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.

Raon Everun

[Zerth]

The Everun looked tempting with almost twice the battery life of the eeepc at roughly similar specs, until I caught the sticker price. I'd rather just buy a second battery.

Re:Face Bank ?

[CastrTroy]

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.

e-Cigarette

[eldavojohn]

There's a device I wanted my roommates to start using called an e-Cigarette [wikipedia.org] 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.

Re:TV on mobile phones in Japan

[ephesus]

I often thought the same thing while I was in Japan. It can't possibly be as bad as Korean television though, and I see people on the subways with TV on their phones constantly.

Re:But....

[capnkr]

As far as running Linux, it looks like the NEC LUI is a poor, proprietary cousin of LinuxMCE [linuxmce.org] , which you *can* get in the States, and just about everywhere, for that matter...

Re:Click 30 Times?

[Anonymous Coward]

PCWorld gives Slashdot kickbacks for posting their shit here. Taco tries to sympathize with us for the shit and ads we have to wade through to read this "story". Great editing guys!

Re:In brief

[fm6]

The "Sharper Image" (glossy, overpriced, not particularly original) theme doesn't come from Japan. It comes from the poor PCWorld writer, tasked to create yet another "top 10" list, and straining to find stuff to fit on it.

The big name web sites seem to be on a "top 10 binge" lately. I guess it's an easy way to fill up space and provoke reader interest. It's getting old, though.

30-page click-thrus are not obnoxious

[kindbud]

Unfortunately it's one of those obnoxious stories that you have to click like 30x to read the whole thing...

They're not obnoxious, nobody on /. gives a shit, they'll click through anyway. They way to get 30-page click-thrus to go away is not to apologize for them, but to stop posting them on fucking Slashdot! Until then, YOUR the obnoxious one for posting the link to it in the first place, jackass!

Re:Face Bank ?

[Zephyr14z]

Actually, every nokia phone I've owned has survived some pretty extreme water damage. I just let it dry out for a day or so and it keeps working. They certainly aren't waterproof, but they do seem to be self-resurrecting after drops in the lake, etc. I'm not even talking about just the basic Nokia brick either. Their flip phones have also held up remarkably well.

Re:USB HD receiver

[PPH]

Not just the antenna size, but the broadcast protocol. We use one different from China, Japan and Europe. So a gadget on the gray market may end up being a cool looking brick.

As far as size goes, once the obligatory DRM features are built into the USB dongle for the American market, it'll end up being a 2U rack sized box.

Re:Face Bank ?

[Radon360]

I'll offer one better: Marine VHF hand-helds. Many today are built to be submersible...and they're just as small as the VX-7R. Icom even has one that has a "rumble" feature which is supposed to detect when there is water on the speaker and will vibrate it to expel the water. If it works, it would be a great feature as I've noticed that the audio output level on my submersible hand-helds drops significantly when the speaker has water on it.

That said, the Yaesus are nice, tough little units.