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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.
We have impossibly kawaii (moe?) set side by side with "Takeitaway! Takeitaway! DearHeavensNo!" It's official. Japanese designers just don't know when to quit.
You mean click 10 times to see the top 10 gadgets?
Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. But light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
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?
You forgot the robot, but I guess you could categorize that as a computer. Anyway. None of this seems at all interesting. In the end, a phone is a phone, I don't really car if it's waterproof. It's a nice feature, but I wouldn't pay a premium for that. Some of the computers are just stuff you could build at home if you took your time. Like a silent computer you hook up to the TV. Or a home server that hooks up to your other computers via WiFi to be a media server. Not exciting in the least. It's nice that companies are finally starting to build these products, and release them to the masses already configured (if only in other countries). But I don't think I saw anything there I would fly to Asia just to obtain.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
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.
- These characters were randomly selected.
Can't sleep, bank'll eat me.. can't sleep, bank'll eat me..
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
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".
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
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.
Repant. Thy end is sheer.
There's a device I wanted my roommates to start using called an e-Cigarette and I tried looking for it here in the states but ended up having to order it from China either due to the fact that they have th patent or that someone here (conspiracy!) has it and choses not to manufacture it.
I'm shocked I hadn't heard of this before but I am really concerned for my roommates' lungs as they smoke almost a pack a day and they get very very upset when they don't have it. Plus they could probably smoke these in the house or in bars as they're just water vapor.
A great gadget that I haven't found here. Actually, I think this could save a lot of people money (cheaper) and improve their health and duration of life.
My work here is dung.
A few videos courtesy of YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=facebank
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I would care if it's waterproof, even if I do have to pay a premium for it. Water death seems to claim most of my phones, and paying more for a waterproof one just means that I won't be paying for a different phone when I drop mine in the lake or leave it too close to the sink.
What actually surprises me though is not that they have waterproof phones in Japan, but that we DON'T have waterproof phones yet here. I mean, we can make waterproof cameras that can actually be USED under water, but we don't yet have a phone that can land in a puddle and come out alive? Come on now. Of course, if the phone was waterproof then they would probably sell fewer phones. Water death is probably a good source of phone-company income. I mean, if your camera isn't waterproof and gets fried, it's feasible to just let it slide and not buy another one. Not really the same thing with a phone since you're probably stuck paying the contract anyway.
...no two people are not on fire.
How is this 'informative'?
It's a link to one of this years Think Geek April Fools prank.
Did the moderators even look at the URL?
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One too many sub-prime loans for you, eh?
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
Wrong. The question is "does it run Linux".
Sheesh, you must be new here...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I waved something else in front of it and now I'm stuck.....get some help please?
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
At the same time, the people in Asia don't have a lot of the junk sold in American stores. That's because a lot of American junk wouldn't be attractive to that market.
Remember why Chrysler was complaining that the Japanese were not importing American cars? I wonder if the Japanese thought they were missing out on something awesome, like that 1982 LeBarron.
As far as running Linux, it looks like the NEC LUI is a poor, proprietary cousin of LinuxMCE , which you *can* get in the States, and just about everywhere, for that matter...
"...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
Is it just me, or does that bank look like the Necronomicon from Evil Dead?
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.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
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.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Not available "here"? As in "the internet"?
Karma: -2147483648 (Mostly affected by integer overflow)