All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
It's Wafer Thin
When it comes to laptops, the waif look never goes out of style. Sony's new Vaio X505/P is just about the slimmest, lightest notebook on the planet - and unlike other supermodels, it won't snap like a twig under physical duress. The nickel-reinforced carbon fiber shell on the X505/P protects a specially condensed 1-GHz Pentium M processor, 20-gig hard drive, and 10.4-inch screen. Such advanced casing helps keep the machine's total weight under 2 pounds and its profile as thin as a finger.
Vaio X505/P: $3,199, www.dynamism.com
In Your Faceplate
Wildseed's smart skins are more than makeup; they give Curitel's Identity cell phone a full-mobile makeover. Snap the French Kitty plate over the boomerang-shaped GSM handset and load up to 64 Mbytes of "chic and fashion-crazed" content - exclusive ring tones, games, songs, and more. If pink isn't your color, switch to another plate and get your freak on with Nelly or let out your angst with Korn. Phone sold separately.
Smart Skins: $25-60, Identity Handset: $150-200, www.wildseed.com
Hot Java 2.0
Speed up your caffeine intake without resorting to the dreaded Folgers crystals. In less than a minute, the 1,450-watt Senseo coffee machine heats up one or two cups of water, then forces it evenly through tiny filter packs called "coffee pods." By pushing the hot water uniformly across the grinds - instead of dripping it down the middle of a cone filter - the Senseo promises a nearly instant cuppa joe that's rich but not bitter, topped off with a thin layer of froth.
Senseo: $70 ($4 for 18 coffee pods), www.senseo.com
Totally Tubular
To put a classic twist on modern tech, Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa of Ideo fame used the cathode-ray tube as inspiration for this 8-inch LCD TV. In addition to an old-school aesthetic, the color pixel-pusher packs a 2.4-GHz wireless transmitter for hooking to your cable box, so the set's only tether is its power cord. The catch: It's sold exclusively in Japan, so you'll need an adapter to plug it in.
LCD TV: about $1,500, www.plusminuszero.jp
Hi-Fi Headgear
The iPod gives your life a soundtrack, but those tinny white earbuds keep it a strictly B-movie affair. For a blockbuster lifestyle, get the UE-10 Pros. They're the first buds with three drivers and a truly usable frequency response of 20 Hz to 16 kHz, helping to make them the most accurate audio earpieces you can buy. Made from silicone molds of the user's ears, each pair is custom fit to filter out up to 26 decibels of background noise. No wonder the UE-10s are musicians' other buds of choice.
UE-10 Pro: $900, www.ultimateears.com
- Seth Feman
PLAY
Transformers in Overdrive
High Concept, Low Resolution
Freeze Frame
Reading, Writing, Revolving
The Doomslayer
Final Fantasy at the Philharmonic
What's on Your iPod?
The Hub of the Party
Infrared-Light District
Time Warp
Reviews
Fetish
Test
Shopping Cart
