TiVo
For a long while, TiVo was the undisputed king of TV recording. Other DVRs have come a long way in the last ten years, but they're all late to the party, and still playing catchup: The TiVo name is now permanently tattooed into the public's consciousness, synonymous with recording shows and backed up by still-impressive hardware.

But the fact that TiVo has attained a near-Kleenex level of brand recognition in the US doesn't mean a thing overseas. As of writing, the service is only available in a few other places—Canada, the UK, Mexico, Taiwan and Australia—where it has been met with limited enthusiasm. While the US, with its huge, old, fragmented cable industry, offers a fantastic opportunity for a meta-service like TiVo, smaller countries with one or two dominant pay-TV providers—which have their own increasingly formidable DVR alternatives—are tougher nuts to crack.

The Kindle
This choice might seem odd—or at least inconsequential—on account of the steady stream of new e-reader hardware available all over the world, but Kindle exclusivity is actually a technological feather in America's cap. Why? Because the source of the Kindle's importance isn't its hardware, but its connectivity and the service it's tied to.

Anyone can slap a case around a panel of E-Ink and add an off-the-shelf Linux OS—and plenty of companies have. But being linked wirelessly to a massive library of legal downloads, bestselling books, magazines and newspapers, is what will make a reader great. For now, the only mainstream reader that can claim such a feature is the Kindle, and the only country that can claim the Kindle is the US. Not that it can't go global—similar services for music and TV, like the iTunes store, have found ways to deal with tricky licensing and gone global—it's just that it probably won't for a while.

Push-to-Talk
Without a doubt, this is the technology that feels the most American on this list. Intended primarily for the workplace, push-to-talk technology has tragically seeped into the mainstream, subjecting millions of innocent mall shoppers to that incessant, inane chirping, and the shouting at the handset that accompanies it. Who hasn't been inadvertently pulled into the middle of a heated, long-distance argument about novelty Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches flavors while waiting in line at Walmart? Well, pretty much anyone who doesn't live in America—and not just because they don't have Jimmy Dean, or Walmart.

As it turns out, PTT's Amerophilia can be explained by little more than poor marketing. According to ABI Research:

In other world regions MNOs have failed to market PTT successfully to business users or have opted to market to consumers, and it just hasn't taken off.

Nextel, which was inherently crippled by a proprietary network technology that wasn't built out in any other country but the US, found success with PTT by pitching handsets to businesses as turbocharged Walkie-Talkies, not by marketing them directly to consumers, most of whom would have trouble imagining a more efficient way to make themselves look like brash assholes.

Video On Demand
iTunes has gone worldwide and services like BBC's iPlayer have brought the Hulu model overseas, but America still has the best VOD situation in the world, bar none. The problem is simple: Even countries with a healthy entertainment industry import a tremendous amount of American TV, often well after it was originally broadcast. This regional disparity seems kinda stupid in the age of the internet and VOD, but it's just as severe as it ever was.

European or Asian viewers have to wait for painful weeks or months for a domestic channel to license, schedule and dub international American hits like Lost or Mad Men, and hope, assuming their stations have a VOD service, that the show eventually finds its way online. As an ad-supported service and a product owned by the networks who profit from the above arrangement, Hulu's reluctance to stream content to countries is understandable, but the despair is deeper than that: You can't even pay for TV if you want to. People without American billing addresses are barred from VOD services like Amazon's Unbox, and will find their iTunes video selections sorely lacking.

Satellite Radio
Since is smells distinctly like a waning technology, satellite radio might not do much to stir your techno-patriotism, but goddernit, it's ours. The US has far more satellite radio subscribers than the rest of the world combined, all through the remains of Sirius and XM, now merged under the lazy moniker of "Sirius XM". Why? We have lots (and lots) of cars.

Satellite radio actually has roots as a proudly international service—after all, it is broadcast from frickin' space—having been developed in part by a humanitarian-initiative company called 1Worldspace, which was established to broadcast news and safety information to parts of the globe without reliable terrestrial radio infrastructure. They still exist today, but they broadcast to fewer than 200,000 subscribers, mostly in India and parts of Africa. Satrad's American success can be solely credited to our auto manufacturers, who eagerly installed satellite units in new cars for years, healthily boosting subscription numbers (but not necessarily car sales). With no comparably pervasive car culture to take advantage of anywhere else in the world, satellite radio is a tough sell.

[BGR]

First and foremost, Nextel is a massive, distracting burden for Sprint (it's got that old iDEN network to maintain, and is bleeding customers like a nasty, lacerated ulcer etc.) and anything that would make Sprint lighter and faster on its feet is a plus for its customers. Second, but not wholly unrelated, it would let Sprint concentrate on getting its WiMax ducks in a row. Third, losing all the weight would make Sprint even sexier to T-Mobile's parent, Deutsche Telekom, which is reportedly being urged by its shareholders to make a big acquisition. [WSJ, Sub req'd]

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, Sprint is also talking with Intel, Google, and Best Buy to help get the WiMax project off the ground. Sprint could use the extra support given that business has taken a significant downturn as of late—and the $5 billion it would take to get WiMax running is a serious chunk of change. Only time will tell if Sprint's smooth talking will lure Clearwire back into the fold. Keep in mind that a Sprint exec has claimed that WiMax will launch in April. [InformationWeek]

The service actually looks better than Helio's, because it can send alerts to you and others when you happen to be nearby. It makes meeting up at some location a bit easier, and also gives you geotagging for photos taken from your phone as well. Sprint plans to release the service in a couple weeks.

Loopt was originally on Boost Mobile, but honestly, how many people do you know use Boost Mobile? [DigitalTrends]

Image Credit

Chalk it up to what you will—lagging quarters, brand confusion or the iPhone launch, all of which were tossed out by analysts as reasons for the change-up—mourners of the Nextel brand will number far fewer than Jack's bereaved, to be sure. After all, when was the last time you actually said (or heard) SprintNextel? Exactly.

Sprint Ad Campaign Leaves Nextel's Name in the Dust [WaPo via MocoNews]
Sprint Nextel revamps ads to focus on speed, data [Reuters]

The G'zOne Type-V gets the top position for me, even if it's the 2006 model. While less sleek than the G'zOne Type-S, it has EV-DO connectivity.

I also like the design of the two Verizons better than the Motorolas. You would be able to easily hook the G'zOnes to anything, so you don't have to carry them in a bag or a pocket while practicing sports. Even while, in my case, with "practicing sports" I mean mixing margaritas and drinking them.

The only bad thing about the Verizons is the size, but still, they are not much bigger than the Moto models.

In any case, if you need a phone to kick around the world that is also resistant to water, suntan lotion and Jason-style pantsing, check InfoSync's five detailed reviews, complete with full galleries and video. You'll find there all the information you need to buy one of these. – Jesus Diaz

Phones boasting water-resistant and ruggedized cases don't necessarily skimp on features. [InfoSync]

The FCC Filing we saw yesterday from Microsoft looks to be actually for the Zune, allowing the music phone to use 4G WiMax to communicate. Not only communicate, but to use VoIP over the fast 4G network.

It gets better.

With the new 4G network, one of the main complaints, that there are no users to share with becomes a thing of the past. Now, under WiMax, Microsoft is going to allow you to share songs with anybody, as long as they have a Zune Phone and the same WiMax plan.

So who's going to provide WiMax for Microsoft? Or more succinctly, who's this phone going to launch under? It looks like Sprint/Nextel, who announced last year that they were going to build a WiMax network.

Other details say that there's going to be an official announcmenet before March 17, with a FCC filing and a launch in May. May? That kind of accelerated timeline seems to be a little outrageous, but that's what the word on the street is now.

However, it's still early and details could change, but things are looking up for the Zune Phone after all. – Jason Chen

Microsoft to submit wireless device for FCC testing [Marketwatch via Crunchgear]

Product Page [Sprint]

"The 4G network will be four times faster than today's EV-DO network. And at these speeds, it's all about lighting up new devices. Imagine accessing YouTube.com and MySpace.com literally on the fly."

Sprint bets $3bn on 4G WiMax network [Silicon.com]

Why should we care? Even though it might take until 2008 before nationwide coverage is available using Sprint's WiMax, this could mean that the free ride is over for those moronic cable companies, offering up competition for their cable modem monopolies. DSL will also be hit with some serious competition. WiMax? It's like WiFi to the max, with broadband everywhere. Coming soon to a world near you. – Charlie White

Sprint's Boundless Ambitions [BusinessWeek]

Check out all our previous Q coverage to see what's in store for you and whether you want to switch phones. – Jason Chen

Sprint Nextel to add Moto's Q and Slvr to lineup [Chicago Business via Q Users]

However, the Motorola ic502 and ic902, with the "c" monicker, are dual-mode and work with CDMA and have PTT on iDEN. Gomennasai. – Jason Chen

Thanks Steve!