bling

It's everything from the Crave blog with Brian Tong and guest hostess Bonnie Cha. This week they gab about a new futuristic ride, USB bling bling, the Nokia N95 8GB, a Buddha phone, and an Allen Iverson Zune to stay away from.

There's obnoxiousness, and then there's this. We've known for ages that the best way to show off your innate tech-tackiness is to drown your gadgets in Swarovski crystals. But we thought that Apple's new iPhone--with its Zen-like simplicity (No keyboard! Who would've guessed?) and the company's affinity for stripped down design in everything from its laptops to its marketing campaigns--might be immune somehow from this epidemic.

But, apparently not, thanks to a Web site called Crystal Icing, which in the past has showcased its ability to pimp out everything from Sidekicks to sneakers … Read more

It seems strangely appropriate that an item named the "Bling Player" would be found on a site called Shiny Shiny. Or maybe it's just redundant. Either way, we're suckers for all that glitters so here it is.

The self-proclaimed "iced-out" player from MediaReady tries to live up to its moniker with a skull-and-crossbones design encrusted with crystals (how original). But like the Average Joe who tries to compensate for his shortcomings with expensive clothes, the $200 Bling is rather ordinary inside with 2GB of memory, an FM tuner and voice recorder to go along … Read more

Bling Software makes software for mobile phones that lets them run Ajax apps. Publishers can easily take their Ajax-heavy Web pages, and quickly recode them for the mobile platform. The Bling software can then display the apps, including interactive content and streaming video.

What the service doesn't do is just display existing Ajax-heavy Web pages on mobile phones. The publisher has to do some work before they'll display correctly.

The presentation here at Demo 07 was based on the Barry Bonds Web site. At the end, the man himself stepped up to the stage, seeming a bit bewildered. … Read more

OK, so you think $842,000 is a wee pricey for a cell phone strap (tightwad). All you bargain hunters out there may be pleased to know that you can get a cheapo alternative for chump change-- just $250--that features a 24k gold charm as seen on Tokyomango to commemorate the "Year of the Boar" (or pig, if that seems more appropriate for this bit of conspicuous consumption). If you're so inclined, you can even get a set of genuine gold and silver USB keys as the perfect accessory. And at this level of decorative wastfulness, it'… Read more

Ah, cubic zirconia. How would underpaid journalists get married without it?

In August, Apple filed for a patent that would protect the use of zirconia as a casing material for a number of wireless handhelds, including a certain still-unannounced-but-geez-where-is-it product: the iPhone.

Apparently, zirconia is a good material for any small device that needs to transmit radio frequency signals--like cell phones--in that it is strong enough to protect the internal components but wireless signals can still easily pass through, according to Apple's patent filing, disclosed Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office and spotted by numerous Apple … Read more