Gizmogs

f you are looking to drop a lot of dough on a seemingly fragile speaker system then you might want to check out the Harion. These speakers made of Heat-resistant glass are manufactured by Hario, a glass maker in Tokyo. They will cost about 16 million yen or $168,000. You get a center speaker, a sub woofer, a couple of tweeters and mid-range speakers. It sounds like a lot of the cost comes from the long and difficult development.

I love the guys over at iSuppli… So when they took apart the T-Mobile G1, the techno-dweeb inside of me got giddy and started laughing.

They took the unit apart piece-by-piece, and calculated the build of materials (BOM) cost. As you can tell from the lovely title of this post, the BOM cost of the device is $143.89. I should note however, that this estimate includes only the component and material costs for the G1. This doesn’t account for other expenses including software, R&D, manufacturing costs and more.

Audio Technica's new ATH-CK100 "in-ear monitors" (read: earbuds) claim to be the world's smallest and the world's lightest. That may not matter much when they cost around $560 — for that much money I'd want them to be made of an element heavy enough I could always feel its presence.

Instead the ATC-CK100s are made from titanium, have a frequency response of 20Hz to 18kHz, and deliver up to 113db at 23-ohm impedance. Which is to say: these things still cost half a grand.

Music Radar has a little more on the new earbuds, plus the latest across the new Audio Technica product line.

Last week, the Port Authority of New York, New Jersey, and Santiago Calatrava released revised renderings of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. I’ve always been enamored with the grand hubs of Europe so it’s about time we got something new.

As grand as this is, it’s hard to imagine this plan is scaled back, YES SCALED BACK. Gone are the sweeping column-free span, originally envisioned by the Spanish architect known for his expressionistic structures. Tapered columns have been added. The sad thing is the skylights, which were to bring natural light into the mezzanine have also been eliminated. Boo!

Luxury lovers will praise the new iPhone 3G encrusted with 475 diamonds designed by Knalihs Anthem. Special edition will have just 50 models and each weights 3.75 carats in total and will have all documents that certify the diamonds. Of course all phone specs are the same as in classic iPhone 3G but this one will cost you $10,000 a piece.

Skuku sounds really weird, but never mind that as long as it helps you save dough whenever you want to keep in touch with the office as well as home overseas. It brings together the versatility and familiarity of a cell phone with the relative low cost of VoIP telephony to help you call anywhere in the world without breaking the bank.

Steve Jobs is mad. He’s mad at Canada. Not at the Canadians in particular. but to Canadian telcos who are described to have the most horrid data plans, it makes the whole thing disgusting. Tris from Maple Leaf 2.0 has A LOT to say about this.

Diamonds are forever so you must get new luxuriously designed Nokia 8800 by Thomas Heyerdahl. The phone has 112 authentic diamonds and only 100 models will be designed. Each handset will cost for about $5,933 and first crafted model will be auctioned for charity funds to the most interested customer.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) today announced impending release of its second generation notebook, the XO-2 or XOXO laptop. Said the company in a release issued today: "Leveraging new advances in technology, the primary goal of the 'XO-2' will be to advance new concepts of learning as well as to further drive down the cost of the laptop so that it is affordable for volume purchase by developing nations."

From Alexandra Harney's piece at Slate:

The era of cheap Chinese consumer goods may finally be ending, thanks to irrepressible inflation. Now when the Chinese present their lists, some American importers are conceding higher prices, meaning that American shoppers, for the first time in years, are starting to pick up the tab for rising costs in China. Some Chinese factories are now asking their American customers for price increases of as much as 20 percent to 30 percent.

Everything we buy has a real cost from the environment, local economies, and the people who produce our products. Things should cost more than they do in the West. This is a good correction. (Not that I won't kvetch, too.)

This Pole Dancer alarm clock will cost you some zzz’s in the morning, but it won’t cost you dollar bills. Experience a steamy show as soon as you open your eyes. You can pre-order it for £19.99 today, and on May 8 they will ship to single lonely men across the world.