Are you a passive technology consumer?

"I don't need a fancy smartphone!"

Have you heard the news? The Google Voice application was rejected for the iPhone. The FCC is investigating it and a handful of furious customers are leaving the iPhone and AT&T. Multimedia messaging and tethering still don’t work for the iPhone. The number of Android devices is proliferating. Apple is working to keep the Palm Pre from syncing with iTunes. A couple of new BlackBerry devices have been released with a few more on their way in the coming months (same old boring software, new boring hardware). Did you know that AT&T recently modified its terms and conditions so that you can’t bring any class action lawsuits against it? Or maybe you haven’t heard the news. Perhaps you don’t even care.

For many people, it seems silly to care about any of this stuff at all. If I posit those same questions to my friends, I’ll likely get the following response, “What is Google Voice? What is tethering? Oh, phones can do that? Android? Never heard of it. Aren’t iPhones and iPods the only things that can sync with iTunes? New BlackBerrys coming? That’s cool, I guess. Jeez, why do you care about all this stuff, anyway? Don’t you have a life?” It’s a little embarrassing when I admit to these people that this is my life and I write about it all day.

As long as stuff works, most consumers could care less about what goes on behind the scenes. If their phones, laptops, iPods and GPS devices work, life is good. When their gadgets don’t work, they’ll either get it fixed, buy a new one or move to a different brand and try their luck with something new. But for the tech nerds, we’ll blog about it and start a fire. We’ll climb onto our rooftops and shout our frustrations until someone listens and does something about it, and this is precisely why the passive consumers should care.

When the new iPhone 3GS was announced, pricing was similar to the iPhone 3G from last year. However, for those that signed a two-year contract for the previous model, upgrading to the new iPhone was going to cost $200 more than the fully subsidized cost. Within hours, the blogosphere exploded with rage and complaints (though I didn’t think they were valid complaints, people signed contracts, after all). Within a few days, AT&T succumbed to extremely vocal minority and extended the subsidy benefits to those who bought iPhones one year earlier.

That is just one instance in several where the tech companies might have gotten away with squeezing a little extra out of consumers. These days, it’s getting much harder for companies to get away with anything without being quickly exposed or called out. Earlier this year, Amazon pulled LGBT books from rankings and tech blogs were quick to quell that fire. In the same day, Amazon worked to get the books back into the listings and apologized for it by calling it a “glitch.”

"Ma, the gov'mint done broke the TV!"

Still think tech news doesn’t affect you? Earlier this year, television was slated to switch from analog to digital on February 17. We geeks knew about this for months, and some of us knew over a year in advance. But most consumers didn’t know, and so the government had to step in and really get it out to the public. Even with months of notice, the majority of the public wasn’t ready for the switch on February 17, so it was pushed to June 12 instead. The remaining few who still didn’t know were unpleasantly surprised.

Whether you own a BlackBerry or a basic flip phone, geeks and Luddites alike can benefit from keeping up with technology news and maybe even getting involved. Gadgets are getting more expensive every year as they become obsolete every few months, and costs of ownership are also increasing. The last thing we need is for tech companies and manufacturers to continue pulling wool over our eyes.