Dear God! What was LG thinking when they came up with this one? First, LG Electronics launched the LG LH-C643 home theatre system with 24 carat gold-plates exteriors. And now the 71-inch gold plasma tv to go with it. The monster TV made a debut in Dubai last month. Given the Middle Eastern fondness for gold, LG is hoping that this bling bling monstrosity of a tv will sell there. Only 1,000 sets of the Royal Gold 71-inch plasma are supposed to be manufactured and each one has an individual gold number plate. Can you beat that, Samsung?

Which gadgets ruled the roost in 2005? Yours truely rounded up the greatest gear for work and play, then narrowed down the list to the top 15 devices. Pick up December's Man's World issue to drool over the top 15 lovelies. And if you would like to share your favourite gadget of 2005 on this blog, email me.

The 40 greatest US magazine covers of the last 40 years were unveiled on 17 October at the American Magazine Conference (AMC) 2005 where Rolling Stone’s January 22, 1981 cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was named the top magazine cover. But I was disappointed to see that Wired Magazine got the 33rd spot. Wired has created some of the most interesting and memorable covers I have ever seen. I love the magazine. Wired is the most striking media creation of our generation. Wired's everything that other magazines are not - crammed with the most surprising and resonant stories about the people, companies, technologies, and ideas that are transforming our lives.

Here's the cover that made it to the Top 40 list.

Wired – June 1997 – Apple symbol covered in barbed wire: “Pray”

And some other great covers that didnt make it to the list.

For those of you who dont have budget for a media center pc, here's some good news. iOmega has launched the new Iomega ScreenPlay Multimedia Drive, a portable hard drive with built-in multimedia playback capability that makes it a digital media jukebox for photos, songs and video files that can be used with virtually any television or audio-video system in the world. Like a Media Center PC, the 200 and 300GB pair play videos, photos and music. Format support is respectable, - on the movie front, you can play MP1, 2 and 4 including your DivX flicks and the raw VOB files created when you rip a DVD to a computer's hard drive. For music you get MP3, WMA, WAV and Ogg playback, though no AAC. The other stuff you'd expect includes a remote, FireWire and USB, plus S-Video for plugging into your tv. Both are on sale now with the 200GB available £220 and the 300GB selling at £240. Can it also record tv shows? No, its just a player.

In a world premiere from India (a first for the company) Motorola has launched the newest MOTO -- the highly anticipated Motorola L6 mobile handset. Following its launch in India, the Motorola L6 will roll out in other markets in due course through a series of announcements. Meanwhile, across India, the Motorola L6 is on sale starting today. The ultra-slim Motorola L6 is the candy-bar version Motorola RAZR - the super-slim clamshell beauty. Measuring just 10.9mm and weighing just 86 grams, the chiseled and sleek Motorola L6 handset looks fantastic and packs a significant feature set, including an integrated VGA camera (with 4X zoom) for video recording, Bluetooth connectivity and a digital audio player. Its priced at Rs.8,495 (USD 185) for the Indian market.

Sony Ericsson today launched three budget phones for the budget-conscious consumers. The J220, J230 and Z300 are all entry-level phones, so dont expect a camera, MP3 player or e-mail functionality. The J220 and J230 have a 128x128 pixel, 65k display, 500-capacity phone book and a 280 hour stand-by battery. The J230 is a little more generous with an FM radio. The Z300 is a more feminine variation on the same theme, with the same display and features plus personalisation options with Style-Up covers. For a touch of femininity, the included Crystal Decor pack consists of stick-on crystals (cheap bling bling!) which are better left unused.

The J220 and J230 will be available in Q1 2006, while the Z300 will be out before Christmas. There's no pricing info as yet.

Motorola announced today that it plans to add four new RAZR phones to its lineup, including versions available in pink and blue, the first RAZR for CDMA networks, and an update to the original V3 phone that will include iTunes in some markets. The RAZR has proven to be a huge success story for the company, with sales expected to top 10 million units worldwide before the end of this year. "We wanted to evolve the Motorola RAZR without compromising the integrity and philosophy of the original design," corporate vice president of marketing Leslie Dance said.

This announcement brings the total number of RAZR handsets announced so far to seven, with four color renditions available from the original model. According to Motorola representatives, the four new RAZRs will be sold in stores later this year and early 2006.

Motorola RAZR V3i
This is the iTunes RAZR and will include a better 1.23-megapixel camera, as well as expandable memory capabilities. Also, the phone will now carry a spun metal look, as opposed to the original brushed metal used for the original RAZR phones. The V3i will include the iTunes music software first introduced on the ROKR. However, Motorola said that the feature would not be available in all regions and would be carrier dependent. If iTunes was not preinstalled, Motorola's own Digital Music Player would be included in its place.

Motorola RAZR V3c
The RAZR V3c will be the lineup's first CDMA model. The phone will support high-speed EV-DO networks and include a 1.3-megapixel camera alongside Bluetooth and an MP3 player.

Motorola RAZR in Pink and Blue
The new pink and blue RAZRs, targeted at the fashion forward consumers, will carry a similar feature set to the traditional RAZR V3 phone. According to Motorola, the blue design will likely have more widespread launch; the pink model is expected to have limited availability in most markets. CNET Asia confirms that both pink and blue versions will be available in Singapore.

Nokia has unveiled three new mobile multimedia devices at a special conference in Barcelona. The N71, N80 and N92 are the latest products in Nokia's up-market N-series range. All three phones are expected to be available in the first half of next year with price tags ranging from 400 euros to 600 euros.

Nokia N92
Of the three multimedia phones announced, Nokia is clearly hyping one particular handset, the N92. Touted by the company as the world's first mobile device with built-in DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) receiver, the terminal can be used to watch and record live TV on-the-go. DVB-H handsets, in the future, will be able to receive as many as fifty TV channels. It is set to launch in Italy in time for the 2006 World Cup with other European countries following later in the year. The handset can also record TV programmes on to an SD card and deliver an on-screen electronic programme guide. In addition, it offers a 320 x 240 (16 million color) display, 2 megapixel camera, onboard 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 and 90MB of storage.

Nokia N71
The music centric N71 offers an in-box audio adaptor to give users stereo FM radio access through standard headphones and has an integrated digital music and video player.
In addition, the 3G handset has a slot for a miniSD card to extend storage capacity up to 2GB, and comes with 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 5-band equaliser and support for MP3, AAC and WMA formats.


Nokia N80
Completing the line up is the Nokia N80, a slider 3G handset with a 3 Megapixel camera and the first mobile phone to feature Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) so that it can network wirelessly with any device in the home. With this technology, users can view stored images wirelessly via a home television set, print wirelessly to compatible computers and listen to supported music files through their home audio system.

Sony's latest addition to its ultra-slim digital camera line, the Cybershot DSC-T9 is the first in this category to offer both optical image stabilization and high light sensitivity. What it basically means is the that the new six-megapixel DSC-T9 delivers more detailed images with significantly less blur and graininess than typical point-and-shoot cameras. Optical image stabilization reduces image blur from hand movement, while high light sensitivity helps to lessen blurriness resulting from low-light conditions. Other features include a 3x Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar optical zoom lens, MPEG movie recording, a superb 2.5" LCD screen and an updated software. The Cyber-shot DSC-T9 camera will be available in January for about $450 online at http://www.sonystyle.com