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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."
I'm not usually one to rag on the editors for shitty or misleading summaries, but that one was completely pointless.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Stupid. It's a whole list of gadgets that are roughly comparable to things we already have, but these particularly ones are only available in Japan. -yawn- I'll summarize the list:
UMPCs
Laptops
TVs
Media players (including a watch with a screen guaranteed to give you eyestrain)
Phones
Yeah, great stuff.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Oooh...a watch thats also a music player. Who gives a damn?
Ooooh, and oled tv. Again, who cares?
Most people I know don't wear digital watches, or carry music players. Then again, I don't hang around with college kids, and instead associate with people that do not live and breathe the crap put out that's considered "entertainment" these days.
Get off my lawn! Damn kids....
Most of today's consumer-electronics available in US are designed and/or made elsewhere.
That some of the stuff is not available here is not, in itself, the sign of US lagging behind, but rather that of US consumers not being interested enough for the companies to introduce these particular products here.
If root beer is not (widely) available in Japan, it is because the Japanese don't like root beer — not because they can't afford it, or don't know where to get it.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
So... You only get the tat, not the quality gear. A few years ago that wouldn't have been the case.
Deleted
Why waste time worrying about which countries have the best useless tech gadgets when the US is so far behind in more important areas: internet connectivity and infrastructure?
If that's the best tech we can't get in the US then I feel pretty good! That's some crappy junk I really don't want.
I know this is a troll because I'm a lowly American but what's with all the Yank bashing on Slashdot? It's one thing to have it happen but it's another to see them constantly modded "Interesting" or "Insightful". I can't remember seeing one trolled or not modded. I know this country's administration is a pack of fascists but we also give away hundreds of billions a year to foreign countries and traditionally were the first one on the scene of a natural disaster anywhere in the world, not so much lately, see above reference to current fascist administration. I never believed in protectionism but I've begun to wonder if we show just stay home. I'm sure there'll be a cheer from some but the tune will change once there's another world war. Yes I know we're going to start it. Here's the 411 history lesson, I wouldn't bet money on it since we didn't start either of the last two and most of the war we've gotten into were cleaning up some one else's mess. Crack a history book and see if I'm right on that one.
Funny but a few years ago we had a relative from the UK come for his first visit to the US. He wanted to see Disney World, the Grand Cayon, Hollywood, New York City, and the Kenndy Space Center. They wanted to know if we thought a week would be enough time...
The US "lagged behind" Europe in mobile phones because of the way phone service in the US is priced. Local calls which in the US tend to cover a large area are free on land lines. That is one of the big reasons that the US lagged in broadband.
I thought it very funny that when I was in the UK that I shocked people because I knew what the battle of Trafalgar was.
The simple fact is that the US will almost always come off looking bad when you compare what US citizens know about a country and what the people in that country know about the US. Just about everybody knows about the US. But I would bet very few people in say the UK know much about the history of Japan. Or that many Japanese know much about the politics of Norway.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
America-bashing sucks, yes. But so does mindless chauvinistic patriotism. The fact of the matter is, there are ways in which America is seriously behind Europe and Asia (no, I'm not talking about MP4 wristwatches) and there's no reason we shouldn't learn from their experience. The mindless fury with which many Americans react to any suggestion that the USA is not absolutely, positively #1 in every single way is a much bigger problem for the country than anti-American bigotry ... not to mention that a lot of the bigotry is a reaction to that particular type of arrogance.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Um, since when is "technology" solely defined by consumer gizmos? How many countries outside the US have a working rover on the surface of Mars? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller...?I consider that feat a BIT more impressive than a watch that plays music, but maybe I'm just old fashioned.
Slashdot seems to think consumer technology = technology in general. It's just not true.
Monstar L
- A car? What the hell for, I have a car!
- A 52 inch color TV? Pfft, I have a 42 inch color TV already.
- What is this PC thing these foreigners are selling? I can get one here if I want one
Maybe if I'd clicked on each of the twenty pictures after clicking on TFA and then clicking on the other TFA I'd agree with you, but I didn't see anything revolutionary. What was there that I can't get? TFA didn't say, and neither did you.And yes, if Sony makes it I don't need it. I'll buy one from a company I can trust not to install rootkits into their products instead. Same with LG and their badly made crap, neither company has any sort of meaningful monopoly whatever. I don't need to be rooted, and I don't need to be swindled.
I probably got modded up because the mods clicked on the link too. You got a flying car? I want one! You got an Escalade? You can keep it; it's not new, it's just a car, albeit a really big really expensive one.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
We don't have a military big enough to help in the next World War I'm afraid to tell you. We can barely control Iraq and it's not all that big. We also don't have the willingness to fight a war to win, and by win you pretty much have to decide to crush the opposition and clean it up later.
I don't think you realize how tiny our military has gotten compared to 12 years ago when Clinton shutdown so many of our bases and reduced the military force.
The next World War will probably see us on the losing side, we don't have the innovation of the 40's, we don't have the manufacturing powerhouse we did in the 40's, and we definitely don't have the willingness to defend another country anymore. Everything that made it possible for us to Kick Butt in WWII is pretty much gone.
Of course, we might get lucky and find another Albert Einstein to import and help us out, since our scientific prowess is completely gone and our educational system is in a shambles.
The US is the next in a long line of Countries/Empires to be on the downward slide due to complacency, ignorance, bigotry, and self-righteousness. The only way we could turn it around is if a large portion of the country finally realized how bad we have gotten, be practical and start reforming our laws and legal environment.
Being responsible for your own actions is out of style in the US, and that creates a basic social environment of it's never our fault, so we don't have to fix anything... it's too big a problem, so why even try?
Read a history book about what happens when a Dynasty/Empire/Country gets a little too full of itself.
This sig is the express property of someone.
Correction... we have TWO working rovers on Mars!
Now... if we only had a base with people in it!!!
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
"Because you're smug about being an exception? Charming."
Not really I was shocked because a large number of people that I know from the US would know it also. I found it interesting that people in the UK had a preconceived idea that an American wouldn't know what the battle of Trafalgar was. I would be willing go guess that a large number of people in the EU wouldn't have a clue about the battle of Mobile Bay or the battle of the Alamo. History isn't everybody's thing.
And no my comment about someone from Norway not knowing Japanese history is just a statment of fact. The current economic, social, and political climate has elevated the importance of the US. So the history or politics of say Norway is no more important to the average US citizen than the History and or politics of Japan is to the typical person in Norway. All of your examples of why you look down on Americans show a real lack of understanding. You would point at a map of Europe and smirk because a US citizen couldn't point to Scotland and feel superior because you could point to the US and Scotland. But odds are on the same map you couldn't find Costa Rica or Chad or some country. Very few people can pick out EVERY country on a map. But just about everyone can pick out the US and their country.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
How many countries outside the US have a working rover on the surface of Mars?
How many countries outside Europe have landed a probe on Titan? How many countries outside USSR have landed probes on Venus (in the 1970's!). Of course, if you handpick the criterion for being on the cutting edge of technology..
You just got troll'd!
One thing I find intersting is how many in the US like to talk about how "we" put a rover on mars, or landed and astronaut on the moon, etc, making it sound like thay had *anything* to do with it. The same is true of other countries, I'm sure. No, it's not the start and talented scientist, engineers and technologists working in labs for the government or for a corporation, it's "we".
Smart and talented people are quite transplantable that's, after all, how the US got a lot of the smart people that landed astronauts on the moon. And yet, it's still "we". hrmph
I'd rather be flying
It's simply a product of the scale of the US. You said it yourself, you grew up in a country that was so small that you got transmissions from a dozen other countries in a dozen other languages. Of course your awareness of other cultures is higher.
When I was in Europe (actually staying with a family friend near Utrecht for several weeks) I, at one point, visited 5 countries in one day. That kind of diversity over a small area just isn't a reality in the US. You could travel for 1.5 days in any direction on non-stop freeways and you wouldn't see any kind of major cultural shift.
Its not some sort of willful ignorance, just as it isn't a willful that you got exposed to many cultures in a small area in Europe. Its just a matter of course - what you are exposed to naturally over the course of your life.
Whether the homogeneity of the US culture is good or bad is another thing. Seems everyone thinks it is bad now, but I can remember hearing the exact opposite years ago. People amazed that you could have so many people from so many different places still manage to create such a homogeneous culture. The sentiment being that this was a great accomplishment that hadn't been done before.
Guess the value of something depends on how/when you look at it.
Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.