World's Most Expensive Sound System. $1.84 Million Gold & Gem Bang & Olufsen Beosound

above: the front and back view of the 24ct and diamond Beosound 9000 and Beolab 6000 speakers

Stuart Hughes just can't seem to stop making obscenely expensive versions of high tech items and gadgets, his latest being the world's most expensive custom music system and remote. He has manufactured a Bang & Olufsen Beosound system out of solid 24k gold, and studded it with diamonds and gems.



Designed in Liverpool U.K. by Stuart Hughes, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound 24ct gold & Diamond Edition is the world’s most expensive and Bespoke Music center. Priced at £1.2 million, ($1,842,900.00 USD) the B&O Gold Beosound System took a whole 7 months to manufacture.

The Beosound's whole body including the speakers have been reformed using 32 kilograms of solid 24ct gold. The outer screen guard area has a handmade solid gold veneer which houses 70 brilliant round cut 0.75 flawless diamonds which sit amidst surrounding gemstones of aventurine & topaz. A limited edition of only 5 units will be made.



Of course it wouldn't be complete without his gold and diamond Bang & Olufsen Serenata Mobile phone (I originally listed this as a remote and was embarrassingly corrected by a reader).



The Bang & Olufsen Serenata, exclusively in diamonds and solid gold. The diamonds are mounted on their own solid gold bezel sitting perfectly over the main scroll mechanism.



Diamonds used total 16.25ct in the form of VVS1 quality, F color. The main facia and rear release are reformed to precision using a circa of 140 grams of solid 24ct gold. This handset is of a limited edition only of 10 to be created.

Serenata Priced at £44,995 ($57,184.00 USD)

Both the gold and diamond Bang & Olufsen Beosound System and the Serenata mobile are available exclusively from www.stuarthughes.com

Apple Lover Seeks Same At Cupidtino, An Online Dating Site For Mac Users.

The brain child of four geeks in San Francisco and Seattle with backgrounds at Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, Cupidtino, is a new online dating site for Apple lovers and Mac users.



With around 30,000 registers users, the site has a look and feel of the Apple site, but no formal affiliation. The creators were inspired by the fact that Mac and Apple fans seem to share a similar aesthetic in terms of style, music, taste and tech... so why wouldn't they share romantic interests and attraction? At least that's the supposition.


above photo by Rome Wilkerson


A personal friend of mine and yes, a Mac user and Apple fan, actually met someone with whom he's fallen in mad mac love on this site, which prompted me to blog about it. Albeit, one positive case study does not a matchmaker make, but it was enough to get me to investigate a little further.



Since my stats show that my readers are predominantly (by a small margin) Mac users, I figured some of you might be interested in pursuing this as an option for finding your compatible mate - or as Cupidtino cutely calls them, Macheart.




above: screen grabs of the site show it's nice clean Apple-like interface and design.

So, what are the demographics on the site thus far and what do these folks have in common? I couldn't get a percentage breakdown of the age groups, but was told that users range from age 17 to 69 and that the site is GLBT friendly. But here's a breakdown of the member locations and some of their preferences from the very nice folks at Cupidtino as of September 8th:

Top Five Cities:
LA
NYC
SFO
London
Moscow

Top five states in the US and the percentage breakdown:
California (25%)
New York (10%)
Texas (6%)
Florida (5%)
Illinois (5%)

Top Five Countries:
USA
Germany
Canada
UK
Russia
USA: Rest of World split = 55:45

Members also share their favorite songs, movies and iPhone apps from iTunes. Here's the most popular songs, movies and apps the Cupidtino users are sharing now.

Top Five Songs:
Viva la Vida - Coldplay
Bad Romance - Lady GaGa
Uprising - Muse
Alejandro - Lady GaGa
Fireflies - Owl City

Top Five Movies
Avatar (2009) James Cameron
Star Trek J.J. Abrams
Fight Club David Fincher
The Matrix Larry Wachowski ; Andy Wachowski
Iron Man Jon Favreau

Top Five iPhone Apps
Facebook
Twitter
Shazam
Pandora Radio
Angry Birds



HOW:
You must be a registered Mac user and sign up using your Mac computer. And no, having just an iPhone or iPod touch doesn't work.

PRIVACY:
Your profile is public by default, which means anyone can see it - even if they're not Cupidtino members. They do give you an easy set of options to hide it from non-members, or hide it from everyone if you so desire.

PAYING:
The pricing structure is very different from other online dating sites. Sign up for free. Contact anyone for free. Pay only $4.79 a month to read messages you've received. In other words, sending messages is free. Reading them requires the paid monthly membership, but if someone replies to your message, you can then read or reply messages in that conversation even if you're not a paying member. (confused? it's outlined in their FAQ section).

Unlike most other online dating sites, membership is easy to cancel at anytime using your Paypal account.

BLOG:
Their accompanying blog features monthly members and has some fun stats and info as well as user generated content like consumer made videos.

GET SUPER SOCIAL AND YOU CAN HAVE 6 MONTHS FREE.
You can get a free 6 month membership if you succumb to all the social media. First, your profile has to be complete (a photo, basic info and selected favs), follow @cupidtino on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, and they'll give you a complimentary membership for six months (you’ll be able to send and receive unlimited messages) + other member privileges.

•Sign up on Cupidtino
•Follow @cupidtino on Twitter
•The Cupidtino page on Facebook

And yes, they have just designed an iPhone app for Cupidtino, which will be available any day now.


all information courtesy of Cupidtino

Still single and surfing on a mac? What are you waiting for? Sign up now.
Cupidtino

Aquariva By Gucci, A Sexy Luxe Speedboat Starting At $750k

Aquariva by Gucci is the exclusive made-to-order speedboat created as a result of a collaboration between Gucci, Riva and Officina Italiana Design. The Aquariva by Gucci speedboat was customized by Gucci's Creative Director, Frida Giannini. The model was designed to take part in activities marking Gucci’s 90th anniversary in 2011 and was recently unveiled at the International Cannes Boat Show.

Ksubi Eyewear & Kane Skennar. A Fashionable Match.

In addition to their apparel and eyewear, Australian fashion brand Ksubi combines fashion, culture, art and music. Their irreverent runway antics at Australia's Fashion Week (like releasing live rats onstage) their late night parties, published books, art installations and music events distinguish them from other fashion brands.

Chanel Launches Men's Fragrance With Martin Scorsese Film Starring Gaspard Ulliel.

 
above: Director Martin Scorsese directs the hunky French actor Gaspard Ulliel in a new 1 minute ad / short film to launch Bleu de Chanel, a new men's fragrance.
Bleu de Chanel was concocted by the label's long-time perfumer Jacques Poige and the new fragrance is a cocktail of pink peppers, citrus, sandalwood, ginger, and labdanum aroma.

 The star of the film, the gorgeous Gaspard Ulliel:



Designing the bottle:



The Four "Making Of" Videos

Purchase the fragrance and/ or after shave lotion here.  

all images, videos and info courtesy of Chanel.

UPCYCLING: Stunning Bowls Made From Plastic Water Bottles.

Artist Gülnur Özdağlar creates elegant and unusual looking bowls transformed from PET bottles. She calls this process "upcycling". Her aim is to substitute with labor and artistic value the characteristics that the material loses during transformation, thereby obtaining a product of higher value. The collection is named Tertium Non Data (translated from Latin means: the third is not given) and is an alchemic term which refers to the process of combining two disparate elements to create a new, third element.



In this case the new, third element is a collection of diaphanous, attractive tabletop bowls that resemble organic creatures like jellyfish and sea anemones.




The elegant perforated and ornate bowls are created from a regular PET* water bottles. What looks like a flower at the base of the bowls, is the indent from the base of the bottle. If the bottles have a bluish tine, the formed bowls do as well.



Gulnar delicately heats and forms the edges of the bowl to create undulating forms and embellishments like flowers and petals.



With various perforations, cut shapes and added petals, she has managed to create numerous variations, like the ones shown below.











The artist's tools:


The bowls can be used as pet bowls, storage containers, jewelry holders or just as lovely objet d'art. She also makes upcycled jewelry as well.

*PET is Polyethylene Terephthalate, which is a thermoplastic polymer. It can be re-formed by heating. After heating process, it becomes more stiff, rigid, durable and glassy. It becomes even stronger and crystallized when perforated.


above: artist Gülnur Özdağlar with her daughters.

Gülnur Özdağlar studied architecture at the Middle East Technical University and has been active as an architect since she graduated in 1986. She has participated in architectural design competitions, together with various groups, and many of her designs have been recognized with prizes.In addition to being active as an architect, she has also worked in the graphic design and photography fields, and many of these projects have been published in foreign countries in magazines and books. She has received prizes in international competitions of digital art.

•Her website
•Her blog
•Learn to make your own bowls from PET bottles with her "how to guide" on Instructables
•Buy her jewelry or bowls and more at her etsy store

Use Too Much Water And Poor Little Fish Floats Belly Up.

Industrial designer Yan Lu is hoping that you'll think twice about your water consumption if you think of it as draining the home of a poor little fish, hence the name of his innovative design.

The wash basin, "Poor Little Fish", topped off with a fishbowl, not only looks interesting but works in such a manner that, if you're a fish lover, will not have you wasting a drop.



Why? Because as you turn on the faucet and let the water flow, the level of water in the fish bowl lowers proportionate to the amount of running water you are using. Let the water run for too long and you've got a fish out of water. Don't fret though, the water level in the bowl returns to normal after turning off the faucet. And it's designed in such a way that the water from the tap is pure because the pipeline does not connect to the water in the fish bowl.





The project was first shown in 2008 at the Kith Kin exhibit, a London based art & design cooperative, producing events exhibitions and projects to inspire. Then at Designersblock London in 2009

Here are some additional images courtesy of Mocoloco:




Yan Lu is a Chinese designer/engineer based in London. He graduated from product design department in Central Saint Martins in 2009, and currently in the first year of the Industrial Design Engineering joint course (MA + MSc Double Masters) at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.

See more of his imaginative and innovative designs here.