Sadly the average American VCR clock
Posted on 10/07/2006 5:52:10 PM PDT by Dallas59
There's no doubt about it: foreign technology can whet your appetite. Super-lightweight laptops from Japan, feature-packed smartphones from Europe, and shiny, gotta-get-it devices designed in India, South Korea, and Taiwan are but a few of the items that currently reside on tech's cutting edge. But chances are you will never see those gadgets on store shelves here in the U.S.
A trip to the typical U.S. electronics store suggests many Americans would gladly shell out some extra cash for high-end lightweight products. Smaller, lighter, and more-expensive laptops are occupying an ever-increasing amount of shelf space. Even if a larger percentage of Japanese and European consumers reach for higher-end products than their U.S. counterparts, a small percentage of Americans could still spell big sales.
Why, then, do some innovative products never make it to our shores?
Many manufacturers prefer to introduce new electronics in their own countries, to see what problems may arise before exporting the goods. There is a strong interest in catching and repairing previously unknown design defects before hitting the U.S. mass market, where the cost of a product recall could be disastrous.
Companies must also gauge consumer reaction locally before exporting. Manufacturers realize that despite extensive consumer testing, it is important to float a limited quantity of a product and see how well consumers react to it before opening the floodgates-only to find less demand than anticipated.
Some products are at a performance disadvantage in the U.S., like cutting-edge smartphones that do not mesh well with the current state of American telecom services, and videophones that operate much better in countries that have higher-speed wireless networks. The faster the network, the smoother the video will appear. In general, Japanese and Korean telecommunications companies have been quicker to provide faster connections than those offered in the U.S., so consumers in those countries are presented with more-advanced phones and more-advanced services.
Plus, according to a major player in this game, the U.S. tech market tends to take its cue from big business, not John Q. Public.
"In Japan, where a majority of the cutting-edge innovation occurs, they're driven by consumer demand. In the U.S., we're mainly driven by business needs. That's why you see more of an emphasis on cheap laptops than on lightweight machines," says Douglas Krone, chief executive of Dynamism.com, an online site that sells technology not found on the shelves of U.S. retail stores.
Smaller, Faster, Better?
In addition to corporate strategies driven by the bottom line, there are cultural preferences to consider...(continued....)
I "work" for a European company...High tech stuff they sell overseas is not available here in the States..
i was amazed to see Honda Diesel Accords in Germany about two years ago that are not available here. The talk also was that cell phones service in Europe was much better that in the US.
It's a lot cheaper and easier to build out the wireless infrastructure in countries the size of California as opposed to the whole USA.
EPA and CARB have killed modern diesels in the US with insane enviro regs.
I have big hands and small isn't always best for me.
I have google alerts for HiDefTV and Sed TV, everything comes out in Japan first. If I want to know what works, my relatives call Manila and get a user reaction since it's probably been sold there a year before we see it.
Japan and Korea (and most of Europe) are much more densely populated than the US. That makes wireless that covers most of the population much, much easier and therefore less expensive.
In addition, Europe has good cell phone service/coverage because their wired telephone service is very bad and expensive. When an alternative to the state run telephone services became available everyone flocked to them. That sent huge amounts of money into cellphone services which drove the technology.
I believe it was Motorola that invented the cellphone here in the US.
I read the article. The headline is entirely misleading.
One of the issues is standards.
The Japanese seem to be more willing to buy products that are nonstandard. That is, products that have limited sources of software/movies/music etc.
Here we are reluctant to buy something that doesn't have a big base of support (movies, music, etc.) and that may be obsolete in a year.
Even worse, the company I work for has people ordering Blackberrys and throwing them in the bottom desk drawer when they don't learn how to use it within 5 minutes. One year later or more, they learn they were costing the company $40 a month for a service they never used.
I helped a German grad student (here) write a paper on cell phone technology across the world. What I learned made me want to cry. The look of incredulity on her face when I tried to explain roaming charges was priceless, however.
I "work" for a European company...High tech stuff they sell overseas is not available here in the States..How much is not 'sold' here on account of certain standards being different here (wireless protocols the world over are JUST beginning to become universal)?
How much of it is because the product sold overseas has not been sent through the required qualifications (like anything electronic has to be tested by a lab to guage its complince to FCC Part 15 emission limits)?
Some of this is a little overblown, too. As in, most of this that your article refers to is the high-volume 'consumer' stuff, NOT really high-tech Agilent, Rohde & Schwarz or Anritsu test equipment of the LATEST ham gear from the likes of Icom or Yaesu ...
For one thing, cell phone users abroad don't pay for incoming calls. TV display standards are higher everywhere else (we wuz furst, that's why.) Gummint decision making is more efficient, believe it or not, in those countries we like to dismiss as "socialist". A decision is a decision, live with it, mofo, no lawsuits, no lobbyists. We in the U.S. tend to consider everything a Consitutional issue and are willing to wait for the 9 high priests in black robes to tell us what's good and what isn't. Is vanilla ice cream good? Let's file a lawsuit to find out!
One of the reasons cell phone technology took off so fast in those socialist countries was because the government ran the land-line phone companies into the ground. Making a phone call was an adventure for people with a lot of patience. When the cell phone was invented, everyone bought one just so they could have decent phone service.
Actually I've seen those sold in US for at least 3 years now..
I believe it was Motorola that invented the cellphone here in the US.It wasn't until the microprocessor and the advancement of frequency synthesizers that that sort of technology was possible. And that has been within the last 35 years (I know; a lifetime for some people).
And Motorola was but only one of several contractors that built the original 'mobile cell phones' used in field trials performed by Bell in the late 70's into the 80's.
The January 1979 issue (Vol. 58, No. 1, Part 3) of "The Bell System Technical Journal" does an excellent job of describing the 'evolution' and development and test and first field trials of the first modern 'cellular system'.
Despite numerous attempts (filings by the Bell System in in 1947, 1949, 1958, 1968), it wasn't until 1971 that Bell addressed an inquiry from the FCC that a positive move towards allocating spectrum for mobile phone use in 1974. In 1975 Illinois Bell Telephone Company made a filing for authorization to test a developmental 'cellular' system in Chicago. This application was granted in March 1977.
The key to the cellular concept is small cells with spectrum re-use; prior to coming to grasp engineering- wise with determining what were accetable C/I issues in the radio link the thought was to assign dedicated frequnecies over a large area and avoide interference. WIth cellular, that interference is managed though something the system RF designers call 'frequency planning', and sometimes mismanaged, leading to problem areas and 'released' (Ericsson terminology) calls.
Just recently I saw some DVD players that could also play DivX format at Target. I'd been looking for those for years - saw them in Japan and Ukraine, but only in 220 V.They probably had trouble finding enough native personnel to pick those off the trees they grow on ...Apparantly it took 3 years to work the bugs out for the US 'mass market'.
Come to think of it, the seeds those trees grow from might also be on the 'rare' list.
I think we had/have three standards, but every market has all of them available.
Ultimately once science begins using otherwise useless diverticulae in your rectum as space for electronic gear, no one will see exactly what it is you have, but boy will you be in touch~!
I believe that part of the reason is that we don't have an Akihabara, a single massive district that allows not only companies to get anything they need rapidly and effortlessly, but also allows a mass consumer market direct access and fast feedback.
Too much regumalation, too much gummint, too much monopoly, duopoly, quadropoly. Free market? Not in the good ole USA!
Anyone still think that outsourcing isn't going to hurt us?
Sadly the average American VCR clock
Heck, just covert them to the format you want... Lots of coverters out there free...
Heck... here is a link for one that converts about anything for free..
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
I like ImToo software, since the cracks are so easy to find.
Super... look like a nice program.. just doesn't support converting the FLV to other formats that I can see. Also not totally free... SUPER has lots of conversion features, but is a bulky program (slow loading) and can mess with other programs.
I just basically use Super to convert the FLV video I nab off video sites to a format to view more easily.
But as typical for Honda, they figured out how to meet even the tough CARB 2009 diesel emission regulations by developing a special reactive catalytic converter that changes NOx into simple NO2, which is easily removed by standard catalytic converters. It doesn't need urea gas injection like the complicated BlueTec system developed by DaimlerChrysler.
Honda said this new emission control system will be part of the 2.2-liter I-4 and 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesels that will likely arrive in the US market by 2008. These new turbodiesel engines will also use 2000 bar common-rail pressurized direct fuel injection, which means the engine will have the same horsepower output as its gasoline equivalent but with a way high torque peak at around 1950 rpm, which makes the diesel-powered car faster than its gasoline equivalent up to 65 mph.
Thanks to the manufacturer's neglect to include a simple battery backup to preserve the time over power outages. I get tired of having to reset the clock every few months because of momentary or extended power fails (wind, lightning, auto accidents). Don't need the VCR to know the time, so I usually just ignore the 12:00 indicator.
"Making a phone call was an adventure for people with a lot of patience."
That hasn't been my experience each time I fly to the good Old Continent. And I travel there often - 3-4 times a year at least.
Also freeware has NO help sources if you have problems. So your on your own with tech questions that often arrise with complicated programs.
But foreign cellphone customers do pay a fortune in per-minute charges to use their cellphones, especially using some of those 3G features like streaming video and audio. You should see how much T-Mobile charges for their GSM cellphone service in Europe.... 
By the way, I've checked up on the type of HDTV service starting up in Japan and Europe and most of them are using the same resolution standard used in US HDTV, namely 1080-line interlaced scan and 720-line progressive scan.
locked cell phones in the USA while ON THE REST OF THE PLANET GSM phones can be changed with event needs with the swap of a chip. (one phone for work, the basic and small phone for small profile dress up)
I could not stand the clunk ware of sprint/nextel.
OF course companies like sony have no long term support for their products. (ie clie)
I bought a 30" CRT HDTV a year a half ago for $540. It could pick up digital broadcasts from five stations.
Despite the talk, the U.S. is far ahead of the rest of the world in HDTV set sales, HDTV broadcast stations, HDTV content, and HDTV satellite and cable. In the Atlanta market, 39 distinct HD channels are available via over the air broadcast, cable, and satellite.
fair enough - let's see what new regs CARB comes up with to knock this down now.
how long does the reactive agent inside that cat last?
Engineering calculators? How backwards! We all use sophisticated programs running on our servers and laptops now - pros and students alike.
It's only very recently that Europe and Japan finally got their act together to broadcast 1080i/720p HDTV. The US ATSC system is excellent because unlike the NTSC analog system, color quality is always the same from channel to channel (no more "Never Twice Same Color" jokes). By 2008, DirecTV and Dish Network customers will enjoy potentially hundreds of channels of HDTV broadcasts.
Since the system is based on electrically charging the exhaust to break down the NOx into NO2, that converter will probably last the life of the car.
I have been giving some serious consideration to a new LCD computer monitor in 16:9 or 16:10 format. That would make the widescreen DVD format display perfectly. It could also be used on my HDTV tuner. The latter use is limited to the ONE HDTV station on the air in town.
Cell phone service in the rest of the world is better because it is regulated better.
With a single standard and mandatory coverage, you can rely on your cell.
I live in a poor cell service area. Which carrier you should get is a matter of constant debate, because none of them are good and whose signal is best depends on the weather.
The proliferation of standards makes each company dependent on questionable business practices to survive.
http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventorsalphabet/a/martin_cooper.htm
http://www.cellular.co.za/cellphone_inventor.htm
I'm not too far off the mark.
Less diesel cars in this country is a good thing to my mind.
Ever been behind a damn diesel in heavy traffic? I don't care if they cleaned the emissions or not; they still stink...
That is a design problem. Not a user problem.
The "cell" idea was originally generated by a guy working for
Bell, AT&T or affilate thereof. If I remember correctly it was in the 60s or early 70s.
One word......Beta.........
Post 43 has links.
Yep, I used to work at the Motorola Systems Infrastructure group. They keep changing the name though. The Chicago suburbs were THE place for cellular technology. ATT had their engineering group in a southern suburb, and Moto in a northern suburb. The joke amongst the engineers was calling it ATT North and Motorola South because the top engineers switched between the two as a sort of arbitrage towards higher pay. i.e the fastest way towards promotion was to work at another and get hired back 3 steps higher over the heads of the people that stayed. ;-)
Worldwide cellular standards were defined between the engineers there. Matter of fact, even though I haven't worked in the field for 10 years, I'm still seeing stuff being rolled out that was in development and planning stages back then.
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