William (Bill) Stubbs, a Houston-based designer and one of Architectural Digest's top 100 designers, shares his knowledge and philosophy in 13 half-hour episodes of the new PBS series A Moment of Luxury. Presented nationally by WLIW New York, the series premiered nationwide this month (check local listings for your channel and broadcast time). Its aim is to make "the experience of luxury -- excellence, comfort and high quality -- accessible at any budget with transformational tips inspired by international locales and top experts. The website has lots to read, such as an episode guide, a list of Stubbs' travels and of course, a blog, so you can "create your own interaction with luxury." Don't we all want that?

Armani and Samsung have collaborated again, this time on a premium HDTV design. Revealed for the first time at the opening of the Milan International Furniture Fair. Combining cutting edge technology from Samsung with cutting edge design from Giorgio Armani, this is one sleek 1080p LCD television. Available in 46" and 52" sizes the tv itself is pretty basic looking (although I'm sure it has a more than "basic looking" picture) but the remote control sounds like it puts on quite the light show with "a full range of radiant backlights." Plus there's a smaller pebble-shaped remote for basic functions. Look for the smaller tv model to launch first (in Europe) this summer, with the 52" quickly following.

Some plasma televisions are works of art in and of themselves and to hide them would be a shame. But most aren't so fabulous and are better kept out of sight when not in use. There are lots of clever ways to conceal a flat-screen television - I've seen them behind panels, paintings and drapes as well as inside pop-up entertainment centers. But as far as a remedy to the unsightly black hole of the television, this one gets points for creativity. Wood-framed beveled mirrors of different sizes overlap in an artful arrangement that not only hides your flat-screen television, but adds light and space to your room. The overall dimensions are 71"W x 11"D x 51" and the cabinet will accommodate most 50" plasma televisions. $4649.

The BeoVision 8 TV is designed to be beautiful and versatile at the same time, and is designed to appeal to the "every day" needs of its target market. It's a compact LCD TV that's just as happy on the floor as it is in a more formal entertainment center or on your computer desk. It has a hidden built-in speaker capable of putting out the quality sound you expect from Bang & Olufsen, along with a picture that looks good in difficult lighting (sunlight included!) thanks to a new high-glare surface and low-reflection coating. It also has both a low light transmission and a high black level for an awesome LCD screen. Everything is integrated, which makes the BeoVision 8 easy to move around, to where ever the summer takes you.

It may not be the most revolutionary development in HDTV technology, but the 10,000:1 contrast ratio on Samsung's new "Bordeaux" LCD HDTV is hardly something to sneeze at. The ultra-high-res definition is going to make you feel closer to the action than ever before. The TV will be available in both 32" and 40" sizes and also boasts a slightly more streamlined design than previous models, as well as a shinier screen surface. Wood nymph models not included.

If you're a fan of the hit show 24, you know exactly how cool Jack Bauer is. He saves the world many times over in every season and kicks some serious bad-guy ass while doing it. For the sake of health and sanity, watching Jack Bauer's life is far safer than trying to live it, but living like him is certainly possible. Uncrate has a guide to living like Jack, so that you can get some of the perks from being one of the most dangerous people in the country without any risk to life or limb. Must-haves include the Special Ops Watch ($450) that was once available only to military personnel, a "Jack Pack" messenger bag ($19) and a Motorola i880 ($250) with antimicrobial coating for safeguarding against germ warfare.

Medical insurance, though less glamorous than the above items, is probably also a good idea.

Wall dividers are ideal for separating large spaces into smaller, more manageable areas that are easier to put to use, as well as to decorate. The Ultimate Swivel Room Divider is an amazing piece of furniture that not only allows for a stylish division of space, but also provides something that is more than just decorative. The wall has space for a flat panel TV to be attached on one side or a rotating panel and a shelf/drawer storage system on the other. At the touch of a button, a pneumatic cylinder is activated to rotate the panel. It is made of engineered wood with Java Matte and high-gloss white lacquer finishes. The entire unit measures 96" W x 24" D x 84.5" H. Price: $3,600.

[via born rich]

This leopard-printed gadget from Konka may have an interesting frame, but it has an even more interesting function. Dubbed the "Magic Mirror," it is a wall-mounted LCD TV that has a camera built into the top frame. When the TV is not in use, the camera "reflects" a view of the room onto the screen. Because the frame is vertically oriented, it seems like you might get some distortion (to say the least) if you actually want to watch TV, but the concept certainly is interesting. There is no price yet on the "mirror," but hopefully they'll come up with some new frame options when it is released in case leopard doesn't match the color scheme of potential customers' homes.

At CES, Samsung had a display that featured their newest plasma TV. The Samsung FP-T5894W is a flat panel, wall-mounted TV that is completely wireless.

Up until this point, if you wanted to have the look of wireless, you would need to pay someone to install the TV and hide the wires in the wall behind the unit, which means that you ended up with an attractive look, but that you couldn't move the TV or even attach DVD players, etc. to it without attaching additional wires. The FP-T5894W has a wireless A/V center that can be placed up to 300 feet from the screen and will communicate at 150Mbps, the 802.11n wireless standard. The screen is 58-in. with 1080 px resolution and, according to Samsung, a 10,000:1 contrast ratio.

The retail release is scheduled for September 2007. List price is expected to be $5,799.

If colorful, retro designs are appealing to you, you don't have to limit your fascination to furnishings to express your tastes. Telstar has resurrected the vintage Predicta brand and makes a number of different, retro models that have the look of yesterday with the technological advances of today. Although the designs of the Predicta TVs are vintage, the sets are not. They are made with entirely new parts, are compatible with VCRs, cable and satellites, and come with a distinctive remote control (if you'd rather have your remote match the set than use a universal). There are a lot of color options, as well as different finishes for the cabinets and mounts, and custom designs are available.

[via cribcandy]

Sony's gearing up to take on Samsung in the giant LCD market with their just-announced Bravia KD-70XBR3. This monster boasts a 7,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, their new LCD backlight, blur-reducing "Motionflow" technology and a whole host of other next-gen performance specs that promise to make you feel like you're actually rocking the eighth Freebird solo in Guitar Hero II. They'll be shipping in February (same as Samsung), but you can pre-order the Sony now at Sony Style or a few retailers for a cool $33,000 Georgies.

Although they ragged us with a sneak peak of this behemoth back in August, Samsung has finally announced the official release date for the largest mass-produced LCD TV in the world to be February (actually, "February or March") 2007.

The 70-incher provides 1080p flat panel resolution with 8ms response time and 2000:1 contrast ratio – but what's even more exciting is the fact that Samsung claims that they will be manufacturing a million of the bad boys annually. Nice.

No word on price yet, but seeing as they've sort of got the market cornered here (and very well may have it cornered for a while), we're hoping they'll be nice, responsible market-creators and keep 'er well below five digits.

Via gizmodo

Wow. I mean Uber-Wow. We've seen our cronies over at Engadget report on a range of ridiculously cool holographic technologies lately, but nothing this big, impressive or, most importantly, actually available. What's being dubbed the "Uber-Graph", this 80" pane of glass acts as a medium for a holographic projection television, and is completely customizable to the buyer's specifications. The Uber-secret technology traps little bits of light at certain angles whilst all other light just passes through it. And voila, your image is floating in mid-air.

We don't know how much the 80-incher will go for (check out the eBay page here), but it looks like the 40-incher is retailing for £14,995 (about $28,500 US). And, if current market pricing trends are any measure, doubling the screen size can easily mean quadrupling the price. Which sucks, of course, for those of us who were otherwise really looking forward to a new condo this year.

Good find, BornRich.

With all the great flat-panel televisions, most of which seem to have high-definition screens, that we've seen in the past couple of months, is anyone ready to go back to something a little more three dimensional? The Cuboglass is an unusual TV that is built into a black, nearly-cubic case. When the TV is on, you can see it clearly through the case, but when it is off, the unit does not bring to mind a TV and you might not even guess that it was a piece of electrical equipment at all, were it not for the cord extending from the back. It is 15" x 13.5" x 15" and comes with the aluminum flight case pictured below it. Price: $1,191.

[via SciFi Tech]

Christie's Star Trek memorabilia auction wrapped up yesterday with a grand total of $7,107,040 in sales, more than double what organizers were expecting to bring in. There were 1,000 lots that included costumes, props, miniatures and more from the Star Trek TV shows and movies. The highest priced item was the 78-inch-long (198-cm) model of the Starship Enterprise, which was heavily use in making the TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation and sold for $576,000, far above its estimate of $15-20K. The purchase, by an anonymous bidder, is one of the "highest prices paid for any piece of Hollywood memorabilia."

Other noteworthy lots included a Klingon "Bird of Prey" ship model that sold for $307,200 and Dr. McCoy's space suit from the original series at $144,000.

Christies staff members, as well as auction participants, dressed in Star Trek costumes for the three-day event and the auction house said that its new online bidding system saw "its strongest response since it launched during the summer."