Luxury

James Bond/Batman boat is anything but a prop

A superyacht worthy of a James Bond supervillain -- or even of Batman's Bruce Wayne -- launched for the first time recently when the $15 million Adastra took a test drive on the Pearl River in Zhuhai, China.

Commissioned by Hong Kong shipping magnate Anto Marden, who owns and cruises to a pair of islands near Indonesia, the craft is based on the design of speedy Batboat-like "power trimaran" vessels such as the Earthrace and the Cable and Wireless Adventurer. But unlike those boats, the Adastra -- as you'll see -- was meant to be a luxury yacht, which, according to design firm John Shuttleworth, called for some new thinking.

… Read more

The Tao of loo: A toilet with its own Japanese garden

Fancy answering the call of nature au naturel but don't like getting too down and dirty? Japan recently saw the opening of a public toilet in a veritable Garden of Eden that designers say is the largest of its kind in the world.

Created by architect Sou Fujimoto, the single, glassed-in cubicle commands a view of cherry, plum, and peach trees in a rural part of Ichihara City, east of Tokyo.

It's located by Itabu Station along the scenic Kominato Railway, and you can hear the old-school trains clunking along as they pass.

Surrounded by a 6-foot wall, the elegant loo stands in a 240-square-yard garden that is being planted with rape blossom and clover.

Sorry guys, it's for ladies only. … Read more

Elgato Thunderbolt SSD review: The crazy price of the magic

Bus-powered portable drives, those that don't need a separate power adapter to work, are not new and have been in the market for years. But the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is the first made specifically for Macs and for now can only work with Macs.

For this reason, like many thing Apple-made, it changes everything all over, again.

For one, it's by far the fastest bus-powered portable drive on the market, though not at all the fastest among Thunderbolt storage devices. Secondly, it's super-expensive at $700 for 240GB (or $450 for 120GB).

While souped-up pricing and performance of … Read more

TAG Heuer wraps a phone in carbon fiber

Using the phrase "unparalleled torsion and strength to weight ratio," terms usually reserved for cars and spacecraft, TAG Heuer gets into the smartphone business with the most likely very expensive Racer (not to be confused with Razr).

Today's release contains very little detail about the actual phone. Wrapped in an industrial-looking case made of carbon fiber and titanium, we are told it is Android-based, uses a 3D interface, and has a high-speed processor. … Read more

Muramasa VIII headphones heavy in weight, price

If you're a headphone fanatic who enjoys the finer things in life, the Muramasa VIII by Final Audio Design could be the ultimate luxury purchase.

The Japanese company may not be very well known, but it has already released some of the most expensive in-ear headphones around. At a cool $8,000, the Muramasa is one of the more costly pair of headphones we've seen. They're also the first over-the-ear cans by the company.

Final Audio Design previously made headlines with its Piano Forte X-VIII in-ear headphones, which were almost $2,700. The Muramasa VIII now take the top spot for the company's priciest headphones. … Read more

Killer Whale Submarine a killer personal submersible

Jules Verne had the market on imaginative submarines cornered for many long years. And then Hammacher Schlemmer came along and offered a $100,000 Killer Whale Submarine.

The Killer Whale Submarine can breach from the water, just like a real whale. It has pectoral fins with control levers and a 255-horsepower supercharged Rotax axial flow engine. I can't really explain what that is exactly, but it sounds super cool.

This aquatic beast is also pretty fast. Underwater, it can go 25 mph. On the surface, it can hydroplane at up to 50 mph. I think that's faster than my Prius can go on land.… Read more

Sim2 debuts world's first LED-lit 3D DLP projector

The new Sim2 M.150 is the first DLP home theater projector to substitute the traditional lamp with LEDs as a light source. Its Super PureLED technology, utilizing high-power RGB Phlatlight LED modules, delivers the following unique propositions:

A maintenance-free light source, which lasts up to 30,000 hours with less than 5 percent drop in luminance. Auto-calibration to ensure accurate colors and brightness consistency. Negligible rainbow artifact since no color wheel is required with red, green and blue (RGB) LEDs. High 100,000:1 dynamic contrast and 1,000 lumens brightness.

The Sim2 active-shutter 3D goggles also tout an … Read more

AC/DC Pinball, for those about to rock

Have you ever tried buying an AC/DC album on iTunes? Don't bother. It's not there. Unlike those sellouts, The Beatles, AC/DC is too cool for that crap.

So what better way to honor the world's most tenaciously old-school rock gods than to give them their own pinball machine? I mean, it's about time someone showed The Who, that serious pinball geeks deserve a more rocking anthem than "Pinball Wizard."

The AC/DC Pro, currently in production by Stern Pinball, weighs in at a whopping 250 pounds, and can be yours for around $… Read more

Mosaic LCD tiles: When wall paintings aren't enough

For the past few months, I've been trying to figure out how to rearrange my old wall art to make it look fresh again, but nothing's working at the moment. These mosaic LCD tiles would be the perfect solution--you know, if I were rich.

The Planar Mosaic LCD Tiles come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be arranged in different patterns, while proprietary software allows you to program whatever video or image you want displayed across all screens.

Customers can choose from the three models. The first is the Planar Salvador, which is a square LCD that measures 15.6 inches on each side and ideal for use over larger surface areas. Meanwhile, the Planar Pablo has a rectangular shape and measures 40 inches wide, or you can go slightly bigger with the 48-inch wide Planar Vincent.

Planar designed the mounting hardware so that the displays can hang in any position and at various angles, including "concave and convex arrays."… Read more