The Shire is like an idealised vision of rural England at the turn of the 19th/20th century. And yes, it does
seem more technologically advanced than other parts of Middle-earth. They engage in trade and have a rudimentary postal service and police force, and clearly also some kind of legal system if they have lawyers dealing with wills. The concept of personal property is at an advanced stage and they have progressed beyond feudalism. The people enjoy luxuries such as smoking, nice cakes, teapsoons and umbrellas.
These things are most likely produced on a small-ish scale as there's no evidence of factories or the like, and I have a feeling that this is reflection in some way of the ideals of William Morris - for useful, attractive things made by artisans and craftsmen.
But are they different? The rest of Middle-earth clearly has the capacity, intellectually speaking, to advance in technology - they aren't lacking in small luxuries either (they have books, for example), though we see much less of them because the story is less
domestic when we get to those stages, the focus is on battles, journeys, meetings with grand people. So it could be that these things do exist, we simply do not see them much.
It could also be that the rest of Middle-earth, in contrast to The Shire, has been engaged in military struggles for a long time, and that tends to seriously affect material development. Resources would instead be directed into building up military and defence capability, so much of the technological advancement was instead derived from or centred around weaponry. I imagine that if they had not been engaged in defending against Sauron and his agents for so long, that both Gondor and Rohan would have developed considerably - there was scientific endeavour at one time:
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Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry or in high, cold towers asking questions of the stars.
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