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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!
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.
They *need* cutting-edge displays like that to keep up with the continuing advances in tentacle hentai technology.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
The US is a mixed bag, on average it's far behind the technology curve. It's not population density because Canada is less dense but more in touch with technology. Some areas and industries are cutting edge but the average American seems pretty low on the tech literacy totem. At least from my interactions with Americans on trips there and on visitors here.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
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.
.... 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.
Nine of the sixteen were just cell phones that had pretty standard variations on the normal designs of any recent cell phone. None were remarkable or any more desirable than an iPhone in terms of function or design.
Some of the UMPCs were nice, but again, aside from the addition of colors, none were significantly better than what can be obtained here.
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.
Wake me up when I can get a Lucy Liu bot
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.
Call it sour grapes if you want, but I'm not really clamoring over a hip-hop, breakdancing, mp3-playing egg.
Although I'll gladly pay to import whatever drugs the Sony execs were taking when they gave this thing the green light.
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.
Tech differences between the US and Japan are a mixed bag. When I'm in the bay area or Seattle area people are far more tech savvy and have far more gadgets then the people I met when I lived in Tokyo. There is some great technology in Japan but has to do with tech gadgets and at times we have better stuff in the US. In the US you have a much better selection of computers and computer parts and they are cheaper. Fujitsu and Sony don't make the greatest machines so your not missing much by not having their latest model right away. In contrast if you want a great gaming machine your options are more limited in Japan. Cell phones are one of those items people like to bring up and thats also a mixed bag. The service is more expensive and the data rates are far more expensive in Japan. My cellphone bill last month went from $50 to $200 just from sending emails to other people's phones. In contrast I have sent far more emails and text messages from my US phone without extra charges. They have some neat models if you look but most places offer the same lineup of phones who's design is more limited than the designs we see here. Take a ride on the subway and it will seem like 90% of the people are using the same model flip phone. You will see far more people using smartphones and similar devices in the US. When people in Japan saw my old T-Mobile MDA they are always amazed. Those types of devices aren't as popular there among everyday people. Here you can easily find people using smartphones and blackberrys who don't even use the email features or web browser. They tend to stick to the flip phone design with no keyboard in Japan. But they do tend use web services that are tailored to mobile devices more often. If you really want to see superior Japanese technology that is not common here go to a love hotel. The last one I went to required no face to face communication with any employees. You walk in the building take a number, go to the room number on the slip. When you get to the door a voice greets you from an intercom and then your door unlocks. You go inside, the door locks you in :( and it stays that way until you pay the talking touch screen machine that is built into the wall which bills you by the hour. In the bathroom there is a hot tub with a large plasma tv built into the wall. In the bed room is another plasma, a PS2, a Sega Genesis, an NES, a karaoke machine and a sex toy vending machine. Overall it was average for that type of establishment.
... and soon you'll have an over-the-ear cellphone that will tell you the time when you ask for it. At least that's where my money is.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
A watch on your wrist is a lot more convenient for checking time than a phone (unless you're already holding the phone for some reason, and not talking on it). You're also less likely to have left it on your desk, or shut it off to conserve battery power. And my cheap phone removes the clock from the main screen if it wants to tell me instead that it has no signal (in a subway), but I'm sure there are phones that aren't that stupid.
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
The omnipresent cell phone with a clock that sets itself via network access to extreme accuracy has pretty much killed the need for most people to have a watch.
I don't have a watch because I need accurate time. I have a mechanical watch because:
This post is displayed with recycled electrons
Seeing as how I occasionally drive through mud puddles higher than the door tops of an M3, I put it somewhat above.
Of course there are plenty of eurosport vehicles that also qualify for the "can't get in the US", I'm into the militutilitary flavors.
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.
Let's see... techno backwater, religious loonies running rampart, ultra-rich vs. dirt-poor, importing knowledgeable people who're willing to work because the dirt-poor can't pay for education and the ultra-rich care only for partying and deem work beneath themselves (unless it's running some corporation)...
You're not there yet, but you're heading in that direction.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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!
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.
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to revoke your geek license until you turn in the watch. If you insist on wearing shiny objects, you may be issued a Leatherman.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Remember the space race, all of sudden it was to land a man on the moon. That was IT, goal completed, end of race. Nevermind that the USSR then went on to spend year after year with a continues manned space presence breaking record after record while the americans blew up, that didn't count. That was the goal the americans said had to be reached, that is what they reached first, therefore they won.
It is amazing really, american standups never got tired of joking of Mir when it was in its final stages (nevermind that it never had any accidents) but mention the Nasa blowing up schoolteachers and ooooh, that is too nasty.
I think it is due to american tv. When I grew up in Holland if you wanted to watch another tv station,depending on where you lived, you had to watch a foreign channel (English, german or belgian). Most of europe gets far more exposure to foreign culture then americans ever get.
Back in days long past the Discovery channel would occasionally air a program that would look at things from an other perspective. A look at the russian side of WW2 for instance, not lately, nowadays they air a program on choppers and loudly claim that ejection seats are impossible in choppers. Might come as a suprise to the russians who have had them for ages.
Americans can't/don't/won't look outside. They can't, it is not the american way.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
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