The most expensive cigar is the brand of La Escepcion, which was made at the Partagas factory.
Production of the brand was discontinued in 1985. The “Jose Gener Gran Gener” was the best cigar ever made by La Excepcion and is now a collector’s item. It was during it's time a full flavored medium strength Havana. There are very few left in the word of this popular 9-inch long and 24 ring gauge Havana.
If you do get your hands on one, it will cost you a pretty penny or two. The price of just one of these cigars today is £367 or approximately $682.80 USD.
Cigar tobacco is grown in many places throughout the Americas and Caribbean, but certain cigars manufactured in Cuba are widely considered the best cigars in the world. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar. As expensive cigars are symbols of wealth and success, the world’s most expensive cigars may hold far more value than their price tag suggests.
Altadis’ Behike
When Altadis of Spain launched their “Behike” cigars, they were the most expensive cigars in the world. The expensive cigars were reportedly named after the tribal chief or sorcerer of the Cuban/pre-Colombian Taino tribe. A mere four thousand of the limited edition Cohiba brand cigars have been released and each box includes forty expensive cigars and allegedly retails for around $18,846. Yes, the expensive cigar will cost you $420 for each smoke.
Gurkha’s His Majesty’s Reserve
They’ve been outdone, however, by Gurkha’s premier cigar, His Majesty’s Reserve. Rightfully touted as the most expensive cigar in the world, these cigars aren’t just made with premium tobacco—they’re also infused with a generous portion of Louis XIII Cognac in a process that retains the flavor of the tobacco. Louis XIII Cognac, as you may know, is one of the finest cognacs on the market today.
Each year, fewer than 100 boxes of His Majesty’s Reserve cigars are produced and Gurkha’s president oversees their allocation to retailers. At $750, just one of these most expensive cigars will probably cost more than your vintage smoking jacket, but for the true aficionado, it may be a smoke too good to pass up.
The world’s most expensive brand of cigars is set to be released this week in Spain. The makers say that they are worth the price but no one knows for sure because no one has ever had one. The Behike, named after the tribal chief of Cuba’s indigenous Taino tribe, cigars from the Cohiba brand have each been individually hand rolled by one person who rolled all 4,000 of the limited edition cigars. The tobacco recipe has been kept top secret and for all this preparation, each cigar boasts a price tag of $440 each. Unfortunately even if you can scrape together that much money the cigars are only being sold in boxes of 40 meaning that if you want one you’re going to have to shell out $18,860 for the box.
The special person who got to choose the special blend for this cigar was chosen from the senior cigar rollers in the El Laguito factory in Havana before she rolled each one of the 4,000 cigars. “I’ve been doing this for 39 years but I still love it,” said Norma Fernandez. The cigar was made and released to celebrate the brand’s forty year anniversary and Fernandez said that while the blend stays true to the house style, she added a special touch. “But I’m not going to reveal the formula,”
The Franco-Spanish tobacco company Altadis has launched what it says is the most expensive cigar in the world.
The Cohiba Behike cigar will be sold in lots of 40 cigars for the record price of 15,000 euros, and will come with its own humidor.
The promotion is to mark the 40th anniversary of the Cohiba cigar brand.
Gurkha is all set to take your “burning through money” experience to a new level. Tagged as the Rolls Royce of the cigars world, the company is known for production of high-end smokes, precious to collectors.One of such edition is the Black Dragon unveiled in 2006. Counted five cases of this limited edition hand-crafted, camel bone box are available with each cigar demanding a price of $1,150 each. Each case sports around 100 cigars, thereby calculating a fat price of $115,000 for each box. Are you ready to shell out your money on fire?
Touted to be the worlds most expensive ones, they are formed using premium tobacco and from there are infused with an full bottle of Louis XIII cognac.
Franco-Spanish tobacco producer Altadis has launched the world's most expensive cigar called the "Behike." The limited edition of the Cohiba brand will sell for $420 each in commemoration of its 40th anniversary.
A batch of 4,000 Behike has been released with each box of 40 to retail for $18,846.
The name Behike means a sorcerer, doctor or priest from the pre-Colombian Taino tribe. The special cigars were made last year at famous El Laguito factory in Havana and hand-rolled by veteran employee Norma Fernandez.
The cigars had been kept in humidor containers for up to six years. They are of the same size as the Cohiba Lancero (192 millimetres/7.5 inches) with the 20.64 mm (0.9 inch) diameter of the Cohiba Siglo VI.
Altadis plans to market 15 boxes of the Behike cigars to Spanish aficionados
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
World's most expensive hotel-casino opens in Las Vegas
The world's most expensive hotel-casino ever has opened in Las Vegas, Nevada. The casino, which was designed and built over a period of five years, cost US$2.7 billion to construct. The hotel stands nearly fifty stories above the Las Vegas valley, with a 180-foot tall mountain in front of the main entrance.
Numerous lavish touches contributed to the high expense of the development. The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the Wynn logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.
"I think it's going to start a shift of power. It's been the south for a long time. Things will start moving to the north because of Wynn Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson with the expansion of the Venetian, the New Frontier -- that whole area will become the new hot area of Las Vegas for the next decade or so," gaming expert Anthony Curtis told Las Vegas KLAS TV.
As the property opened to the public, developer Steve Wynn greeted visitors at the front entrance.
"It's always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors," Wynn told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Concern about the cost
The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the Wynn logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.Analysts are not too concerned about the cost of the Wynn development. Wynn paid off the cost of The Mirage hotel-casino in 18 months, much earlier than the planned seven years for which the debt had been scheduled for repayment.
"If you remember the opening of The Mirage in 1989, Wynn needed to make a nut of $1 million a day. Everyone thought he was nuts; 'couldn't be done,' they all said," Las Vegas history department Chairman Hal Rothman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Wynn sold his interest in Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand (which became MGM Mirage and is now run by Kirk Kerkorian) for US$6.4 billion back in 2000, then turned around and purchased the property for the Wynn hotel-casino for US$275 million. The property was previously the home of the Desert Inn.
The hotel has 2,359 rooms, and a few hundred deluxe suites and "parlors" for high rollers. The casino has 1,960 slot machines and 137 table games on a 111,000 square foot casino floor. A Ferrari-Maserati dealership and the Le Reve stage show, featuring a million gallon water tank, round out the expensive offerings.
A round of golf will go for US$500 on the elaborate golf course located behind the main building.
All of these specifications add up to a record construction cost of over one million US dollars per room. Other expensive Las Vegas properties cost a fraction of the price, such as the Bellagio, which cost half the price at US$533,000 per room. The most expensive hotel property in the world was previously the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii, which cost US$775,000 per room.
"Yes, (Wynn) may be in over his head, but then he has found ways to survive before," Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Reaction from the competition
The Le Reve stage show features a million gallon water tank.Several of Wynn's largest competitors spoke with admiration of the property and looked forward to its impact on Las Vegas.
"I've never understood the hand-wringing about something new, especially in Las Vegas and Atlantic City," Harrah's Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Other casino bosses from the Mandalay and the MGM Mirage had positive comments as well, hoping to pick up some new business from the development.
"It's a positive in terms of bringing more visitors," Mandalay Resort Group President and CEO Glenn Schaeffer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"Steve will build a great property and bring new people to town. If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, then we'll pick up some of that business also," MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Reaction from the public
Thousands of visitors gathered for hours in front of the property before it opened. Security guards had to monitor the number of visitors entering the building.
"I think it's spectacular," David Schwartz, coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas told Reuters.
"People were pushing and shoving," Las Vegan Kathie Anderson told Associated Press.
"There is nobody in the world who creates such entertaining and beautiful casinos," British billionaire Richard Branson told Associated Press from the casino floor. "I would say every other casino must be nervous. He's lifted the bar dramatically," Branson said.
"This would be hard to top," Las Vegan Marlene DeMarco told Reuters.
Numerous lavish touches contributed to the high expense of the development. The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the Wynn logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.
"I think it's going to start a shift of power. It's been the south for a long time. Things will start moving to the north because of Wynn Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson with the expansion of the Venetian, the New Frontier -- that whole area will become the new hot area of Las Vegas for the next decade or so," gaming expert Anthony Curtis told Las Vegas KLAS TV.
As the property opened to the public, developer Steve Wynn greeted visitors at the front entrance.
"It's always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors," Wynn told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Concern about the cost
The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the Wynn logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.Analysts are not too concerned about the cost of the Wynn development. Wynn paid off the cost of The Mirage hotel-casino in 18 months, much earlier than the planned seven years for which the debt had been scheduled for repayment.
"If you remember the opening of The Mirage in 1989, Wynn needed to make a nut of $1 million a day. Everyone thought he was nuts; 'couldn't be done,' they all said," Las Vegas history department Chairman Hal Rothman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Wynn sold his interest in Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand (which became MGM Mirage and is now run by Kirk Kerkorian) for US$6.4 billion back in 2000, then turned around and purchased the property for the Wynn hotel-casino for US$275 million. The property was previously the home of the Desert Inn.
The hotel has 2,359 rooms, and a few hundred deluxe suites and "parlors" for high rollers. The casino has 1,960 slot machines and 137 table games on a 111,000 square foot casino floor. A Ferrari-Maserati dealership and the Le Reve stage show, featuring a million gallon water tank, round out the expensive offerings.
A round of golf will go for US$500 on the elaborate golf course located behind the main building.
All of these specifications add up to a record construction cost of over one million US dollars per room. Other expensive Las Vegas properties cost a fraction of the price, such as the Bellagio, which cost half the price at US$533,000 per room. The most expensive hotel property in the world was previously the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii, which cost US$775,000 per room.
"Yes, (Wynn) may be in over his head, but then he has found ways to survive before," Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Reaction from the competition
The Le Reve stage show features a million gallon water tank.Several of Wynn's largest competitors spoke with admiration of the property and looked forward to its impact on Las Vegas.
"I've never understood the hand-wringing about something new, especially in Las Vegas and Atlantic City," Harrah's Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Other casino bosses from the Mandalay and the MGM Mirage had positive comments as well, hoping to pick up some new business from the development.
"It's a positive in terms of bringing more visitors," Mandalay Resort Group President and CEO Glenn Schaeffer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"Steve will build a great property and bring new people to town. If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, then we'll pick up some of that business also," MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Reaction from the public
Thousands of visitors gathered for hours in front of the property before it opened. Security guards had to monitor the number of visitors entering the building.
"I think it's spectacular," David Schwartz, coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas told Reuters.
"People were pushing and shoving," Las Vegan Kathie Anderson told Associated Press.
"There is nobody in the world who creates such entertaining and beautiful casinos," British billionaire Richard Branson told Associated Press from the casino floor. "I would say every other casino must be nervous. He's lifted the bar dramatically," Branson said.
"This would be hard to top," Las Vegan Marlene DeMarco told Reuters.
Diamonds and Diamond Jewellery
Diamonds are attractive, mystifying and exceptional. Diamond jewellery is one of the most well known ornaments that insert people's individuality in a beautiful way. Diamonds have been the most appealing things for women. Their shine and style specifically magnetize a lot of attention.
History of Diamond
It is saying true "Diamond is forever". When it comes about the history of diamonds, it is one of the most fascinating stone on the earth. They have endured an incredible journey to arrive at us, trance the services of nature, and time. By the hundreds of year, it has been idolize and admired by the lots of culture. Diamond jewellery has been appreciates and wears although the most showed history, though the science and art of cutting loose diamonds is comparatively new and diamond jewellery is the only presented to the common public for more than last 150 years. The qualities are as spanking new and prized today as the moment they were formed billions of years ago. It has been use although the ages as holder of magic powers and unbelievable magnificence.
Diamond is the hardest stones. The word 'diamond' is deriving from the Greek word 'Adams' which means 'unbeatable'. The unrelieved beauty, which made diamonds very costly, during the number of centuries. It does not mean that diamond cannot be smashed the only thing is that it is hard to need a correct position where the break shell.
It is conceived that the diamonds were first discovered in India about 3000 years ago. It is also saying that they were measured precious as of their capacity to find light and is used as for ornamentation and as amulet for defense and guarding against evil.
As time moved on to Middle Age, diamonds were further more considered as points of value to a certain extent than stuff of mystic curing power. Because of the rising require and value of diamonds, mine vendor starts disseminating gossips that diamonds were toxic if accepted. This prohibited workers in the mines as of accepting the diamonds for smuggling.
When it comes to the mining and manufacture of fine stone class diamonds Australia is become a contestant. Nowadays, about 49% of diamonds initiate from central and southern Africa though famous resources originate in India, Canada, Russia and Southern America. Very small diamonds, known as "Nano diamonds" or "micro diamonds", have been originated in collision of volcano craters where meteoroids have discovered the world. So the micro diamonds is now used as the sign of ancient meteoroid impact sites.
Lastly, the very interesting thing is that diamond jewellery is an enormously collectable ornament, which gets traditional class in time. There are numerous cases of vintage fashion jewellery sale going into thousands of dollars.
Then, next time if you are out of buying diamond jewellery, feel glad and actually, you feel pompous that you get a product with a bright history.
Diamonds UK provides you unique collection of Diamond jewellery, engagement rings, bracelets, pendants, earrings, necklaces and several additional miraculous products online. We are glad to present our finest services make more than many years of familiarity on the UK diamond jewellery market.
History of Diamond
It is saying true "Diamond is forever". When it comes about the history of diamonds, it is one of the most fascinating stone on the earth. They have endured an incredible journey to arrive at us, trance the services of nature, and time. By the hundreds of year, it has been idolize and admired by the lots of culture. Diamond jewellery has been appreciates and wears although the most showed history, though the science and art of cutting loose diamonds is comparatively new and diamond jewellery is the only presented to the common public for more than last 150 years. The qualities are as spanking new and prized today as the moment they were formed billions of years ago. It has been use although the ages as holder of magic powers and unbelievable magnificence.
Diamond is the hardest stones. The word 'diamond' is deriving from the Greek word 'Adams' which means 'unbeatable'. The unrelieved beauty, which made diamonds very costly, during the number of centuries. It does not mean that diamond cannot be smashed the only thing is that it is hard to need a correct position where the break shell.
It is conceived that the diamonds were first discovered in India about 3000 years ago. It is also saying that they were measured precious as of their capacity to find light and is used as for ornamentation and as amulet for defense and guarding against evil.
As time moved on to Middle Age, diamonds were further more considered as points of value to a certain extent than stuff of mystic curing power. Because of the rising require and value of diamonds, mine vendor starts disseminating gossips that diamonds were toxic if accepted. This prohibited workers in the mines as of accepting the diamonds for smuggling.
When it comes to the mining and manufacture of fine stone class diamonds Australia is become a contestant. Nowadays, about 49% of diamonds initiate from central and southern Africa though famous resources originate in India, Canada, Russia and Southern America. Very small diamonds, known as "Nano diamonds" or "micro diamonds", have been originated in collision of volcano craters where meteoroids have discovered the world. So the micro diamonds is now used as the sign of ancient meteoroid impact sites.
Lastly, the very interesting thing is that diamond jewellery is an enormously collectable ornament, which gets traditional class in time. There are numerous cases of vintage fashion jewellery sale going into thousands of dollars.
Then, next time if you are out of buying diamond jewellery, feel glad and actually, you feel pompous that you get a product with a bright history.
Diamonds UK provides you unique collection of Diamond jewellery, engagement rings, bracelets, pendants, earrings, necklaces and several additional miraculous products online. We are glad to present our finest services make more than many years of familiarity on the UK diamond jewellery market.
World's Most Expensive Watches
Watch collecting may be one of the most expensive hobbies in the world, but it's also one of the most rewarding. Many antique timepieces are a testament to the brilliance of early and modern innovators. Vacherin Constantin's Tour de l'Ile - $1.5 million. Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin marked its 250th anniversary in 2005 with the world's most complicated wrist watch-the Tour de l'Ile. The watch is so complicated that it required over 10,000 hours of research to create. Its name refers to one of the historical sites of the venerable company, located next to the current Maison Vacheron Constantin on the Quai de l'Ile.
Only produced in a limited edition of seven pieces, this expensive watch is also the most complicated double-face watch. Tour de l'Ile is made with a totally original combination of horological complications and astronomical indications composing a list of sixteen different points including a minute repeater, sunset time, perpetual calendar, second time zone, a tourbillion device, the equation of time and a representation of the night sky.At $1.5 million, this is one of the world's most expensive watch produced in recent years. Patek Philippe's Platinum World Time- over $4 millionThe Platinum World Time created by Patek Philippe was sold at auction for over $4 million USD in 2002. It is believed that only one was created and, at the time, it was the most expensive wristwatch in the world.In fact, Patek Philippe had produced all of the ten most expensive watches in the world. The company, headquartered in Geneva, made their first wristwatch in 1868. They had already made a name for themselves prior to that, however, by providing watches to Queen Victoria herself in 1851.
Other notable customers include Pope Pius IX, a king and queen of Denmark and an Italian king. Chopard's $25 million watch. This gaudy timepiece by Chopard is adorned with three heart-shaped diamonds-a 15-carat pink diamond, a 12-carat blue diamond and an 11-carat white diamond. For good measure, they threw in 163 carats of white and yellow diamonds to bring the total to 201 carats of diamonds. The result is something that looks rather like a geode that's been turned inside out and dipped in lemon Kool-Aid. Add to that the fact that the size of the watch's face must make telling time into a fun game of Where's Waldo and you'll see that Chopard has truly created a recipe for success.Its $25 million price tag guarantees its place as the world's most expensive watch for years to come.currency trading course
Only produced in a limited edition of seven pieces, this expensive watch is also the most complicated double-face watch. Tour de l'Ile is made with a totally original combination of horological complications and astronomical indications composing a list of sixteen different points including a minute repeater, sunset time, perpetual calendar, second time zone, a tourbillion device, the equation of time and a representation of the night sky.At $1.5 million, this is one of the world's most expensive watch produced in recent years. Patek Philippe's Platinum World Time- over $4 millionThe Platinum World Time created by Patek Philippe was sold at auction for over $4 million USD in 2002. It is believed that only one was created and, at the time, it was the most expensive wristwatch in the world.In fact, Patek Philippe had produced all of the ten most expensive watches in the world. The company, headquartered in Geneva, made their first wristwatch in 1868. They had already made a name for themselves prior to that, however, by providing watches to Queen Victoria herself in 1851.
Other notable customers include Pope Pius IX, a king and queen of Denmark and an Italian king. Chopard's $25 million watch. This gaudy timepiece by Chopard is adorned with three heart-shaped diamonds-a 15-carat pink diamond, a 12-carat blue diamond and an 11-carat white diamond. For good measure, they threw in 163 carats of white and yellow diamonds to bring the total to 201 carats of diamonds. The result is something that looks rather like a geode that's been turned inside out and dipped in lemon Kool-Aid. Add to that the fact that the size of the watch's face must make telling time into a fun game of Where's Waldo and you'll see that Chopard has truly created a recipe for success.Its $25 million price tag guarantees its place as the world's most expensive watch for years to come.currency trading course
Toyota offers new Innova version
Toyota Kirloskar Motor on Wednesday launched the refurbished version of its multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) Innova. The company also plans to introduce the CNG version of Innova soon, while its compact car project is on track and it would hit the market by the end of 2010.
Priced between Rs. 7.66 lakh and Rs. 11.06 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), the new Innova comes in four variants, in petrol and diesel versions.
“The new version of Innova has the best fuel mileage in the segment with 13.7 km a litre (under test conditions),” said Toyota Kirloskar Motor Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa.
“We are focussed on constantly upgrading our products based on customer feedback,” said Toyota Kirloskar Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh. Toyota was also planning to launch the CNG version of Innova shortly. “Currently trial runs are on. It will be sold in select cities in the North and the West where CNG is available. It will cost Rs. 90,000 more than the regular version,” Mr. Singh added. Toyota is also “well on track” as far as its ambitious compact car project is concerned.
“We will roll out the all-new small car, especially focussed on the Indian market, by the end of 2010. We are investing Rs. 3,200 crore for setting up our second manufacturing plant in Bangalore where the new car will be manufactured,” Mr. Nakagawa said.
Priced between Rs. 7.66 lakh and Rs. 11.06 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), the new Innova comes in four variants, in petrol and diesel versions.
“The new version of Innova has the best fuel mileage in the segment with 13.7 km a litre (under test conditions),” said Toyota Kirloskar Motor Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa.
“We are focussed on constantly upgrading our products based on customer feedback,” said Toyota Kirloskar Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh. Toyota was also planning to launch the CNG version of Innova shortly. “Currently trial runs are on. It will be sold in select cities in the North and the West where CNG is available. It will cost Rs. 90,000 more than the regular version,” Mr. Singh added. Toyota is also “well on track” as far as its ambitious compact car project is concerned.
“We will roll out the all-new small car, especially focussed on the Indian market, by the end of 2010. We are investing Rs. 3,200 crore for setting up our second manufacturing plant in Bangalore where the new car will be manufactured,” Mr. Nakagawa said.
Kaspersky’s Anti-Virus for Windows 7 released as “prototype
So far, there are three “official” anti-virus partners for the Windows 7 beta – AVG, Symantec (with Norton 360 3.0 beta) and Kaspersky Lab, with the latter announcing the release of its Windows 7 solution as a “technical prototype”.
Announcing a “new antivirus engine” in “technical prototype” form, Kaspersky Lab has made its Windows 7 antivirus solution available for free download to Windows 7 beta users. Promising “complex antivirus protection from all types of Internet threats”, as antivirus and security companies are wont to do, the release underscores Kaspersky’s desire to be seen as a fast security mover in an ever changing threat landscape. Alexey Kalgin, Director Product Marketing, Corporate Business Division, Kaspersky Labs said: “We knew the release of the new version of Windows would be a huge event for the IT community, which is why we were prepared for it. “Our company has always made support for Microsoft’s new operating systems a top priority. For example Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Vista was released simultaneously with the operating system’s official launch. When Windows Server 2008 was released, Kaspersky Anti-Virus was the only antivirus product on the market certified by Microsoft. Users can now see for themselves how our antivirus protection technologies perform on the new platform.”The prototype is provides “effective protection” from all types of Internet threats – viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, hacker attacks and spam, forming part of a “comprehensive solution, including not only an antivirus pattern-recognition component but also a heuristic analyzer which can detect and block as-yet-unknown malicious programs based on their suspicious characteristics, a firewall and an anti-spam filter.” Kaspersky is quick to promote its “new antivirus engine” which is “even more effective at detecting malicious programs than its predecessor”. Claimed benefits include dramatically increased “system scanning speed thanks to improved processing of objects and optimized use of system resources, particularly on dual- and quad-core processor platforms” and a “unique product architecture” to ensure “high productivity and one of the lowest uses of system resources in the industry.”Low use of system resources seems to be the new battle cry amongst security vendors, something Symantec has achieved with its Norton Internet Security 2009 software, has implemented into the Norton 360 version 3.0 beta, and is something that BitDefender has also recently promoted with its latest version. Fully compatible with Windows 7 beta in both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, Kaspersky promises that “both inexperienced and advanced users will find the solution to be user-friendly and easy to install and configure.”
Announcing a “new antivirus engine” in “technical prototype” form, Kaspersky Lab has made its Windows 7 antivirus solution available for free download to Windows 7 beta users. Promising “complex antivirus protection from all types of Internet threats”, as antivirus and security companies are wont to do, the release underscores Kaspersky’s desire to be seen as a fast security mover in an ever changing threat landscape. Alexey Kalgin, Director Product Marketing, Corporate Business Division, Kaspersky Labs said: “We knew the release of the new version of Windows would be a huge event for the IT community, which is why we were prepared for it. “Our company has always made support for Microsoft’s new operating systems a top priority. For example Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Vista was released simultaneously with the operating system’s official launch. When Windows Server 2008 was released, Kaspersky Anti-Virus was the only antivirus product on the market certified by Microsoft. Users can now see for themselves how our antivirus protection technologies perform on the new platform.”The prototype is provides “effective protection” from all types of Internet threats – viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, hacker attacks and spam, forming part of a “comprehensive solution, including not only an antivirus pattern-recognition component but also a heuristic analyzer which can detect and block as-yet-unknown malicious programs based on their suspicious characteristics, a firewall and an anti-spam filter.” Kaspersky is quick to promote its “new antivirus engine” which is “even more effective at detecting malicious programs than its predecessor”. Claimed benefits include dramatically increased “system scanning speed thanks to improved processing of objects and optimized use of system resources, particularly on dual- and quad-core processor platforms” and a “unique product architecture” to ensure “high productivity and one of the lowest uses of system resources in the industry.”Low use of system resources seems to be the new battle cry amongst security vendors, something Symantec has achieved with its Norton Internet Security 2009 software, has implemented into the Norton 360 version 3.0 beta, and is something that BitDefender has also recently promoted with its latest version. Fully compatible with Windows 7 beta in both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, Kaspersky promises that “both inexperienced and advanced users will find the solution to be user-friendly and easy to install and configure.”
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, code-named Tube, is the latest Nokia addition to the XpressMusic series portfolio, but the first to feature a touch interface. The company's Symbian operating system has been updated to the 5th version, which is compatible with touchscreen, and I think it's pretty obvious why Nokia chose an XpressMusic device to implement its first touch compatible OS – touch control for music phones is one the most successful recipes nowadays. Moreover, the large touchscreen with a weird resolution (360x640 pixels) makes it also a good tool for Internet browsing. Still, one of the greatest trumps of the handset is its cheap price compared to other touchscreen phones on the market. Furthermore, Nokia made a wise choice by targeting a different consumer market, people interested in music phones rather than the rest of the touchscreen devices, which are targeting business people. The business phone market is already oversaturated with touchscreen handsets by brands such as HTC, Eten, Palm and the newcomers Sony Ericsson and BlackBerry. Announced in October 2008, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was effectively launched on the market one month later, in November. The 5800 candybar phone can be acquired for only USD 400$ unlocked and with an 8GB microSD card included in the sales package. Potential buyers can opt for any of the three colors available: Black, Red and Blue.
DesignNokia promised a good-looking, stylish device that would top-up all the XpressMusic phones available on the market. Pictures leaked on the Internet before its actual release, revealed a cool handset with a candybar form factor, a little bit too narrow, but with a large touchscreen. Before actually holding it in my hands, I was afraid that it would be too heavy or too bulky. It wasn't like that after all, as Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is very well balanced and because it's a little bit larger than expected, its thickness doesn't give the impression of bulkiness.
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The candybar is manufactured from two different kinds of plastic. The one on the front and both sides is very well polished and shiny, which makes the phone look exquisite and expensive. The back cover is made of a rubber-like plastic, which, as opposed to the one on the front, is frosted. When you put it on any kind of surface the rubber-like plastic on the back cover ensures that the phone won't glide or fall off. While the shiny compound on the front will catch a few fingerprints, that's not the case with the large touchscreen, which gets cover in grease in no time. After only 1 day of use, the phone will look obnoxious if you don't wipe it at all, as I did. Anyway, its construction looks pretty sturdy with no apparent flaws.Nokia 5800 XpressMusic lacks a keypad and a QWERTY keyboard. What you'll get instead are three keys below the huge touchscreen: Green key (Accept calls), Red key (Reject calls), Middle key (Main menu). It is pretty obvious what they do, so I won't bug you with more details. Above the screen, on the right, you'll notice an Ambient light sensor, a secondary video-call camera and for those who didn't know, a touch key that opens the Multimedia bar. The touch key icon is pictured near the XpressMusic logo, but you can check out the pictures for a closer look.
The right side of the phone features a dual volume key, a security key, which locks/unlocks the display when it is slid down, and a dedicated camera key. The left side of the handset features two slots covered with plastic stripes. In one of them you'll discover the 8GB microSD slot card that comes with the phone, while in the other one you'll have to insert your SIM card. That means that both cards (memory and SIM) are hot-swappable, so you won't need to take off the back cover to change either of the two. The back of the phone features a 3.2 Megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual LED flash. The camera is protected by a metallic frame to avoid possible scratches. At the bottom left you'll discover a very slim stylus made of cheap plastic. I haven't used it that much because I didn't like it. On top of the phone no less than three ports have been crowded: microUSB, 3.5mm jack and charger. There's also the usual dedicated power button, which powers on/off the device, but can also be used to lock the screen, remove the memory card or change the profiles.
Overall, I consider Nokia 5800 XpressMusic a huge step forward for the company's design team, which finally developed a good-looking product, after so many fails. Display and CameraNokia 5800 XpressMusic features a 3.2 inch, TFT touchscreen, supporting no less than 16 Million colors. Moreover, the resolution of the screen, 640x360 pixels (16:9 display ratio and 24 bit color depth), makes it a little bit weird at a first glance. The device features proximity sensor for auto turn-off and accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate. With the proximity sensor you can silence a call by turning it upside down. You can also snooze the alarm clock using the same method.
The auto-rotate feature is no news for Nokia, and you can use it when you're browsing the Internet, or turn it off if you think it's too sensible and turns your screen in landscape mode when you don't want to. Even though images are showing great on the display and it performs very well under bright sunlight, Nokia used the most common technology for this display. The so-called resistive touchscreen panel is generally the most affordable technology and offers only 75% clarity. Fortunately, resistive touchscreen panels are not affected by dust or water and are one of the sturdiest. The touchscreen lacks the tactile feedback feature. For performance, please check the benchmark results below.
The 3.2 Megapixel camera features dual LED flash, autofocus capabilities and 3x digital zoom. It uses Carl Zeiss optics and can save pictures in JPEG/Exif format. Other functions include: Auto Exposure, Self Timer, White Balance, Contrast, Sharpness, Light sensitivity, Color tone. I have found the quality of the pictures quite acceptable, even in low-light conditions. The dual led flash is a real disappointment, but daylight pictures are a little bit above average. The camera doesn't support geo-tagging, even though the device embeds a GPS receiver.
Video capabilities are also above average – the candybar can record movies in VGA mode, 640x480 pixel resolution at 30fps. Clips are saved in MPEG-4 format, but you can use the secondary camera on the front of phone to shoot clips at 15fps, 320 x 240 pixel resolution. Overall, without impressing too much, the 5800's camera is well above the rest of the XpressMusic modules and makes a good addition to the device.
Menu and SoftwareNokia 5800 XpressMusic runs Symbian 9.4 operating system, with S60 5th Edition interface. Basically, it's a 9.3 version adapted for a touch interface, which is expected to run all the applications 50-75% faster than the older Symbian version. Also, SQL support is now provided by SQLite.
The layout of the menu didn't change too much, except maybe the fact that you can now organize your applications the way you want to. To bring up the Main menu key click the middle key, choose Options/Organise, and put your more often used applications on top, so they'll have their icon more exposed to your finger. That is a good addition, as the Home screen Shortcut bar only features 4 customizable icons. Furthermore, clicking the Multimedia touch key found below the secondary video-call camera will bring up the Multimedia bar, which gives quick access to Music player, Gallery, Mail, Video centre and Internet browser.
There's a wide range of tips and tricks that I wrote about, so check them out here and here. First of all I'd like to remark that the touch mechanism is not that responsive as in the iPhone, HTC Touch Pro or G1. I have noticed that you need to push an icon a little bit longer to actually activate it, and while this might be good if you think that you can easily click on another icon by mistake, it can also be a bad thing as it slows your browsing speed. I believe that every access must be made by clicking on an application to select it and afterwards clicking again to actually open it.
The scrolling mechanism is a real pain, especially when you browse the Internet, and menu scrolling is also pretty bad. There's no dragging or swiping on the touchscreen, as Nokia didn't implement these functions. Fortunately, some applications can be accessed directly from the Home screen if you know where to look. Alarm clock can be accessed by clicking on the clock in the upper left corner. One click on the battery icon will bring up the connectivity menu, while clicking the General profile will enable you access to Calendar or list of all profiles. Pressing and holding the Menu key (middle key) will bring up the Task manager where you can see what apps are running in the background. The phone doesn't have any business applications, such as Office Mobile or PDF reader, but these can be easily installed afterwards.
The menu isn't that well organized anymore, so you get various applications mixed with games and search or localization services. There are two games based on the accelerometer sensor: Bounce and Global Racing Thunder. Unfortunately, control is pretty hard for the racing game and I wouldn't recommend playing it for too long as it gets annoying. Furthermore, there are only a few third-party applications available for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, but you can put in some Java-compatible apps, as the device features a compatibility mode for Java applications that aren't touchscreen-aware. The system works by using part of the screen for displaying the essential buttons required by the program. Still, I have discovered that not all apps are fully compatible.
The device has a variety of input methods: stylus, plectrum and finger touch support for text input and UI control (alphanumeric keypad, full and mini QWERTY keyboard, handwriting recognition). To sum it up, here’s what we get in Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: complex calendar, notepad, calculator, converter, file manager, recorder, IM. There's no media sub-menu, but you get some dedicated apps under the Music menu: music player, Stereo FM RDS Radio, Gallery, RealPlayer, Podcasting, Music store.
CommunicationsNokia 5800 XpressMusic is a quad-band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) handset, HSDPA 900 / 2100 (3.6 Mbps) compatible, which features GPRS class 32 (100 kbps), EDGE 32 class (296 kbps), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (57.6 kbps) and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g (UPnP technology). Unfortunately, you don't have a WLAN shortcut on the Home screen anymore to quick access the Wi-Fi. Instead you'll need to click the battery icon and bring up the Connectivity menu, where you'll find the WLAN function. If you want to connect to the Internet, you must first define an Access point (EDGE, WLAN or 3G). You can do that by going to Main menu - Tools - Settings - Connection - Access points and define which access point is to be used whenever a network connection is required (Main menu - Home network – Settings).
The handset features a GPS receiver, which works in conjunction with Nokia Maps. I have tested the localization times and I have noticed that Nokia 5800's GPS is one of the fastest. The built-in GPS receiver features the A-GPS function, which makes localization even faster. It quickly pin-points you even when the phone is indoors. Other connectivity tools include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR support, and microUSB for PC synchronization (no charging). The Bluetooth connection reached almost 116 KB/s when sending files and 130 KB/s when receiving, which is way above the average.
In terms of messaging, the phone offers a complete solution accepting all available message types. Furthermore, given the fact that it features a virtual QWERTY keyboard, you'll be able to type your messages faster. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account. Also, it can download headers or full email, and supports attachments.
The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible handset has a very good GSM signal reception. The sound is very good at both ends, and pretty loud too. The vibration alert is also above average in intensity, so you don't really need to set it to higher levels.Processor and Memory Nokia 5800 XpressMusic features a single ARM
DesignNokia promised a good-looking, stylish device that would top-up all the XpressMusic phones available on the market. Pictures leaked on the Internet before its actual release, revealed a cool handset with a candybar form factor, a little bit too narrow, but with a large touchscreen. Before actually holding it in my hands, I was afraid that it would be too heavy or too bulky. It wasn't like that after all, as Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is very well balanced and because it's a little bit larger than expected, its thickness doesn't give the impression of bulkiness.
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The candybar is manufactured from two different kinds of plastic. The one on the front and both sides is very well polished and shiny, which makes the phone look exquisite and expensive. The back cover is made of a rubber-like plastic, which, as opposed to the one on the front, is frosted. When you put it on any kind of surface the rubber-like plastic on the back cover ensures that the phone won't glide or fall off. While the shiny compound on the front will catch a few fingerprints, that's not the case with the large touchscreen, which gets cover in grease in no time. After only 1 day of use, the phone will look obnoxious if you don't wipe it at all, as I did. Anyway, its construction looks pretty sturdy with no apparent flaws.Nokia 5800 XpressMusic lacks a keypad and a QWERTY keyboard. What you'll get instead are three keys below the huge touchscreen: Green key (Accept calls), Red key (Reject calls), Middle key (Main menu). It is pretty obvious what they do, so I won't bug you with more details. Above the screen, on the right, you'll notice an Ambient light sensor, a secondary video-call camera and for those who didn't know, a touch key that opens the Multimedia bar. The touch key icon is pictured near the XpressMusic logo, but you can check out the pictures for a closer look.
The right side of the phone features a dual volume key, a security key, which locks/unlocks the display when it is slid down, and a dedicated camera key. The left side of the handset features two slots covered with plastic stripes. In one of them you'll discover the 8GB microSD slot card that comes with the phone, while in the other one you'll have to insert your SIM card. That means that both cards (memory and SIM) are hot-swappable, so you won't need to take off the back cover to change either of the two. The back of the phone features a 3.2 Megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual LED flash. The camera is protected by a metallic frame to avoid possible scratches. At the bottom left you'll discover a very slim stylus made of cheap plastic. I haven't used it that much because I didn't like it. On top of the phone no less than three ports have been crowded: microUSB, 3.5mm jack and charger. There's also the usual dedicated power button, which powers on/off the device, but can also be used to lock the screen, remove the memory card or change the profiles.
Overall, I consider Nokia 5800 XpressMusic a huge step forward for the company's design team, which finally developed a good-looking product, after so many fails. Display and CameraNokia 5800 XpressMusic features a 3.2 inch, TFT touchscreen, supporting no less than 16 Million colors. Moreover, the resolution of the screen, 640x360 pixels (16:9 display ratio and 24 bit color depth), makes it a little bit weird at a first glance. The device features proximity sensor for auto turn-off and accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate. With the proximity sensor you can silence a call by turning it upside down. You can also snooze the alarm clock using the same method.
The auto-rotate feature is no news for Nokia, and you can use it when you're browsing the Internet, or turn it off if you think it's too sensible and turns your screen in landscape mode when you don't want to. Even though images are showing great on the display and it performs very well under bright sunlight, Nokia used the most common technology for this display. The so-called resistive touchscreen panel is generally the most affordable technology and offers only 75% clarity. Fortunately, resistive touchscreen panels are not affected by dust or water and are one of the sturdiest. The touchscreen lacks the tactile feedback feature. For performance, please check the benchmark results below.
The 3.2 Megapixel camera features dual LED flash, autofocus capabilities and 3x digital zoom. It uses Carl Zeiss optics and can save pictures in JPEG/Exif format. Other functions include: Auto Exposure, Self Timer, White Balance, Contrast, Sharpness, Light sensitivity, Color tone. I have found the quality of the pictures quite acceptable, even in low-light conditions. The dual led flash is a real disappointment, but daylight pictures are a little bit above average. The camera doesn't support geo-tagging, even though the device embeds a GPS receiver.
Video capabilities are also above average – the candybar can record movies in VGA mode, 640x480 pixel resolution at 30fps. Clips are saved in MPEG-4 format, but you can use the secondary camera on the front of phone to shoot clips at 15fps, 320 x 240 pixel resolution. Overall, without impressing too much, the 5800's camera is well above the rest of the XpressMusic modules and makes a good addition to the device.
Menu and SoftwareNokia 5800 XpressMusic runs Symbian 9.4 operating system, with S60 5th Edition interface. Basically, it's a 9.3 version adapted for a touch interface, which is expected to run all the applications 50-75% faster than the older Symbian version. Also, SQL support is now provided by SQLite.
The layout of the menu didn't change too much, except maybe the fact that you can now organize your applications the way you want to. To bring up the Main menu key click the middle key, choose Options/Organise, and put your more often used applications on top, so they'll have their icon more exposed to your finger. That is a good addition, as the Home screen Shortcut bar only features 4 customizable icons. Furthermore, clicking the Multimedia touch key found below the secondary video-call camera will bring up the Multimedia bar, which gives quick access to Music player, Gallery, Mail, Video centre and Internet browser.
There's a wide range of tips and tricks that I wrote about, so check them out here and here. First of all I'd like to remark that the touch mechanism is not that responsive as in the iPhone, HTC Touch Pro or G1. I have noticed that you need to push an icon a little bit longer to actually activate it, and while this might be good if you think that you can easily click on another icon by mistake, it can also be a bad thing as it slows your browsing speed. I believe that every access must be made by clicking on an application to select it and afterwards clicking again to actually open it.
The scrolling mechanism is a real pain, especially when you browse the Internet, and menu scrolling is also pretty bad. There's no dragging or swiping on the touchscreen, as Nokia didn't implement these functions. Fortunately, some applications can be accessed directly from the Home screen if you know where to look. Alarm clock can be accessed by clicking on the clock in the upper left corner. One click on the battery icon will bring up the connectivity menu, while clicking the General profile will enable you access to Calendar or list of all profiles. Pressing and holding the Menu key (middle key) will bring up the Task manager where you can see what apps are running in the background. The phone doesn't have any business applications, such as Office Mobile or PDF reader, but these can be easily installed afterwards.
The menu isn't that well organized anymore, so you get various applications mixed with games and search or localization services. There are two games based on the accelerometer sensor: Bounce and Global Racing Thunder. Unfortunately, control is pretty hard for the racing game and I wouldn't recommend playing it for too long as it gets annoying. Furthermore, there are only a few third-party applications available for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, but you can put in some Java-compatible apps, as the device features a compatibility mode for Java applications that aren't touchscreen-aware. The system works by using part of the screen for displaying the essential buttons required by the program. Still, I have discovered that not all apps are fully compatible.
The device has a variety of input methods: stylus, plectrum and finger touch support for text input and UI control (alphanumeric keypad, full and mini QWERTY keyboard, handwriting recognition). To sum it up, here’s what we get in Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: complex calendar, notepad, calculator, converter, file manager, recorder, IM. There's no media sub-menu, but you get some dedicated apps under the Music menu: music player, Stereo FM RDS Radio, Gallery, RealPlayer, Podcasting, Music store.
CommunicationsNokia 5800 XpressMusic is a quad-band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) handset, HSDPA 900 / 2100 (3.6 Mbps) compatible, which features GPRS class 32 (100 kbps), EDGE 32 class (296 kbps), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (57.6 kbps) and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g (UPnP technology). Unfortunately, you don't have a WLAN shortcut on the Home screen anymore to quick access the Wi-Fi. Instead you'll need to click the battery icon and bring up the Connectivity menu, where you'll find the WLAN function. If you want to connect to the Internet, you must first define an Access point (EDGE, WLAN or 3G). You can do that by going to Main menu - Tools - Settings - Connection - Access points and define which access point is to be used whenever a network connection is required (Main menu - Home network – Settings).
The handset features a GPS receiver, which works in conjunction with Nokia Maps. I have tested the localization times and I have noticed that Nokia 5800's GPS is one of the fastest. The built-in GPS receiver features the A-GPS function, which makes localization even faster. It quickly pin-points you even when the phone is indoors. Other connectivity tools include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR support, and microUSB for PC synchronization (no charging). The Bluetooth connection reached almost 116 KB/s when sending files and 130 KB/s when receiving, which is way above the average.
In terms of messaging, the phone offers a complete solution accepting all available message types. Furthermore, given the fact that it features a virtual QWERTY keyboard, you'll be able to type your messages faster. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account. Also, it can download headers or full email, and supports attachments.
The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible handset has a very good GSM signal reception. The sound is very good at both ends, and pretty loud too. The vibration alert is also above average in intensity, so you don't really need to set it to higher levels.Processor and Memory Nokia 5800 XpressMusic features a single ARM
Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSE 3 for Xbox 360
This weekend I traded in some old games and gaming hardware to Game Crazy and I was going to save up for the big bonanza of Street Fighter IV equipment but I saw that they had a copy of Konami's Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSE3 for Xbox 360 so I ended up taking it home. The Dance Dance Revolution series of games or DDR as all the cool kids at the mall call it just turned ten years old. For those of you that haven't heard it is a dancing game played on a mat or platform with four arrows. A series of arrows moves vertically up the screen and you tap your feet on the arrows as the arrows cross a bar at the top. This is done in time with the funky Japanese techno pop tunes and you end up doing this weird tapping dance that does not look like real dancing but it is a lot of fun. DDR was like the Wii than way before the Wii was ever made. Being a student of human/computer user interface design I am a big fan of any game that gets me to wave my arms and jump around like an idiot.
DDR is one of the last successful arcade game series left in America. Rock Band and Guitar Hero have been enjoying the spot light a bit too much recently and I am waiting for Dance Dance Revolution to come back and be cool again. I've sort have missed playing DDR. You see the last place that I lived in had low ceilings on the 2nd floor and it was pretty cramped and crowded. My new place has nice hardwood floors and I have enough room to breathe and think at the same time. I have not played Dance Dance Revolution since I had the first DDR game on the PlayStation One.
My younger cousin Gavin is a champion DDR player. He played it for hours each day for years down in California. He is also half Japanese American so it almost in his genetic heritage to kick it at DDR. He wears sport shorts, hydrates ahead of time and stretches out before he plays at the arcade and he usually has a crowd when he turns into a foot tapping humming bird on coffee on the dance floor. However as you can see from the video I am anything but fast or coordinated. He got the better end of the family genetic lottery when it comes to DDR. As a hard core DDR player he has invested countless hours so it is more like a muscle reflex in a zen state than a conscious decision. Behold just how horrible I am at DDR.
I suggest that you might want to wash your monitor screen with bleach after watching me play DDR in my pajamas. (Wow my camera really picked up the bass from the woofer.)
This is a home port of Konami's latest DDR arcade game and as well as having super trippy happy graphics there are some music videos from the original artists. The dancing anime characters looked great. The motion graphics for the songs are a real treat and remind me of Saul Bass at an all-night glow stick rave. There is a custom character tool and a dance city quest mode where you have to unlock clothes and other goodies by winning dance challenges and competitions. There is an online gameplay mode via Xbox Live but unfortunately I kept timing out and could not find anyone else to play with online. Le sigh. Konami is also selling more songs via the Xbox Live marketplace.
The DDR hardware pad has gotten a lot better over the years. The new pad didn't feel like I was going to slip and it pretty much stays in place. In addition to the happy hyper Japanese techno pop that DDR has become known for there is some American disco tracks like Jamiroquai and the Jackson Five. If you hate techno and dance music than you are probably off buying some generic first person shooter game instead or a virtual cow tipping game on the Wii. The game retails with the dance pad for $70 and that is a pretty good price considering you are getting a big dedicated hardware controller and there is a bunch of songs and dances included. Another good thing that I will say about DDR is that it was developed by Konami of Japan and NONE of the people that worked on Rock Revolutions were a part of this game. Konami's lineup of Bemani musical arcade games have been a staple of Japanese arcades for years now and only a handful of them has made it to the US with notable exception of DDR. Konami has been improving and expanding on DDR but they pretty much have kept it true to the vision of the first game.
DDR is one of these genre defying games. It can only play it for about 45 minutes before I want to go down a cold beverage and take a cold shower. It just plain makes you feel good. This is one of the few games that make you work up an adrenaline high from burning calories and moving your behind on the dance floor. This might be the era of Rock Band but I hope that DDR makes a comeback. It sure has never gone anywhere. DDR is one of those few games that makes the entire video game hobby look better. DDR is a perfect game for kids of all ages, adults and anyone that is not embarrassed to be seen dancing spastic pogo dances on a giant video game controller pad.
DDR is one of the last successful arcade game series left in America. Rock Band and Guitar Hero have been enjoying the spot light a bit too much recently and I am waiting for Dance Dance Revolution to come back and be cool again. I've sort have missed playing DDR. You see the last place that I lived in had low ceilings on the 2nd floor and it was pretty cramped and crowded. My new place has nice hardwood floors and I have enough room to breathe and think at the same time. I have not played Dance Dance Revolution since I had the first DDR game on the PlayStation One.
My younger cousin Gavin is a champion DDR player. He played it for hours each day for years down in California. He is also half Japanese American so it almost in his genetic heritage to kick it at DDR. He wears sport shorts, hydrates ahead of time and stretches out before he plays at the arcade and he usually has a crowd when he turns into a foot tapping humming bird on coffee on the dance floor. However as you can see from the video I am anything but fast or coordinated. He got the better end of the family genetic lottery when it comes to DDR. As a hard core DDR player he has invested countless hours so it is more like a muscle reflex in a zen state than a conscious decision. Behold just how horrible I am at DDR.
I suggest that you might want to wash your monitor screen with bleach after watching me play DDR in my pajamas. (Wow my camera really picked up the bass from the woofer.)
This is a home port of Konami's latest DDR arcade game and as well as having super trippy happy graphics there are some music videos from the original artists. The dancing anime characters looked great. The motion graphics for the songs are a real treat and remind me of Saul Bass at an all-night glow stick rave. There is a custom character tool and a dance city quest mode where you have to unlock clothes and other goodies by winning dance challenges and competitions. There is an online gameplay mode via Xbox Live but unfortunately I kept timing out and could not find anyone else to play with online. Le sigh. Konami is also selling more songs via the Xbox Live marketplace.
The DDR hardware pad has gotten a lot better over the years. The new pad didn't feel like I was going to slip and it pretty much stays in place. In addition to the happy hyper Japanese techno pop that DDR has become known for there is some American disco tracks like Jamiroquai and the Jackson Five. If you hate techno and dance music than you are probably off buying some generic first person shooter game instead or a virtual cow tipping game on the Wii. The game retails with the dance pad for $70 and that is a pretty good price considering you are getting a big dedicated hardware controller and there is a bunch of songs and dances included. Another good thing that I will say about DDR is that it was developed by Konami of Japan and NONE of the people that worked on Rock Revolutions were a part of this game. Konami's lineup of Bemani musical arcade games have been a staple of Japanese arcades for years now and only a handful of them has made it to the US with notable exception of DDR. Konami has been improving and expanding on DDR but they pretty much have kept it true to the vision of the first game.
DDR is one of these genre defying games. It can only play it for about 45 minutes before I want to go down a cold beverage and take a cold shower. It just plain makes you feel good. This is one of the few games that make you work up an adrenaline high from burning calories and moving your behind on the dance floor. This might be the era of Rock Band but I hope that DDR makes a comeback. It sure has never gone anywhere. DDR is one of those few games that makes the entire video game hobby look better. DDR is a perfect game for kids of all ages, adults and anyone that is not embarrassed to be seen dancing spastic pogo dances on a giant video game controller pad.
Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition
The Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition, with the processing capabilities of four threads, delivers more computing capabilities that enable you to explore new ways to accomplish and enjoy performance-intensive tasks on your PC.Compare specifications for Intel® Pentium® Processor. Build a comparison chart that identifies which Pentium processors have the specific technical features you need. Compare all or a selection. Includes compatible motherboard and chipset information.Intel® processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families.† Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) requires a computer system with an Intel® Processor supporting Intel HT Technology and an Intel HT Technology enabled chipset, BIOS, and operating system. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use.° Enabling Execute Disable Bit functionality requires a PC with a processor with Execute Disable Bit capability and a supporting operating system. Check with your PC manufacturer on whether your system delivers Execute Disable Bit functionality.Φ Intel® Virtualization Technology and Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel® EM64T) require a computer system with a processor, chipset, BIOS, enabling software and/or operating system, device drivers and applications designed for these features. Performance will vary depending on your configuration. Contact your vendor for more information.
Posted by Javed Iqbal at 12:17 AM 0 comments
AMD Versus Intel Mobile Processor Review
As far as CPUs and platforms go, it's been AMD and Intel for a long time now. Sure, you can joke about your Cyrix, your VIA or your Transmeta, but the only ones we ever took seriously were AMD and Intel. They've had a lot of back and forth over the years, which of course has generally been great for the consumer as actual competition often is, and this past year has been particularly vicious between the two.Prior to mid-2006 and the release of Intel's Core 2 Duo on the desktop, Intel had a healthy lead in the mobile market while AMD's chips were the best desktop performers by far, and unfortunately, AMD didn't think to try and strangle the life out of its longtime rival by lowering its prices to continue to apply pressure.Cue 2007, where Intel continues to step on AMD's head while they're drowning. Isn't technology grand?Intel's had the best mobile platform for a few years with AMD constantly playing catch-up, blowing their one chance on any kind of lead by delivering the Turion 64 X2 months late and right on schedule to compete with Intel's mobile Core 2 Duo. Ouch. But Intel's ruthlessness is our benefit as consumers, because their willingness to reduce processor prices to put the hurt on AMD forces AMD to reduce their own processor prices, and that pretty much brings us to where we are today: two otherwise identically configured notebooks separated by $100 in the marketplace.So today we're not going to compete on clock for clock or any of those other BS metrics, because in the end for the vast majority of us, they don't matter. What we're interested in is how much we can get for how little we pay. I'll give you a hint: "a lot."TESTINGThe two competing notebooks are remarkably similar in their configurations and provide a nice apples-to-apples comparison: the AMD based HP Pavilion dv2610us and the Intel based HP Pavilion dv2615us. If you removed the stickers from them, you'd never tell them apart.PARTdv2610us (AMD)dv2615us (Intel)ProcessorAMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 (1.9GHz)Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz)ChipsetnVidia 7150M/nForce 430 MobileIntel 965GM Express w/ ICH8-MMemory2GB Patriot DDR2-6672GB Patriot DDR2-667GraphicsnVidia GeForce 7150M (128MB)Intel GMA X3100 (set to max RAM)Graphic DriverForceWare 156.65 (HP)Intel 15.7SoundHD AudioHD AudioWirelessBroadcom 802.11g & HP BluetoothIntel 3945ABG & HP BluetoothHard Disk160GB Hitachi SATA 5400rpm160GB Hitachi SATA 5400rpmOperating SystemWindows Vista Home Premium 32-bitWindows Vista Home Premium 32-bitBattery6-cell Li-Ion6-cell Li-IonTypical Price (US)~$849~$899* Memory was upgraded in each unit from the 1GB DDR2-667 (2x512MB) the notebooks shipped with.I post "typical price" because the prices of these units tend to vary pretty significantly. For the dv2610us I'm using, for example, I paid $699. But these two notebooks really basically are at price parity, with the Intel one tending to be a little more pricey.In all testing situations, these two notebooks were configured as identically as possible.Now, I'm going to get this out of the way right now: I HATE synthetic benchmarks. As I've gotten older, I've just hated them more and more. PCMark spits out some number that I have a hard time applying practically to anything, and I've found that the best purpose these benchmarks serve is being able to check and see if your computer is running like it's supposed to by comparing with an existing benchmark of similar/identical hardware.With each test, I'll explain why I chose that particular program for testing and try to relate it to how you might practically apply it. I've also broken down the test suites into three categories: CPU, gaming, and battery.The CPU tests focus strictly on the raw computational power of the processors themselves, and they fall in line with how a computer might typically be used.The gaming tests I waffled on a bit, but they make sense to me. The graphics parts themselves may not be that comparable, but as the best and brightest of integrated graphics hardware for their respective platforms, they help to paint the big picture of the kind of performance you can expect from buying AMD or Intel.The battery test is a simple one: how much battery life can you expect out of this notebook in average use?CPU TEST 1: WINDOWS MEDIA ENCODER 9 (32-BIT)Windows Media Encoder 9 is a free program from Microsoft that can easily convert most video files into WMV files, which I've found to offer excellent quality in respectable file sizes. Many people prefer DivX and I wouldn't begrudge them that, but I've found Windows Media Encoder 9 preferable for my purposes, and I use it a LOT on the job. This program is one of the two programs I'm using to test the CPU that's multithreaded; this means it will employ both cores of the processor.For this test, I took a video file I produced for my job and converted it to a Windows Media Video file. The file itself is being converted with no perceptible quality loss.SPECOriginal FileWMV FileResolution720x480640x480TypeAVIWMVEncodingMicrosoft DVWindows Media 9 at DVD quality (VBR 2 pass)Size1.15GB93.6MBThe AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 converted the file in 17m:34s.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 converted the file in 17m:31s.At 400MHz slower, the Core 2 Duo still turns in a pretty impressive performance. The two are apparently so close in performance here that it makes sense they would achieve price parity. In regular use, this would be negligible and unnoticeable.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 0, Intel - 1)CPU TEST 2: wPRIME 1.55The program wPrime is the other multithreaded program in my testing suite, and it tests the raw mathematical computational power of each processor. It's also a popular program for stress testing processors to make sure they work properly and error free.It's more or less the multithreaded successor to the very popular Prime95, so the odd overclocking nerd in the audience will want to look it up when they're overclocking their computers.For this test I ran the 32M speed benchmark of wPrime in both single and dual threaded (read: utilizing a single core and then both cores) configurations.CPUSingleDualAMD Turion 64 X2 TL-5881.08940.889Intel Core 2 Duo T5250106.89453.805* Time measured in seconds (lower is better.)As you can see, the increase in performance going from a single core to both cores is effectively double; most programs will never be this efficient, but a program written to make use of more than one core will still see VERY healthy performance gains (typically between 60% to 80%), particularly multimedia software.What's notable here is how badly the TL-58 really murders the T5250; that extra 400MHz on the core pays off in spades here.WINNER: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58. (AMD - 1, Intel - 1)CPU TEST 3: UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004 (SOFTWARE RENDERING)A lot of older games can actually run completely independently of the 3D hardware in the computer. While Unreal Tournament 2004 doesn't explicitly let you do this, you can edit a file to force it to run entirely on the CPU. This proves to be a pretty good measure of a processor's more well-rounded performance, since in running Unreal Tournament 2004 entirely on it, all of the game's calculations must be run: physics, AI, sound, and graphics. It's a nice chunk of "everything."The game was run at the following settings:640x480, all settings on Normal, all checkboxes checked, shadows on "blob"For the benchmark, I used the program UMark, a free program available online that really makes it easy to benchmark the game. The benchmark ran on the Inferno map (one of my personal favorites) with twelve bots to help stress the system.CPUAvg. FPSMin. FPSMax. FPSAMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58321672Intel Core 2 Duo T5250371987It bears mentioning that it wasn't that long ago that processors didn't even really have the raw computing power needed to run this game; certainly when the game came out, using the software renderer was a pipe dream and I suspect that's at least part of the reason it was obscured.Showing how much Intel's gaming performance has improved since the Pentium M era, the Core 2 Duo really punishes the Turion here, maintaining both a smoother framerate and a perceptibly faster average despite the 400MHz clock speed deficit.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 1, Intel - 2)CPU TEST 4: DBPOWERAMP 12.3 CD RIPPERThis one should be pretty obvious. While most of you use iTunes or Windows Media Player to rip CDs, I've elected to use a program I've had a lot of good luck with: dbPowerAmp. It's easy to use, well-rounded, and produces quality MP3s.For this test, I set dbPowerAmp to rip the MP3s at Variable Bit Rate averaging roughly 160kbps, and set the encoding speed to "Slow (High Quality)." I was originally going to rip the newest CD from The Birthday Massacre, "Walking with Strangers," which I highly encourage people who love eighties music to check out, but that CD is enjoying an extended hiatus in the CD player in my car. I picked an alternative favorite, Toad the Wet Sprocket's last true album release, "Coil."Note that the optical drives in the notebooks are specced out identically, though allow for minor variance in the results due to different brands with the same specifications being used. This is actually really common practice for all of the major manufacturers; the drive I got in my dv2615us may very well be the same one you get in your dv2610us, and vice versa.The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 ripped the entire CD in 5m:21s.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 ripped the entire CD in 3m:44s.Those numbers pretty much speak for themselves, and the Core 2 Duo's multimedia performance rears its head here, clocking a full minute and a half faster than the Turion.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 1, Intel - 3)GAMING TEST 1: DOOM 3 (OpenGL)Doom 3 is a favorite of mine, and is going to be my representative for OpenGL games (admittedly a dying breed). It's got an easy-to-use built in benchmark, and it still stresses modern hardware just enough.As I've mentioned before, the first run of the timedemo in Doom 3 is basically useless since the demo itself caches a lot of stuff on the fly, so I always use the second run after everything's cached. The game was set at 640x480, Low Quality, with shadows disabled. The game was also patched to 1.3.The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 and GeForce 7150M recorded a framerate of 36 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with hardware shaders recorded a framerate of 11.2 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with software shaders recorded a framerate of 11.6 fps.Forgive me for being crass, but nVidia has basically made an ass out of Intel here. While Doom 3 is still pretty punishing on any IGP except nVidia's, Intel can't do anything to scrape playability here.Clearly, the much publicized much improved GMA X3100 is worlds away from what was promised.WINNER: nVidia GeForce 7150M. (AMD - 2, Intel - 3)GAMING TEST 2: HALF-LIFE 2 - LOST COAST (DirectX)In the DirectX 9 corner, we have Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. I actually noodled what to use to represent DirectX for a while, but Half-Life 2 is so stupidly popular, and Lost Coast one of the most system stressing incarnations of it...it just seemed like the right call. It becomes especially relevant since Intel had been really pimping their Half-Life 2 performance back at GDC.For the benchmark, I used Lost Coast's video stress test. I set the game to 640x480, all settings on high and with full HDR.The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 and GeForce 7150M recorded a framerate of 39.68 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with hardware shaders recorded a framerate of 18.72 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with software shaders was completely unplayable, less than 1 fps.The GMA X3100 is having really nasty growing pains, and that's evident here. Fog distance seemed a little bit off in parts of the test, and certain effects that didn't faze the 7150M (like the distorted glass) played havoc on the X3100.WINNER: nVidia GeForce 7150M. (AMD - 3, Intel - 3)BATTERY TESTBelieve me, I considered being lazy enough not to include this, but thought better of it. This is one of the major points of contention between the two platforms: which one offers better battery life? So, given similar configurations with the exact same shell, screen, and battery, this seemed like an excellent chance to compare.To best simulate and maximize the potential battery efficiency of the notebooks, I developed a custom power plan. The screen brightness was set to 20%, wireless networking was enabled, Bluetooth was disabled, and Sleep and Hibernate were both disabled. The screen was also prevented from shutting off. The remainder of the power plan was derived from Vista's "Balanced" plan. With these settings, I let the notebook "sit there" on the desktop with the screen saver running. This is more or less a best case scenario, but if you're just using the computer to take notes in class, this is a good indicator of how far you can stretch the battery without periodically putting it to sleep.It's also worth mentioning that for the battery tests, I used the original 1GB the notebooks came with, as opposed to the 2GB upgrade. This should have virtually no impact on battery life, as the number of DIMMs in the unit is the same, the capacity is just reduced. If anything, switching to 2GB may improve battery life by a little bit in regular use as the hard drive won't be hit as frequently.At these settings, the AMD-based dv2610us lasted 2h:58m before entering sleep mode at 5% battery life.At these settings, the Intel-based dv2615us lasted 4h:05m before entering sleep mode at 5% battery life.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 3, Intel - 4)USER EXPERIENCEI try very hard to be platform agnostic: I'm not a fanboy for either side, and I'll use whatever's the best on the market. That said, I do have certain personal biases. I've generally found in my experience that Intel machines - at least, efficient ones - tend to offer "smoother" performance. It's hard for me to quantify and most people wouldn't know the difference either way. I also personally prefer Intel chipsets. I've found them to be very stable, and their disk controllers have been consistently top notch.That said, there was a large period of time when nVidia was the de facto standard for performance on the AMD platform. I regret to say that in this case, it feels like nVidia sort of lets down the whole thing. There just isn't that polish, that "it just works" that I've experienced with Intel hardware. Most of this may be due to the depressing performance of the 7150M on Vista's Aero Glass which I referred to in my review of the dv2610us. Apparently, that was the result of the 7150M's power management; the clock speed it scales down to on the desktop is 100MHz, and apparently is just not adequate for running Aero Glass smoothly. I'm not sure who to blame for it, but I'm inclined to blame nVidia. Go 6150 based AMD machines don't share this problem.Taking the poor Aero Glass performance out of the picture, I've found the Intel based machine to feel snappier and more responsive in general. Of course, if you're not interested in using Vista and want to downgrade to XP, suddenly the AMD unit becomes a lot more attractive. The frugal buyer will likely be able to find the AMD-based dv2610us for around $100 cheaper than its Intel counterpart.In either case, upgrading the RAM to 2GB should be your top priority. With 2GB of DDR2-667 available in stores for around $50, and on NewEgg for even less, there's just no excuse not to do it, especially if you're running Vista. 2GB of RAM is the sweet spot in XP, and in Vista it's really the minimum to achieve smooth and enjoyable performance. The sweet spot for Vista - at least Vista 32-bit - is probably 3GB, which is impossible in a notebook with only two RAM slots using matched pairs.Remember that user experience is really key. All the raw horsepower in the world won't help you if you don't find using your machine a comfortable, enjoyable experience.CONCLUSIONI think if you have to pick between the two, the answer is going to be pretty obvious. Even though the AMD chip in the dv2610us is one of the newer ones that draws less power and dissipates less heat, it still has to run 400MHz faster to even think about keeping up with the Core 2 Duo T5250. Intel's chipsets and processors are, quite honestly, just plain more efficient across the board. At the exact same power settings as the dv2610us, the Intel-based dv2615us lasted more than a full HOUR longer.Now, that said, the AMD-based unit is cheaper and as far as casual gaming goes, it would get my wholehearted recommendation. The GeForce 7150M is very fast and in practical use I've actually found it to be much more desirable than the Radeon X1200 integrated graphics and Intel's GMA X3100. Remember, you can get an extended battery for HP's dv2000 and dv6000 series in the store, and if you shop right, you can usually pick it up for $100 and nearly double your battery life.Unfortunately, I've run into a bit of a conundrum as a casual computer and game user, and it has to do specifically with these two notebooks, making it hard to really recommend either one. Here's why:For the AMD-based dv2610us, I mentioned in my review of that particular notebook that the Vista Aero Glass performance is inexcusably poor, and at present, there is no reasonable fix for it. What appears to have happened is actually pretty clear: the GeForce 7150M's clock speed is locked at 100MHz while running in Vista's desktop, and that just isn't fast enough for Aero Glass. Yet when you look at the battery life numbers, it's pretty clear this was about the only way they were going to get decent battery life out of this notebook. In the future, I honestly expect that at some point, a driver will probably surface that will alleviate this problem. That doesn't do anyone any good in the short term, though, and I'm not interested in buying something because of its "potential." The fact of the matter is that the dv2610us shipped with a real flaw.For the Intel-based dv2615us, the problem gets a little more complex. First of all, everyone's been playing the waiting game with Intel's GMA X3100, hoping Intel would be able to unlock its actual potential. But it's been ten months since I saw them at GDC, and while I plan to review the part itself in more detail in the future, the fact is that right now, it's just not consistent enough. Framerates fluctuated wildly, and having to edit my registry to optimize it with certain games is frankly unreasonable. While theoretically you may be able to get better performance out of it in some games right now than other IGPs, and while theoretically it will improve over time, this is all theory. I'm not holding it in my hands. I'm not interested in promises, I'm interested in products.And then there's another issue with the dv2615us. Simply put, you can do better. From HP no less! Right now, for $829, you can order the exact same notebook from them if you configure it yourself. This is before using any coupons, and before students apply their (very easy to get) discount. You'll have to wait a couple weeks for it, but the benefits are obvious: get exactly what you want, take advantage of any deals they offer, and save some green in the process. In fact, for what amounted to about $50 less than I paid in the store, I was able to order the same notebook with a high capacity 6-cell battery, a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, and a dedicated graphics card using a coupon I found on this very site (hint: check the laptop deals button at the top of the screen, it's awesome).But we're not just talking about these two HP notebooks. In the broader sense, we're talking about AMD vs. Intel, and the situation is grim for AMD. Put simply, Intel's modern technology murders AMD's best and brightest. The only saving graces of the AMD platform are their consistently lower prices and consistently superior integrated graphics for the casual gamers. And that said, while AMD's processors may be "slower" than Intel's, they are by no means slow. The bar for modern hardware is really pretty high, and the average user probably won't even notice the difference.Of course, if you're not interested in doing any gaming, and you want something that'll last a while on the battery, suddenly AMD's value proposition looks a lot less impressive. If it means spending an extra $50 to get an Intel notebook, I'd have to suggest going with that.And for the casual gamers, it's important to note that with Dell and HP custom notebook prices so low and constantly seeing coupons and savings, there's really no reason you can't get an inexpensive laptop with dedicated gaming hardware. Even the low man on the modern mobile gaming totem pole right now, the nVidia GeForce 8400M G, is light years better than an integrated part. And once you bring that inexpensive dedicated hardware into the equation, suddenly you wonder why anyone would bother with AMD in the first place.It's a sad day for AMD, no doubt about it, but remember who benefits from Intel stepping on their head while they're drowning: you, the consumer. Competition between the two has pushed hardware prices lower and lower, and that's only better and better for us. With AMD based notebooks hitting $600 and under, it's incredible you can even get a budget notebook with a dual core processor in it; you shouldn't even settle for anything else at this point.AMD vs. Intel? It's been bloody, and hopefully in a year this situation will have changed. But right now, I think it's pretty clear who came out on top.
Posted by Javed Iqbal at 12:17 AM 0 comments
AMD Versus Intel Mobile Processor Review
As far as CPUs and platforms go, it's been AMD and Intel for a long time now. Sure, you can joke about your Cyrix, your VIA or your Transmeta, but the only ones we ever took seriously were AMD and Intel. They've had a lot of back and forth over the years, which of course has generally been great for the consumer as actual competition often is, and this past year has been particularly vicious between the two.Prior to mid-2006 and the release of Intel's Core 2 Duo on the desktop, Intel had a healthy lead in the mobile market while AMD's chips were the best desktop performers by far, and unfortunately, AMD didn't think to try and strangle the life out of its longtime rival by lowering its prices to continue to apply pressure.Cue 2007, where Intel continues to step on AMD's head while they're drowning. Isn't technology grand?Intel's had the best mobile platform for a few years with AMD constantly playing catch-up, blowing their one chance on any kind of lead by delivering the Turion 64 X2 months late and right on schedule to compete with Intel's mobile Core 2 Duo. Ouch. But Intel's ruthlessness is our benefit as consumers, because their willingness to reduce processor prices to put the hurt on AMD forces AMD to reduce their own processor prices, and that pretty much brings us to where we are today: two otherwise identically configured notebooks separated by $100 in the marketplace.So today we're not going to compete on clock for clock or any of those other BS metrics, because in the end for the vast majority of us, they don't matter. What we're interested in is how much we can get for how little we pay. I'll give you a hint: "a lot."TESTINGThe two competing notebooks are remarkably similar in their configurations and provide a nice apples-to-apples comparison: the AMD based HP Pavilion dv2610us and the Intel based HP Pavilion dv2615us. If you removed the stickers from them, you'd never tell them apart.PARTdv2610us (AMD)dv2615us (Intel)ProcessorAMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 (1.9GHz)Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz)ChipsetnVidia 7150M/nForce 430 MobileIntel 965GM Express w/ ICH8-MMemory2GB Patriot DDR2-6672GB Patriot DDR2-667GraphicsnVidia GeForce 7150M (128MB)Intel GMA X3100 (set to max RAM)Graphic DriverForceWare 156.65 (HP)Intel 15.7SoundHD AudioHD AudioWirelessBroadcom 802.11g & HP BluetoothIntel 3945ABG & HP BluetoothHard Disk160GB Hitachi SATA 5400rpm160GB Hitachi SATA 5400rpmOperating SystemWindows Vista Home Premium 32-bitWindows Vista Home Premium 32-bitBattery6-cell Li-Ion6-cell Li-IonTypical Price (US)~$849~$899* Memory was upgraded in each unit from the 1GB DDR2-667 (2x512MB) the notebooks shipped with.I post "typical price" because the prices of these units tend to vary pretty significantly. For the dv2610us I'm using, for example, I paid $699. But these two notebooks really basically are at price parity, with the Intel one tending to be a little more pricey.In all testing situations, these two notebooks were configured as identically as possible.Now, I'm going to get this out of the way right now: I HATE synthetic benchmarks. As I've gotten older, I've just hated them more and more. PCMark spits out some number that I have a hard time applying practically to anything, and I've found that the best purpose these benchmarks serve is being able to check and see if your computer is running like it's supposed to by comparing with an existing benchmark of similar/identical hardware.With each test, I'll explain why I chose that particular program for testing and try to relate it to how you might practically apply it. I've also broken down the test suites into three categories: CPU, gaming, and battery.The CPU tests focus strictly on the raw computational power of the processors themselves, and they fall in line with how a computer might typically be used.The gaming tests I waffled on a bit, but they make sense to me. The graphics parts themselves may not be that comparable, but as the best and brightest of integrated graphics hardware for their respective platforms, they help to paint the big picture of the kind of performance you can expect from buying AMD or Intel.The battery test is a simple one: how much battery life can you expect out of this notebook in average use?CPU TEST 1: WINDOWS MEDIA ENCODER 9 (32-BIT)Windows Media Encoder 9 is a free program from Microsoft that can easily convert most video files into WMV files, which I've found to offer excellent quality in respectable file sizes. Many people prefer DivX and I wouldn't begrudge them that, but I've found Windows Media Encoder 9 preferable for my purposes, and I use it a LOT on the job. This program is one of the two programs I'm using to test the CPU that's multithreaded; this means it will employ both cores of the processor.For this test, I took a video file I produced for my job and converted it to a Windows Media Video file. The file itself is being converted with no perceptible quality loss.SPECOriginal FileWMV FileResolution720x480640x480TypeAVIWMVEncodingMicrosoft DVWindows Media 9 at DVD quality (VBR 2 pass)Size1.15GB93.6MBThe AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 converted the file in 17m:34s.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 converted the file in 17m:31s.At 400MHz slower, the Core 2 Duo still turns in a pretty impressive performance. The two are apparently so close in performance here that it makes sense they would achieve price parity. In regular use, this would be negligible and unnoticeable.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 0, Intel - 1)CPU TEST 2: wPRIME 1.55The program wPrime is the other multithreaded program in my testing suite, and it tests the raw mathematical computational power of each processor. It's also a popular program for stress testing processors to make sure they work properly and error free.It's more or less the multithreaded successor to the very popular Prime95, so the odd overclocking nerd in the audience will want to look it up when they're overclocking their computers.For this test I ran the 32M speed benchmark of wPrime in both single and dual threaded (read: utilizing a single core and then both cores) configurations.CPUSingleDualAMD Turion 64 X2 TL-5881.08940.889Intel Core 2 Duo T5250106.89453.805* Time measured in seconds (lower is better.)As you can see, the increase in performance going from a single core to both cores is effectively double; most programs will never be this efficient, but a program written to make use of more than one core will still see VERY healthy performance gains (typically between 60% to 80%), particularly multimedia software.What's notable here is how badly the TL-58 really murders the T5250; that extra 400MHz on the core pays off in spades here.WINNER: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58. (AMD - 1, Intel - 1)CPU TEST 3: UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004 (SOFTWARE RENDERING)A lot of older games can actually run completely independently of the 3D hardware in the computer. While Unreal Tournament 2004 doesn't explicitly let you do this, you can edit a file to force it to run entirely on the CPU. This proves to be a pretty good measure of a processor's more well-rounded performance, since in running Unreal Tournament 2004 entirely on it, all of the game's calculations must be run: physics, AI, sound, and graphics. It's a nice chunk of "everything."The game was run at the following settings:640x480, all settings on Normal, all checkboxes checked, shadows on "blob"For the benchmark, I used the program UMark, a free program available online that really makes it easy to benchmark the game. The benchmark ran on the Inferno map (one of my personal favorites) with twelve bots to help stress the system.CPUAvg. FPSMin. FPSMax. FPSAMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58321672Intel Core 2 Duo T5250371987It bears mentioning that it wasn't that long ago that processors didn't even really have the raw computing power needed to run this game; certainly when the game came out, using the software renderer was a pipe dream and I suspect that's at least part of the reason it was obscured.Showing how much Intel's gaming performance has improved since the Pentium M era, the Core 2 Duo really punishes the Turion here, maintaining both a smoother framerate and a perceptibly faster average despite the 400MHz clock speed deficit.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 1, Intel - 2)CPU TEST 4: DBPOWERAMP 12.3 CD RIPPERThis one should be pretty obvious. While most of you use iTunes or Windows Media Player to rip CDs, I've elected to use a program I've had a lot of good luck with: dbPowerAmp. It's easy to use, well-rounded, and produces quality MP3s.For this test, I set dbPowerAmp to rip the MP3s at Variable Bit Rate averaging roughly 160kbps, and set the encoding speed to "Slow (High Quality)." I was originally going to rip the newest CD from The Birthday Massacre, "Walking with Strangers," which I highly encourage people who love eighties music to check out, but that CD is enjoying an extended hiatus in the CD player in my car. I picked an alternative favorite, Toad the Wet Sprocket's last true album release, "Coil."Note that the optical drives in the notebooks are specced out identically, though allow for minor variance in the results due to different brands with the same specifications being used. This is actually really common practice for all of the major manufacturers; the drive I got in my dv2615us may very well be the same one you get in your dv2610us, and vice versa.The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 ripped the entire CD in 5m:21s.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 ripped the entire CD in 3m:44s.Those numbers pretty much speak for themselves, and the Core 2 Duo's multimedia performance rears its head here, clocking a full minute and a half faster than the Turion.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 1, Intel - 3)GAMING TEST 1: DOOM 3 (OpenGL)Doom 3 is a favorite of mine, and is going to be my representative for OpenGL games (admittedly a dying breed). It's got an easy-to-use built in benchmark, and it still stresses modern hardware just enough.As I've mentioned before, the first run of the timedemo in Doom 3 is basically useless since the demo itself caches a lot of stuff on the fly, so I always use the second run after everything's cached. The game was set at 640x480, Low Quality, with shadows disabled. The game was also patched to 1.3.The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 and GeForce 7150M recorded a framerate of 36 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with hardware shaders recorded a framerate of 11.2 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with software shaders recorded a framerate of 11.6 fps.Forgive me for being crass, but nVidia has basically made an ass out of Intel here. While Doom 3 is still pretty punishing on any IGP except nVidia's, Intel can't do anything to scrape playability here.Clearly, the much publicized much improved GMA X3100 is worlds away from what was promised.WINNER: nVidia GeForce 7150M. (AMD - 2, Intel - 3)GAMING TEST 2: HALF-LIFE 2 - LOST COAST (DirectX)In the DirectX 9 corner, we have Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. I actually noodled what to use to represent DirectX for a while, but Half-Life 2 is so stupidly popular, and Lost Coast one of the most system stressing incarnations of it...it just seemed like the right call. It becomes especially relevant since Intel had been really pimping their Half-Life 2 performance back at GDC.For the benchmark, I used Lost Coast's video stress test. I set the game to 640x480, all settings on high and with full HDR.The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 and GeForce 7150M recorded a framerate of 39.68 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with hardware shaders recorded a framerate of 18.72 fps.The Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 and GMA X3100 with software shaders was completely unplayable, less than 1 fps.The GMA X3100 is having really nasty growing pains, and that's evident here. Fog distance seemed a little bit off in parts of the test, and certain effects that didn't faze the 7150M (like the distorted glass) played havoc on the X3100.WINNER: nVidia GeForce 7150M. (AMD - 3, Intel - 3)BATTERY TESTBelieve me, I considered being lazy enough not to include this, but thought better of it. This is one of the major points of contention between the two platforms: which one offers better battery life? So, given similar configurations with the exact same shell, screen, and battery, this seemed like an excellent chance to compare.To best simulate and maximize the potential battery efficiency of the notebooks, I developed a custom power plan. The screen brightness was set to 20%, wireless networking was enabled, Bluetooth was disabled, and Sleep and Hibernate were both disabled. The screen was also prevented from shutting off. The remainder of the power plan was derived from Vista's "Balanced" plan. With these settings, I let the notebook "sit there" on the desktop with the screen saver running. This is more or less a best case scenario, but if you're just using the computer to take notes in class, this is a good indicator of how far you can stretch the battery without periodically putting it to sleep.It's also worth mentioning that for the battery tests, I used the original 1GB the notebooks came with, as opposed to the 2GB upgrade. This should have virtually no impact on battery life, as the number of DIMMs in the unit is the same, the capacity is just reduced. If anything, switching to 2GB may improve battery life by a little bit in regular use as the hard drive won't be hit as frequently.At these settings, the AMD-based dv2610us lasted 2h:58m before entering sleep mode at 5% battery life.At these settings, the Intel-based dv2615us lasted 4h:05m before entering sleep mode at 5% battery life.WINNER: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250. (AMD - 3, Intel - 4)USER EXPERIENCEI try very hard to be platform agnostic: I'm not a fanboy for either side, and I'll use whatever's the best on the market. That said, I do have certain personal biases. I've generally found in my experience that Intel machines - at least, efficient ones - tend to offer "smoother" performance. It's hard for me to quantify and most people wouldn't know the difference either way. I also personally prefer Intel chipsets. I've found them to be very stable, and their disk controllers have been consistently top notch.That said, there was a large period of time when nVidia was the de facto standard for performance on the AMD platform. I regret to say that in this case, it feels like nVidia sort of lets down the whole thing. There just isn't that polish, that "it just works" that I've experienced with Intel hardware. Most of this may be due to the depressing performance of the 7150M on Vista's Aero Glass which I referred to in my review of the dv2610us. Apparently, that was the result of the 7150M's power management; the clock speed it scales down to on the desktop is 100MHz, and apparently is just not adequate for running Aero Glass smoothly. I'm not sure who to blame for it, but I'm inclined to blame nVidia. Go 6150 based AMD machines don't share this problem.Taking the poor Aero Glass performance out of the picture, I've found the Intel based machine to feel snappier and more responsive in general. Of course, if you're not interested in using Vista and want to downgrade to XP, suddenly the AMD unit becomes a lot more attractive. The frugal buyer will likely be able to find the AMD-based dv2610us for around $100 cheaper than its Intel counterpart.In either case, upgrading the RAM to 2GB should be your top priority. With 2GB of DDR2-667 available in stores for around $50, and on NewEgg for even less, there's just no excuse not to do it, especially if you're running Vista. 2GB of RAM is the sweet spot in XP, and in Vista it's really the minimum to achieve smooth and enjoyable performance. The sweet spot for Vista - at least Vista 32-bit - is probably 3GB, which is impossible in a notebook with only two RAM slots using matched pairs.Remember that user experience is really key. All the raw horsepower in the world won't help you if you don't find using your machine a comfortable, enjoyable experience.CONCLUSIONI think if you have to pick between the two, the answer is going to be pretty obvious. Even though the AMD chip in the dv2610us is one of the newer ones that draws less power and dissipates less heat, it still has to run 400MHz faster to even think about keeping up with the Core 2 Duo T5250. Intel's chipsets and processors are, quite honestly, just plain more efficient across the board. At the exact same power settings as the dv2610us, the Intel-based dv2615us lasted more than a full HOUR longer.Now, that said, the AMD-based unit is cheaper and as far as casual gaming goes, it would get my wholehearted recommendation. The GeForce 7150M is very fast and in practical use I've actually found it to be much more desirable than the Radeon X1200 integrated graphics and Intel's GMA X3100. Remember, you can get an extended battery for HP's dv2000 and dv6000 series in the store, and if you shop right, you can usually pick it up for $100 and nearly double your battery life.Unfortunately, I've run into a bit of a conundrum as a casual computer and game user, and it has to do specifically with these two notebooks, making it hard to really recommend either one. Here's why:For the AMD-based dv2610us, I mentioned in my review of that particular notebook that the Vista Aero Glass performance is inexcusably poor, and at present, there is no reasonable fix for it. What appears to have happened is actually pretty clear: the GeForce 7150M's clock speed is locked at 100MHz while running in Vista's desktop, and that just isn't fast enough for Aero Glass. Yet when you look at the battery life numbers, it's pretty clear this was about the only way they were going to get decent battery life out of this notebook. In the future, I honestly expect that at some point, a driver will probably surface that will alleviate this problem. That doesn't do anyone any good in the short term, though, and I'm not interested in buying something because of its "potential." The fact of the matter is that the dv2610us shipped with a real flaw.For the Intel-based dv2615us, the problem gets a little more complex. First of all, everyone's been playing the waiting game with Intel's GMA X3100, hoping Intel would be able to unlock its actual potential. But it's been ten months since I saw them at GDC, and while I plan to review the part itself in more detail in the future, the fact is that right now, it's just not consistent enough. Framerates fluctuated wildly, and having to edit my registry to optimize it with certain games is frankly unreasonable. While theoretically you may be able to get better performance out of it in some games right now than other IGPs, and while theoretically it will improve over time, this is all theory. I'm not holding it in my hands. I'm not interested in promises, I'm interested in products.And then there's another issue with the dv2615us. Simply put, you can do better. From HP no less! Right now, for $829, you can order the exact same notebook from them if you configure it yourself. This is before using any coupons, and before students apply their (very easy to get) discount. You'll have to wait a couple weeks for it, but the benefits are obvious: get exactly what you want, take advantage of any deals they offer, and save some green in the process. In fact, for what amounted to about $50 less than I paid in the store, I was able to order the same notebook with a high capacity 6-cell battery, a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, and a dedicated graphics card using a coupon I found on this very site (hint: check the laptop deals button at the top of the screen, it's awesome).But we're not just talking about these two HP notebooks. In the broader sense, we're talking about AMD vs. Intel, and the situation is grim for AMD. Put simply, Intel's modern technology murders AMD's best and brightest. The only saving graces of the AMD platform are their consistently lower prices and consistently superior integrated graphics for the casual gamers. And that said, while AMD's processors may be "slower" than Intel's, they are by no means slow. The bar for modern hardware is really pretty high, and the average user probably won't even notice the difference.Of course, if you're not interested in doing any gaming, and you want something that'll last a while on the battery, suddenly AMD's value proposition looks a lot less impressive. If it means spending an extra $50 to get an Intel notebook, I'd have to suggest going with that.And for the casual gamers, it's important to note that with Dell and HP custom notebook prices so low and constantly seeing coupons and savings, there's really no reason you can't get an inexpensive laptop with dedicated gaming hardware. Even the low man on the modern mobile gaming totem pole right now, the nVidia GeForce 8400M G, is light years better than an integrated part. And once you bring that inexpensive dedicated hardware into the equation, suddenly you wonder why anyone would bother with AMD in the first place.It's a sad day for AMD, no doubt about it, but remember who benefits from Intel stepping on their head while they're drowning: you, the consumer. Competition between the two has pushed hardware prices lower and lower, and that's only better and better for us. With AMD based notebooks hitting $600 and under, it's incredible you can even get a budget notebook with a dual core processor in it; you shouldn't even settle for anything else at this point.AMD vs. Intel? It's been bloody, and hopefully in a year this situation will have changed. But right now, I think it's pretty clear who came out on top.
Intel Core i7 920, 940 and 965 Processor
Intel has finally lifted the embargo on the yet-to-be-launched Intel Core i7 processors and the Intel X58 Express chipset. Intel strongly believes that this new platform will be the must have work horse for digital media & gaming enthusiasts for many months to come. With so much to talk about this new platform we made the decision to focus just on processor performance for this article and then take a deeper dive at other features in the weeks to come. This should work out nicely as the processors won't be available to purchase until later this month and many companies are just now getting us production grade triple channel memory kits and video card drivers for this new platform.The Intel Core i7 Processor (known as Nehalem internally) has some very big architecture changes as you can tell from the picture above. The new Core i7 processor has 1366 pins and as a result the size of the processor, socket and heat sink mounting brackets are all larger than LGA 775 based processors that have been out now for a couple of years. The die size of Core i7 processors is 263 mm2 and the transistor count is 731 Million.Taking a look at the die of the Core i7 processor we see a first for Intel processors -- the integrated memory controller. This on-die, triple channel, DDR3 memory controller is unique in the fact that it allows consumers to run three memory modules together for optimal performance. By moving to an integrated memory controller and triple channel memory the platform has over 25GB/s of throughput between the processor and DDR3 memory modules!For those that follow processor architecture you will notice a brand new cache structure on the Core i7 diagram shown above. All Intel Core i7 processors feature L1, L2, and shared L3 caches. Before, Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad processors had just an L1 and L2 cache. The break down on the cache is as follows: there is a 64K L1 cache (32K Instruction, 32K Data) per core, 1MB of total L2 cache, and an impressive 8MB chunk of L3 cache that is shared across all the cores. That means that all Intel Core i7 processors have over 9MB of memory right there on the 45nm processor!Can it get any better than this?Of course it can! The new Core i7 processor has a huge list of improvements that have been made to it.New SSE4.2 InstructionsImproved Lock SupportAdditional Caching HierarchyDeeper BuffersImproved Loop StreamingSimultaneous Multi-ThreadingFaster VirtualizationBetter Branch PredictionIntel always told us that Hyper-Threading was not dead and they were right as the technology has surfaced again and is enabled on all of the Core i7 processors. With Hyper-Threading enabled on quad-core Core i7's processors the operating system sees eight virtual cores that can be used. Intel has told Legit Reviews that when Hyper-Threading originally came out the idea was solid, but that the Pentium 4 processor might not have been the best processor to bring it to market. The Core i7 series should highlight all the strong points of Hyper-Threading as they are calling it Hyper-Threading "done right" now. If you want a deeper look at the Intel Core i7 architecture take a look at this presentation that was given at the Spring 2008 IDF and this one that was given at the Fall IDF.Intel will be releasing three Core i7 processors and all have a TDP of 130W and an on-die shared L3 cache of 8MB. All current Core i7 processors are not intended for multi-processor motherboards, so it has only one Quick Path Interconnect (QPI).Core i7 965 Extreme Edition - 3.2GHz with 8MB Shared L3 cache and a 1x6.4GT/s QuickPath interconnect - $999Core i7 940 - 2.93GHz with 8MB Shared L3 cache and a 1x4.8GT/s QuickPath interconnect - $562Core i7 920 - 2.66GHz with 8MB Shared L3 cache and a 1x4.8GT/s QuickPath interconnect - $284Now that we know what the general processor improvements are let's take a closer look at the chipset changes.
Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe
Gliding along a gently meandering stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway north of San Francisco, or 'Highway 1' as it is more properly referred to in Northern California, one is struck by the sheer and utter quiet experienced within the confines of the 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe.Traveling at speeds well in excess of 60 miles per hour, the tires literally whisper along the tarmac. The very epitome of smoothness and stability, only the most violent of pavement aberrations make their way up through the chassis to announce their presence to the comfortably firm, yet sumptuously padded and upholstered seats. Similarly, common sense tells you the engine is out there in front of you––after all, the car is moving. But the V12 emits no sound. Even the sonic signature of the wind, usually generously deposited as it rushes around the greenhouse of lesser automobiles, is absolutely blatant in its absence. Further, despite the acres of board feet of highly polished wood, reams of creamy, aromatic leather and hundreds of pounds of gleaming chrome adorning the Phantom Coupé, there is nary a squeak, creak, or rattle to be heard. The 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé behaves as one solid piece of some excruciatingly rare element, one capable of levitating slightly above the road. In steady state operation, there is a surreal stillness inside the car that must be experienced to be believed.Now before you decide this equates to a boring drive, please be informed that oh-so-quiet 6.75-liter V12 is capable of emitting a torrential 531 foot-pounds of torque, along with 453 horsepower. Hit the sport button on the steering wheel, introduce your a.Testoni driving loafer crisply to the throttle, floor it with serious intent, and the V12 emits a distant melodious growl as the stately Coupé gathers up its 5,798 pounds and whisks you to 60 miles per hour in less than six seconds. Thanks to gargantuan brake rotors, sized nearly 15 inches all around, the Rolls-Royce will stop from 60 just as fast as it accelerated there. And, while 185 miles per hour is most certainly within its grasp, top speed is electronically limited to 155. Another part of Highway 1, the 10.3 miles that writhe between Mill Valley and Stinson Beach, is renowned as one of the most challenging sections of road anywhere on Earth. Religiously deferring to the topography of the coastal mountains along the western edge of the North American continent, this part of Highway 1 is adorned with practically every sort of curve ever created––with off camber undulations and severe elevation changes thrown in for good measure. The road is a chassis engineer’s S.A.T. If they nailed it, their car is a delight. If they flunked it, their car comes back twisted and beaten. Remarkably, even with its regal stateliness, the Phantom Coupé acquits itself admirably in what would seem to be a foreign environment. After all, the big Coupé will most often be seen depositing bejeweled occupants decked out in tuxedoes and evening gowns at glittering events, That said, sports cars needn’t fear being outrun between Mill Valley and Stinson Beach by a Phantom Coupé, but they will find that Rolls-Royce isn’t falling too far behind either. The ultra-rigid, hand welded, all-aluminum space frame provides a rock solid platform to which highly sophisticated aluminum suspension componentry is attached. The result? Remarkable agility lies at the disposal of a Phantom Coupé pilot.However, while this Rolls-Royce is a willing accomplice at GT follies, pampering four remarkably fortunate souls is what the Phantom Coupé is really all about. The striking rear-hinged doors make it easy for a lady to alight in a dress without drama or undue exposure. Closed electrically at the touch of a button, they don’t require a gentleman to overextend himself to close them once settled behind the wheel either. Meanwhile, umbrellas are thoughtfully stored in the doorframes for use in inclement weather.Inside, the overall ambiance is more old-world living room than motorcar. Entirely hand crafted of naturally occurring materials specifically selected for Rolls-Royce, the attention to detail is overwhelming. The leather for the seats, dash, headliner, armrests and door panels in each individual car is carefully matched and comes from cows raised in an area of central Europe where barbed wire isn’t used and mosquitoes and other biting insects are rare. This prevents the hides from displaying undue imperfections. Additionally, only bulls are used because they don’t get pregnant and suffer stretch marks. This results in a purity of finish unmatched by the leather in any other car. The rear seat looks like a sofa sourced from Roche-Bobois. The front seats compliment it perfectly, and are more reminiscent of overstuffed chairs in a drawing room than seats in a car. The carpets are wool of course, but specifically, they are wool with a cashmere blend.The Coupé’s occupants face what is easily the broadest swath of wood deployed in any contemporary motorcar, save of course the Phantom Sedan and Phantom Drophead Coupé. Composed of woods chosen specifically for their depth of color and the complexity of their grain patterns, it is brilliantly polished and hand-laid so the grain matches perfectly all the way across. In addition to the dash, the same wood can be found on the center console, the window surrounds and nestled into the C-pillars in the rear part of the cabin where it frames the frosted glass covered boulevard lights.Opening the iDrive controller compartment hidden in the forward section of the center console swivels the brushed aluminum panel in the middle of the dash housing the clock. This reveals a monitor wherein the vast majority of the secondary comfort and convenience functions of the Phantom Coupé are accessed. Navigation, communication, entertainment and functional setup programs are all displayed there––as well as broadcast television. The audio system is Logic7 Surround by Lexicon. Delivering 420 watts, it feeds 15 speakers strategically deployed around the cabin for perfect imaging. Subwoofers reside beneath the seats. Full iPod control is available should you choose that option, otherwise you’ll get a six-disc CD changer.Hidden beneath the center armrest are controls for seat adjustment and the single most breathtaking feature of the Phantom Coupé’s interior–the starlight headliner. Several hundred tiny white LEDs embedded in the ceiling can be dimmed for mood or brightened to read by. Rolls will even custom configure the starlight headliner to depict the night sky on the date of your birth or any other pattern you desire. Absolutely timeless in approach and gorgeous in execution, the Phantom Coupé interior wins extremely high marks for quality and style––but low marks for how readily switches can be located and deciphered. Heavy reliance on chrome and discreet labeling makes most of the switches difficult to read. Because of that, very few secondary functions are intuitive. The operation of many will be determined only by reading the owner’s manual. Also, while we’re on the subject of things that could be better, thanks to the sloping roof and narrow rear window, rearward vision is somewhat obscured. Perhaps in the ultimate act of automotive snobbery, all you see in your rearview mirror are the grilles of the cars directly behind you, not their drivers, or even their roofs. (Makes it tough to keep an eye out for cops in a car that will do 100 miles per hour without making a sound.) Also, it is remarkable that in a model year 2009 car costing $400,000, several conveniences we’ve come to take for granted in contemporary luxury cars are conspicuously absent in the Phantom Coupé. Active cruise control, voice actuation of secondary functions, automatic climate control, and a one touch emergency assistance calling service are basic features in mainstream 21st century luxury cars––but absent in the Rolls Coupé. Seriously high-tech features such as hard disc digital media storage, night vision, blind spot warning, lane departure warning, and lane departure prevention systems are also now starting to show up in $50,000 mid-level luxury cars. Meanwhile Rolls-Royce still expects you to modulate the speed of the car yourself if you get stuck in traffic.Please understand, we fully acknowledge and deeply appreciate the history, tradition, craftsmanship, achievement, and greatness that are inherent to the Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé. But things have changed since the early 1900’s when the concept of Rolls-Royce was first established. While many are content with the opulence, performance, and presence of a Rolls-Royce, we are of a mind that if a car is to be the Rolls-Royce of personal coupés today, it should encompass absolutely every luxury feature known to humankind at the time of its build. In other words, the phrase “state-of-the-art” should be irreversibly intertwined with the phrase Rolls-Royce. Given that Rolls-Royce is now owned by BMW, and given that all of those features are available on a BMW 760 Li (which costs a fraction of what the Phantom Coupé does), it is somewhat perplexing that these technologies are not even offered with the Phantom Coupé. It can’t be about price, after all, a Rolls-Royce represents a money-is-no-object purchase. That said, it is undeniable that being in a Rolls makes you feel truly special. The Phantom Coupé’s irrefutable style, outstanding comfort, amazing build quality, abundant performance capability, and all-encompassing presence make it an experience absolutely unlike any other. And, uh, yes, we definitely want one––in white please.
2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé
Base Price: $400,000
Engine: 6.75-liter V12
Horsepower: 453 @ 5350 RPM
Torque: 531 @ 3500 RPM
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Drivetrain: Front-engine/rear-drive
2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé
Base Price: $400,000
Engine: 6.75-liter V12
Horsepower: 453 @ 5350 RPM
Torque: 531 @ 3500 RPM
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Drivetrain: Front-engine/rear-drive
2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom
Chauffeur-driven. It’s an image the company has been trying to play down for decades; to win over new buyers who will become brand enthusiasts, loving their Roller for its dynamic appeal rather than its rear legroom. The Phantom Coupé – to be unveiled at next month’s Geneva Motor Show in production trim – is the model that might finally do just that.
Bosses at the U.K.-based, BMW-owned, firm believe this is the most driver-orientated model in the Phantom range. They’re trumpeting its subtle change in character while still playing up RR’s traditional strengths of luxury, comfort, design and craftsmanship. They’re also confident they’ve created the world’s foremost transcontinental tourer.
Chief designer Ian Cameron explained: “Rolls-Royce has always been about pace, performance and style. For the Coupé we gave the quintessential design a dynamic twist. This adds a sense of drama to the outstanding engineering and drivability that are fundamentals of Rolls-Royce cars.”
The two-door four-seater is based on the 101EX concept, first shown at the Geneva expo in 2006. The Coupé is 9.8 inches shorter than the Phantom sedan, but like the other members of the family, it features rear-hinged doors. Crucially, they aid the overall stiffness of the body as they allow for an uninterrupted A-pillar. The result is the most torsionally rigid Rolls-Royce ever. A brushed steel finish to the A-pillar and bonnet, as seen for the first time on earlier 100EX prototype, is also on the Coupé.
Built around a lightweight aluminum chassis, at the heart of the Coupé is the same 6.75-liter V-12 that’s in the Phantom. It produces 453 hp, with the 0-60 mph sprint completed in 5.6 seconds. That’s the same as the Drophead Coupé – the convertible version of the car – though a 25 percent increase in fuel tank capacity over that model has boosted the driving range.
Bosses at the U.K.-based, BMW-owned, firm believe this is the most driver-orientated model in the Phantom range. They’re trumpeting its subtle change in character while still playing up RR’s traditional strengths of luxury, comfort, design and craftsmanship. They’re also confident they’ve created the world’s foremost transcontinental tourer.
Chief designer Ian Cameron explained: “Rolls-Royce has always been about pace, performance and style. For the Coupé we gave the quintessential design a dynamic twist. This adds a sense of drama to the outstanding engineering and drivability that are fundamentals of Rolls-Royce cars.”
The two-door four-seater is based on the 101EX concept, first shown at the Geneva expo in 2006. The Coupé is 9.8 inches shorter than the Phantom sedan, but like the other members of the family, it features rear-hinged doors. Crucially, they aid the overall stiffness of the body as they allow for an uninterrupted A-pillar. The result is the most torsionally rigid Rolls-Royce ever. A brushed steel finish to the A-pillar and bonnet, as seen for the first time on earlier 100EX prototype, is also on the Coupé.
Built around a lightweight aluminum chassis, at the heart of the Coupé is the same 6.75-liter V-12 that’s in the Phantom. It produces 453 hp, with the 0-60 mph sprint completed in 5.6 seconds. That’s the same as the Drophead Coupé – the convertible version of the car – though a 25 percent increase in fuel tank capacity over that model has boosted the driving range.
Koh-i-Noor (Kohinoor) The Queen of All Diamonds
It has been said that whoever owned the Koh-I-Noor ruled the world, a suitable statement for this, the most famous of all diamonds and a veritable household name in many parts of the world. Legend has suggested that the stone may date from before the time of Christ; theory indicates the possibility of its appearance in the early years of the 1300s; history proves its existence for the past two and a half centuries. The first writer has stated:
"Reguarding its traditional history, which extends 5000 years further back, nothing need be said here; though it has afforded sundry imaginative writers with a subject for highly characteristic paragraphs we have no record of its having been at any time a cut stone."
The earliest authentic reference to a diamond which may have been the Koh-I-Noor is found in the Baburnama, the memoirs of Babur, the first Mogul ruler of India. Born in 1483, Babur (meaning 'lion' -- the name was not given to him at birth but appears to be a nickname, deriving from an Arabic or Persian word meaning 'lion' or 'tiger') was descended in the fifth generation from Tamerlane on the male side and in th fifteenth degree from Genghis Khan on the female side. With the blood in his veins of two of the greatest conquerors Asia has ever seen, it is not all that surprising that Babur himself should have become a great conqueror in his own right.
As a young man Babur owed his survival and success on the political and military battlefields to a combination of winning personal qualities and swift opportunism; these were to insure his conquest of the plains of northern India. But in addition to being a warrior, Babur was a cultured and civilized man.
"Mountain of Light"; also spelled Kohinoor, Koh-e Noor or Koh-i-Nur) is a 105 carat (21.6 g) diamond that was once the largest known diamond in the world. The Kohinoor originated at Golconda in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, belonged to various Mughal and Persian rulers who fought bitterly over it at various points in history, and seized as a spoil of war, was finally taken by the British and became part of the British Crown Jewels when British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress of India in 1877.
Like all significant jewels, the Kohinoor has its share of legends. It is reputed to bring misfortune or death to any male who wears or owns it. Conversely, it is reputed to bring good luck to female owners. According to another legend, whoever owns the Koh-i-Noor rules the world.
The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, famous for building the Taj Mahal, had the stone placed into his ornate Peacock Throne. His son, Aurangazeb, imprisoned his ailing father at nearby Agra Fort. Legend has it that he had the Kohinoor positioned near a window so that Shah Jahan could see the Taj only by looking at its reflection in the stone. There it stayed until the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739 and the sacking of Agra and Delhi. Along with the Peacock Throne, he also carried off the Koh-i-noor to Persia in 1739. It was allegedly Nadir Shah who exclaimed Koh-i-Noor! when he finally managed to obtain the famous stone, and this is how the stone gained its present name. There is no reference to this name before 1739.
The valuation of the Kohinoor is given in the legend that one of Nadir Shah's consorts supposedly said, "If a strong man should take five stones, and throw one north, one south, one east, and one west, and the last straight up into the air, and the space between filled with gold and gems, that would equal the value of the Koh-i-noor."
After the assassination of Nadir Shah in 1747, the stone came into the hands of Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. In 1830, Shah Shuja, the deposed ruler of Afghanistan, managed to flee with the Kohinoor diamond. He then came to Lahore where it was given to the Sikh Maharaja (King) of Punjab, Ranjit Singh; in return for this Maharaja Ranjit Singh was able to persuade the East India Company to lend their troops and win back the Afghan throne for Shah Shuja
"Reguarding its traditional history, which extends 5000 years further back, nothing need be said here; though it has afforded sundry imaginative writers with a subject for highly characteristic paragraphs we have no record of its having been at any time a cut stone."
The earliest authentic reference to a diamond which may have been the Koh-I-Noor is found in the Baburnama, the memoirs of Babur, the first Mogul ruler of India. Born in 1483, Babur (meaning 'lion' -- the name was not given to him at birth but appears to be a nickname, deriving from an Arabic or Persian word meaning 'lion' or 'tiger') was descended in the fifth generation from Tamerlane on the male side and in th fifteenth degree from Genghis Khan on the female side. With the blood in his veins of two of the greatest conquerors Asia has ever seen, it is not all that surprising that Babur himself should have become a great conqueror in his own right.
As a young man Babur owed his survival and success on the political and military battlefields to a combination of winning personal qualities and swift opportunism; these were to insure his conquest of the plains of northern India. But in addition to being a warrior, Babur was a cultured and civilized man.
"Mountain of Light"; also spelled Kohinoor, Koh-e Noor or Koh-i-Nur) is a 105 carat (21.6 g) diamond that was once the largest known diamond in the world. The Kohinoor originated at Golconda in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, belonged to various Mughal and Persian rulers who fought bitterly over it at various points in history, and seized as a spoil of war, was finally taken by the British and became part of the British Crown Jewels when British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress of India in 1877.
Like all significant jewels, the Kohinoor has its share of legends. It is reputed to bring misfortune or death to any male who wears or owns it. Conversely, it is reputed to bring good luck to female owners. According to another legend, whoever owns the Koh-i-Noor rules the world.
The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, famous for building the Taj Mahal, had the stone placed into his ornate Peacock Throne. His son, Aurangazeb, imprisoned his ailing father at nearby Agra Fort. Legend has it that he had the Kohinoor positioned near a window so that Shah Jahan could see the Taj only by looking at its reflection in the stone. There it stayed until the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739 and the sacking of Agra and Delhi. Along with the Peacock Throne, he also carried off the Koh-i-noor to Persia in 1739. It was allegedly Nadir Shah who exclaimed Koh-i-Noor! when he finally managed to obtain the famous stone, and this is how the stone gained its present name. There is no reference to this name before 1739.
The valuation of the Kohinoor is given in the legend that one of Nadir Shah's consorts supposedly said, "If a strong man should take five stones, and throw one north, one south, one east, and one west, and the last straight up into the air, and the space between filled with gold and gems, that would equal the value of the Koh-i-noor."
After the assassination of Nadir Shah in 1747, the stone came into the hands of Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. In 1830, Shah Shuja, the deposed ruler of Afghanistan, managed to flee with the Kohinoor diamond. He then came to Lahore where it was given to the Sikh Maharaja (King) of Punjab, Ranjit Singh; in return for this Maharaja Ranjit Singh was able to persuade the East India Company to lend their troops and win back the Afghan throne for Shah Shuja
Sony Ericsson Black Diamond
Industrial designer Jaren Goh has created his newest concept,the Black Diamond mobile phone for Sony Ericsson,Could this be Sony Ericsson's answer to Nokia's Vertu?I certainly hope so.This high end 4 megapixel phone is Cased in a layer of polycarbonate with mirror finish cladding.The OLED technology makes for vivid illumination under the polycarbonate skin and gives it a borderless screen effect.The ultra thin profile,clean lines,and ultra-glossy finish are all qualities sure to attract Sony Ericsson fans and gadget freaks alike.
Here are the technical and design specifications of the eye-pleasing beast:
•Diamonds 2X (in front Joystick & back).
•Quad band GSM with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.
•Motorola Freescale CPU MC5249.
•CPU Processor: Intel Xcale PXA255.
•128MB RAM and 16MB Nor Flash.
•2” Touchscreen TFT Display.
•Titan chassis structure with Touch sensitive keypad.
•Whooping 4Mpix camera.The hefty price tag of US $300K speaks the story itself about the unique and stylish Black Diamond.
All sleek looking cell phone designs have to come from Korea. After all, Motorola’s RAZR is perhaps one of the most popular form factors ever conceived, but that doesn’t mean that Sony Ericsson has nothing to offer. Quite the contrary, this new Black Diamond concept is looking incredibly hot, especially the “borderless screen” effect. This was achieved by throwing on a layer of polycarbonate, coupled with integrated a screen based on OLED technology. Although candybar style handsets might not be as popular as swiveling, sliding, or flipping phones, this Black Diamond idea can certainly grow into those form factors down the line, much like how the RAZR morphed into a SLVR.Not much is known about the Black Diamond handset designed by Jaren Goh, but based on the snapshots, it should include a 4.0 megapixel camera. The usual stuff will probably also be included, like Bluetooth support and all that jazz, but of course none of that is confirmed yet.
there's nothign earth shattering about the phone, Wi-Fi on Phones in not new nor is the Touchscreen. you haven't even mentioned the XScale Processor speed by the way. the only thing diffrent is 4MP Camera, but samsung launched a 5MP Camera phone a Long while ago. The Phone Also looks so totally gay. i don't want to be engative here, but it will grace a lady's palm better. also $300 isn't much, infact it equals Rs.14,000 so it's not Expensive At All.
by the looks it seems to have a long body. Also lacking are the navigation jog which i love in SE. other sites say no flash either (now thats a big one with a 4 mp camera). SE has leaked this design to get reviews thats what i think. But anyhow a fantastic peice of artwork and SE shoule launch a working model soon (with improvements though).
Here are the technical and design specifications of the eye-pleasing beast:
•Diamonds 2X (in front Joystick & back).
•Quad band GSM with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.
•Motorola Freescale CPU MC5249.
•CPU Processor: Intel Xcale PXA255.
•128MB RAM and 16MB Nor Flash.
•2” Touchscreen TFT Display.
•Titan chassis structure with Touch sensitive keypad.
•Whooping 4Mpix camera.The hefty price tag of US $300K speaks the story itself about the unique and stylish Black Diamond.
All sleek looking cell phone designs have to come from Korea. After all, Motorola’s RAZR is perhaps one of the most popular form factors ever conceived, but that doesn’t mean that Sony Ericsson has nothing to offer. Quite the contrary, this new Black Diamond concept is looking incredibly hot, especially the “borderless screen” effect. This was achieved by throwing on a layer of polycarbonate, coupled with integrated a screen based on OLED technology. Although candybar style handsets might not be as popular as swiveling, sliding, or flipping phones, this Black Diamond idea can certainly grow into those form factors down the line, much like how the RAZR morphed into a SLVR.Not much is known about the Black Diamond handset designed by Jaren Goh, but based on the snapshots, it should include a 4.0 megapixel camera. The usual stuff will probably also be included, like Bluetooth support and all that jazz, but of course none of that is confirmed yet.
there's nothign earth shattering about the phone, Wi-Fi on Phones in not new nor is the Touchscreen. you haven't even mentioned the XScale Processor speed by the way. the only thing diffrent is 4MP Camera, but samsung launched a 5MP Camera phone a Long while ago. The Phone Also looks so totally gay. i don't want to be engative here, but it will grace a lady's palm better. also $300 isn't much, infact it equals Rs.14,000 so it's not Expensive At All.
by the looks it seems to have a long body. Also lacking are the navigation jog which i love in SE. other sites say no flash either (now thats a big one with a 4 mp camera). SE has leaked this design to get reviews thats what i think. But anyhow a fantastic peice of artwork and SE shoule launch a working model soon (with improvements though).
Vertu's Signature Cobra Phone
Now here's a phone that not only feels heavy in your pocket, but actually burns several holes in it! Vertu unleased its Signature Cobra series of cell phones complete with diamond and ruby embellishments. Which sorta gives it an ugly look and feel. But hey, if that's your thing, go right ahead and splurge.
Designed by Frenchman Boucheron, the Signature Cobra is made from a pear-cut diamond, a round white diamond, two emerald eyes and all of 439 rubies. Count 'em yourself.
If that's not mind-boggling, take a look at the price tag: US $310,000. That's right, kids. Well okay, they do have a discounted version running for $115,000, so if you're not upper crust enough, you might want to settle for this baby.
Vertu's Signature Cobra Cellphone can be yours for only $310,000. Cheaper version sells for $ 115,000. Created with various diamonds and 439 rubies.
I am honored to introduce our next cellphone; Vertu’s Signature Cobra. I don’t know much about the phone features but I know it’s expensive. What is the Cobra? The Signature Cobra is a luxurious cellphone encrusted with precious rocks by French jeweler Boucheron and it cost $310,000 USD. Why? The Signature Cobra is a ritzy gadget made from one pear-cut diamond, one round white diamond, two emerald eyes and 439 rubies. Does it feature speaker phone, streaming video, or a nice to-do list? I’ve come to this conclusion. Do features matter when an overprice cellphone is worth more than the average home?
For the savvy, intelligent, and bargain shopper does this make an impression? NO. It’s a Paris Hilton phone marketed to those who love the bling lifestyle. The Signature Cobra, as one might observe, is merely a regular phone laced with expensive rocks. It’s the equivalent of crystallizing an apple or some other fruit. A once ordinary object is now engulfed with shinny specs of light which glitter from every angle. If you can’t afford the $310,000 model a cheaper version is available for an affordable $115,000 USD. Thanks to the discount, .5% of the world’s population can now afford it. Vertu, the luxury phone company that creates and markets the Signature Cobra, is now taking orders which are currently limited to 8, but only 26 Signature Cobras will be made for the lucky few who make that decision.
FYI: According to Wikipedia.com, Vertu is an independently run fully owned subsidiary of the phone manufacturer Nokia.
Designed by Frenchman Boucheron, the Signature Cobra is made from a pear-cut diamond, a round white diamond, two emerald eyes and all of 439 rubies. Count 'em yourself.
If that's not mind-boggling, take a look at the price tag: US $310,000. That's right, kids. Well okay, they do have a discounted version running for $115,000, so if you're not upper crust enough, you might want to settle for this baby.
Vertu's Signature Cobra Cellphone can be yours for only $310,000. Cheaper version sells for $ 115,000. Created with various diamonds and 439 rubies.
I am honored to introduce our next cellphone; Vertu’s Signature Cobra. I don’t know much about the phone features but I know it’s expensive. What is the Cobra? The Signature Cobra is a luxurious cellphone encrusted with precious rocks by French jeweler Boucheron and it cost $310,000 USD. Why? The Signature Cobra is a ritzy gadget made from one pear-cut diamond, one round white diamond, two emerald eyes and 439 rubies. Does it feature speaker phone, streaming video, or a nice to-do list? I’ve come to this conclusion. Do features matter when an overprice cellphone is worth more than the average home?
For the savvy, intelligent, and bargain shopper does this make an impression? NO. It’s a Paris Hilton phone marketed to those who love the bling lifestyle. The Signature Cobra, as one might observe, is merely a regular phone laced with expensive rocks. It’s the equivalent of crystallizing an apple or some other fruit. A once ordinary object is now engulfed with shinny specs of light which glitter from every angle. If you can’t afford the $310,000 model a cheaper version is available for an affordable $115,000 USD. Thanks to the discount, .5% of the world’s population can now afford it. Vertu, the luxury phone company that creates and markets the Signature Cobra, is now taking orders which are currently limited to 8, but only 26 Signature Cobras will be made for the lucky few who make that decision.
FYI: According to Wikipedia.com, Vertu is an independently run fully owned subsidiary of the phone manufacturer Nokia.
Bugatti Veyron Or Bugatti Royale
There is speculation Bugatti Automobiles is developing a second model of the Bugatti Veyron supercar that is estimated to cost a whopping 3 million US Dollars! I even saw some referring this new Bugatti Veyron as the most expensive car in the world. But is it really the most expensive car in the world? If not which car is the world's most expensive car?
I remember when it came out some sites and papers were saying the current Bugatti Veyron which is US$1.5 million was the world's most expensive car. At that price Bugatti Veyron is certainly one of the most expensive cars (its the fastest accelerating and most powerful street going car in the world) but it is another Bugatti that seems to be most expensive car ever.
According to what I could find from a little searching the real most expensive car in the world is this 1930 Bugatti Type 41 Royale.
The Type 41 Royale was Bugatti's most outrageous car. It was also his most exclusive, as only six were ever manufactured. Each had considerable presence due their massive length, 12 litre engine and huge wheels.One of the most expensive cars in the world is the Type 41 Coupe de Ville Napoleon. It was the first Royale made, and was Ettore Bugatti's personal transportation. It eventually ended up with the Schlumpf brothers, and still resides in their Mulhouse Museum.The Kellener-bodied Royale still holds the world record for fetching $8 700 000 USD at Christie's Auction in 1983. When adjusted for inflation, this price would be over 16 million, a price which only other Royales, or the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, could eclipse
I remember when it came out some sites and papers were saying the current Bugatti Veyron which is US$1.5 million was the world's most expensive car. At that price Bugatti Veyron is certainly one of the most expensive cars (its the fastest accelerating and most powerful street going car in the world) but it is another Bugatti that seems to be most expensive car ever.
According to what I could find from a little searching the real most expensive car in the world is this 1930 Bugatti Type 41 Royale.
The Type 41 Royale was Bugatti's most outrageous car. It was also his most exclusive, as only six were ever manufactured. Each had considerable presence due their massive length, 12 litre engine and huge wheels.One of the most expensive cars in the world is the Type 41 Coupe de Ville Napoleon. It was the first Royale made, and was Ettore Bugatti's personal transportation. It eventually ended up with the Schlumpf brothers, and still resides in their Mulhouse Museum.The Kellener-bodied Royale still holds the world record for fetching $8 700 000 USD at Christie's Auction in 1983. When adjusted for inflation, this price would be over 16 million, a price which only other Royales, or the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, could eclipse
Bugatti Most Expensive Car In The World
What is the most expensive car in the world? The 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe was sold for $8,700,000 in 1987. However, that car and many alike will not be included in this list because it is not available on the market today. It is hard to imagine someone would actually spend 8 million dollars on a car instead of using it for something more productive. However, if you have the money and the opportunity, you will definitely spend a small fraction of it to place a few of these supercars in your garage. Here is the 10 most expensive cars available on the market.
Bugatti Veyron $1,192,057. This is by far the most expensive street legal car available on the market today. It is the fastest accelerating car reaching 0-60 in 2.5 seconds. It claims to be the fastest car with a top speed of 253 mph+. However, the title for the fastest car goes to the SSC Ultimate Aero which exceed 253 mph pushing this car to 2nd place for the fastest car.
Produced by a small independent company in Italy, the Pagani Zonda C12 F is the 8th fastest car in the world. It promises to delivery a top speed of 215 mph+ and it an reach 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.
Don’t let the price tag fool you, the 3rd most expensive car is actually fastest street legal car in the world with a top speed of 257 mph+ and reaching 0-60 in 2.7 seconds. This baby cost nearly half as much as the Bugatti Veyron, yet has enough power to top the most expensive car in a speed race. It is estimated that only 25 of this exact model will ever be produced.
Doesn’t this look like a race car? Yet, with $645k, you can get this car and legally drive to your local supermarket and buy groceries. It has a top speed of 229 mph+ and although it was intentionally made for racing, it may be bought and show off to your neighbors.
The first true American production certified supercar, this cowboy is rank #4 for the fastest car in the world. It has a top speed of 248 mph+ and it can reach 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. If you are a true American patriot, you can be proud to show off this car.
Swedish made, the Koenigsegg is fighting hard to become the fastest car in the world. Currently the 3rd fastest car in the world with a top speed of 250 mph+, the car manufacture Koenigsegg is not giving up and will continue to try and produce the fastest car.
A supercar with dynamic stability control and a top speed of 209 mph+ and it can reach 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. The Porsche Carrera GT applies the absolute calibers of a true racing car to offer an unprecedented driving feeling on the road.
Bugatti Veyron $1,192,057. This is by far the most expensive street legal car available on the market today. It is the fastest accelerating car reaching 0-60 in 2.5 seconds. It claims to be the fastest car with a top speed of 253 mph+. However, the title for the fastest car goes to the SSC Ultimate Aero which exceed 253 mph pushing this car to 2nd place for the fastest car.
Produced by a small independent company in Italy, the Pagani Zonda C12 F is the 8th fastest car in the world. It promises to delivery a top speed of 215 mph+ and it an reach 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.
Don’t let the price tag fool you, the 3rd most expensive car is actually fastest street legal car in the world with a top speed of 257 mph+ and reaching 0-60 in 2.7 seconds. This baby cost nearly half as much as the Bugatti Veyron, yet has enough power to top the most expensive car in a speed race. It is estimated that only 25 of this exact model will ever be produced.
Doesn’t this look like a race car? Yet, with $645k, you can get this car and legally drive to your local supermarket and buy groceries. It has a top speed of 229 mph+ and although it was intentionally made for racing, it may be bought and show off to your neighbors.
The first true American production certified supercar, this cowboy is rank #4 for the fastest car in the world. It has a top speed of 248 mph+ and it can reach 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. If you are a true American patriot, you can be proud to show off this car.
Swedish made, the Koenigsegg is fighting hard to become the fastest car in the world. Currently the 3rd fastest car in the world with a top speed of 250 mph+, the car manufacture Koenigsegg is not giving up and will continue to try and produce the fastest car.
A supercar with dynamic stability control and a top speed of 209 mph+ and it can reach 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. The Porsche Carrera GT applies the absolute calibers of a true racing car to offer an unprecedented driving feeling on the road.
World Most Expensive Computer Mouse Ever..
Pat Says Now is a Swiss manufacturer of computer mice. They design and produce mice in all shapes and colours. Pat Says Now combines Swiss quality with innovative ideas and creative designs – they bring colour into office life and make working truly fun!
The company has now launched the world's most expensive computer mouse, cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds. There are two variants to choose from - the beautiful "Diamond Flower" design and the "Scattered Diamond" design.
The mouse is a 800-dpi optical three button mouse with a scroll wheel and connects through both USB and PS/2. It works on PC and Mac platforms and even comes with a three year warranty. The mouse is also available in yellow or red gold, with black or white trim.
Well, the most interesting part of this story - this mouse costs £12,400 ($24,180) only!!
Personalise your mouse with diamond initials or pattern of your choice! Choose from yellow, red or white gold with white or black trim. Email us at hello@fabstuff.net with your ideas for your design or telephone our helpline and discuss your creation with us on 0800 458 5448. Each mouse is made to order and you will need to allow up to 3 weeks for delivery
Pat Says Now is a Swiss manufacturer of individual computer mice. They design and produce mice in all shapes and colours. Pat Says Now combines Swiss quality with innovative ideas and creative designs – they bring colour into office life and make working truly fun!
Their innovative design makes Pat Says Now mice a perfect gift for anybody working with a computer. Attractively wrapped in a specially designed box, these trendy “desk pets” are a temptation not many can resist.
Let us introduce the world's most expensive computer mouse, cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds. Choose from the beautiful "Diamond Flower" design and the "Scattered Diamond" design. If you would prefer your mouse in yellow (as seen below) or red gold, with black or white trim, email us at hello@fabstuff.net . Be the first in the UK to own this unique and exclusive toy!
Every now and then we happen to come across some products aimed directly at those people who have so much money that they really don't know what to do with it. So, if you've already got a yacht, the latest pimped up Brabus Mercedes, a private jet and, why not, your own island, then you probably can also afford a computer mouse worth 18,600 Euro (or 24,180 US dollars), namely the "Diamond Flower" model developed by the well-known Swiss manufacturer of weird and extravagant mouses, Pat Says Now.
So, why is this thing so extremely expensive? Well, the main reason is probably the fact that the "Diamond Flower" is cast from 18-carat white gold and set with 59 brilliants. And we're not talking about some fake or minuscule brilliants, but about 58 stones with a diameter of 2 mm and 1 with the diameter of 4 mm. Moreover, the manufacturer assures us that none of the gems is a "conflict diamond", meaning that none of them comes from certain countries sanctioned by the UN.
Besides being a real piece of jewelry, the mouse doesn't offer any impressive technical specifications. Thus, we're talking about an ordinary 3-button wheel mouse, which connects either via USB or via PS/2 to a PC or Mac system, and sports an 800 dpi resolution. This very impressive (at least at a visual level) mouse is available in 2 models, the aforementioned "Diamond Flower" model, as well as the "Scattered Diamond", which sports the same number of brilliants, but this time scattered all around the surface of the mouse. So, what do you think? Would you pay that kind of money for this thing?
Pat Says Now, a Swiss manufacturer of individual computer mice has designed a mouse which is embedded with all kind of fancy jewelry. For about $24180, it seems that it's world's costly mouse. It comes in white, red or yellow gold with 59 brilliant-cut scattered diamonds or a diamond flower design or you can have it with black or white trim. I think it'll work wonders when paired with a million dollar PC. As far as usability is concerned, the three button optical wheel mouse features a resolution of 800dpi and works on a Windows / Mac based PC.
Price:
£12,400.00
($24,180.00 USD)
10,39,740 Indian Rupees (Approx)
Fabian says.... ''A perfect gift for a 60th wedding anniversary, as diamond is the traditional gift for this event, it is also a great choice for a 50th wedding anniversary, as Gold is the traditional gift for this event!''
Personalise your mouse with diamond initials or pattern of your choice! Choose from yellow, red or white gold with white or black trim. Email us at hello@fabstuff.net with your ideas for your design or telephone our helpline and discuss your creation with us on 0800 458 5448. Each mouse is made to order and you will need to allow up to 3 weeks for delivery
Pat Says Now is a Swiss manufacturer of individual computer mice. They design and produce mice in all shapes and colours. Pat Says Now combines Swiss quality with innovative ideas and creative designs – they bring colour into office life and make working truly fun!
Their innovative design makes Pat Says Now mice a perfect gift for anybody working with a computer. Attractively wrapped in a specially designed box, these trendy “desk pets” are a temptation not many can resist.
Let us introduce the world's most expensive computer mouse, cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds. Choose from the beautiful "Diamond Flower" design and the "Scattered Diamond" design. If you would prefer your mouse in yellow (as seen below) or red gold, with black or white trim, email us at hello@fabstuff.net . Be the first in the UK to own this unique and exclusive toy!
Modern 3-button Wheel Mouse. Connection USB with PS/2 (for PC and Mac). Resolution 800dpi. Easy to Install. 3-year warranty. Optical.
Can you imagine that you have to spend more than 10 grands for buying a mouse? This is really a special mouse! How special is it? I’m not too sure whether it’s a functioning mouse but it’s cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds, i.e it’s the Pat Says Now mouse! If you have one make sure you lock it safely in your secuirty safe!
The product page suggests that “this mouse is the perfect gift for a 60th wedding anniversary, as diamond is the traditional gift for this event, it is also a great choice for a 50th wedding anniversary….”. Well, it might be a good choice as the coming valentine’s day gift, if it’s affordable for you.
The Pat Says Now mice come in white, red or yellow gold with 59 brilliant-cut scattered diamonds or a diamond flower design or you can have it with black or white trim. It’s 3-button optical mouse, compatible with PC and Mac, with resolution of 800dpi and comes with 3-year warranty.
There are plenty of different computer mouses but not many cost the same as the SpaceMouse Plus which is made for people that work with 3D software, it has a price tag of $500.
The main feature is the inclusion of 11 programmable buttons on the front so you can make several actions to your 3D model quickly and the same time, like: rotate + zoom + undo + redo, etc. The second main feature is that it saves time so therefore the productivity is suppose to increase.
The SpaceMouse Plus works via USB, it is compatible with more than 100 programs and supports Windows 2000/XP + Linux.
Available online
I don't know many computing Grannies so perhaps offering this diamond scattered mouse as ''A perfect gift for a 60th wedding anniversary, as diamond is the traditional gift for this event" may not work. Still, you never know. The world's most expensive mouse comes in white, red or yellow gold with 59 brilliant-cut scattered diamonds or a diamond flower design or you can have it with black or white trim. Does it actually work as a functioning mouse though? Yes, it's a three button optical wheel mouse, compatible with MAC or PC, has a resolution of 800dpi and comes with a three year warranty. At a price tag of $23,250, it’s certainly the most expensive mouse, I have ever come across, in the world. It’s called the Diamond Flower Mouse.
The diamond flower mouse is available in 18-carat white or yellow gold and set with 59 brilliant diamonds in the shape of a beautiful flower. It’s an optical mouse that connects to your computer using the USB port. The diamond flower mouse has 3-button optical scroll and virtually runs on any operating system that supports USB or PS/2 port based devices.
This ultra-bling mouse will definitely be a girl's best friend many times over, boasting 59 brilliant-cut diamonds scattered all over or in a diamond flower design, depending on your preference. Choose from a white, red, or yellow gold exterior complete with a black or white trim. While it looks really nice to wear around your neck (despite its impractical size), you can still use it as any other three-button optical wheel mouse, complete with an 800dpi resolution and a three year warranty. Picking one up will set you back by a whooping
The company has now launched the world's most expensive computer mouse, cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds. There are two variants to choose from - the beautiful "Diamond Flower" design and the "Scattered Diamond" design.
The mouse is a 800-dpi optical three button mouse with a scroll wheel and connects through both USB and PS/2. It works on PC and Mac platforms and even comes with a three year warranty. The mouse is also available in yellow or red gold, with black or white trim.
Well, the most interesting part of this story - this mouse costs £12,400 ($24,180) only!!
Personalise your mouse with diamond initials or pattern of your choice! Choose from yellow, red or white gold with white or black trim. Email us at hello@fabstuff.net with your ideas for your design or telephone our helpline and discuss your creation with us on 0800 458 5448. Each mouse is made to order and you will need to allow up to 3 weeks for delivery
Pat Says Now is a Swiss manufacturer of individual computer mice. They design and produce mice in all shapes and colours. Pat Says Now combines Swiss quality with innovative ideas and creative designs – they bring colour into office life and make working truly fun!
Their innovative design makes Pat Says Now mice a perfect gift for anybody working with a computer. Attractively wrapped in a specially designed box, these trendy “desk pets” are a temptation not many can resist.
Let us introduce the world's most expensive computer mouse, cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds. Choose from the beautiful "Diamond Flower" design and the "Scattered Diamond" design. If you would prefer your mouse in yellow (as seen below) or red gold, with black or white trim, email us at hello@fabstuff.net . Be the first in the UK to own this unique and exclusive toy!
Every now and then we happen to come across some products aimed directly at those people who have so much money that they really don't know what to do with it. So, if you've already got a yacht, the latest pimped up Brabus Mercedes, a private jet and, why not, your own island, then you probably can also afford a computer mouse worth 18,600 Euro (or 24,180 US dollars), namely the "Diamond Flower" model developed by the well-known Swiss manufacturer of weird and extravagant mouses, Pat Says Now.
So, why is this thing so extremely expensive? Well, the main reason is probably the fact that the "Diamond Flower" is cast from 18-carat white gold and set with 59 brilliants. And we're not talking about some fake or minuscule brilliants, but about 58 stones with a diameter of 2 mm and 1 with the diameter of 4 mm. Moreover, the manufacturer assures us that none of the gems is a "conflict diamond", meaning that none of them comes from certain countries sanctioned by the UN.
Besides being a real piece of jewelry, the mouse doesn't offer any impressive technical specifications. Thus, we're talking about an ordinary 3-button wheel mouse, which connects either via USB or via PS/2 to a PC or Mac system, and sports an 800 dpi resolution. This very impressive (at least at a visual level) mouse is available in 2 models, the aforementioned "Diamond Flower" model, as well as the "Scattered Diamond", which sports the same number of brilliants, but this time scattered all around the surface of the mouse. So, what do you think? Would you pay that kind of money for this thing?
Pat Says Now, a Swiss manufacturer of individual computer mice has designed a mouse which is embedded with all kind of fancy jewelry. For about $24180, it seems that it's world's costly mouse. It comes in white, red or yellow gold with 59 brilliant-cut scattered diamonds or a diamond flower design or you can have it with black or white trim. I think it'll work wonders when paired with a million dollar PC. As far as usability is concerned, the three button optical wheel mouse features a resolution of 800dpi and works on a Windows / Mac based PC.
Price:
£12,400.00
($24,180.00 USD)
10,39,740 Indian Rupees (Approx)
Fabian says.... ''A perfect gift for a 60th wedding anniversary, as diamond is the traditional gift for this event, it is also a great choice for a 50th wedding anniversary, as Gold is the traditional gift for this event!''
Personalise your mouse with diamond initials or pattern of your choice! Choose from yellow, red or white gold with white or black trim. Email us at hello@fabstuff.net with your ideas for your design or telephone our helpline and discuss your creation with us on 0800 458 5448. Each mouse is made to order and you will need to allow up to 3 weeks for delivery
Pat Says Now is a Swiss manufacturer of individual computer mice. They design and produce mice in all shapes and colours. Pat Says Now combines Swiss quality with innovative ideas and creative designs – they bring colour into office life and make working truly fun!
Their innovative design makes Pat Says Now mice a perfect gift for anybody working with a computer. Attractively wrapped in a specially designed box, these trendy “desk pets” are a temptation not many can resist.
Let us introduce the world's most expensive computer mouse, cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds. Choose from the beautiful "Diamond Flower" design and the "Scattered Diamond" design. If you would prefer your mouse in yellow (as seen below) or red gold, with black or white trim, email us at hello@fabstuff.net . Be the first in the UK to own this unique and exclusive toy!
Modern 3-button Wheel Mouse. Connection USB with PS/2 (for PC and Mac). Resolution 800dpi. Easy to Install. 3-year warranty. Optical.
Can you imagine that you have to spend more than 10 grands for buying a mouse? This is really a special mouse! How special is it? I’m not too sure whether it’s a functioning mouse but it’s cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 brilliant cut diamonds, i.e it’s the Pat Says Now mouse! If you have one make sure you lock it safely in your secuirty safe!
The product page suggests that “this mouse is the perfect gift for a 60th wedding anniversary, as diamond is the traditional gift for this event, it is also a great choice for a 50th wedding anniversary….”. Well, it might be a good choice as the coming valentine’s day gift, if it’s affordable for you.
The Pat Says Now mice come in white, red or yellow gold with 59 brilliant-cut scattered diamonds or a diamond flower design or you can have it with black or white trim. It’s 3-button optical mouse, compatible with PC and Mac, with resolution of 800dpi and comes with 3-year warranty.
There are plenty of different computer mouses but not many cost the same as the SpaceMouse Plus which is made for people that work with 3D software, it has a price tag of $500.
The main feature is the inclusion of 11 programmable buttons on the front so you can make several actions to your 3D model quickly and the same time, like: rotate + zoom + undo + redo, etc. The second main feature is that it saves time so therefore the productivity is suppose to increase.
The SpaceMouse Plus works via USB, it is compatible with more than 100 programs and supports Windows 2000/XP + Linux.
Available online
I don't know many computing Grannies so perhaps offering this diamond scattered mouse as ''A perfect gift for a 60th wedding anniversary, as diamond is the traditional gift for this event" may not work. Still, you never know. The world's most expensive mouse comes in white, red or yellow gold with 59 brilliant-cut scattered diamonds or a diamond flower design or you can have it with black or white trim. Does it actually work as a functioning mouse though? Yes, it's a three button optical wheel mouse, compatible with MAC or PC, has a resolution of 800dpi and comes with a three year warranty. At a price tag of $23,250, it’s certainly the most expensive mouse, I have ever come across, in the world. It’s called the Diamond Flower Mouse.
The diamond flower mouse is available in 18-carat white or yellow gold and set with 59 brilliant diamonds in the shape of a beautiful flower. It’s an optical mouse that connects to your computer using the USB port. The diamond flower mouse has 3-button optical scroll and virtually runs on any operating system that supports USB or PS/2 port based devices.
This ultra-bling mouse will definitely be a girl's best friend many times over, boasting 59 brilliant-cut diamonds scattered all over or in a diamond flower design, depending on your preference. Choose from a white, red, or yellow gold exterior complete with a black or white trim. While it looks really nice to wear around your neck (despite its impractical size), you can still use it as any other three-button optical wheel mouse, complete with an 800dpi resolution and a three year warranty. Picking one up will set you back by a whooping
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