Working from home is becoming a more and more popular way to do business, and although it certainly has its perks for some finding the peace and quiet needed to work in a house full of kids and pets is near impossible. Enter the Archipod Garden Office, built by a company in the UK and made to be dropped off and assembled right in your own backyard. Electric, telephone, and water ready, the 'Pod' features a large dometop skylight and several round windows for natural light, plus several dimmable interior spotlights and concealed mood lighting. The work area consists of special sound-muting insulation, an ergonomic semi-circular desk in sleek white and bespoke drawer units and hardwood veneer desktop options available. The outside is covered in Western Red Cedar shingles and features a fun gullwing door that opens easily with gas strut assistance. A fun but pricey home office at £12,000+.

Via Dvice

Famed French luxury goods house Louis Vuitton has come out with an updated, ultra-luxe version of the classic Whisky Case portable bar that the firm first offered in 1955. Available by special order priced at about $35,000, it's wrapped in elegant Taiga leather, though you can order it in iconic monogram canvas as well. And whereas with its compartment for mixer the previous model was more of a Scotch and soda case, if you will, the new incarnation demands nothing less than the finest single malt. Constructed entirely by hand at Vuitton's atelier in France with fittings, hasps and locks of silvered solid brass, it comes with a silver ice bucket and tongs, silver cocktail sticks in a pull-out drawer, four crystal whiskey tumblers, a crystal decanter with a silver lid, and two crystal "Coupelle" dishes in separate compartments.

I'm not a big fan of snakeskin but for those that are the iPhone Tamara Runge Edition case is lovely, and very pricey, way to incorporate it into your daily wardrobe. Created as a collaboration between fashion designer Davide de Nizza and artist Stuart Hughes, the case is handmade of python leather with an 18k gold buckle that houses 35 0.5 carat flawless diamonds and a single 3 carat diamond in the center. It's made for the iPhone but looks like it could easily house a Blackberry or any number of other cell phone brands. Available in a limited edition of only 3 for £59,995 each.

You may remember our recent Hello Kitty coverage for the holidays (see Hello Kitty Says Hello Holidays for a fabulous USB drive and more). Back then, Zales was all sold out of their exclusive Hello Kitty iPhone covers (above), but they have restocked for Valentine's Day.

The Hello Kitty by Simmons Jewelry Co. Crystal iPhone Case (3G/3GS) is covered in pink, white, red, black and saffron-colored crystals and carefully crafted to accommodate all the important buttons and ports. This glitzy, look-at-me accessory costs $195 and is the perfect gift for the girliest girl you know. The crystals actually make the iPhone easier to grip -- and harder to lose.

If you're concerned about the sparkles losing their ... sparkle, it's a good idea to include crystal cleaning supplies like the Swarovski Crystal Cleaning Kit ($40 from Always-Forever.com).

Tired of your black laptop blending into the background? Then spice it up by getting one of Dell's laptops festooned with a more personalized shade, courtesy of nail lacquer experts OPI. Now you can customize your Dell laptop (Mini, Inspiron, or Studio) with one of 26 OPI shades using the Dell Design Studio. Just perusing the names can be fun, never mind the color: "I'm Not Really a Waitress" (shown), "Green-wich Village," "No Room for the Blues," "Rosy Future," and "A Grape Fit!" are just a few. View all the available colors.

Famed French luxury good house Hermès has come out with a beautiful pair of leather wrapped binoculars that are the perfect accessory for stylish sporting occasions. The design is a throwback to the days when a gentleman always brought along a handsome pair of leather and brass field glasses when attending race meetings, horse shows and steeplechases, while on safari and conducting military campaigns as a member of the officer class, or observing regattas, cricket and tennis matches. Wrapped in Hermès' signature saddle leather with a handstitched leather carrying strap they're priced at about $2,500. The binoculars themselves are apparently Leica's compact, super-sharp Ultravid model from their sports optics collection (Hermès owns a stake in the famed German camera-maker). Just the thing for the Royal Ascot races.

[via Duncan Quinn]

The Apple iPad has finally arrived and if history has taught us anything it's that now we brace for the flood of accessories, attachments, and bling that is sure to follow as Apple enthusiasts around the world embellish and personalize their beloved electronic gadgets. From the outside the iPad looks like a larger, wider version of the iPhone (see all the specs and functions described in detail on our sister site Engadget) which means there's little in the way of embellishable surfaces -- just the back and that singular front button. I'm guessing we'll be seeing some gold-plating and diamonds in the future, plus some interesting protective cases and of course engraving of all kinds.

If you're planning to get an iPad what accessories or personalizations will you be looking for? I'm gonna aim high and dream of a stylish but simple Louis Vuitton sleeve.

Another diamond covered phone has been revealed. The Nokia Supreme takes a Nokia 8800 and armors it in solid platinum veneers and screws and covers it with 12.5 carats of pink diamonds. There are approximately 1225 stones set into the phone including a three-carat navigational button made of a flawless center stone. The phone has a total of 83 grams of platinum. Stuart Hughes designed the phone for Goldstriker. It comes in a granite box with a leather interior. Just three will be made and each sells for around $160,000.

[via Idex Online]

Renowned Australian industrial designer Marc Newson has collaborated once again with Dom Pérignon to create a special carrying case / cooler for the famed French champagne house. The Black Box by Marc Newson is crafted of a high-tech composite that keeps a chilled bottle of bubbly perfectly cool during traveling, while resisting wear and tear. Priced at €200 or about $285 the case is unfortunately not yet available in the U.S. "I've always loved Champagne, but personally I feel very close to Dom Pérignon," Newson notes. "It is classic yet cool and inherently modern. In terms of design, the fantastic silhouette of the bottle has stood the test of time - it remains unchanged since its creation and has become an icon. That's a very rare trait."

Viscount David Linley, the bespoke cabinetmaker who's a nephew of the Queen of England, has designed his first timepiece in the form of an extremely handsome desk clock with a streamlined Art Deco feel. The Linley Tri-Time Desk Clock (above), priced at about $1,500, is finished in beautifully grained walnut with stainless steel detailing and three Swiss clocks allowing the owner to keep track of separate time zones. The clock is from Linley's ever-expanding range of accessories including boxes for jewelry, watches and cufflinks, humidors, desk sets and more. The aristocratic designer credits his talented father, the eminent photographer Lord Snowdon, as being particularly influential on his career, having himself trained as an architect and designed amongst other things the Aviary at London Zoo. His mother of course is Princess Margaret.

Some say white is the new black. Some say grey is the new black, or navy, or whatever new color is hot this season. You can call us old fashioned, but to us black is still black, and always will be. And Porsche evidently agrees. The company's industrial design subsidiary has just re-released their cutting edge P'9522 mobile phone in – you guessed it – all black.

Called, predictably enough, the Black Edition, the phone packs all the features of the P'9522 released last year – including the solid-aluminum construction and the fingerprint-reader security system. But, taking its cues from the anti-reflectant black instruments on a Porsche racing car – to say nothing of the original Porsche Design Chronograph I, the company's first product – the phone is decked out all in low-key black.

Digital picture frames are old news but Casio has put a new spin on it with the Digital Art Frame recently unveiled at CES. The10.2-inch, WSVGA color LCD frame has a series of special effects that can transform snapshots into pieces that look like paintings.Users can create up to eight different styles of art from a photo: Water Color Painting, Color Pencil Sketch, Pastel Painting, Pointillism, Air Brush, Oil Painting, Gothic Oil Painting, and Fauvist Oil Painting. The device has 2GB of internal memory, two SD cards slots, a USB output, and wireless LAN connectivity. It will be available this spring but the price hasn't been announced yet. Check out a full gallery of the effects over on Engadget.

If you needed more proof of our pronounced love-hate relationship with our communication devices, the Marquis Los Cabos Resort invites its arriving guests to participate in a "BlackBerry Burial Ceremony."

After a de rigeur welcome drink and opportunity to avail yourself of a cool towel, you head out to the beach and bury your phone in the sand.

Now, the only thing that seems worse for an electronic device than sand burial is the dreaded toilet dunking, but luckily this ceremony is just a ritual.*

First, your smart phone is placed in a protective case -- a coffin, as it happens. Then, you must go at least ten minutes without your phone while the spa director teaches you how to massage your over-used hands. Try not to panic.

Finally, your dig out your phone -- I'm imagining a frantic, sand-flinging scene -- and then you get your phone back again to tell everyone on Facebook or Twitter what you've done.


*A note for the cautious! This ritual makes Sascha Segan, PC Magazine's cell phone editor, just a bit nervous. "In general you don't want sand or other little particles near your delicate electronic equipment and cell phones are pieces of delicate electronic equipment," he said.

"But what about the coffin?" I asked.
"How well sealed is that coffin?" he said. "I would feel much better if you put the phone in a zip-lock baggie before you bury it."

He suggests using the self-same bag that got your three-ounce liquids through airline security. And if you really want to bury your phone, the one to do it with is Casio Rock from Verizon. "That one is 100% sand proof."

Surround sound gets personal with the Sound Egg chair, a chair from Accousticom that will be on display at the upcoming CES show in Las Vegas. The chair takes the classic 1970s egg chair style and creates a new sound experience. It can be used for gaming, music or movies. A 10" sub woofer under the seat makes sure you feel the sound and it can be configured to stero receivers. The interior is lined with acoustic foam and both the exterior and the foam are available in a variety of colors. The Sound Egg chair starts at $1.450.

The recently unveiled Audi A8 contains so much wizardry that we hear Merlin has made it his official conveyance when duties necessitate leaving Camelot. The A8 is made of aluminum. It can tell whether cars ahead of you are signaling a turn. It can read speed limit signs (Merlin's not so happy about where that one is going, neither are we...). Its thermal imaging system can detect people 300 feet away. The adaptive lighting system knows when you're going to turn because it's paying attention to the same navigation system that you are. It has Google Earth.

It also has 19 speakers, part of the second generation Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound System. That is five more speakers than in the first generation B&O system. That is probably 10 more than you have in your entire living room, the size of which -- unless you live in Manhattan -- most likely dwarfs the interior space of an A8. Four of those are in the rear, to create a "movie-theater-like" experience that makes up for lacking popcorn by substituting LED mood lighting.

Rated at 1,400 watts, and with the rear seat entertainment package and "Movie" mode, you might as well be in a theater. Although we probably wouldn't recommend you conduct date nights on the rear bench, in a pinch it can certainly make for some rewarding interludes. Unless, that is, you live in Manhattan, and in that case an evening in the back of an A8 could be just the kind of thrilling, and roomy, getaway you've been looking for...