Status Symbols: devices that transcend time
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
Status Symbols: Porsche 959
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
Run-flat tires equipped with a pressure monitoring system. All-wheel drive. Adjustable, electronically-controlled ride height. A top speed brushing up against the magical 200 mph mark. These thoroughly modern specifications could...
Status Symbols: MiniDisc
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
The MiniDisc represents Sony at the height of its 1990s arrogance. In 1992, when the MiniDisc was introduced, Sony could do no wrong in consumer electronics: the best TVs were Trinitrons, the Walkman was still booming and the Discman was...
Status Symbols: Samsung BlackJack
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
The Samsung BlackJack was my first "smartphone," and my first introduction to a phone with a full keyboard. Before that was a long line of Nokias, which I was fairly happy with. I didn’t buy the BlackJack, but inherited it in brand new...
Status Symbols: Neo Geo Pocket Color
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
The handheld video game market has gone through a number of changes, but the basic formula has remained the same for some time: Nintendo dominates, while a company with more powerful hardware fights for what's left. This hasn't lead to a...
Status Symbols: Game Boy Micro
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
2005 was a good year for Nintendo handhelds. The original DS was on its way to becoming the most successful portable device of all time, while the Game Boy Advance SP let you play your entire Game Boy library — dating back to the...
Status Symbols: Palm V
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
This might come as a surprise to younger readers, but there existed an age before smartphones. The 1990s and early 2000s bore witness to dozens upon dozens of so-called PDAs — personal digital assistants, a term famously coined by...
Status Symbols: Microsoft IntelliMouse
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
30 years ago, Microsoft Hardware was born. The Word team wanted a mouse, and so the new group built what's affectionately known as the "Green Eyed Monster," thanks to its dual distinctive green buttons and so-ugly-it's-adorable form. It...
HD & Home
Status Symbols: Pioneer Kuro
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
There was a span of a couple years in my career as a technology journalist where I would endlessly flit from demo to showcase to product launch. Whether via bike or skateboard, I was everywhere in Manhattan, taking in product spiel after...
HD & Home
Status Symbols: Rega RP1 turntable
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
For some reason, turntables bring out both the best and worst aesthetic impulses in manufacturers. The most expensive record players are often horrifying mishmashes of glass, metal and ceramic, as subtle as a jeweled crown, screaming to...
Mobile
Status Symbols: HTC HD2
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
I remember the first time I ever held an HD2: I was astonished. A 4.3-inch 800 x 480 LCD is old hat these days, but it was the first time I had beheld that combination, and my jaw literally dropped. I wasn't holding a phone, I was...
Gaming
Status Symbols: Sony PlayStation 2
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
There's no scarcity, artificial or otherwise, to the PlayStation 2. Over 150 million PS2s are floating around in the world, collecting dust or spinning up for one more game of SingStar. There isn't really a definitive PS2, either. The...
Status Symbols: Happy Hacking Keyboard
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
For anyone who has ever argued over mechanical-switch and buckling-spring keyboards, made the hard choice between vi and Emacs, or manually reassigned a capslock key to control: this is for you. The Happy Hacking Keyboard, built by...
Status Symbols: Grado GS1000i
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
If you thought phone operating systems were polarizing, ask an audiophile about Grado sometime. Grado is the handcrafted, Brooklyn-made headphone holdout, up against competitors who make cans styled more like robots than sensitive...
Photography & Video
Status Symbols: Leica M9-P rangefinder camera
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
Is there any better symbol of luxury and excellence in photography than Leica's iconic red dot? Leica thinks so. The M9-P is a "professional" version of the M9, which omits the red dot in favor of a more understated look. Leica's cameras...
Status Symbols: Teenage Engineering OP-1
Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.
With retro-futurism at a peak, the OP-1 represents the platonic ideal of the movement. The synthesizer mixes the form factor of a Casio VL-Tone, 80s vector graphics for a UI, and an expansive set of modern tone- and beat-creation...
