In the rarefied world of mega yachts, the ultimate achievement is to have one designed by a certain Norwegian genius named Espen Oeino. The world's top star in naval architecture, Oeino's megabucks creations "combine the precision of fine machinery with indulgent finishes and the high-end amenities of a palace." When German luxury publisher teNeues opted to focus a volume in its amazing Luxury Toys series to the world's greatest yachts, it was quickly decided to dedicated the entire book to Oeino.

Luxury Toys: Mega Yachts showcases 20 of the Monaco-based Oeino's stellar creations accompanied by text from top yachting author Nick Jeffery, the most respected authority on luxury watercraft. Among the megayachts featured is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's 413-ft. Octopus, the 8th largest yacht in the world and the second largest superyacht that is not owned by a head of state. The nine deck ship cost $200 million to build and has an annual operating budget estimated at $20 million.

Designed for self-sufficient long range cruising, the Octopus contains a wet dock for a 59-ft. tender and an equally large remotely-operated submarine that can descend to 2500 meters, a twin helicopter hangar and two helipads, countless giant antennae and a telescopic sonar, a cinema and music studio. Another Oeino creation featured in the book is the military-looking 233-ft. SKAT, pictured above, built by Lürssen of Bremen, Germany for Charles Simonyi, a former Microsoft software engineer and pioneering space tourist. The yacht features an elevator serving all four decks, a gymnasium, matching helicopter, and motorcycles with a special lift.

Bill Gates can afford any wine he wants but now there is a special wine made just for Microsoft. The Blue Monster Reserve Sauvignon Blanc was created by South African winery Stormhoek for Microsoft and its employees. Hugh MacLeod, the talented cartoonist and blogger behind GapingVoid and the marketing strategist for Stormhoek, created the Blue Monster image after meeting many of the Microsoft employees after sponsoring dinners for those in the tech community. His cartoon of a fanged blue monster along with the tagline: "Microsoft – change the world or go home", has become an unofficial mascot for some people in the company. The Blue Monster bottles are only available only to Microsoft and people who belong to the "Friends of Blue Monster" Facebook group or who attend the geek dinners that Stormhoek sponsors or attends.

OK people, here it is, the iPod of 2020 - the Microsoft Surface. Although slightly less portable than everyone's favorite gadget today, Microsoft is rigorously positioning its concept device for the kind of widespread consumer - and commercial - craze that only Apple have been able to drill up. As you can see from their flash video, good ol Gates and Co want every last one of us to be able to use this touchscreen surface to do everything - from consumer applications like organizing and sharing photos, music and video - to consumer uses like in-restaurant ordering and bill paying.

If you're as awed by this as we are, check out the hands-on demo over at Engadget!

With CES season having descended upon us once again, we're starting to see some really cool new high-end offerings from the compy giants. This puppy looks like Microsoft's answer to the iMac, branded as an HP and (tentatively?) called the TouchSmart PC, and is at the same time trying to take over your study and living room. The whole 19" touch-screen thing is obviously making it a larger-than-normal blip on the radar, but it also boasts some of the new-fangled tech specs we're starting to see more and more: AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core TL-52 processor and that sweet sweet NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600. No official word on price yet, but our sibs over at Engadget hypothesized $1799 - $1899 a while back (lots of cool pics there too).