Apparently manufacturers are no longer allowed to state which particular version of this do-everything-sometimes wiring protocol they are using in their product. In other words you no longer will be readily able to glean which generation of HDMI a product is offering. This is a recent mandate from the consortium responsible for this connectivity protocol and is no doubt a result of the confusion that is associated with versions 1.1 through to 1.4. I find it interesting that they are able to mandate the representation of the specification to consumers, possibly not though in the consumers best interests ...the manufacturers will not even be allowed to write the HDMI version number in the manual. If they do they will not be allowed to renew their manufacturing license.

It turns out that when Steve Jobs went home he would put away the iPod and listen to vinyl recordings. He and Neil Young ( yes that Neil Young ...) were working on a format that could download the proper hi res music overnight. Neil points out that you are only listening to five per cent of the music when you play back an MP3 version from your iPod.

So there is a small footnote in the journals this week regarding Phase Change Material based memory that may perhaps be the beginning of a new era in consumer electronics.
Recently a single bit of digital information was stored on just 12 atoms, remarkable as this is it means that we are approaching a practical limit of one atom per bit.

If you ever needed an excuse to buy a home theatre system, I think I have found it.

Last night, I saw the 7:40 session of "Martha Marcy May Marlene". It was a good film, tense, quietly frustrating and beautifully shot but for the first 20 minutes, all I could hear was rustling chip packets, over enthusiastic crunching and lip smacking galore...Oh the lip smacking. It makes me dry-retch just writing about it.

There are a couple of interesting developments in our tech area this week.

Alexander Ohlinger at the Ludwug Maximilian University has developed the most sensitive acoustic listening device ever by suspending gold nanoparticles in a drop of water then trapping one 60 nanometre sphere in a laser beam whilst another laser fires rapid pulses at other particles close by.

Triple C clients are the new opportune of CE. For every downside wherin a clients info is anonymously recorded by purveyors ... the other hand is that purveyors have never been more transparent to consumers.