Luxury

Conventional fluorescent tube light fixtures officially need to die now that a Japanese company has announced a Wi-Fi-equipped LED fluorescent tube lamp replacement worthy of being on a spaceship.

The 40W LED light panel from NetLED is networkable to the cloud, allowing users to dim the lights to various intervals of brightness (and wattage) from a computer, smartphone, RFID-enabled device, or motion/light sensors. An iOS app for NetLED is already available, and according to AV Watch, an Android version is in the pipeline as well.

As with any other technology way ahead of its time, there's a rather large cost involved with NetLED's fixtures. Each individual main tube costs 19,800 yen ($257), but the main tube can drive up to three secondary lights, which cost 14,000 yen ($182). Then you need the primary NetLED server, which sets you back another 60,000 yen ($781) and supports up to 100 lights.

Using LED lights in an office is a wise power-saving solution that currently presents a rather large initial cost, but NetLED offers some compelling control schemes. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you've won at the casinos here and wonder how to spend your jackpot, I have a suggestion.

It's the Swiss Army solid-state drive (SSD) that Victorinox, the maker of Swiss Army branded products, unveiled today at CES 2012.

This is a tiny portable storage device about the size of the small-size popular Swiss Army tool set. In fact, the storage part can be pulled out and collapsed into its case just like you can do with a Swiss Army knife.

Victorinox claims that the Swiss Army SSD has a few unique attributes, including being the word'… Read more

Nokia's Vertu brand has already staked its claim as a luxury handset maker. Now it's getting into the lucrative accessory market with a $190 USB cable.

I know I shouldn't be so surprised. That's a drop in the bucket compared with the $20,000 price tag for Vertu's Year of the Dragon phone. Even the Vertu wall charger costs $85.

For $190, the Vertu USB cable should be capable of transferring data at warp speeds, giving excellent stock tips, and washing your dog. Alas, it's just a USB 2.0 cable and doesn't appear to have any superpowers.… Read more

With the Lunar New Year less than three weeks away, luxury phone maker Vertu has launched a trio of phones to welcome the Year of the Dragon. Take your pick from the stainless steel and emerald; black stainless steel and ruby; or yellow gold and diamond models.

Vertu's Signature collection gets the royal treatment with precious stones and top-grade metals, plus a garish hand-engraved four-claw dragon on the battery cover.

It's not to be sniffed at; the dragon takes four craftsmen more than a day to complete the engraving. The yellow gold version is even sent to Switzerland for certification, then returns to the workshop for its precious-stone adornment. … Read more

What do you get the James Bond villain who has everything?

Let's see... He's already got the $560,000 iPod dock. And the $2.1 million diamond-dipped iPad (which he had customized with bits of secret agent bone). Hmmm...

Ah: here's something! How about a gold-plated spherical computer mouse that looks elegant and sinister at the same time? That might be just the thing!… Read more

Russian electronics maker Gresso, known for its million-dollar feature phones and flash drives, is at it again with the Grand Premiere. After all, what better way to flaunt one's wealth than with a phone made of 18-carat gold?

The latest addition to Gresso's Avantgarde range of phones--and just as limited in quantity--the Grand Premiere is literally worth its weight in gold, with approximately 5 ounces of the phone's 7-ounce weight made up by the precious metal. The phone's frame and laser-etched keys are made of yellow gold.

That's not all: the Grand Premiere's screen, front, and back panels are also covered with black sapphire. … Read more

Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," which is what Mercedes-Benz must be thinking with some of the new features in its 2013 SL550.

Its Magic Sky Control consists of a panel in its retractable hard top that goes from dark to transparent at the touch of a button. That does sound very advanced. Not quite as magical is Magic Vision Control, a system that dispenses wiper fluid from openings on the wiper blade, rather than spraying haphazardly over the windshield from two jets on the hood.

Although not called out as magical by Mercedes-Benz, the new SL550 includes other very advanced features. It will come with an automatic parallel parking system and a sensor under the rear that opens the trunk when someone waves a foot across it. Both of these technologies were recently introduced by Ford, stealing some of Mercedes-Benz's thunder. … Read more

'Tis the season for holiday parties, and we suppose you could entertain your guests with tunes using one of these iPod speakers. But if you really want to impress your party-goers, may we suggest the 700-pound iNuke Boom?

You see, the fine folks at Behringer, a professional audio and music equipment company from Germany, weren't satisfied with building just another portable speaker system for the iPhone and iPod. Instead, it went the other direction and came up with the iNuke Boom, an 8-foot-tall by 4-foot-wide speaker that's capable of blasting 10,000 watts of power. … Read more

Anyone who bought this $2.5 million iPhone should consider upgrading to the latest lavish technology, the iPhone 4S Elite Gold from bling king Stuart Hughes.

Stuart Hughes already dazed the world with an $8 million iPad. The only way to top that was with a $9.4 million iPhone 4S. For that price, Stuart Hughes should be offering an iPhone 5.

This is what you get when you plunk down that chunk of your rock star salary:… Read more