Now that's a phone. The $2,000 Motorola Aura is here, and lookalikes are bound to follow.

The Aura has the world's first circular display with 16 million colors and a 300 dpi resolution. The lens isn't just scratch resistant, it's Grade 1 62-carat sapphire crystal. The casing is stainless steel, coated with PVD coating (like on a luxury watch), and it rotates open with the help of 130 precision ball bearings.

All the usual technologies (2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, Open Source browser) are included in this sleek, attractive 47.60 x 96.87 x 18.55mm phone.

Blackberries are for assistants.

Just in time for the holidays, you can order one now to be shipped out December 4th.

[via engadgetmobile.com]

The latest in blinged out cellphones is the Diamond Nokia N95, and there's no argument that it's 'doing the bling thing' in a big way. Coming from Alexander Amosu, the phone is a combination of 18k solid gold and 3.30 carats of high-quality diamonds. Available in a limited edition of only 10, each phone is custom set with 325 diamonds and the owner's choice of white gold or classic gold (white gold for me all the way), and of course each will be numbered from 1-10. Name or initials also available, $24,482.

This is something I need! A cell phone strap. I know they sell them all over, but I never seem to see one when I'm thinking of it and inevitably my poor phone keeps hitting the pavement, the sidewalk, the tile, whatever! How many lives does a cell phone have, anyway? My little guy is well into the double digits, easy.

So anyway, Bulgari has come out with their own luxurious version of the cell phone strap, made of soft calf leather and palladium -- and a handy feature where the strap part disconnects leaving a cute cube pendant behind for easy reattachment (very handy). They also have other designs available on the website (I found them under "gifts") that come in other colors, along with some darling phone pendants as well.

Samsung just announced that their crack team of millimeter-shavers has done it again with their new fangled "Ultra Edition 10.9" slider. Being two millimeters thinner than the company's previously crowned D900 and boasting quite similar specs - the 3.2 megapixel camera, along with 80MB worth of music/video internal memory (plus a microSD slot) - it looks like we're getting ever-closer to the much sought-after two-dimensional mobile phone. No price or availability yet, but our Engadget cronies predict we'll know next month after the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona.

Click through for more pictures of the Ultra Edition 10.9

[via Engadget]

The LG KE850 PRADA became real today, the phone that LG is touting as the "first completely touch screen mobile phone," and is initially priced at €600 (about $778 US). The phone is due to hit "PRADA stores in the UK, France, Germany and Italy at the end of February and parts of Asia before March."

So sure, they'll beat the iPhone to market by a few months, but the two phones have little else in common besides their touch screen interface; the KE850 will have no usable internal memory for media (LG opts for a microSD slot instead), it won't have a native mail client or web browser, and it doesn't seem to support multi-touch capabilities.

Regardless, this thin, shiny, posh'd up beauty is launching in Europe as a tri-band GSM (no word yet on US release, but we'll sure let you know as soon as we do) and has a revised UI from their previously-reported OS X –like color scheme to a handsome, minimalist black and white scheme. Check out some nice real-world shots from our coz's over at Engadget and screenshots of the new UI from our friends over at Gizmodo.

[Via Engadget]