Go ahead and click around. These are all pretty cool.
Jonathan Blum and Dan Evans co-host "Strange New World," a weekly syndicated radio show. Blum hosts the blog Blumsday.com and Evans is a features editor at PC Magazine.