We’ve already discovered why foreign countries outpace the U.S. when it comes to high-tech cars, robots, gaming devices, and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mobile phones, but there’s plenty more electronic wizardry that couldn’t quite fit in the first list. And you won’t find any of it down at the local mall. Granted, you can always turn to the Internet and one of the many overseas sites that market foreign goods if you really have a hankering for any of these items and don’t have an issue with long-distance ordering, long-distance shipping, and potential warranty hassles. But for the most part, it’s look but don’t touch.
Miharu Home Care Camera
Tiny cameras that sneak into tiny places are currently all the rage overseas, and Miharu’s dental-oriented device is one of the pack leaders. Though it looks like a highly sophisticated toothbrush, the unit features a tiny video camera and an LED light, through which you can film in places that don’t normally see the light of day – like the back of your mouth, the back of your refrigerator, or that little crack between the floorboards. Send the video to your big screen TV for maximum impact.
Hitachi Rotary Razaq
Its curvy esthetics will certainly appeal to the style conscious, but the Rotary Razaq is designed for performance, too. With a 3500-RPM motor, omni-directional, washable blades, and a handle that manual razor junkies will love, Hitachi’s little shaving marvel may just be the ideal whisker remover.
LG GD910 Watch Phone and Samsung S9110 Watch Phone
Korea will pay the ultimate homage to Dick Tracy this year as two of its preeminent electronics manufacturers duke it out for supremacy in the oh-so-pricey world of watch phones. Due to land in France any day now, the Samsung S9110 is said to be the slimmest watch phone ever released, featuring a 1.76-inch touch screen and such niceties as Bluetooth, voice recognition, MP3 player capabilities, a speakerphone, and e-mail functionality. Sporting similar specs but a slightly thicker profile, and a higher MSRP, LG’s GD910 will also pack 3G video call capabilities and 2GB of internal memory (versus just 40MB in the S9110) when it arrives in France at just about the same time.
Sanyo Eneloop Portable Solar Panel
Sanyo’s Eneloop rechargeable batteries have been the Holy Grail for serious battery users for some time now, so it comes as no surprise that one of the first seemingly reputable, fully functional portable solar panels is part and parcel of the Eneloop brand. Just now available in Japan, the Eneloop Portable Solar Panel will power gadgets such as MP3 players, handheld gaming devices, mobile phones, cameras, and even some laptops, and look pretty good doing it.
Soladey 3
The latest iteration of a toothpaste-free toothbrush that’s already convinced millions – yes, millions – of Japanese to take the plunge, the Soladey 3 is an oral cleansing tool with a very unique ionic twist. Unlike traditional toothbrushes, the unit is equipped with a solar panel that absorbs light and purportedly transmits electrons via a titanium oxide semiconductor to make plaque unstable and easily removable. Word on the street is that the Soladey concept actually works. Can millions of Japanese toothbrushers be wrong? Can you imagine a life without toothpaste?
Sega Homestar Pro 2nd Edition Home Planetarium
What if you could get that way-cool planetarium experience in the comfort of your own living room? With Sega’s Homestar Pro Planetarium, you can do just that. The system – essentially a spiffy spherical projector equipped with a variety of night sky “discs” – sets up easily and apparently fills any room with more stars than you can shake a constellation at. Though Sega says the unit is a great introduction to astronomy, we wonder if there could there be a more relaxing, calming sleep aid.
I-O Data SEG Clip
The SEG Clip is a USB stick and antenna that plugs into a PC and receives over-the-air television programming (via Japan’s free-to-air mobile TV service, dubbed 1Seg). While that may not be particularly remarkable, the fact that users can then download a TVPlayer App and wirelessly watch whatever they’ve recorded on their iPod or iPhone is. You’d never need, or even be able to use one of these gadgets here in the States, but when in Japan…
Japanese Toilets
Yes, we fully realize this is a consumer tech site. Nevertheless, no discussion of cool overseas devices would be complete without a mention of the venerable toilet. The sad truth is that we’re so far behind (excuse the pun) in the toilet business that we never be able to catch up. In Japan, you can rest your derriere upon a seat that warms and massages you. You can turf the toilet paper and instead cleanse thyself with warm water. You can crank the MP3 tunes with your detachable remote, and you can rest easy knowing you’re perched in a germ-resistant environment. You can even purify the air afterward. That such luxuries cannot be found easily here in North America is nothing short of an abomination, and we offer up this pic of a little Japanese girl staring in amazement at her automatic toilet seat as proof.
