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Samsung's Hauzen washing machine gets gilded
For awhile there, all the latest washing machines were on an impressive roll of adding more and more functionality to that water-filled (or not) clothes tosser, but it looks like Samsung will be the one to bring that streak to a screeching halt. Rather that producing a unit that ran off fuel cells or instantly converted into a dryer when the wash cycle was complete, the firm instead contacted renowned designer Andre Kim to add a touch of luxury to an oftentimes covered household device. For folks who prefer their washing machines to be the center of attention, this Hauzen-branded machine sports a gilded finish, stainless steel door ring, royal emblem on the glass, and a paint job that will admittedly clash horrendously with in-home decor more often than not. Unfortunately, Samsung doesn't go into much detail concerning the cutting edge features on this here washer, nor do we know just how lofty the price will be, but if you're seriously considering something this extravagant, neither of those tidbits are likely to matter anyway.[Via Core77]
Have too much money? Cover your PSP in jewels
Maybe the new Silver and Blue PSPs are a bit too... boring for your tastes. If you're allergic to money and have to desperately get rid of as much as you can right now, you might be interested in picking up these crystal PSPs from German mail-order store OTTO. The "Black Cobra" and "Passion of Flowers" both feature 2000 crystals each. That's 2000 more crystals than your boring busted-up system.They cost 899€ ($1143 USD) each, so if you're able to buy one, you'll be my new best friend.[Via Joystiq]
Keymat's YALOS Diamond: world's most expensive LCD TV
So, you thought the 103-inch Plasma from Panasonic carried a bit of heft around the price tag, eh? Well check out this $130,000 YALOS Diamond LCD TV from Keymat. Now, just forget everything you thought was important when measuring the value of a good LCD panel -- you know: brightness, contrast ratio, response, pixel resolution, and so on -- those measurements are for fools, boy. As any self-righteous heiress knows, a good TV must feature a white gold plating and at least 160 diamonds totaling to a minimum of 20 carats. Think differently and you might just end up dodging Blackberries with the rest of the help.
Curio Basic offered for free until midnight, August 7th
Remember Curio from Zengobi, that unique brainstorming and project management app we found a couple weeks ago? As a thanks to all the publicity they've been getting lately the company has decided to offer Curio Basic for free - but only until midnight, EDT on Tuesday, August 7th. All you need to do is enter some basic information at the promotion page, and a license (a $39 value) will be emailed to you. Definitely note, however, that one of Zengobi's terms is that they can cancel this offer at any time (probably in case they get slammed with too many requests), so I would recommend you run, don't walk, to snag your copy. After all: you can't beat 'free'.
"Black Diamond" WM5 Smartphone runs $300,000
If you're having a hard time justifying dropping a cool million on your next phone, might we turn your attention to the "Black Diamond," brought to us by Swiss manufacturer VIPN. Penned by Singaporean designer Jaren Goh, there's little question that the glossy black candybar is gorgeous -- but whether it's $300,000 gorgeous is another question entirely. Details are slim, but we know that the Windows Mobile 5 device should be rocking quadband GSM, WiFi, 128MB of memory with SD expansion, a 2-inch display, and a 400MHz XScale all wrapped up in titanium and diamonds. The touch sensitive keypad is Chocolate-esque, completely disappearing when not lit, while SIP is thrown in to keep your GSM usage minimum when you're in WiFi range (not to suggest anyone owning this phone is looking to save a few bucks). If we've piqued your interest, it looks like you've got until early 2007 to save your pennies, but keep your eyes peeled -- production is limited to 5 (yes, five) units.
Vertu Constellation gets the FCC treatment
If we're gonna drop a couple grand on a phone, the least it can do is give us quad-band GSM, right? As we reported a couple weeks back, Vertu's new Constellation handset picks up where their previous efforts left off, packing GSM 850/900/1800/1900 plus EDGE data all 2003-like. We weren't able to glean much from the draft manual (which still has Signature pictures in it), but the Constellation looks to rock a variant of Nokia's S40 platform -- we leave that to the world's privileged to decide whether that's an upgrade from the Signature and Ascent's OS. Look for this little slice of leather-covered opulence to drop later this year; we're sure you rich folk will find ways to shed some cash while you wait.
On resolution independence
There is a lot of buzz and speculation floating around as to what we'll see in the Mac OS X 10.5 update that will be previewed (and I suspect released) at this August's World Wide Developer's Conference. One exciting 'fundamental feature' John Gruber hinted at last November has been mentioned again by a developer named Dustin MacDonald: resolution independence.Gruber broke this concept down in a November '05 post titled Full Metal Jacket (under the Display heading), but to summarize: most of the dimensions of elements in Mac OS X (and other OSes to my knowledge) are defined in pixels - the menu bar is 22 px high, for example. This explains why things 'seem to look a little smaller' when you move from the 1024 x 768 dimensions of a 12" display to the 1440 x 900 resolution of the latest 15" PowerBook G4 or MacBook Pro displays. Conversely, if you decrease the resolution on the machine you're working on now, things will look a bit bigger; you have smaller resolution and fewer ppi (or dpi) on screen, so some elements change size. This can become a problem in the context of notebook displays and their resolutions - if you take the 15" MacBook Pro's resolution higher than 1440 x 900, things could become smaller than what many might consider usable (these same rules apply to Windows and I believe Linux as well). Further, you can't just keep increasing notebook display sizes like you can with desktop displays; I've heard of the 19" notebooks Engadget has come across, and I personally don't consider a 16 lb computer worthy of the 'portable' adjective.
AquaMinds NoteShare 1.0
AquaMinds, makers of the popular NoteTaker, has released NoteShare 1.0, a "powerful desktop application for creating, publishing and sharing media rich, multi-page notebooks." NoteShare allows you to "instantly" share a notebook for presentation or collaborative editing across a room, a network or even the web. Interestingly, their product page states that you don't even need hosting space in order to publish and share a notebook.While NoteShare sounds like an interesting product for its target users, AquaMinds is a little slim on details as to whether NoteShare represents a new level of note taking and rich media abilities above and beyond their NoteTaker product. However, since NoteTaker sells for $70 and NoteShare is priced at $150 for a 3-machine license, I'd bet the premium price is all about that collaborative ability, rather than some fancy new note taking features. If all this notebook sharing business has your interest piqued, AquaMinds offers a 30-day NoteShare trial; just follow the link on the right here.
eMail for dumb millionaires
Ok, so you've dropped some serious green on your Aston Martin Edition Nokia 8800, diamond encrusted iPod nano, and Samsung Q1 and you've still got that mad spending jones -- what to do? How 'bout dropping another few hundie ($399 monthly) on an exclusive millionaires24.com "Upper Class" email address. For that you get such pedestrian features as 512MB of email storage with uh, "unlimited eMail traffic," 1GB file sharing, address book, antispam/antivirus, and just about every other feature (and less) available on your run-o-the-mill, free email service. But if this is the kind of hard posing you need to remember your social status, then have it son, and double-quick 'cause the service is limited to only 10k of your well-heeled peers. Oh, just so you know, that "24" tacked onto the name means, well, nothing apparently. The folks behind the service are just too cheap to buy the domain rights to millionaires.com. 'Nuff said, eh?[Via Newlaunches]
