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At times, the tech goodies that are out there to (ostensibly) make our lives easier, or more productive, end up giving me a nice big shot of excitement. And lately, this has been followed by an even bigger dose of “letdown”, as some disappointing limitation surfaces.

One example from my techsplorations of-late has been HDTV. Just before Christmas, Dad and I set out to find a new high-def set for his living room. We saw lots of gorgeous-looking pictures as we explored BJ’s, Circuit City and Best Buy, but it wasn’t until we visited Soundworks in Pittsford that we learned the truth: most people buy an HDTV, get it home and are immediately appalled at just how bad the signals they’ve been happily watching for years really are. TVs are the number-one return item for the big-box stores, and it’s no wonder why – if you’re going to drop three grand on a new TV, it shouldn’t cease looking amazing when you leave the store.

It’s not just limited to consumer electronics, though. Last night, I filled out my very first electronic PCR (ambulance-speak for “Prehospital Care Report”) using a system called EMSCharts, which was recently adopted by our agency. When I arrived home, I figured I’d take a look at the chart from my computer – and found, to my great disappointment, that the geniuses behind EMSCharts decided to code it such that it depends on Internet Explorer to achieve even basic functionality. Apparently, I’m not the only person let down – there are countless Firefox, Opera and Safari users out there who, it seems, EMSCharts has decided to leave high and dry. Guess they didn’t need those customers anyway!

If this weren’t enough, my Verizon New Every Two anniversary date is fast-approaching in March. Despite Verizon’s [empty?] promises in 2007 that it would soon be going open-access, the present crop of phones for their network is still looking bleak. Intrigued by the BlackBerry devices that’ve been so popular lately, I checked out their site and discovered the Curve. Not surprisingly, it took me precisely the same amount of time to decide this is the gizmo for me as it took me to realize it’s not available on Verizon’s network. When I looked at which BlackBerry devices are available from the big-V, I learned that Verizon – unsurprisingly – imposes various and sundry restrictions and limitations on the data services for the devices, reducing them to relative mundanity by the time you’re through signing all the contracts. So much for standards and open-ness!

I guess all this leaves me feeling more-than-a-little disgruntled about the tech scene right now. I’m tired of restrictive over-complexities ruining the synergies that could let us do amazing things with the technology we buy, when simply sticking to open standards and giving customers the freedom their money is worth would work so well in everyones’ best interests. The sellers would sell more, the buyers would use more, and all those 1s and 0s flying around would do more.

*Sigh* (for now, at least)