Luxury brand S.T. DuPont, famous for its stunning lighters and other accessories is getting into the mobile phone business. The French brand has teamed up with Korean company Pantech to create the Sky DuPont IM-510LE. CNET Asia reports that it will be available through SK Telecom in Korea. The phone will be available as a 2G (CDMA) handset and only for SK Telecom network users.

The design takes its cues from S.T. DuPont lighters. It has a push-up button that activates the phone with the same sort of muted click that can be heard when opening a lighter. The rim is brushed 18K gold. The phone has a 3-inch touchscreen LCD, mobile TV (T-DMB), 3-megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth, mobile dictionary and many other applications. The price is said to be around $800 to $900. It's not known yet if this phone will hit the international market. Hands-on video can be found at Tech Fresh and a video trailer is after the jump.

With the exception of Bang & Olufsen, the Danes have mainly focused on creating the most compelling perpendiculars since perhaps Frank Lloyd. The Swedes, on the other hand, have been known to throw a few more curves into their design -- think IKEA vs. Abba. Enter Aesthesis, a Swedish audio loudspeaker company that is going even further than mere curves with its Gramophone line; we're talking waves of beauty here.

And to do it, they started with Swedish car maker Koenigsegg -- or at least, with some of their designers. Aesthesis procured the talents of Ergonomidesign, Eker Design, and Carbocomp which all provide services to the maker of million dollar automobiles.

They spent four years coming up with the Gramophone, which employs a custom developed, full-range coaxial driver to eliminate phase differences and reproduce sounds from 37-20,000 Hz. The curved horn amplifies the higher frequencies, the open cabinet amplifies the lower frequencies. The narrowing of the cabinet is for damping echoes.

The entire point of the Gramophone is to "bring more intriguing, avant garde and sensual products to the market without compromising with sound or picture quality." The handmade, carbon and stainless steel speaker is 1.2 meters (47.2 inches) high, and comes in black -- or any other Natural Color System hue you choose.

Which is to be expected when there will only be 100 pairs of Gramophones made, and each pair will go to the tune of €60,000, or $85,500 U.S., plus shipping. The question you should be asking is: are your ears good enough?



[Source: Aesthesis | Images: Maria Fredriksson]

The New American Heritage dictionary defines the adjective "superlative" as: "Of the highest order, quality, or degree; superior to all others; 2. Excessive or exaggerated." The third entry should read "The BeoVision 4." The television from Bang & Olufsen presents these credentials: it spans 103 inches; the screen alone weighs 580 pounds, the floor-standing base adds another 600; when the BeoVision 4 isn't being viewed the screen lowers itself to the floor via dual gas shocks and actuators, hiding the center speaker; sixteen years of research have gone into it; oh, and it costs $112,000.

Luxist recently took a trip to Beverly Hills Aston Martin to get a good look at just how much TV you could get for the price of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. The story is here.

Here's an interesting reason to go on a cruise, help with your gadgets. Crystal Cruises is offering the services of a "technology concierge" whose job it is to train and educate guests on their latest gadgets. The concierges can tell you how to get the most from your iPhone, Blackberry, Kindle or GPS device. The ships' Crystal's Bistros will offer the latest technology magazines and Crystal's "Gadget Committee" plans to continually add new technology and update their in-house education to ensure the Technology Concierges remain current. I just want to know where you apply to be a technology concierge.

While some may disparage the rather flashy diamond-covered gadgets of Alexander Amosu, even our gadget-obsessed siblings at Engadget had to admit that they have their charm. Engadget recently went face to face with an arsenal of Amosu's shiny trinkets and left, well, dare we say dazzled? Sean Carter of Engadget admitted that while they normally "harsh on these types of things" the gadgets do have a certain allure up close and personal (yes, even the pink ones). Check out what around $50,000 of glittering gadget goodness looks like in their gallery.

It's a Swiss Army knife for those who are more than a little serious about their Swiss Army knives, and want a high tech edge to their gadgets. The Swiss Army Presentation Pro has all the expected features like key chain, scissors, file, and knife (or course), plus it also comes with some gear essential to today's professional presentations, like a computer-friendly Bluetooth remote, a laser pointer, and a 32GB USB drive with fingerprint authentication. All with the compact design and durability you'd expect from Swiss Army. Very James Bond. $300+

Don't you wish that using your flash drive could be a classier aesthetic experience? I know the purpose of a flash drive is functionality, but as design experts all over the world know, absolutely anything can be made beautiful and more enjoyable to use.

Enter the Gresso with gorgeous flash drives, such as the above from the new Pandora Flash Drive Collection ($999.00 each). The example you see is made from African Red wood and silver. It's more than just a pretty face, too; the Pandora is the first luxury USB device to be equipped with a fingerprint scanning detector. That's not an LED sparkle you see there, though. That's a ruby.

Click through the gallery to see and read about more good-lookin' flash drive options from Gresso -- with memory capacities of up to 192 Gb!

I think this just might be the coolest (and cutest) little gadget if you're looking for the perfect stocking stuffer to round out the usual candy and scratch-off lottery tickets. The Zippo Hand Warmer is fun, useful, and perhaps best of all probably a little unexpected. It's smaller than your average hand warmer (looks like I could easily have one stuffed in each glove while I'm scraping ice off my car's windshield) and is very similar to a Zippo lighter in size and shape with a sleek, smooth chrome finish on the exterior. Fill it with Zippo premium lighter fluid and it will provide heat for up to 24 hours at a time. $29.95

Via Book of Joe

Despite theories that it would be consumers who were in short supply this holiday season, it seems that Apple is having trouble keeping up with demand.

After a highly successful limited-release of its iPod Touch earlier this year, the company is now running short of other models, notably the formerly-ubiquitous iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle at mass-retailers like Target and Best Buy.

Analysts estimate Apple will sell close to 21 million iPods in the December quarter, up 90% since the fall.

[via AppleInsider]

Flashlights are not an exciting or even particularly interesting part of life but they certainly are a necessity when the power goes out or you hear something creeping around in the backyard at night. So whether for yourself or as an interesting gift for the gadget-lover on your Christmas list, the Light for Life flashlight is certainly worth looking at. Thanks to its ultracapacitor technology it has the longest uptime and fastest recharge available in the market today -- which amounts to 90 minutes of light after just 90 seconds of charging. And because it's made of a durable polymer and will never need new batteries this could just be the last flashlight you ever buy -- which is good for the environment. $169.99

Via Dvice

The name might not be particularly sophisticated but the idea is a fun one: portable espresso whenever and wherever you want it. No need to rough it the next time you go camping! Well, not in the hot beverage department anyway.

The Handpresso works by using your own personal manpower to create the necessary pressure by pumping the handle, after which the machine produces one shot of espresso. And according to our sister site Slashfood's product review, the espresso isn't half bad.

For me part of the fun of camping is drinking something different, like coffee made in a steel pan over the fire, and laughing about how bad it is. But then I can't remember the last time I actually went camping so maybe there's something to bringing a little bit of home out with you to the wilds. $155

Via Shiny Shiny

It's called the Freewheeler, and it's a wireless outdoor speaker that won't do anything unexpected or special except roll around a little and 'freewheel' you out of $20,000.

Features include: wireless up to 656 ft, recharging station, and the capacity to project the quality stereo sound you'd expect from two speakers out of just the one unit. And apparently it's pretty good sized (as big as small car tire???) and that could be a pro or a con, depending on your taste.

It's got a nice contemporary design, and the "roll it around the yard" feature certainly is convenient, but I'm still not sure why the price tag is so high at £10838.74. Anybody have any idea?

It's cool to spend lots of money on fancy electronic gadgets but it's totally not cool to spend several minutes fishing around for a remote control to (gasp) actually have to get up off the couch in order to turn them on manually. Of course The Clapper could do the trick but who needs such a startling way to adjust the mood when you could have this gold (that's one of the last places you thought you'd see bling, isn't it?) electricity switch by Tobias Wong. Put it wherever you want (it works wirelessly) and you'll be having lights, music, and whatever else whenever and where ever you want -- no fumbling required. $150

Who wants a plain old Mickey-shaped mp3 player when you can have one all decked out with ribbons and Swarovski crystals? The Mplayer Swarovski is the same Mplayer it always was on the inside (1 GB, up to 9 hours of play time), but the outside is now all jazzed up with a variety of different colors, themes, and accessories (this one is called "Little Girl"). Available in limited edition of 500 they're now available in Japan for about $137-$150 each (the standard versions sell for around $50).

Sony has been coming out with some interesting speakers lately. Rigel recently mentioned the tiny Bravia Theater Micro System which put big sound in a package the size of a strawberry. Now check out the Sony Sountina. We're not talking small here, the six-foot tower is made of glass and has a 13 cm woofer and 7 cm mid range speaker. The speakers spread sound out in a circle giving listeners equal sound no matter where they are in the room. Even cooler, in dim light, the glass turns colors, displaying blue, amber, and purple. It sells for $11,800 from Dynamism.

[via Uncrate]