Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

This is where we call out the tech moves that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity. 

Here is what I found that looks off this week:

• Google, what’s brewing?
• HP vs bloggers
• AT&T: online sales that everyone is confused about
• Microsoft vs Polo?  What are you wearing this winter?

Google, something going on?

Normally, when Google drops awesome things on us, I am right out there dancing in the street with you.  But this week we saw SMS added to Gmail, Tasks added to Gmail, Chrome browser jumps to 1.0 from the cozy comfort of beta, Street View jumps into more devices, Street View hooks up 2x more places, and that is just this week.

It is high time one of us lemmings raised our heads and asked, “WTF is going on?”

Is it the economic downturn in ad revenue that has Google pulling the switches for operation “get cash?”  Presumably that is where we are headed right?  An OS to compete with good ol’ MS?  Is that too big an assumption at this point?  Has my reading of tea leaves lost its touch?  Something’s going on and somewhere in Googleville, someone uttered, “make it so, #1.”  Because you know the Google Roller Derby team have someone they call #1.  Just saying.

HP hates bloggers?

That surely isn’t the message they were trying to get across with their $6,000 gear give-a-way but that is my take-away.  I can’t enter.  Maybe it is because I get so much bling as a highly paid blogger, but, wait, that can’t be it.  Now when I hear the HP name, I think of how I can’t enter. 

A quick check of HP’s site and it doesn’t say I can’t enter.  Wait a tick, it is Gadgetell that hates bloggers?  What, the enemy is really me?  It’s not like my compound couldn’t use some shiny new HP stuff, especially that Mini Note jobber that took home much of my drool at a recent tech event.  Darn you, Gadgetell!  Why do you have to come between HP and me?  Surely the readers wouldn’t mind if I won everything…

If you’ve not entered this contest, surely you must be toking the crack pipe.

Wait, satellite radio still exists?

What?  Really?  I was a satellite radio guy back years ago.  Then I discovered internet radio and haven’t looked back.  Aggressive applications like Pandora for iPhone, allowing free streaming anywhere, really push satellite radio into a corner.  If you are a die-hard Stern fan, I suppose it is something you’ll continue with, but can XM/Sirius survive on just Stern fans?

We took a good, hard look at the latest from Pioneer and while the device is fine, it looks like something out of the last century.  Like I said, I saw the promise of satellite back in the day, but those days have passed (for me at least) in favor of connectivity over WiFi, 3G or other.  Time to rethink this one I suppose.

AT&T goes all cloak and dagger on iPhone online deal

Why is it that some crack-induced blogger who innocently happens to be hanging out on your website at 6am on a Thursday finds you are selling the uber-phone in a new way?  We were told the 3G wasn’t going to allow home activation, and that’s still partially true: the phone ships activated.  Why no announcement?  Why no Steve Jobs doing push ups on the stage to convince us he is healthy and has a great deal for us?

How about letting your people know this is the deal so I don’t have reps telling me to “just insert the battery to activate?”  Or when I call in and get told, “No, you can’t order the phone online” hours after I could, in fact, order the phone online.  I get that your organization is huge and just putting out word takes time, but lets make a big deal about this.  I know I am excited for you.

Maybe you are just as scared about this economy as I am?

And my favorite of the week: Microsoft gets Fubu’d

Here is the logic: what is not cool is cool.  As old as human kind is, we love the underdog.  We hate the winners and love the losers.  MS has become the pariah of the tech world in many circles, especially with elitist bloggers, so now is the time to exploit it with retro clothing.  Remember when DOS was the dog-diggity?  Fine, I’ll wait while you go ask your parents.  You back now?  Yeah, those were the years.  Anyhow, we’ve got news for MS: you are on crack.

Natesh alerted us to the fashion trend sharing that rapper Common will be sporting the duds influencing the young’ns on proper fashion.  Sure thing, MS.  Perhaps that is a niche you can own. 

Now let’s talk about the Surface Phone, crackers…