10 Cool Gadgets You Can't Get Here

molex333 writes "PC World has an article about 10 gadgets that are available in Asia but not here. It is a review of some quirky toys that the Japanese have and we don't!" Unfortunately it's one of those obnoxious stories that you have to click like 30x to read the whole thing, but there's some neat stuff.

Comments

In brief

[wombatmobile]

There's a phone,
a small pc,
another phone,
a vista pc,
a voice controlled robot,
a laptop,
a water resistant phone,
a hdtv usb dongle,
a media server + handheld pc + notebook,
and a piggy bank.
OK?

Re:In brief

[IBBoard]

Or, with product names:

Panasonic Viera P905i (Think of it as the world's smallest "big-screen" TV)
Raon Everun UMPC (Ultra-mobile PC - a micro laptop)
Samsung 'Soul' SGH U900
NEC ValueStar W (Vista Media Centre that's extra quiet)
Toshiba ApriPoko Robot (This 11-inch-tall robot--which looks like the love child of a bird Pokemon and the Pillsbury Doughboy--is actually a voice-activated remote control)
Sony VAIO G2 (super-light laptop with all the normal features)
Fujitsu F705i
Aigo USB Dongle (HD receiver)
NEC LUI (LUI stands for "Life with Ubiquitous Integrated Solutions - basically a combination of media server and PDA or laptop)
Face Bank (Wave a coin in front of the bank's eyes (actually light sensors), and it opens wide to swallow your loose change. Afterward, it looks so pleased that you half expect it to emit a contented belch)

So, how many of those are actually things we're really missing, as opposed to just not having?

TV on mobile phones in Japan

[Rakshasa Taisab]

What they forgot to mention about TV on those japanese phones is that the programming _sucks_...

Seriously, it's all game/talk-shows, news or sumo. Might as well do something else while sitting on the train in Tokyo, like watching the local girls or reading.

In verbose

[PlatyPaul]

There's the Panasonic Viera P905i,
the Raon Everun UMPC,
the Samsung 'Soul' SGH U900,
the NEC ValueStar W,
the Toshiba ApriPoko Robot,
the Sony VAIO G2,
the Fujitsu F705i,
the Aigo USB Dongle,
the NEC LUI,
and the Face Bank

(links provided only to direct sale points or official corporate pages)

And (as I'm sure someone else will point out) "not here" only holds for certain values of "here".

In all fairness...

[THESuperShawn]

The "coolest" gadget on the list (also basically the one thats not a phone) isn't "available" in Asia either- unless you work for the lab that is working on it. The IR learning robot "is nesting in Toshiba's research labs, awaiting its first solo flight". Heck, I bet we have some cool stuff nesting in our labs here that you can't buy in Asia yet either.

Videos...

[Midnight Thunder]

A few videos courtesy of YouTube:

    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=facebank

Printer Friendly Link

[TubeSteak]

Printer friendly: http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,144127/printable.html

Just because they don't show you a printer friendly link doesn't mean it isn't there.

That's strange

[Lumpy]

I better tell my daughter that her U900 does not exist.

I bought her one and had it imported from a ebay seller last month. it works great on AT&T/Cingular/AT&T/Cingular/AT&T/.... as it's a quad band GSM phone and defaulted to english out of the box.

It IS available here in the USA, you just got to find it and buy it. No you will not find one at your local costco or phone store, but then none of the good phones are ever available at a store.