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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
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.
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
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!