Daily Pampering: World’s most expensive iPad

by Melanie Nayer on

When money is no object, the objects available are endless.

While the typical shopper waited in line to buy Apple’s iPad, London-based luxury designer Stuart Hughes began working on the ultimate iPad for the luxe-lifestyler. Along with his wife Katherine Hughes, the designer adds gold, platinum and precious stones to the newest electronic products to hit the market and creates a product that makes a statement, beyond its original purpose. So, when Apple introduced the iPad it seemed only natural that the Hughes’ would add their luxurious touch this piece of coveted technology.

Think you’re worth it? Think fast – one of the designers’ appeal is that there are only a limited number of items available for purchase.

The solid Platinum iPad SUPREME Edition: The solid platinum and diamond iPad is encrusted with 85.5 cts of ‘I’F’ Flawless diamonds, a total amount of 173 individually set sparkling diamonds. The iPad alone weighs in at 1.5 pounds, but add the platinum and diamonds to this gem and you’ll be carrying around a 6 pound piece of blinged-out technology. The platinum iPad is available in the Wi-Fi & 3G , 64GB versions, but only 5 platinum iPads are available for sale o be made.
Total price: £299,995.00 (about $443,000 USD)

The solid Gold iPad SUPREME Edition: A little lighter that the Platinum iPad, but equally as stunning, is the Gold iPad, which is encrusted with 25.5 cts of ‘I’F’ Flawless diamonds – a total of 53 individually set diamonds that sit around the 22ct Apple logo on the back of the iPad. The back of the iPad and the perimeter of the screen are made from a single piece of solid 22ct gold, which brings the weight of this beauty to roughly 4.5 pounds.There are only 10 items available in either the Wi-Fi or 3G editions.
Total price: Price – £129,995.00 (about $192,000 USD)

Can’t afford one of these priceless pieces? Maybe you should just dress up your iPad with a luxury case from Louis Vuitton.

Want more? Get your dose of Daily Pampering right here.

Top Caribbean bolthole to offer iPads to guests

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Lighthouse Bay Resort, an exquisite Barbuda resort recently tipped by Vanity Fair’s George Wayne as an appropriately majestic honeymoon location for Prince William and Kate Middleton, already cocoons its guests in utter bliss.

It offers isolation along a miles-long stretch of insanely stunning beach; a skilled chef who produces wonderfully personalized meals; an appealing list of activities, all gently on offer; and free long-distance telephone and use of laptops-and, as of this coming week, use of iPads on the property.

In stocking its rooms with iPads, Lighthouse Bay will advance a luxury hotel micro-trend. Back in April, Gridskipper noted that several hotels had begun to incorporate the iPad tablet into their amenity tallies. One of the hotels mentioned in that round-up, Rhode Island’s Ocean House, at the time planned to offer iPads as a basic amenity for guests; the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Berkeley in London (the latter reported in Gadling) both provide iPad in selected suites.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s Ale House Inn ups the ante by providing iPads to guests in all its “Deluxe” rooms. By providing four iPads for its nine suites, Lighthouse Bay provides similarly broad guest access to iPads. Next season, Lighthouse Bay plans to roll out iPads in all of its nine suites.

The iPad is still very new and it’s unclear how broad its adoption will be. But if this micro-trend continues and luxury hotels will soon be providing the magic tablet for guests in greater numbers, the iPad may progress from amenity to utility fairly quickly.

Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences for the iPad – free for three days only!

by Scott Carmichael on

Lonely Planet has been in a really generous mood this year – back in April, they gave away all their European iPhone city guides to help stranded volcanic ash passengers, and now they are giving away their most popular iPad app.

1000 Ultimate Experiences is exactly what the name describes – a guide with 1000 of the best experiences in the world, in an app that takes full advantage of the iPad. With 100’s of photos, full screen video clips and more, there is no better way to sit back and find your next ultimate vacation destination.

Everything is neatly split into sections like strangest museums, ultimate sailing trips or classic campervan routes. You’ll find the app in the app store and the folks at Lonely Planet do ask that you leave a review of the app to help spread the word.

Point Inside app helps you navigate your way around 50 airports on your iPhone or iPad

by Scott Carmichael on

We’ve covered Point Inside in the past – their previous version focused on helping you find your way around shopping malls, and did a great job at helping locate your favorite store, restaurants and more. Now, the developers behind this excellent app have taken things way beyond shopping – with the addition of maps covering 50 airports in the U.S. and Canada.

Just in time for the busy Memorial Day weekend, you’ll be able to download Point Inside onto your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, and navigate your way around airports you’ve never been to, with the ease of a frequent flier.

Best of all, the app makes use of GPS, cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning technologies to help you navigate, even when you are indoors. A list of all the airports included in this version can be found here.

To download the new version, simply update your current version or click here for a new download. The Android version has not been updated yet – but it too will soon have access to the airport maps feature.

Archos 5 Internet tablet review – an Android powered iPad alternative?

by Scott Carmichael on

The Archos 5 Internet tablet is the first Android powered device from this French media player company. The device features a 4.8″ touch screen, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and storage through built in memory with MicroSD expansion or hard drive storage up to 500GB.

The device runs the Android operating system, along with a whole host of Archos developed improvements and applications. The device takes the regular Android experience, and turns it into a very compact media/Internet tablet. So – can this $249.99 device really take the place of the iPad?
Multimedia features

The Archos 5 Internet tablet supports music, photos, video and online content – half of the device is a great portable media player, and the other half is a portable computer. The Archos 5 even features a built in FM radio and FM transmitter – something not found on most portable devices.

When connected to a TV, the tablet itself acts as a trackpad to control all the playback features.

Hardware

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is extremely thin – a mere 10.4mm (0.409 inches) on the MicroSD versions, and 20mm (0.787″) on the hard drive versions. Unlike Android phones, the Archos 5 Internet tablet relies entirely on screen presses for controlling the device, though there are power and volume buttons on the top. On the left side is a MicroUSB port and a headphone jack, and on the bottom are the usual 2 ports found on most other Archos players.

Battery life is rated at up to 22 hours of music, and 7 hours of video, and in my tests this turned out to be quite accurate. When you connect the Archos to its mini dock, you can use the USB host connector to add a mouse or keyboard.

When out of range of Wi-Fi, you can also use the built in tethering feature to hook the device up to your Bluetooth enabled mobile phone.

Expansions galore

The list of available accessories for the Archos 5 includes a DVR station that turns the device into a TV recorder, a mini dock with video output, an mini HDMI dock, a mini DVR dock, a battery dock, a variety of cases and (on the non-hard drive models), MicroSD cards. Ideally, video outputs like component and HDMI would have been built into the device itself, without the need for additional accessories.

Hardcore geeks may even want to replace the Android operating system with something a little more powerful – and Archos provides all the information you need to turn the device into a dual-booting portable computer.

Prices

The cheapest Archos 5 Internet tablet comes with 8GB of storage an a MicroSD expansion slot. At $249.99 it is quite a bargain. The 16GB version is $299.99, 32GB is $379.99, 160GB is $399.99 and 500GB is $499.99.

These prices are quite good – the 8GB model may not have enough space for most people, but for around $30, you can add a 16GB MicroSD memory card.

The Archos 5 Internet tablet for travelers?

The Archos 5 has pretty much everything a traveler needs – movie and music playback, excellent browser, email client and a variety of decent Android apps. With the optional mini-dock, you can plug the Archos into a (hotel) TV, and with a USB or Bluetooth mouse/keyboard, you’ll even be able to use it as a full computer replacement. Unlike some devices, the Archos displays everything from its screen onto a TV – not just specific TV enabled apps.

In my tests in a hotel room, using the Archos 5 as an entertainment device was just fantastic – very easy to set up and a breeze to use.

A viable alternative to the iPad?

Can the Archos 5 Internet Tablet replace an iPad? In one word – maybe.

It all depends on your requirements. The Archos 5 Internet tablet will most certainly not replace your iPad if you enjoy the applications Apple offers on its devices. Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of decent Android apps, but the Archos lacks access to the Android Market, opting for a specially designed app store built by Archos which does not offer access to some of the most popular Android apps.

Where the Archos beats the iPad (in my opinion) is multimedia – there is no need for iTunes to load content onto the device, and with an available 500GB version, you can carry a lot more content.

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet also has more media format support than the iPad, offering video support for MPEG-4 up to HD resolution, WMV, MKV, M-JPEG and optional support for MPEG-2, VOB and WMV HD. Music support is built in for MP3, WMA, AAC9, OGG and FLAC. The device even supports subtitle files for movies.

I also find the form factor better for travel – the iPad is a really big device, and watching a movie on it when flying just isn’t all that practical. The 5″ screen on the Archos is just right – nice and bright, and the kickstand makes it perfect for movie watching. I’ve used it on several flights, and actually enjoyed it more than using my iPad in its case.

As delivered, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet does not come with a dock or video output – so you’ll need to invest in the Archos Mini Dock ($29.95). Ideally, this should have been included with the package as it seems like such an essential device.

Final thoughts?

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is not perfect – it suffers from a fairly mediocre touch screen and the lack of Google apps (market, Gmail) are a bit of a disappointment. That said – there is a very easy way to load these apps onto the device without having to be too much of a hacker. Obviously, this is not an Archos endorsed method, but it really does improve the device.

Video, audio and photo support is just fantastic – with its long list of formats that work, you won’t have to waste time encoding clips to work on the device.

The hardware is also very good – I love the kickstand on the back, and the general look and feel of the device shows a lot of effort went into designing it.

All in all I am quite surprised by the usability of the Archos 5 Internet tablet – so much in fact, that once I send this review unit back, I’m ordering one for myself. The unit is one of the only on the market that has so much video format support, and the option for a large hard drive. Of course, being a huge Android fan only helps my decision.

To make a great media player better, it also works very nicely for email, web and other applications – and you can even use the pre-installed navigation system to turn it into a GPS system.

When selecting an Archos 5 Internet Tablet, you’ll want to order the largest you can afford – as delivered, more than half of the space on the 8GB version is occupied by apps and demonstration content.

You can learn more about this very competent little tablet at Archos.com.