WEBVTT - Why do other countries get cool tech before the U.S? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.000 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.840 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Join Josh 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:15.320 and Chuck, the guys who bring you stuff you should know, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:17.720 as they take a trip around the world to help 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.759 you get smarter in a topsy turv economy. Check out 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.440 the all new super Stuff Guide to the Economy from 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.280 how stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.199 Hither everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:34.520 Chris Polette. I'm an editor here at how stuff works 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.320 dot com, and sitting next to me, as always is 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:42.120 senior writer Jonathan Strickling. Well, howdy, Well, then I figured 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:43.880 this is gonna be another US centric so I thought 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.240 I'd go with the the US centric kind of howdy. Yeah. 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:49.760 You know, a lot of times we were very careful 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.680 to try to remember and we don't always remember. We 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.880 try to remember that, um, there are other countries in 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.200 the world other than United States as far as what 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.360 we talk about, and it's hard to do, but as 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.400 as as American citizens were often told to ignore the 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.440 fact that there are countries besides the United States then, 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.199 and that you know, when you've lived here your entire life, 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.959 that's your point of reference. So it's it's understandable that 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.440 that we might fail in that regard. But um, you know, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.840 one of the things that's that's very hard to not 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.920 notice when you're a fan of different technology blogs is 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.240 that other countries get a lot of cool stuff and 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.160 we here in the United States may get it later 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.880 or even not at all. That can be really frustrating. 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:35.600 It sure can, especially if you're a big fan of 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.440 of pro wrestling video games, because gosh darn it, Japan 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.000 gets all the good ones. You know, I really wanted 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.640 that u E a Australian rules football game because it 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.000 always looks so cool when they were playing on ESPN 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:49.880 and you can't get it here. Yeah, there's actually, uh, 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.800 there's a whole host of different kinds of technologies that 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.280 you know we'll see on you know, you can turn 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.280 on a technology program on television or read a blog 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.720 and you think, why that sounds really really cool, and 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:03.000 then you get to the end of it and it 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:04.720 says there's there are no plans to bring it to 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.440 the United States at this time. That seems to happen 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.679 a lot, and I mean, smartphones are a good example, right, 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:17.120 smartphones we're talking about Yeah, because you know, smartphones huge 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.600 in Japan, huge in Europe. Uh, took a really long 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.519 time to start getting a grip on the consumer market 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.920 in the United States. And I would argue, if it 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.480 weren't for the iPhone, we would still see that I 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:30.000 don't I and there are a lot of people that 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:31.760 are on your side in that case. Well, yeah, because 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:37.080 the iPhone really was like the the perfect entry model 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.120 for a smartphone into the consumer market in the US. 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.880 It's beautiful, very stylish, has a lot of uh, you know, 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.680 it makes it looks really easy to use, as opposed 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:48.480 to a lot of the smartphones where people are just like, wow, 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:50.920 those are a lot of buttons, um, and there are 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.160 a lot of functions here and a lot of menus, 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:54.840 and I just don't know if I can navigate. All 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:56.080 I want to do is be able to make a 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.640 phone call, maybe surf the internet. Um. And then they 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.120 get the iPhone, which makes everything really easy, and then 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.119 they're like, oh wow, I can I can do all 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.160 sorts of stuff beyond just calling and surfing the net. 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:08.880 I can do this, this, this and this, and it's 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.360 all easy because there's just a simple little icon I 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.280 push and the device does it all for me. Well, 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.160 in the US, you know, just that was the thing 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:21.840 is that these consumer smartphones just didn't really happen. I mean, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.320 the smartphones that you saw were pretty much meant for 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.079 executives and early adopters. So you had like the tech 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:31.359 geeks like such as myself who would go out and 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.920 try and out a new smartphone, and you had the 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.200 executives who had to be attached at the hip to 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.880 their office at all times, and everyone else just kind 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.160 of dealt with their regular phone. Meanwhile, in Europe you 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.960 have people working on a three G network on a 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.240 smartphone and doing all these cool things that you know, 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.880 the average US cell phone uh consumer just didn't even 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.240 know could happen. They they weren't even aware of it. 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.920 So that's that's probably the quintessential example. We can kind 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.920 of go into why that is. Um, actually that's kind 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.360 of what we really want to talk about. Yeah, as 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:07.920 a matter of fact, if you want to talk about 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.600 the iPhone, UM, Dave Taylor actually thinks the iPhone is 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.480 where it all change for the United States because, um, 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.760 those of you who are Apple followers maybe not. Well, 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.680 you know, fans so much as people who can't even 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.400 stand Apple, both pay a lot of attention to the company. Um, well, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.880 you know, Steve Jobs is sort of a shall we say, 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.520 domineering factor in the marketplace. Well, you know, when they 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.919 took the iPhone two different providers, Apple started making demands 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.960 that nobody else was making. They wanted things like revenue sharing, 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.279 which is, you know, oh my gosh, what are you kidding. 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:49.440 Apparently American cell phone companies are you know, they're set 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.720 in patterns. This is the way we do things here. 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.479 You know. You if you're going to sell your hand 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.400 set through us, you gotta do these three things, you know. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.960 And uh, Apple apparently said, hey, you know what, if 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.799 you want this cool phone, you're gonna play our game too. 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:06.719 And so a T and T was the one that 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.240 worked out in agreement with them that both parties could 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.400 abide by and stick to. And um, it's a game changer. 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.159 Other other companies couldn't get their cool phones in the 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.599 market because the providers just didn't want to band on 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.080 any of those rules, and they wanted a different kind 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.640 of financial model. And a lot of this has to 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.719 do with the government's role in business. UH. In the 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.720 United States in general, it's considered a bad thing if 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.320 the government gets involved in your business. What's a consumer economy, right, 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.640 it's you know, businesses competing with other businesses is a 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.360 good thing. And the ideal, of course, is that it's 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.560 going to be a free market. I mean, of course 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.479 it's not a free market, but that's the ideal. Uh 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.800 that you know, the everything is pretty much dictated by 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.359 the companies, and it's all supply and demand and that 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.760 kind of thing, right, And so if there's a demand 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.039 for something, a company will supply it because as that's 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.400 a way to make profit, and then other companies follow 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.799 suit because they can't be left out of the game. 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.680 It's just that that's not really how it always plays out. 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.160 Sometimes companies are like, wow, that's a huge investment for 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.160 us to do that. Let's not do that and let 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.760 someone else take the plunge, and we will hold off 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.680 doing it until we absolutely have to. Uh. You have 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.640 other nations like like Sweden or Japan, where you have 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:33.040 governments that are encouraging companies to build out infrastructures so 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:37.560 that the citizens will have the benefit of that technology. UM, 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.040 and they take a very hands on approach in Japan 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:45.160 in particular, uh, where you could argue that, Okay, well 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.919 this this definitely is good for the Japanese consumer, but 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:51.760 it may not be the best thing for the business. 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:56.880 It's definitely much more um well, like I said, hands on. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:58.920 I mean there's some people might even use the word 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.760 interference based upon what we're talking about here in your 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:04.800 point of view. Yeah, you know, I guess it all 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:06.800 depends on what side of the desk you'res you're on 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:11.120 at the time. Right. So, and in these countries, you've 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.880 got companies that are are something. You know, you've got 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:16.840 these efforts, I guess I should say not just companies, 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.720 but these these technological efforts that are subsidized by the government. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.720 So these are things that are sponsored by tax dollars. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.400 Citizens are paying taxes and the government's using that money 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.000 to help build out infrastructures and support technology. And you know, 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.840 you even have government programs for specific technological innovations. So 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.400 you have government money pouring into the hands of these 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:42.080 companies so that they can develop specific gadgets and technologies. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.640 That's what that's bottom line why a lot of these 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:50.480 these countries are are building out their technological framework faster 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.720 than the United States is because we don't do that. Okay, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:56.480 you want to talk you want to talk about a 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.440 technology that I think is exemplifies that. Okay, and that's 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.400 that's the Internet. Yeah, good example. Okay, the Internet, which 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:08.720 began in the United States of America. Yeah, so it 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:13.280 was part of the defense initiative to help communications along 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.960 should the telephone network go down. Yes, the grandfather, I 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.160 guess you could say, or at least the father of 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.760 the Internet is our pannet, which was part of the 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:26.360 you know, good old DARPA's uh initiatives. And yeah. The 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.680 idea there was you would you had all these the 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:33.800 centers of information, these big computing centers. Uh, we're talking 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.840 about supercomputers here that had no connection with one another, 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:42.240 and let's say someone manages the sabotage one of those devices, Well, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.720 then you lose all the information that's there. There's no 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.520 it's all centralized in a specific place. So they wanted 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:51.800 to come up with a way to spread that information 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.480 between different machines so that if you were to take 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.760 out one, you wouldn't lose the functionality. You'd have other 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:00.960 um computers that are still up are able to communicate 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.959 with one another, so no one link would bring down 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:09.360 the entire chain. That's right. And you know, being the 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.280 country that originated the Internet, you would imagine that the 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.240 United States would have the fastest and more robust network. 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.760 Oh boy, would you be wrong? Absolutely. Um. In fact, 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:22.960 I was looking at some some information that I found 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.760 on speed matters dot org, which is done by the 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.679 Communications Workers of America, and they do a report every 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:33.640 year on on broadband access. The thing is um. In 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.880 two thousand and eight, the median speed of broadband access 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.600 in America was two point three megabits per second. Meanwhile, 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:46.040 the media and speed in Japan was sixty three megabits 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:50.720 per second. Well um, South Korea's forty nine megabets per second, 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.360 Finland is twenty one, France is seventeen megabits per second, 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:58.079 and Cannack, Canada was seven point six megabits per second. 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.240 And they're just you know, just next door. Yeah. So 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.640 the thing is um. You know, all these countries, Uh. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.080 There there are a number of reasons for this, but 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:09.079 I think part of that is that the governments and 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.520 a lot of these countries are actually pitching in. They're 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:17.000 they're taking an active role in the development of the Internet. UM. Plus, uh, 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.240 you know my personal opinion, and I didn't read this 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.080 on the side, I think it helps to be a 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.760 smaller country geographically. We have an awful lot of territory 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:29.440 to cover with broadband network. And when you're talking about 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.360 laying cable down, you know, when you're looking at and 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:35.480 you're looking at a nation as large as the United 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:39.880 States with with such a diverse geography, when we've got 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.240 all these different kinds of environments. I mean, we've got 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.840 you know, everything from you know, snowcapped mountains to deserts 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:50.240 and everything in between. Um. Yeah, it's not easy to 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.040 to make sure that everyone is connected and has a 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.520 really fast connection. It's just it's a monumental task. UM. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.720 So that is part of it. Another part of it, 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:01.719 of course, says the whole government thing that, like we 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.520 pointed out. UM, I should also take this opportunity to 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.679 say Australia, I totally understand that you guys have it 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.679 harder than we do. UM. Please don't write to me. 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:17.280 I totally already know. So. Uh. I know that a 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.960 lot of Australians, when they hear us complain, think that 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.960 it's all sour grapes. Um, but you know it's just 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.120 some sour grapes. It's not a whole case. Yeah, maybe 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.199 you know a six pack of sour grapes. But yeah, 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:31.880 I mean there there are a lot of factors that 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:33.360 are involved with that. And part of that as the 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:35.280 free market. You know, the government wants to stay out 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.160 of uh, you know, organizing and man mandating that we 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:43.320 have faster broadband speeds. But in some places there's only 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.600 one or two broadband providers at least of any size 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.720 and reliability, and those are factors that people consider when 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.160 they purchased broadband internet speed. Yeah, that that gets really rough. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.360 I mean, like I don't know about you. I don't 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:00.839 have a whole lot of choices from my internet connection. Um. 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:05.520 I either I go with one major company I won't 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.120 say its name, a cable company, a cable company, or 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.800 I pretty much go without unless I go with a 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.320 very small independent kind of bias. B Yeah, they're DSL 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.640 operators in the areas where we live. But there's a 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.360 major phone company that that offers CSL and then a 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.760 bunch of smaller companies. But the thing is those of 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.719 your options or satellite broadband it's not we don't have 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.960 a lot of fiber to the home. Uh here in 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:33.920 Georgia we don't have, or at least not where we 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.240 live in Georgia. UM. I think there are actually fiber 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:41.040 to the home efforts in some places in actual UM 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.160 looking at the maps on speed matters dot org, some 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.720 of the rural areas where maybe smaller cities have a 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.240 lot better broadband penetration than some of the big, big cities. 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.840 I think that's because again geographic area and maybe local 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:58.840 government involvement. UM. Anyway, Uh, you know, I found an 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:03.200 article on GisMo do talking about technologies that took off 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.880 in other places but not in the United States. UM. 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.400 It was actually done March third this year by John Herman, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.199 and uh one of them is one of that you're 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:17.440 very familiar with laser discs. Laser discs, you know, they 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.520 just stopped making those. Yeah, I mean just now. And 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.880 I thought of that as a technology was in the 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:29.000 seventies and early eighties. No, but yeah, see this is 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.120 again me being sort of involved in my own environment 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.680 and not looking worldwide. In Japan they're huge, there's actually 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.640 the robust market. Well they're about the size of a 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:43.319 record I'm sorry, UM, but yeah, they during the heyday. 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.040 He said, they were, you know, five hundred percent more 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.240 popular there than they were here. And part of that 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:53.000 was because of the quality, and um, you know, part 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.320 of it because they were just cheaper in Japan. Here 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.520 here's another interesting thing I read. UM. I had read 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:06.559 that Japan tends to take in a lot of technology information. 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:09.600 So let's say that a company here in the United 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:14.880 States develops a new technique to build UM microprocessors and 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.120 publishes a white paper on it. Japanese firms will be 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.000 very quick to jump on that and can and and 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.520 analyze it and you know, find the best ways of 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.520 incorporating whatever they can into their own methods. But they 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:31.040 don't tend to export their knowledge. Ah, it's funny you 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.880 would say that. Oh yeah, I have a whole section 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.280 on Japan. Yeah. I found this right right as I 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.880 was finishing up doing my research for the podcast. Happened 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.280 across an article by Jeff Yang at s f gate 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.960 dot com, which is the San Francisco Chronicle. UM, and 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.360 he did it a whole article about the culture behind this. 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.000 And I was looking at the technology before about specific 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.960 things like the laser disc or cell phones. Um, But 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:56.400 he actually gets behind the culture, and the culture is 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:00.360 a big part of that. And you're right. The tend 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:05.120 to keep their technology at home, their best and coolest technology, 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.480 And part of that is because they, like in Japanese culture, 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:13.320 they prize stuff that's elite. They want to look cool 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:15.720 and they want to be the ones who had the 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.760 most innovative features. Um. And especially with kids, like the 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:25.560 teen markets are huge, absolutely huge, and you think that 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.200 that wouldn't matter so much, but the youth market in 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.680 Japan is uh drives a lot of the market. Right. 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.040 And and this was something else I I had seen elsewhere, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.800 not not in that particular article, but I had seen 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.360 sort of the the cultural difference. Like, for example, in America, 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:45.360 you may encounter someone who has the opinion of this 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:47.960 device is good enough for what I wanted to do. 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.560 It doesn't cost a lot, so I'm going to get 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.000 this model, whereas in Japan it be this model is 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:58.920 the sleekest, sexiest, coolest version of this particular device. That's 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.320 the one I want. Yes, Plus it's got all the 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.760 features which is gonna make me look cooler. Yeah, so 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.400 it's a status thing as well. It's just a cultural differences, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.520 not not to you know, boil it all the way 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.160 down to status. It's definitely not just status, but that's 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:16.960 an element. No, yeah, that's that's a part of it. 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:18.880 And and a lot of people want to be bleeding 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.880 edge consumers. In fact, people upgrade. According to Yang's article, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:28.360 people upgrade their tech uh yearly or even more than that, 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.200 sometimes every six months. They'll go out and get the newest, 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.720 coolest cell phone. And so they're starting to sound like 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:38.520 tech journalists because you know, if you guys are tech heads, 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.960 or you know some tech heads, you know, those are 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:42.480 the people who go out and they have to have 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.800 the absolute best version of whatever it is that just 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.320 came out. That's the kind of mentality we're talking about, 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:51.040 except that in our culture that's sort of a minority, 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.360 and in Japanese culture it's the opposite. Yeah yeah, well, 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.160 I mean talking about the cell phone thing, there's uh 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.720 actually young women are driving a lot of that and 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:05.320 uh it's it's a culture called KTI, which is basically, um, 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.240 you know, culture around the cell phone, sending pictures and 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.199 doing things with your cell phone. Um, there's there's a 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.760 whole group called the pardon me if I mangle this 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:21.879 uh oh yay ubisoku thumb tribes. They're known for repetitive 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.560 stress injuries from texting and uh, I mean it's it's 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.960 affected public health, sexual morays, media consumption, even impulse buying. 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.360 Because here's another technology that's not here, um, the ability 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.800 to pay with your cell phone buying something from a 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.040 vending machine because you have the r f I D 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.840 chip embedded in your cell phone with your credit information 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.720 on it. That's popular in Japan, but because of you know, 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.480 legal ramifications and the marketing telling people that Americans just 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:50.400 don't want it, we don't have it here. Yeah, then 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.160 the we we actually talked about then in an earlier podcast, 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.119 and as we pointed out, then another big barrier again 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.879 is that when you're talking about rolling out that technology, 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.280 there are an awful lot of different uh pieces that 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:04.080 have to come together for that to work. You have 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.520 to have the support from the hand sets, you have 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:08.520 to have the support from the cashier, like as soon 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:10.359 as you know, like each cash register needs to have 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.359 a device that's capable of reading that information. Um, and 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.600 of course the tracking information. There's lots and lots of 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.280 different pieces, and it is possible to do it. In 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.320 a very secure way, but it would cost money to 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.240 roll that out, and um, a lot of businesses and 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.520 banks in the United States are not willing to make 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.840 that initial investment. UM. So we're you know, we're not 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.000 likely to see it anytime soon. I guess we can 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.240 spend if you don't mind, we can talk a little 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.760 bit about how this might you know, we might have 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.120 some attitudes change in the United States over the next 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.960 few years, because now we have a ct O and 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:50.160 a c i O in time for the first time. Yeah. 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.280 So these two guys they're working very hard on trying 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:58.320 to h to shape public policy about technology and everything 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.040 from being able to share information shan about what the 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.639 government is doing so to make it more transparent to 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:08.040 the average citizen United States citizen, to figuring out, you know, 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:13.200 how can we promote innovation, how can we reward innovation? UM. 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.600 So we might see over the next few years some 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:22.040 policies that more closely resemble those of our friends overseas. UM. 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:23.959 But that's something you know, we're we just don't know 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.840 yet and nothing, nothing has really been set in motion yet. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.240 But it's early days. So yeah, and that's the kind 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.399 of thing that's going to take a very long time 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.240 for it too, more than an administration, I would imagine, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.800 just because you know, you're talking about such an enormous 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.280 scale here. So but there we there's reasons to be 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:46.119 optimistic yep. Um. And you know, I think it helps 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.800 too if you know, there's one thing to be said 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.240 for market forces, and then there's another thing to be 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:56.920 said for geographical uh flexibility as far as how much 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.439 you can physically do and how much people can afford 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.280 to do. But you know, marketing is part of that. 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:04.280 So if you're one of those people that really is 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.840 drooling over that gadget that they're releasing in Europe but 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.520 they don't have here, um, you know, you can always 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.200 contact the company let them know. You know, it never 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:15.640 hurts if they if they find out that people really 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.479 do want that stuff here, then uh, you know, if 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:20.560 if enough people want it and it's worth their while, 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.680 maybe they'll do it. Of course, then again, maybe it 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.640 runs on a frequency like uh, you know that doesn't 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.359 work here, like one of the things that another one 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.840 of those technologies from the Gizmoto article mobile TV people 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:36.440 in other countries Brazil, Japan, South Korea again, Southeast Asia. Um, 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.240 they carry around portable TVs and they run on UHF 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:42.639 you know digital TVs. Now, you just don't see it here. 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.520 Of course, part of the frequency that they use for 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.200 those is covered up by existing TV stations here or 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:51.400 used by the military, so that part of the radio 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:56.000 spectrum that would be kind of difficult for them to use. Yeah, exactly, 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.119 Yeah cool. Well I'm I'm tapped out. Yeah that was 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:03.080 that was good? Excellent. Well, I guess that just means 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:14.600 that we're now down to listener maid. Alrighty, then today's 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:18.440 listener mail comes from Connor is from Manchester, the UK. 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.400 So Connor, forgive me hi. I often hear you talk 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:25.639 about MAX, so I thought one of you might also 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.439 be one of Steve jobs faithful, and you might have 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.119 an answer to my question. I find myself having to 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:33.840 use XP on Bootcamp less and less as more and 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.639 more programs and games come with MAX support, So I 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.679 thought this growing support must mean a growing demand for it. 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:42.359 How many MAX are out there as a percentage of 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.320 all uses? I believe they call it market share, I heard, 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.680 but I don't believe it's that high. Love the show, 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.040 keep them coming, Connor, I know that wasn't a Manchester accent, 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:55.679 but I couldn't resist. You know, we just lost a listener, 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.560 maybe several. Well, you know, we probably gained the people 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:04.040