If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): custom iphones

In the battle of the bling, Stuart Hughes presently holds the top honors with the introduction of his iPhone 3GS Supreme, officially the world's most expensive mobile phone at $3.2 million dollars ( or £1.92 million).

The ostentatious piece of technological hardware is encased in 271 grams of 22ct solid gold.

The front bezel houses 136 flawless diamonds of F color which total a massive 68 cts and the rear apple logo, set in solid gold has 53 flawless diamonds totaling 1 carat:

The major eye-popping feature is the front navigation button which is a single cut very rare diamond weighing a whopping 7.1 cts:

The chest which houses this unique handset is made from a single block of Kashmir Gold Granite, the inner lined with Nubuck top grain leather and which weighs is a massive 7kg.

Designed by Stuart Hughes of Liverpool, England, the phone was 10 months in the making and commissioned by an anonymous Australian businessman from the Gold mining industry.

Okay, so it's not news that Apple's eagerly anticipated 3G iPhone (or iPhone 2.0) goes on sale tomorrow. Many thousands of people will be anxiously awaiting their new gadget and signing up for phone plans as though they've never before had a phone.

So, how do you make yours more hip than everyone else's? Customize that sucker! And here are a few ways to do it and links to all the places:

Make it a fun color at Colorware:

Colorware

Or buy from Continetal Mobile's Vivid Color Collection:

Continental Mobile's Vivid Collection

Make it 18k yellow, white or rose gold:

Continental 18k gold iphones

Or yellow or rose gold plated from Gold Genie:

Goldgenie

Or 24k gold plated iphones:

Goldstriker

more 24k plated iphones:

icandy phones

Paul Knight of Knight Creations has a special technology that coats the iPhone casing with a layer of TiN and TiAlN (Titanium-Nitrogen, and Titanium-Aluminum-Nitrogen) through a process known as "plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition."

What you get is an anodized iPhone casing (matte black to match the black plastic cover) and an Apple logo finished in the TiN or TiAlN. The TiN coating gives the Apple logo a shiny Gold presence, while the TiAlN coating gives the logo an understated, stealthy look.

Knight Creations

Even Platinum iphones can be had:

also at Goldstriker

Epilog Laser sells an engraving device that allows you to engrave your iphone:

Etchstar will custom laser engrave your iphone for you:

etchstar
As will ETCHamac
Appletattoo will gold plate, crystallize or laser etch your iphone.

And of course, blinged out iPhones, with real diamonds or with Swarovski crystals will separate your iPhone from the crowd.

Austrian jeweler Peter Aloisson's custom diamond iPhone with princess cut stones has a total diamond weight of between 16.50 – 17.75 carats:

He also has one with brilliant cut (round) stones only weighing 6.42 carats:

Peter Aloisson

Bling King Alexander Amosu's diamond iphone:

Amosu

Bling My Thing has many custom Swarovski Crystal iphones to choose from:

Bling My Thing

Can't afford gold plating or special custom colors? Then try one of the many protective 'skins' on the market.

istyles has several inexpensive ones:

istyles

And Gelaskins offers amazing artist designed removable skins for the iphone (yes, for the new one) that comes with matching wallpaper.

And even one by Jason Freeny whose art I featured here:

Gelaskins.

So go ahead, buy that iPhone, but then turn into into something that's uniquely yours, so you can identify it from the thousands that will undoubtedly be sold tomorrow!