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The Best Tech You Can't Get in the US
DigitalDame2 writes "The US isn't always on the cutting edge of technology. We see a new product release that has just the blend of styling and features we've been looking for, but alas, it's only available overseas. From the Thanko MP4 watch to Sony's OLED TV, these are the hottest new gadgets to drool over, that you can't get here."
.... Is available at ThinkGeek.com. This watch:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/8e18/
Is the same one listed in the PC Mag article:
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=217864&s=1562&a=217876&po=13,00.asp?p=y
So it looks like you can get at least one of these items in the US.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Yeah, it's a bunch of whiz-bang crap without any real value. The prime example is the "MP4 Watch". Besides apparently not supporting MP4 (but who really knows, at this low level of journalism) it's stupid in the first place. It's not like it's hard to make a crappy little MP3 player, glue some straps to it, and call it a "watch". Whoopdy-do.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
The number of active duty men and women in the U.S. armed forces as of Jan. 31, 2003
Let's not forget what the US military DID in the 1990s. Despite commentators on Fox News (and members of the Republican Party) surrendering to Milosevic and wondering how many body-bags there'd be in the former Yogoslavia, there were no combat deaths at all in Kosovo for the US. None. Nada. Zip. You get the idea. A country with multiple warring factions and we got the job done with no losses.
Sounds like they were playing smarter, not harder, back then. Sounds like a tactic they should be using today.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys...
Hell, we're jealous of the platforms and powertrains the European models get! There's an amazing amount of innovation that goes on in the Big Three and its supply satellites. However, the vast majority of what they invent can't or won't be sold here because either:
A) some dumb cluck Congressman decreed that every American-built car must include $GIZMO that would completely invalidate, destroy, etc. said innovation; or
B) some dumb cluck marketer decided that "Americans will never buy" said innovation, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.
Every year, if you read the News and the Free Press coverage of the Detroit auto show, they're absolutely drooling over the scores of shiny, slick new models, and then it turns out that it's all destined for the European and Asian markets. Meanwhile, we just get the same lame sedan, minivan and SUV retreads with the same lame 3.0L V6 and 4.7L V8 that we've gotten every new model-year since 1997. Is it any wonder that everyone else's imports are eating our lunch?
First rule of trauma: Bleeding always stops.
Nearly every cellphone sold in Japan has the English language included. The only localization that needs to be done is switching out the OneSeg TV tuner (for TV-capable models) for a US/Europe-based digital tuner, and switching out the FeliCa RFID chip for whatever the US/Europe uses (and for HK/Singapore, which uses FeliCa already, it's just a matter of creating the application to tell the phone how to respond to their specific readers). On the other hand, Japan is behind in service a bit- only 2 providers offer unlimited M2M (and on one, unlimited M2M is a separate service plan so you can't buy a minute package and then M2M), Softbank and Willcom. Willcom is also the only provider in Japan with rollover.
OSx86 FTW