What we’ve got here in the LeDIX Furtif is $300,000 for a device which is essentially a flip phone on the outside with a fantastically fancy pocket watch on the outside. This version of the LeDIX line features a carbon fiber body as well for a bit more hardcore feel than its predecessor, and has a 3.2-megapixel camera on its back as well. According to Meylan speaking with PCMag, this device is a first for several reasons, one of which is the carbon fiber:

“We’re using carbon fiber to create the entire structure, which has never been done before in the phone industry. It’s quite a challenge. … [The Furtif also features] the world’s most off-centered flying tourbillon.” – Meylan

A tourbillion is a mechanism which keeps a watch on point and telling the right time when the watch is held in any number of positions – not something you’d find in your everyday average smartphone or feature phone. Winding the watch on the cover is done by flipping the phone open or closed. In the future, Celsius hopes to present a device with a mechanism that charges the device in this way as well.

This device has a first run of 32 phones, 22 of which have been pre-sold already. Have a peek at some of the images released thus far of this device and check it out if you happen to be at BaselWorld this week, as Celsius will be in the house showing this beast off front and center.

[via PCMag]

This creation is called the “eCog Mercury” and you can grab your own for a mere $1,250 USD and you’ll still need the Sony laptop itself. What Dunn sells here is his services and the final product, the final product being the laptop connected to the hardware here. What you’re going to get on the side is a slightly more difficult to repair laptop in the end, mind you.

This isn’t the first Steampunk modification of a piece of hardware on the laptop side of things, and it certainly wont be the last. We look forward to the continuation of the genre to be sure, as it’s rather rare that a modification in the vein of steam that doesn’t shine out as a fine art of work – or at least its rare that one reaches the top of the web like this one has. There’s also a video of this device in action, have a peek!

[via Technabob]

A geek going by faustus70 then took some planks from an old antique wood chair to cover the weapon and secured that old wood to the gun using some hand cut aluminum straps and rivets. Any kid (or adult) wielding this bad boy will be the master of the neighborhood NERF war.

It still works and has a magazine that holds ten whistler darts inside. The darts are fired with help from an electric system and power comes from AA batteries. The scope on top of the gun offers three times magnification to snipe your enemy from afar. Apparently the guy was offering the gun on Etsy for sale at $300.

[via Technabob]

The place isn’t cheap as you can imagine being in NYC and then being fitted with so much detail. The seller is asking $1,750,000 and the purchase of the apartment comes with all the furnishings. I have no idea how large the place is. The photos don’t make the apartment look particularly small.

It is fully featured with a nice kitchen and appears to have one bathroom and one bedroom. One thing that does jump out is the big private terrace that the apartment has. Anyone that lives in this place will certainly have the admiration of geeks all around the world that are into steampunk. The apartment has a very movie set feel to it.

[via WSJ]

This is a flash drive and it’s inside a tube that requires a combination to open. That is some cool physical security and the locking style reminds me of a bike lock. The designer used CAD software to design the works and then actually built the parts. It appears to be made out of brass or some other material that looks like brass.

The rings around the cylinder rotate to set the correct combination and then the lid comes off to allow the flash drive to be used. I have seen locks like this on the market with a digital keypad before. The designer also notes that he is working on another version that has no steampunk elements in the design.

[via

If you are into steampunk and miss the days of those rotary phones, but aren’t willing to give up your touchscreen this awesome prototype device is the perfect middle ground. The cool device has a touchscreen on one side that looks like any screen from devices we are familiar with. Since this is a concept, it’s not at all clear how the device would work. The only shot we have of the touchscreen on the back of the concept shows a contacts page. I suspect that the concept would just be a case for your smartphone if it ever became a real product.

It would be cool if you had to turn that rotary dial to call someone, but that would get old fast. If you don’t want to be quite as retro as that rotary dual, there is also a version that showed the next step in phone development with push buttons. Whatever you think of the concept style and usability, you have to stand back and admire the design. The picture of the concept with the front and back against the how the background looks like it is a real gadget. The other photos could be renders though, it’s hard to tell. This would be the perfect smartphone to tether to that Datamancer laptop.

[via Geekosystem]

I particularly like the version of the mouse with the spikes on the side rather than the ring. The design looks really cool, but they aren’t exactly ergonomic. The actual mouse workings of the cool peripherals are a Logitech M305 wireless mouse. You do have to remove three screws from the top of the mouse to get at the battery that powers the Logitech rodent inside.

The Wireless Mouse Version 2 from Aaron Ristau comes in several painted colors. Ristau will even allow you to choose specific keys to use for the left and right mouse buttons if you want and assuming they are available. Each of the mice will cost $180 plus shipping. They aren’t cheap, but steampunk geeks will want one nonetheless.

Actually building the horse apparently took a lot longer than Chase expected, predominantly because he was striving for some sort of at least vaguely convincing accuracy. “The problem is/was that everyone knows what a horse looks like so I couldn’t cheat (much)” he told bookofjoe, adding “accuracy sucks.”

The 45-55lb beast stands 27-inches high at the shoulder, and is 27-inches long and 8-inches wide. We’re not exactly sure what Chase is going to do with it, though we’re sure it makes an imperious place to sit and watch TV from.

[via bookofjoe]

SlashTRACKED
In Irvine California there is a man named David Norris, a man who owns a company that aims to “fingerprint” every computer, mobile phone, and TV set-top box in the world. With the “credit bureau for devices” Norris is building, each device will have a “reputation” based on that device’s online activities including, specifically, shopping habits and demographics. Fingerprinting has been used up until now as a replacement for “cookies” as a method of preventing illegal copying of computer software and to stop credit card fraud. At the moment, Norris’s company has id’ed over 200 million devices – by the end of the year, they expect to have cataloged one billion (one tenth of the world’s total.)

[Via Wall Street Journal Tech]

R3 Media Network

SlashPhone
New Winamp for Android Receive Music from Your PC Wirelessly
Nokia Smartphones Get Opera Mobile 10.1 Final Release
Motorola Divided Into Two Different Division on January 4th
Dell’s Website Show Off Venue Pro For A Moment

Android Community
Official Google Reader App Comes to Android
Motorola Defy Rooted
Verizon’s 4G Network Officially launches December 5th
Motorola DROID Update Preparing for Release, Will Bring Software to Android 2.2.1
Samsung’s New Near Field Communication Chip Promises Increased Wireless Connectivity
Angry Birds Expansion : Seasons Revealed on Android Only!
Autodesk launches SketchBook Mobile for Android users
Google Editions to offer digital books on Android and any other device
Micromax Andro 60 will be Cheapest Android Phone in India Soon, Runs 2.1
Motorola Olympus Gets Bought at Flea Market, Runs Motoblur and FroYo
LG Star gets hands-on video treatment
DoubleTwist receives big update, now features AirSync

SlashGear
Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry in Dead Heat for Most Desirable Smartphone of the Month
LG VL600 LTE Modem hands-on and unboxing [FEATURED]
The Freedom of WikiSpeech [COLUMN]
PlayStation Phone “Spy Video” Shows Device in Action
The Importance of Verizon LTE and 4G Networks [ON TIME ANALYSIS]
Handmade Steampunk PC with Windows 7 Home Premium or Linux Ubuntu
Evernote 2.0 Beta for Mac – Now with Sharing and Notebooks Stacks [MINI REVIEW]
HP Slate 500 Arrives, Gets Unboxed by Lucky Owner
World’s Smallest Cellphone Jammer Blocks GSM and 3G Signals
LG VL600 LTE USB Modem Landing This Sunday for $99
‘Tis The Season for Acquisitions [COLUMN]
Parker Brothers Choppers Creates 10 TRON: Legacy Light Cycles, Only 4 Left [Video] [WANT]
LG VL600 & Pantech UML290 LTE USB Modems Launching Verizon’s 4G Network
Dell Venue Pro Available Starting Today, Will Ship by December 9th
Verizon’s 4G LTE Site Launches, Reveals Details [Updated]
Live TV on iPad Today Via DISH Remote Access App
Halo: Combat Evolved Remake Not Being Made, Microsoft Focusing on Reach
WordPress Updates to Version 3.0.2 – Do It!
Steve Jobs Confirms Extension of AirPlay Features in 2011 – Safari, Third Party Apps, Etcetera
Palm Acquisition Leads to HP Pulling Out of Windows Home Server Market – Leaves Vail Lonely
H2O Audio Presents a Full Color-Blasted Line of Waterproof Earbuds
Text messages marketing Robots movie worth $200 each
Bitfenix unveils awesome Colossus Venom computer case
iPhone 4 Vent Shell Case is full of holes
Samsung Mobile Display outs new Super PLS display to replace IPS tech
Apple patent app shows optical MagSafe data connector and convertible tablet
OWC outs new rack mount Mercury Rack Pro RAID device
Futuremark delays 3DMark 11, geeks saddened

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

You can have this sassy lady constructed, tested, and shipped to your door in less than a week if you’d like, and I imagine any smooth player from the streets would definitely like. I’m obligated to say by my Apple-loving self that a similar device running OSX would sell off the shelves in an instant. Think about the price comparisons! Cheep!

[Via ChipChick]

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of information about how the costume was made, or even about the designer. While the picture may speak 1,000 words, we’d still like to know all of the details regarding the suit’s construction, and about the designer. For now, though, we’ll just have to take staring at it, and be happy with what we have.

[via The Daily What]

This rig was set up by one Lord Baron Joseph C.R. Vourteque, who hails from Chicago. You may not be able to tell just by looking at it, but this is a DJ mixer set within a frame of old-school Steampunk. As you can tell, there’s plenty of wood and brass in here, making us inherently attracted to it. You get speaker horns! Speaker horns! As for the whole mixing thing, it can actually do that, between two CDs.

[via Boing Boing]

Video demo after the cut

The build is actually a combination of a couple of earlier projects, one to produce the amazing mechanical iris and the other using – you guessed it – an Aduino to recognize a secret-knock code.  The engraving, meanwhile, was done with a homemade CNC machine.

You’ll be pleased to hear that the knock code BFarn is using in the video isn’t his regular one, so sneaky YouTube-primed burglars won’t be able to break in.  No word on how much it cost to put together.

[via BoingBoing]

The designer says that the drive was inspired by a narrow bridge sign on a country road. I don’t see that at all. The brass tank looking thing on the top actually covers the USB connector.

The drive is quite large and comes in its own retro tin. That tin looks like an Altoids can with a sticker on top to me. You can actually buy this drive if you are so included. It will set you back $300.

The maker of the watch offers a video showing what the watch can do and a full materials list so you can make your own if you want. To build you need an Electronics 1 Arduino Mini Pro 328, a 1 FTDI Basic Breakout, 1.5-inche OLED module, Blackberry Trackballer Breakout, and a 1000mAh li-poly battery. Most all of these components are from a company called SparkFun.

The software code needed to make all the parts function is offered at Instructables where the project is outlined. The screen case was carved out of some wood with a carving machine; maybe you could do it with a Dremel and a steady hand. Lots of building and soldering later you have your steampunk watch. The guy behind the project also notes in the comments he can build one for you at a cost of $290.

We’ve got to give these the thumbs up simply because they’re not glasses. They aren’t the huge, Buddy Holly-looking things we’ve all come to expect when we go to the theater and see our next 3D flick. Nope. These are big, wrap-around goggles, and those are awesome. Better yet, the designer, Will Rockwell, used Real3D glasses, which means you can use them in theaters all you want.

We can’t imagine they weigh too much, but they’re probably heavy enough to make it apparent you’ve got them on your head. As you can see from the model above, you’ll look unique, if anything else, so don’t be surprised if people are watching you, rather than the movie. You can go by them right now for a cool $200, and as of the time of this writing, there seemed to be only one in stock. So . . . You know, you might want to hurry.

[via Etsy; thanks Will!]

The covers apparently slip right over the top of the iMac and leave the camera and screen exposed and don’t interfere with the use of the machine. The covers are available in a couple colors and styles.

A Shaker Style or Maplewood style are the options. Shaker style is cherry wood with square peg and crown trim. You can get a painted marble base or optional solid cherry trim for the keyboard as well. The Maplewood version is made from maple with a maple base. There is no word on pricing at this time.

[via Yanko Design]

The car has the not quite perfect Ratrod look to it with a broken grill and some other features that might look to some like the car is unfinished. Ratrods aren’t supposed to be gleaming and perfect rides though and the damage is there for character.

The steampunk touches to the car make it look at though it is actually running on steam. The car looks like some malevolent ride right out of a Stephen King novel. Check out the video below for a tour of the cool car.

A few sweet steampunk computers have shown up over on Yanko Design. The things use copious amounts of wood, brass, and old-fashioned decorations to turn that plain PC into a working art piece. I particularly like the sign on what appears to be the tower in the photo above that says “The Apple Company.”

The LCD gets a marble base and the keyboard has keys that appear to be straight off an 1800′s cash register. I wonder how comfortable that keyboard is for typing. The mouse pad is cool as well. The attention to detail on these machines is impressive indeed.

We spotted a cool steampunk coil gun over on Make today that looks like the weapon James Bond would use in an alternate universe. The coil gun actually shoots projectiles that are apparently powerful enough to punch through cardboard at close range.

The gun uses a coil of copper wire along the barrel to launch the projectiles and the power source is external. Inside the brass case of the power pack are 15 photoflash capacitors that get the needed juice to fire from two AAA batteries. Check out the dark video below to see the thing fire.

The thing is made from a 150-year old rocking chair that the maker, Daniel Valdez, upholstered himself. The works of the powerchair is a modern power wheel chair that your grandmother or grandfather might need to get around. Those long brass pistons are old pieces that worked the bellows in an iron works factory.

The tubes on the back are filled with vodka and cranberry juice says the maker and the tank on the bottom back of the chair is an ice chiller to chill said vodka and cranberry juice. The tap on the side is strategically placed to allow the user to get a drink without standing up. This may be the perfect mode of transportation for those who don’t like to walk and drink. The sound effects the thing makes are powered by an Adafruit Waveshield.

[Via Adafruit]

Video demo after the cut

The sound each brick makes depends on its color, and there are three different channels which you can individually mix together.  Start to combine the bricks into structures, meanwhile, and the sounds become more complex and evolve with the building.

Start adjusting the rows of control knobs, meanwhile, and you can send the patterns of sound through various filters, mangling the noise even more.  It looks brilliantly tactile and addictive, just like most of the other DIY noise gadgets Yoshi has documented on his site.

[via MAKE]

Inside the eyeball adorned case sits a first generation iPod Nano. Despite the completely different look of the player once it’s inside the case, the maker says that all of the buttons and features of the iPod are still accessible.

The designer, Dr Grymm, says that there are hidden switches that send a static charge into quartz crystals on either side of the magnified viewing portal. Music can be played through the attached horn on the base or headphones. The eye-pod section has a leather strap that you can use to place the thing on your wrist. The upside to wearing the thing to the gym is that you can guarantee no one will try and talk to you while you workout.

Called the Chumbophone, as far as we can tell the various brass horns, controls and other appendages are all decorative rather than functional.  The only real controls are the power button, the front panel key and the chumby’s 3.5-inch 320 x 240 touchscreen, which is still enough to browse various web widgets, control music – either streaming or local – and do everything else that makes chumby so appealing.

Of course, custom cases don’t generally come cheap, and the Chumbophone is no different.  Asking price is $375, while buying a bare-bones chumby kit of your own would regularly set you back $139.  It’s up to you whether you reckon $236 is reasonable for all the wood, brass and hard-work that’s gone into making it.

Video demo after the cut

The Comptometer can hold up to decade’s worth of broadcasting, “provided we’re looking at the evening news, the late evening news and the King’s speech.”  Best of all, inside the Bakelite and wood casing there’s a real controller that could be used with modern day broadcast equipment.

And the (make-believe) price?  A mere 25 guineas, though sadly we’ve a feeling if you approach Hi Tech for one of your own, they may direct you to the rather more mundane designs of their regular catalog.

[via technabob]

The designer is Will Rockwell, and he’s got a plethora of other Steampunk stuff available for your purchasing pleasure, and they’re a lot cheaper than what this flash drive is going for. So what’s it going for? Brace yourself. $3,000.00. No, you’re not seeing things, so don’t panic. The device itself was featured on Geeky-Gadgets.com apparently, and it was noted on that site that no one knew why the device was so expensive, unless it was a typo. Rockwell commented about the remark on his site, saying “Nope, it’s not a typo. $3,000 is simply what it would take to pry the drive out of my hands and take it from my world into yours.” He goes on to mention that if it were priced at $300 (…), it would go fast, but that so would the $300.

Will Rockwell respects the art of Steampunk far too much to undervalue the (his) work, and so the price tag is set in stone. In fact, he adds that a lot of the prices for his other items are going up, not down, and therefore the tag attached to this flash drive might actually be a bargain at some point in the future. We’ll go out on a limb here and say that might be [em]well[/em] into the future. But hey, better late than never, right? Right.

Steampunk originated as a form of fiction, based in an alternate-reality 19th Century Earth. In this universe, inventors made huge leaps in technology by creating things like computers from the materials of the time period, like iron and and brass, even with steam power. As for today, Steampunk may have a slightly different meaning in the sense that the above creator manufactured his phone, but you can obviously see the essence of the science-fiction is still there. Very, very much there.

Standard Steampunk creations usually have the basic feature set, created by the more standard materials such as: metals like copper or brass; rivets; gears and cogs; wood; glass; antique light bulbs; and leather. As for the phone, there isn’t any word regarding what exactly the manufacturer used, but we can gather from the images that there’s definitely glass, and rivets closing that metal case together. He’s got some extra things on the back, like covers for “ports” that make it look like an industrialized compass. And there’s even a pipe on the side, just in case all that steam power needs an outlet to release, you know? No word on how to buy it, or what it could cost. So, just stare.

[via English Russia]

The work of two years, Wolpert’s synth has hand-lathed knobs and the brass front-plate is lettered, decorated and etched by hand.  Other parts include a brass bell dating from 1901 and an antique volt-meter.

As for the synth itself, we’re not quite clear of the full specifications but it seems to include ring modulator, CV and drum machine sections.  Best news is that it’s not sitting in the corner of a room looking pretty but wasted; Wolpert is actively making music with it.

[via MAKE]

There’s also an X57 chipset motherboard, 1TB of storage and more analog dials than you can shake the proverbial Steampunk stick at.  The barrel-bodied PC was made to coincide with the release of Damnation and the hardware inside is worth around $5,000.

If you want to win it, Destructoid want photos or video of you in your best Steampunk-themed outfit, scenario or anything else.  Unfortunately shipping costs mean this is a US/Canada competition only, so there’s no point in me getting out my authentic Victorian divers suit and polishing up the old diving bell.

[via techabob]

The monitor itself is mounted on a base that’s coated in black lacquer. It features gold inlays that add a little something special and the solid brass feet are just a true blast from the past. There’s even solid brass screws and brass plated brackets holding the whole thing together.

As far as specs go, the monitor itself is an Envision EN9410e 19-inch TFT LCD Flat Panel Monitor with a 1,280 x 1,024 resolution. Unfortunately for all you steampunk fans out there, it seems like there’s only one of these special monitors available, so you had better move fast!

There’s also some ominous “blood red” fluid in the oiler section next to the glass status lamps, which apparently bubbles.  It’s separate from the PC’s water-cooling, however, as everybody knows blood and electronics don’t mix well.

The final Steampunk Frankenstein project took around six months of eBay searching for all the component parts, and weighs in at over 400 pounds.  Cleverly integrated into the back of the case is a dolly system, to help wheel it around.  Check out the full gallery here; next we’re promised all the build pictures.

The vent was salvaged from an old church, and now acts as the air inlet for the water-cooling system.  Meanwhile everything is backlight with green cold-cathode tubes, which manage to make the Frankenstein Computer look even more ominous.  Happily one of the gauges does actually show the computer temperature, though there’s probably not a steam blow-off valve.

In fact the only really incongruent thing is the drive face-plates, which are still stock black plastic and stand out like a sore thumb.  Hopefully they’ll get some Steampunk dressing-up of their own.

[via BoingBoing]

Various cases are available, ranging from brushed titanium, gold and platinum, through to gold encrusted with diamonds.  Two rotating drums indicate the time, while further drums show power reserves; you wind the watch using the glorious little capstans. Everything is put together by hand.

I’m currently sat here trying to calculate how much I’ll get for each of my organs, but sadly even with just a single kidney to keep me going I doubt I’d be able to afford the $275,000–$400,000 price tag.  Even then, by the time I’d shipped my spleen out (packed in dry ice), they’d probably have sold the year’s production; at just four a month, last year’s entire range quickly sold-out.

[via bookofjoe]

Various aspects are illuminated, including the dials on the front and multiple gauges inside the dome itself.  As with most Steampunk projects the helmet makes liberal use of scrap and junk. 

The fact that’s reminiscent of Robbie the Robot from the original Lost in Space is quite appealing.  Still, beyond flaunting it on its custom stand, I’m not entirely sure what you’d do with it; in that sense, the Steampunk keyboard is a less dramatic but slightly more usable affair.

[via Hacknmod]

The keyboard was commissioned by a female client who wanted a more attractive peripheral but the same ergonomic comfort of the M-15. All the key-caps were replaced – after some maintenance work was carried out – with custom typewriter-style round buttons.

Meanwhile the trackpad has a corner-customized right-click function. No word on how much the project cost, but the hardest part might be finding the M-15 donor in the first place. 

[via Born Rich]

By winding the bung, you would power up this earpiece, connecting you to the world around you at once. Nicrosin on Flickr created this work of gear art, noting it was made from pocket watch parts, rubber and sculpey.

Apparently, it’s really flexible and lined on the inside with suede for optimal wearer comfort. Pretty cool. But if you’re going to go to all the trouble to make it comfy and adjustable, why not throw some real Bluetooth functionality in there as well? How hard would it be to hide Bluetooth components behind all those cogs and wheels?

[via Coolbuzz]

This watch features world time with 29 time zones, auto daylight savings time adjustments, a dual electroluminescent backlight, a timer, alarm functions and a stopwatch. As if that weren’t enough, this G-Shock lives up to its name, being both shock and water resistant.

The best part has to be the price. You can pick up your very own watch for just $99, and that’s really not too bad for the included features and overall look.

[via Oh!Gizmo]

This steampunk tricycle features not only a bit of lighting but a cool little storage space on the back for anything you might want to tote with you. The tricycle is even topped off with elk hide wrapped handle bars and a brass bell.

To be honest, the bike looks ten times better with the creator sitting on it in his clothing that flows so well with the steampunk style. The Brass Lion also has a much smoother ride than any average bicycle I have ever seen.

[via ubergizmo]