Two things that my recent observations suggest the USA is getting left behind on.

As I’ve travelled outside the USA in the last 2-months or so I’ve been visiting offices in Israel, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Canada, Germany and the UK. The first thing I noticed was how good the self brew coffee machines were, I checked a couple of places for prices while travelling, especially the technology market in Moscow, and a reasonable price seemed to be about $900 US Dollars. I finally got time tonight to look on amazon.com to see what kinda prices similar machines cost in the USA.

Sadly first off they are pretty hard to find, and then, they are $200-$300 more than overseas, which I guess is why no one I know has one at the house, or do you?

Then earlier today I got to run speedtest.net on my duaghters home Internet service, which they’ve just upgraded, and finally tonight on my Mums basic internet broadband. I have a home premium Internet service from Time Warner Cable called Road Runner Turbo at home, and I use a t-mobile cellphone service when in Austin.

The [provisional results]results included my ppms calculation, Price per Megabit per Second. I used download speed only for simplicity, based on an exchange rate of $1.5904 US Dollars to the UK pound.[not including line rental for broadband since it uses the telephone line]. Net, net the UK is much cheaper on a month to month basis, and also on price per Megabit download.

(1) Doesn’t include tax; requires other TWC services; I use an external wireless router, but you can use without; supports unlimited attached devices.
(2) Doesn’t include tax; would use mobile hotspot which could be used outside the home; provides tethering; only supports 5-devices.
(3) VAT removed; requires line rental; includes Wireless Router and includes BT wifi hotspot login; to be confirmed but based on this web page, I’ll confirm and update later.
(4) VAT removed; broadband modem and wireless router included in price; requires line rental; unlimited attached devices.