Mobile Communique

Cell phone communication has come a long way since the heavy beige brick device of the early nineties. With evolution, of course, you have your works of art and you have your dogs. Worse, you have your gold encrusted, bling-bling attempts at art (see below). But every now and then something beautiful (like the Motorola Aura) or something functional (like the Blackberry Storm) come along to get fired up about.

Vertu Boucheron 150

The new Vertu Boucheron 150 cell phone is made out of solid gold, took over 1,000 hours to shape, 700 to hand polish, and another 500 hours to hand build and it’s only $30,000. Could you really talk on this and walk down the street?

Mobiado 105 GMT

Mobiado, known for their ultra high-end phones, offers this: The 105GMT mobile, made out of 18 carat gold with a limited release of just 50 units. And yes, that is two self-winding Swiss watches built in underneath.
Price-- Not yet announced but likely will be astronomical. Why two watches? Why not.

The Motorola Aura

Unique, fashionable, almost affordable. The Motorola Aura has a 62 carat sapphire crystal lens that is scratch resistant, a rotating blade mechanism made of Rockwell 50-55 steel gears and a liquid crystal display in circular form. The creators got their inspiration from a luxury watch design and the end result is a pretty tasteful, functional work of communication art.
$2,000

The Blackberry Storm

IPHONE killer? Launched under the Verizon platform, the new Blackberry Storm is set to do battle with Apple’s Iphone. Not only is this a death match between the Berry and the Iphone but also between Verizon and AT&T. (If you remember, Steve Jobs originally approached Verizon to own the Iphone product, they turned him down—and somebody lost their job) Now the stage seems to be set for both Verizon and Blackberry to enact their revenge upon Mac.

The Storm is a good start. Everything you’ve come to expect from blackberry but with an added (and no doubt Apple inspired) touch screen (although it works better than Apple’s and it should-- The Storm’s touch screen provides tactile feedback to confirm your selection and isn’t quite as cramped as the Iphone). The Storm offers dual mode functionality for world-roaming capabilities, 3G speed on the Verizon network, GPS and a 3.2 megapixel camera.
$600 retail but only $200 when you sign a 2 year contract with Verizon.

And want a phone that costs a million bucks?
Here it is:

The Goldvish Le Million

Made the Guiness Book of Records for world's most expensive phone. Much like the barnacle- laced bottom of a boat, this diamond encrusted device is made of 18 carat gold and comes in pink, yellow or white. Seems it's only function is to appear in rap videos, though it's tough for me to see even P-Diddy player-hating on this.