Speaker 1: Get in with technology with tech Stuff from Stuff Tool Taylor, Everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I
Speaker 1: have a special guest here today, special because it's always
Speaker 1: special when he joins the show, Ben Bolan. Welcome it
Speaker 1: back to Tech Stuff. Thanks, thanks so with for having
Speaker 1: me on Drop And I have two things though. One
Speaker 1: is is it still special even though I've been on
Speaker 1: the show a couple of times now, It's always going
Speaker 1: to be special? Okay, Well, I think that makes my
Speaker 1: day man this week. Second thing, just full disclosure. This
Speaker 1: is for the listeners. This is a little bit unusual.
Speaker 1: Uh for me definitely, and and maybe for you as well.
Speaker 1: But I think it's gonna be a fun ride. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And what he means by that is and I tweeted
Speaker 1: about this before coming into the studio. This is an
Speaker 1: episode in which I have specifically requested my co host
Speaker 1: do absolutely no research on the topic whatsoever. I got
Speaker 1: no idea what's going on. Yeah, you only know what
Speaker 1: the topic is. That topic is expensive consumer technology. Because
Speaker 1: you know, we're ramping up to the holiday season and
Speaker 1: obviously you know you have to start looking at the
Speaker 1: people in your life and what sort of gifts you
Speaker 1: need to give them exactly. And I thought, well, what
Speaker 1: if what if one you and I were making the
Speaker 1: crazy kind of money that Beauty Pie is making on YouTube?
Speaker 1: Because because as we record this, the day we record
Speaker 1: this is also the day that Forbes released what the
Speaker 1: top YouTube performers are earning or what they guess they
Speaker 1: are earning. It's it made me question all of my
Speaker 1: decisions in life up to this point. But we are
Speaker 1: not making that money. But if we were making that money,
Speaker 1: and if there were spectacularly awesome people in our lives,
Speaker 1: maybe these are the sort of things we might look
Speaker 1: at at in order to say you mean something to me, Mr,
Speaker 1: Mrs Miss whatever. So. But I didn't want Ben to
Speaker 1: to know about any of these because I want to
Speaker 1: get his actual reaction. Plus I'm gonna quiz him a
Speaker 1: couple of times, not really quiz, I'm just gonna get
Speaker 1: an idea, see if he can guess what some of
Speaker 1: these things are based upon the names. Now, some of
Speaker 1: them are evident by the name, so not all of
Speaker 1: them will be a guesswork. But I may have you
Speaker 1: guess occasionally what it might be, and then maybe I'll
Speaker 1: even ask you ballpark figure how much you think it
Speaker 1: might might be. Let's let's do it. I love it, uh, listeners,
Speaker 1: Just so you guys know, one of the reasons that
Speaker 1: I'm the best slash worst sidekick for Jonathan in this
Speaker 1: type of episode, it's because I am a notorious chief skate.
Speaker 1: I have personally offended car stuff. Listeners probably know this,
Speaker 1: but I am. I am personally offended if I think
Speaker 1: something is too expensive. Now. Also, in the interest full disclosure,
Speaker 1: I was not aware of that when I asked Ben
Speaker 1: to do this, but it does make me very happy
Speaker 1: because it means that, even if everything else goes wrong,
Speaker 1: your reactions are going to save this episode. So I'm
Speaker 1: already upset. Here we go here. I decided to go
Speaker 1: with U with a real doozy first, and it's one
Speaker 1: you may have actually talked about on a different show,
Speaker 1: so that gives you a hint already. Can you guess
Speaker 1: what the element Palazzo Superior is element found so superior.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking it's a car very close it is an RV. Oh, well,
Speaker 1: come on, also know what it was? Just a guess
Speaker 1: like one of those things like it might have been
Speaker 1: something that you and Scott have covered for car stuff.
Speaker 1: I should ask Scott if he's heard of it when,
Speaker 1: because I'm actually peek behind the curtain. After I do
Speaker 1: this episode with you, I'm recording another episode after this.
Speaker 1: Scott's gonna be in my guest host. We're we're starting
Speaker 1: this episode late because Scott I were in the studio earlier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's just a it's just a Jonathan, Scott and
Speaker 1: Ben like schmoorg is Borg and as as you're here,
Speaker 1: So that would make I guess it's the million something
Speaker 1: amigoes now right, So the element Palazzo Superior is an RV.
Speaker 1: It is known as the most luxurious mobile home in
Speaker 1: the world. It is also sometimes referred to as a
Speaker 1: mansion on wheels. Now, I'm not going to make you
Speaker 1: guess how much this is because it would you would
Speaker 1: just be unfair. This monstrosity. Well, let me let me
Speaker 1: explain what what it is first before I give you
Speaker 1: the what what the cost is? So the they the
Speaker 1: driver's compartment, known as the cockpit actually referred to as
Speaker 1: the cockpit, was inspired by the design of jets as
Speaker 1: a panoramic windshield. It has an adjustable tent on that
Speaker 1: win she'll t I N T like you can go
Speaker 1: to two different stages of darkness on it with a
Speaker 1: flip of a switch. The whole thing is made out
Speaker 1: of carbon fiber, so that means it's incredibly strong and
Speaker 1: incredibly light. And by incredibly light, I mean it's a
Speaker 1: mere twenty eight tons. Uh. It has seven hundred thirty
Speaker 1: two square feet of living space, which is sixty eight
Speaker 1: square meters is it? Is it okay? Is it street legal? Yes? Also,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that it expands outward, so
Speaker 1: like you know, when you stop wherever you're you're going
Speaker 1: to stop, then you hit it in. So in fact,
Speaker 1: when you put into camper mode, it nearly doubles its width.
Speaker 1: The normal width is eight point four feet or two
Speaker 1: point five five when you expand it it goes to
Speaker 1: sixteen point four feet, so almost twice as much, and
Speaker 1: that's five meters of width. As a rooftop deck. It
Speaker 1: has radiant floor heating. It's got refrigerators, a wine cabinet,
Speaker 1: a coffee machine, a sink, a freezer, an ice maker, stovetop,
Speaker 1: a master bedroom with sized bed, addressing, table, closets, and more.
Speaker 1: It has a sixteen square foot or one and a
Speaker 1: half square meter rain shower with light therapy features built
Speaker 1: into the shower stall light therapy, light therapy so you
Speaker 1: can get that nice blue mist going. It has two
Speaker 1: two inch televisions, It has onboard WiFi, satellite TV, a
Speaker 1: custom audio system, ambient light control, and more. And you
Speaker 1: Ben Bolan can be the proud owner of an Element
Speaker 1: Palazzo Superior for the low low price of three point
Speaker 1: one million dollars for an RV r V. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so is the WiFi service including do you get an
Speaker 1: i SP for the three point one million three point
Speaker 1: one million? All right? Think about some of the homes
Speaker 1: in Atlanta there and the the one to two million
Speaker 1: dollars range. We're talking some pretty big houses along some
Speaker 1: very uh choice real estate, like along constantly An Avenue,
Speaker 1: for example, or along you know, along the Chattahoochie. You're
Speaker 1: gonna find some mansions there that are going to start
Speaker 1: creeping in around this three point one million, maybe even
Speaker 1: some that top out over three point one million. But
Speaker 1: that's a full mansion, right, This is a seven two
Speaker 1: square foot r V. I. You know, I gotta tell
Speaker 1: you I I live in a pretty small place, so well,
Speaker 1: I also don't pay three million, four but it also
Speaker 1: doesn't roll right, that's true. I mean with this you
Speaker 1: could you your home could be wherever you park. No.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because I recently had a pretty frank discussion
Speaker 1: with a car stuff listener when I was talking about how,
Speaker 1: as a kid, who was always my dream to have
Speaker 1: an RV? Right, I thought I had this view that
Speaker 1: I would just live in this thing, drive everywhere and
Speaker 1: be cool. Yeah, and and food would magically appear in
Speaker 1: the kind and the gas would never be empty. But
Speaker 1: what I've learned from people who are in the RV
Speaker 1: cultures is a lot more of just driving to a
Speaker 1: destination and camping because people who like to drive don't
Speaker 1: really like to drive RV. No, there are monstrosities on
Speaker 1: the road. I imagine it has to be incredibly stressful
Speaker 1: because I mean you have to I assume you have
Speaker 1: to have a bus driver's license to even operate one.
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, you know, just just
Speaker 1: think about what it's like navigating through traffic with a
Speaker 1: regular sized vehicle. It's got to be a nightmare with
Speaker 1: something that large. Three millions So, so, Jonathan, would you
Speaker 1: ever if Okay, so let's say you're on tour Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, let's let's say that Let's say I am
Speaker 1: somehow filthy rich would you be would you take one
Speaker 1: of these behemoths as would you just go with a
Speaker 1: charter bus. I'd go with the charter bus. Dude. First
Speaker 1: of all, you know me. I'm not a driver at all,
Speaker 1: so so the idea that the appeal of this is
Speaker 1: lost on me. Um. But I would prefer to travel
Speaker 1: someplace and stay at a hotel than to go camp.
Speaker 1: I'm not a camper either. I don't have a driver.
Speaker 1: I would have a drive at this point, if you
Speaker 1: can afford if I had reached that level of ridiculous,
Speaker 1: uh luxury, I would have a driver. Yeah, I would,
Speaker 1: or or I would have a driverless car, one of
Speaker 1: the two. It would be one of those things. And
Speaker 1: I just I want to be completely honest with you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, but don't don't get me this. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, I will market off the list. Uh well, here,
Speaker 1: how about how about I hit you with this one.
Speaker 1: Let see if you can guess what this is based
Speaker 1: upon the name. Now, this is a little different from
Speaker 1: some of the others. A lot of the other ones
Speaker 1: I'm talking about are relatively new, but this is actually
Speaker 1: an old thing that has been sold more than once,
Speaker 1: so that I'll give you a little hint. It's not
Speaker 1: going to be like a computer or anything like that.
Speaker 1: The protech Philippe Henry Gray super complication. Ah. Yes, one
Speaker 1: of the most legendary, legendarily sophisticated watches. Very good, Ben Bolan, Yes,
Speaker 1: as absolutely correct it was. It's a pocket watch and
Speaker 1: it was designed by the Swiss company protect Filly in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three four. Henry Graves Jr. Who was a
Speaker 1: banker at the time and Henry Graves Junior, was in
Speaker 1: a bit of a competition with another gentleman whom you've
Speaker 1: also I'm sure talked about on car stuff, Uh, James
Speaker 1: Ward Packard. Oh yeah, is it? Wait? Is it? This
Speaker 1: is a competition to have the most complicated watch. Yes.
Speaker 1: They were constantly trying to one up one another with
Speaker 1: their various luxury a coup trement, and watches were one
Speaker 1: of the ways they were kind of showing off, and
Speaker 1: so Henry Grays commissioned protect Filipe, the Swiss watchmaker company,
Speaker 1: to build the world most complicated watch at that time.
Speaker 1: It took three years to design and five years to
Speaker 1: make it. Now, keep in mind this is before computer
Speaker 1: assisted design. This is all human design, right. Yeah. It's
Speaker 1: made of eighteen carrot gold, and it's considered to be
Speaker 1: the most complex pocket watch that was made without computer
Speaker 1: assistance ever. And it has twenty four different functions. Uh.
Speaker 1: And here are some of the functions that are included.
Speaker 1: It keeps time number one. Uh. It gives you the
Speaker 1: time of sunset and sunrise each day. It's mechanical. This
Speaker 1: is all mechanically. Yeah, this is pre digital nine. It
Speaker 1: has a perpetual calendar on it, so it has the
Speaker 1: mechanics in it to keep accurate what day it is. Uh.
Speaker 1: Has days of the month, days of the week. It
Speaker 1: has a stars chart, it has phases of the moon
Speaker 1: charted on it. It has a stop watch. It has
Speaker 1: a thirty minute recorder meaning it go off after thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: and a twelve hour recorder as well. It has chimes
Speaker 1: and the original price tag when it was sold. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is just the original price all right for Henry
Speaker 1: Graves was fifteen thousand dollars. Now we have to adjust
Speaker 1: that for inflation, so in today's might that be about
Speaker 1: two hundred two thousand dollars that, my friend, would be
Speaker 1: a bargain based upon what people have actually paid for
Speaker 1: this thing since then in auctions. Yes, so Southby's got
Speaker 1: it in auction and they sold it twice. In fact,
Speaker 1: the first time they sold it was in July when
Speaker 1: Chic Saud being Mohammed being Ali al Tani of the
Speaker 1: Qatari royal family purchased it for a cool eleven million dollars.
Speaker 1: First off, pronunciation, thank you. Secondly, I am profoundly offended.
Speaker 1: Well watch. He did have to return it because he
Speaker 1: had he incurred so much that he was he was
Speaker 1: forced to return it to Southby's. Yeah. So then Southby's
Speaker 1: sold it again in two thousand and fourteen for twenty
Speaker 1: four million dollars. Southbies, are they are they going to
Speaker 1: work with us? It's like this yeah, yeah, so million.
Speaker 1: Now it is a one of a kind. It is
Speaker 1: the world's most complicated watch, pocket watch that was made,
Speaker 1: you know, by human alone. Um, so there are some
Speaker 1: elements to it that you realize, all right, well this
Speaker 1: is not just because you know, this isn't just a
Speaker 1: brand or just one of many of this thing. This
Speaker 1: is a one of a kind thing. But a lot
Speaker 1: of people have said clearly, the value of this now
Speaker 1: is in the perception of that thing, of the owning.
Speaker 1: This makes me special, makes me part of this story,
Speaker 1: right that the fact that I have the money to
Speaker 1: spend on something like this, it's like a status thing,
Speaker 1: certainly far beyond it's intrinsic value, which is hard to
Speaker 1: first of all, whenever we talk about value it gets
Speaker 1: all kind of wibbly wobbly anyway, right, because it's just
Speaker 1: whatever we put in steak, like what we think of,
Speaker 1: like what would I be willing to pay for this thing? Um?
Speaker 1: And then the more down that rabbit hole you get,
Speaker 1: the more you realize everything is a lie so quickly.
Speaker 1: So here's a here's another one. Let's see if you
Speaker 1: can guess what this is. Because you've done really well.
Speaker 1: You you've got the super complication, which blew my mind
Speaker 1: that you knew that. So how about the VER two
Speaker 1: pure jet red gold pure jet red gold, now jet
Speaker 1: red gold would tell you some of the features of
Speaker 1: this thing. So what is it? Is it a mobile? Oh?
Speaker 1: My gosh, Ben Bulling two or two? So far? Yes,
Speaker 1: the Ver two pure jet red Gold is a smartphone.
Speaker 1: Can you guess how? All? Right, it's nine the million
Speaker 1: dollars range. I'm gonna suck that out. But can you
Speaker 1: guess how much money this this phone? Michael? Now, this
Speaker 1: is not a one of the kind phone either. This
Speaker 1: is a phone that if you had the money, you
Speaker 1: could buy it, and then if someone else had the money,
Speaker 1: they could buy it too. Well. I remember I remember
Speaker 1: hearing about this one and again again Scouts owner. I
Speaker 1: did not do any research. And to be fair, they
Speaker 1: make a line of luxury phones, so you may have
Speaker 1: heard about one of them. This was the most expensive
Speaker 1: one I could find right now. Yeah, that's what I
Speaker 1: was going to say, because all I all I know
Speaker 1: is um that they look kind of ugly. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm not gonna I want to be honest. I'm
Speaker 1: with you on that one. But there I'm gonna. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm so bad at this. You know, watching prices right
Speaker 1: used to it's tough send me into anxiety attacks, it
Speaker 1: is it? Two dollars nowhere near that crazy? All right,
Speaker 1: go down by, go down by an order of magnitude.
Speaker 1: So yeah, very us But still, you know, just for
Speaker 1: a second, that's that psychology of comparative prices. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that's great. Let's steel. I'm let's order
Speaker 1: room for the office. We should all have office very
Speaker 1: two pure pure jet red gold phones. Okay. Yeah, Now
Speaker 1: there have been obviously some ridiculous like one off electronics
Speaker 1: devices where people have just like swarf ski crystals and
Speaker 1: diamonds and stuff. But this is this is one where
Speaker 1: you can actually like, this is a line of phones. Like,
Speaker 1: if you wanted to go and get an iPhone, you
Speaker 1: get an iPhone. If you want to drop nineteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in a Verir two pure jet red gold, you could.
Speaker 1: So I know you're all crying out. What makes this
Speaker 1: phone so special? Right? Okay, It's an Android phone, so
Speaker 1: obviously it's already worth way more than an iPhone, although
Speaker 1: it is running Lollipop and not Marshmallow at least right now.
Speaker 1: It is made of titanium, and it has red gold detailing.
Speaker 1: Is an actual red gold on it. The power button
Speaker 1: is red gold, the volume controls are red gold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like the buttons themselves are made of gold. Um. It
Speaker 1: also has black ceramic as part one of the materials,
Speaker 1: and sapphire crystal screen and quilted jet calf leather on
Speaker 1: the back and sides of the phone. So when you
Speaker 1: say pure jet red gold, the red gold obviously for
Speaker 1: the the accents, and then the jet being the calf leather.
Speaker 1: H That leather, by the way, is handcrafted and quote
Speaker 1: sourced from the European Alps. End quote from the European Alps. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why it's so expensive. You gotta send people all
Speaker 1: the way to the European Alps to get the LEATHERN Okay, wait,
Speaker 1: do you think that's worth it? Well, I mean, clearly,
Speaker 1: the cows in the European Alps are living a much
Speaker 1: better life than cows anywhere else, right, So if you're
Speaker 1: gonna get leather, you definitely want to get them for
Speaker 1: the You know, I don't think it's worth it. If
Speaker 1: you if I probably totally freak out and try and say,
Speaker 1: like everyone needs to get like every mattress that's in
Speaker 1: a five mile at radius and place it around me
Speaker 1: so that if I do drop this, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: shatter and I'm not gonna be out twenty k uh.
Speaker 1: So here's some other stuff it includes. Each handset is
Speaker 1: actually handmade. So while you could buy one and I
Speaker 1: could buy one, assuming we came across dollars. Uh, they
Speaker 1: might not be identical because they are handmade, and this
Speaker 1: way it's very similar to luxury items like a Bentley, right.
Speaker 1: You know that's one of the attractions of these luxury
Speaker 1: cars is that they're made by hand, so they're not
Speaker 1: identical one to the next. Um. The ring tones, all right,
Speaker 1: this is gonna make you roll your eyes. The ring
Speaker 1: tones were composed and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but seriously, is the is the
Speaker 1: lso that hard up? Yeah? I guess so. I mean,
Speaker 1: like between doing stuff for John Williams and Ringtones for
Speaker 1: the R two peor Jet red Gold whatever thing. How
Speaker 1: do you get how do you compose a ring tone?
Speaker 1: How do you don't know? How long is it? So
Speaker 1: many questions. It's probably just the same ring tones that
Speaker 1: you hear on every other phone, just done by a
Speaker 1: full orchestra. Wow, do do do Do Do Do Do Do? Do?
Speaker 1: You've seen thirty Rock of course, right, Yes, it seems
Speaker 1: like a Tracy Jordan's Yeah, I got the London Symphony
Speaker 1: Orchestra to play my ringtone, Liz Lemon, that's real. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So beyond that, it also comes with an eighteen month
Speaker 1: subscription to a concierge service, which provides twenty four hour
Speaker 1: assistance and gets you things like recommendations for things you
Speaker 1: should do while you're in a city, as well as
Speaker 1: priority booking for different events, including sporting events, concerts, shows.
Speaker 1: This I had heard about because apparently it's far beyond
Speaker 1: what you would typically think of as your hotel concierge
Speaker 1: or something, as in, they'll also get you into they'll
Speaker 1: shut down some luxury sor oh yeah, yeah, no, yeah.
Speaker 1: You can get completely like personalized exclusivity two different events
Speaker 1: as well. And also it puts you into a list
Speaker 1: essentially of folks who get invited to exclusive events. So
Speaker 1: you might end up, like if you're if you're the
Speaker 1: kind of person who drops the sort of chatter on
Speaker 1: a on a phone, you might end up finding yourself
Speaker 1: on the invite list to some pretty fancy suares. So
Speaker 1: then if you're networking, okay, here, I'm gonna I might
Speaker 1: not do this for everyone. I probably won't. It's maybe
Speaker 1: the only time to do this to justify the price
Speaker 1: if you have a career that requires networking. Right with
Speaker 1: the in the rarefied air of the upper spheres of
Speaker 1: Let's say you want to you know, you want to
Speaker 1: to charm some high level executives or producers of film
Speaker 1: or television or along those lines. Shore. Yeah, then then
Speaker 1: this would be a fairly reasonable investment if it gets
Speaker 1: you in the room. Yeah, it's an ugly phone, but
Speaker 1: it'll it'll get you. It'll get you with their um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's also it's also the text pecks of the phone
Speaker 1: put it behind other more common smartphones on the market. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not like top of the line performance.
Speaker 1: It's not. It's not. It's not flagging way behind, but
Speaker 1: it's nowhere close to Like if you went out and
Speaker 1: bought a brand new smartphone in the regular like four
Speaker 1: d to six hundred dollar range, like a Samsung Galaxy six, Yeah,
Speaker 1: something like that then, or the latest Nexus phone and
Speaker 1: anything like that because we're talking Android, you know it,
Speaker 1: that would actually outperform this phone. However, it doesn't come
Speaker 1: with that concierge service. So um. And also you gotta
Speaker 1: keep in mind that that phone is totes common, whereas
Speaker 1: the fair two phone is a thing of luxury. So good,
Speaker 1: so far, Let's try this one. Now, this one's got
Speaker 1: a hint in the name. I love how your your
Speaker 1: eyes go up every time we get to a new one.
Speaker 1: Be like, it's like this is just gonna there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a point where this show just makes a turn
Speaker 1: for the worst. I'm getting turning back now. This was
Speaker 1: pretty easy because just think of the first word, acapella
Speaker 1: fair on Excalibur. Acapella yep, acapella s fair on Excalibur.
Speaker 1: What what kind of tech would that be? A microphone
Speaker 1: speaking speaker. It's a speaker, actually, set of speakers. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're made by hand. Okay. They are seven ft tall
Speaker 1: and wait, one thousand, three hundred sixty four pounds apiece,
Speaker 1: and they cost four hundred fifty five thousand dollars. He's
Speaker 1: the ones that look like seashells if you were to
Speaker 1: strip away the outsides. Yes really, yeah, okay, yeah, Why
Speaker 1: did they cost so much Because they supposedly have such
Speaker 1: amazing fidelity that it feels and this is from the
Speaker 1: manufacturer as if you're being caressed by the sound or
Speaker 1: that's what I thought, or if you turn it up
Speaker 1: that it could knock you over with the intensity of
Speaker 1: the sound. Um, yeah, here's the thing, here's the thing,
Speaker 1: and and this goes way back in tech stuff lore.
Speaker 1: Chris Pallette and I did an episode ages and ages
Speaker 1: ago about the myths of audio fidelity, and largely we
Speaker 1: were talking about cables in that sense us exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the do those high price cables? Are they actually worth it?
Speaker 1: Do they have of greater performance? And the answer is
Speaker 1: not really detectable by human ears. Like you might be
Speaker 1: able to hook up some very supersensitive sensors and quantifiably
Speaker 1: say yes, I'm getting better performance, but it's not perceptible.
Speaker 1: The same sort of thing with these speakers really are
Speaker 1: not these speakers in particular, but speakers in general, is
Speaker 1: that once you get to a certain level of performance,
Speaker 1: it really is impossible for a person to tell. Like
Speaker 1: if you were a double blinded test where you put
Speaker 1: a person in a room, the person ministering the test
Speaker 1: doesn't know which says speakers are in that room. The
Speaker 1: person taking the test has no idea which says speakers
Speaker 1: are in that room. And if you were to repeat
Speaker 1: that over and over, you would likely see that people
Speaker 1: would not be able to tell the difference beyond a
Speaker 1: certain level. Now that's not to say that there are
Speaker 1: there aren't bad speakers. There are, and there are good speakers,
Speaker 1: but but the plateaus at a point, like, at least
Speaker 1: as far as human experience goes, there's a diminishing return exactly.
Speaker 1: So okay in that case then, and not to I'm
Speaker 1: just being honest here again, and sometimes that will make
Speaker 1: me sound like a rude person. But are you telling
Speaker 1: me people are paying almost five hundred thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: something they literally are incapable of appreciating. It's quite possible
Speaker 1: and not unheard of. I mean, you know, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to speakers and sound systems. I would I see.
Speaker 1: I think some people pride themselves on the concept of
Speaker 1: being an audio file, that they appreciate sound, and somehow
Speaker 1: they appreciate it more than most people do, perhaps even
Speaker 1: the vast majority of people. Um, and as part of that,
Speaker 1: they want to cater to that that self image, you know,
Speaker 1: this idea of sound. I love the effective sound and
Speaker 1: I totally get this. I mean, I love music, right,
Speaker 1: and I definitely understand people who said, uh, they preferred
Speaker 1: older means of of listening to music to m P
Speaker 1: three's because for a long time, first of all, MP
Speaker 1: three is a lossy format. Mean you're you're losing some
Speaker 1: information whenever you make that type of file. But those
Speaker 1: those conversions have gotten better and better, plus their other
Speaker 1: lossless formats out there where digital is no longer I
Speaker 1: think a meaningful distinction from analog. So what you're saying,
Speaker 1: so I would go that far as to say, if you,
Speaker 1: if you do things correctly, you should not be able
Speaker 1: to tell the difference. And there's also a psychological aspect
Speaker 1: though two people. It's it's like, uh, some people will
Speaker 1: make to your coffee a certain way, and just because
Speaker 1: that there's something comforting about that, they feel that it
Speaker 1: is the superior method. I would argue very much that
Speaker 1: that things like listening to vinyl records has a bit
Speaker 1: of the ritual involved, right, and that ritualistic experience provides
Speaker 1: that sense of comfort and familiarity. So if and I
Speaker 1: do that, I mean, I've got a collection of vinyl
Speaker 1: at home. I'm I'm talking about this like as someone
Speaker 1: who I I appreciate that experience, and that's part of it, right.
Speaker 1: It's not just the sound, it's not even not even
Speaker 1: necessarily related to whatever the record is. It's the experience
Speaker 1: of putting that all together. And I think there is
Speaker 1: a value to that, and obviously digital doesn't really I mean,
Speaker 1: there's not really a uh comparison where you push play
Speaker 1: on a touch screen and the music place. It's not
Speaker 1: the same thing as taking taking the sleeve out of
Speaker 1: a cover and then the finalist of the sleeve and
Speaker 1: then placing that on the platter and moving the needle over.
Speaker 1: And if you guys don't know what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: you need to look at a turntable. Although those have
Speaker 1: come back, I mean, everyone knows one of those technologies.
Speaker 1: I used to joke about. Ask your parents, but now
Speaker 1: a lot of people know about it. Thousand dollars, all right,
Speaker 1: let's let's let's up the anti four and dollars. That's
Speaker 1: that's chicken feed. Yeah. So so the next one is
Speaker 1: going to be a television telling you straight out the
Speaker 1: name of the television is the Stewart Hughes Prestige HD
Speaker 1: Supreme Rose Edition. What is that? Like a bad Google translation?
Speaker 1: Stewart Hughes would be the company. The Prestige HD Supreme
Speaker 1: Rose Edition is the name of the television. So it
Speaker 1: costs two point to five million dollars. A TV that
Speaker 1: costs two point five million dollars. Might as well just
Speaker 1: get the element that has two TVs in it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. Okay, so what do we get sell me
Speaker 1: on this? All right, it's a television, So it's not
Speaker 1: even not even it's not even ridiculously huge, right like
Speaker 1: you were expecting it. Oh, it's going to be like
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy three TV and it's television. Um,
Speaker 1: it's got twenty eight ms of eighteen carrot gold in
Speaker 1: the frame and that's that's primarily. Yeah, that twenty eight kilograms.
Speaker 1: It's more than fifty pounds of gold. What is this
Speaker 1: obsession with putting gold on things that don't need gold?
Speaker 1: I guess it just means that your TV, even as
Speaker 1: it becomes obsolete, is still insanely valuable. The frame is
Speaker 1: studded with seventy two one carrot diamonds. They're also a
Speaker 1: sunstone and amethysts in that frame between the outer frame
Speaker 1: and the screen. So imagine you've got like a frame,
Speaker 1: like a picture frame. The screen is in set, So
Speaker 1: this would be almost like the mat of a of
Speaker 1: a if you were looking at a a framed picture,
Speaker 1: you know that has the mat surrounding it. Well, the
Speaker 1: mat would be made out of alligator skin that is
Speaker 1: hand sewn to the frame. Uh yeah, hand So so
Speaker 1: it just seems like such a left field the idea
Speaker 1: they're creating the TV. It's Stewart Hughes and they say something,
Speaker 1: can you kill an alligator? Could that? Can we do that?
Speaker 1: Can we kill an alligator? Um? I my own personal opinion,
Speaker 1: I think it's hideous. I think it's hideous. I almost
Speaker 1: I wish now I what I really wish I had done,
Speaker 1: and it's a regret that I'm going to have to
Speaker 1: live with. I wish I had printed out pictures of
Speaker 1: each of these things so I could hand them to
Speaker 1: you after I explain what it is to get your
Speaker 1: action on those. But I mean, this is an audio podcast,
Speaker 1: so there would only be limited value in that anyway,
Speaker 1: right for the for for you guys listening, But also
Speaker 1: that would probably increase the likelihood of me, Cursey, We're
Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of bleeps this epid. But the
Speaker 1: Stewart Hughes Prestige HD, which is Prestige HD is altogether
Speaker 1: supreme Rose Edition. You go check that out, listeners and
Speaker 1: take a look, and you tell me if you think
Speaker 1: it looks beautiful. I said that it looks like the
Speaker 1: Hearst Castle of television, And if you've ever been to
Speaker 1: Hearst Castle, you know what I'm talking about. William Randolph
Speaker 1: Hurst had way more money than he had taste. He
Speaker 1: just if he saw something that he liked, he bought
Speaker 1: it and he put it in a room. Whether it
Speaker 1: went with everything else or not, he would go for baroque. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's a um one of the TVs I was going
Speaker 1: to mention, but I decided ultimately not to because if
Speaker 1: you do a search for most expensive television, is one
Speaker 1: of the ones that pops up pretty consistently is a
Speaker 1: a sonic television that's a hundred and fifty two inches.
Speaker 1: But I didn't necessary. I didn't want to include it
Speaker 1: in this because I'm specifically talking about consumer technology. The
Speaker 1: Panasonic one fifty two inch plasma display is really intended
Speaker 1: for businesses. So for like a big company that wants
Speaker 1: to have a huge screen on a big wall, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Yeah, or or even just as a
Speaker 1: prestige thing for the company whatever, you know, but it
Speaker 1: was or maybe it's a media company and they want
Speaker 1: to be able to show off the stuff they do um,
Speaker 1: but it's a five hundred thousand dollar display that's a
Speaker 1: hundred fifty two inches. It's a plasma display, So I
Speaker 1: don't really think of that as a consumer product, which
Speaker 1: is why I didn't have it as an official one
Speaker 1: and it no. But here's here's an actual TV that
Speaker 1: you can buy as a consumer. Um. It is one
Speaker 1: of the most expensive consumer televisions out there that is
Speaker 1: not bedecked with jewels and is Samsung you in one
Speaker 1: zero five S nine B. That's the way TVs are
Speaker 1: these days. The original M s r P for this
Speaker 1: was two hundred sixty thousand dollars, more than a quarter
Speaker 1: of a million dollars for this television when it when
Speaker 1: it first came out. Right now, though, if you go
Speaker 1: to Samsung's page, act quickly because it now lists the
Speaker 1: suggested retail at one forty nine thousand, nine nine cents,
Speaker 1: But you can scoop it up for a mirror one
Speaker 1: D nineteen thousand dollars nine and nine. So so just
Speaker 1: under one we're back in the game, saving thirty thousand
Speaker 1: right there. And by saving that thirty thousand, you can
Speaker 1: go and then buy that Virtue Red Gold phone. And
Speaker 1: I like if we can go, we'll have to take
Speaker 1: our TV with us to the exclusive party. Yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: just say, Look, you know I'm rich because I also
Speaker 1: have this monstrosity. It's a hundred and five inch television,
Speaker 1: so this one is significantly larger. It's four K Ultra HD.
Speaker 1: It's a smart TV with built in WiFi. And this
Speaker 1: is the one that is a bendable screen where you
Speaker 1: you push a button in the and the screen bends inward.
Speaker 1: It curves inward. Yeah, it's pretty nifty. That explains to
Speaker 1: me some of the appeal. And then I have a
Speaker 1: question to I was wondering about this, and I'm glad
Speaker 1: you went to t v's This is something that our
Speaker 1: listeners are probably wondering as well. Is there also a
Speaker 1: diminishing return with um, you know, four K with the
Speaker 1: quality of video. That's an excellent question, I would argue yes. However,
Speaker 1: it's dependent on a couple of different things. The size
Speaker 1: of the screen, because the larger you go, the higher
Speaker 1: the resolution you need in order to not have that
Speaker 1: quality degrade. So so if I have a if I
Speaker 1: have at TV and it's at seven twenty, that might
Speaker 1: look great to me, and I might think all right, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to a much large your TV. Let's go.
Speaker 1: I'm going up to sixty inch television. But now I
Speaker 1: want to have uh two K or four K screen,
Speaker 1: probably four K screen because two K really didn't go anywhere.
Speaker 1: But a four K screen you would be able to
Speaker 1: tell the difference because it's sharper, and it's bigger. And
Speaker 1: if you're especially if you don't change how far away
Speaker 1: you're sitting from the screen, like if you're seeing just
Speaker 1: as far away from your sixty inch as you were
Speaker 1: your forty inch, then uh, you know, the bigger it gets,
Speaker 1: the more likely you're going to detect any sort of
Speaker 1: problems with quality. Uh. But that being said, if you
Speaker 1: are looking at like or at least for me, I
Speaker 1: have found at c s where you would presumably tune
Speaker 1: these televisions to be high performing, you know, so that
Speaker 1: you really attract people. I have looked at h D
Speaker 1: t vs next to two K, four K, eight K
Speaker 1: sets and at an equal distance and using equal sizes,
Speaker 1: it's I can't tell any like, I can't really distinguish
Speaker 1: between them, Like if you had covered up the label
Speaker 1: and didn't tell me which one was which I probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to identify them. If I got really close,
Speaker 1: I could because the closer you get, the more you
Speaker 1: can see what you can tell the how how good
Speaker 1: the resolution is. But again, so it depends on screen size,
Speaker 1: how close you're sitting, and also just calibrating your TV. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you if you have someone professionally calibrate your television
Speaker 1: so that it's going to give you the best experience
Speaker 1: in whatever environment you are in it, that makes a
Speaker 1: huge difference. I have not done that, but I did
Speaker 1: not mostly because my room I'm in, the light changes
Speaker 1: so dramatically because, uh, the where my cable hook up
Speaker 1: is is near a big window, like a floor to
Speaker 1: ceiling window, and even with window treatment on that some
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of sunlight will come through in
Speaker 1: the daytime and at night it's totally different. So it
Speaker 1: would be hard to calibrate it in a way that
Speaker 1: would be satisfying for both experiences. So I just kind
Speaker 1: of mediocreate. No. I hopefully this uh, this amazing piece
Speaker 1: of television technology will calibrate itself or have someone that
Speaker 1: I almost said someone that comes with it. You open
Speaker 1: up a box and some some poor person is just
Speaker 1: like crying, you know, hunched over inside the boxing. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm ready to calibrate your exactly, and then you give
Speaker 1: Darby a sock and it goes off on his way. Um. Also,
Speaker 1: it can upscale images, so in other words, you can
Speaker 1: look at something like HD content and turn it into
Speaker 1: ultra HD content and it just does it by kind
Speaker 1: of interpreting what the missing pixels would be. So it's
Speaker 1: not perfect, right, Upscaling has never been perfect, but it
Speaker 1: can be very good. It seems interesting, yeah, but I
Speaker 1: don't know if it I frankly, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: not swayed to go buy it because it sounds like
Speaker 1: only the edges of the screen bend. Yes, it bends
Speaker 1: in towards you. Yeah, it's not like you can wrap
Speaker 1: it round a column or something and have like a
Speaker 1: circular television or something, in which case that would be
Speaker 1: a steel Yeah. Yeah, that's that's not it. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: here's your next one, the like a M nine P
Speaker 1: edition Hermes Serie Limited Jean Louis Dumas or Duma if
Speaker 1: you prefer, what kind of device do you think that
Speaker 1: might be? Will you say, we see the Holy Name?
Speaker 1: Like an M nine P edition Hermes serie limite Jean
Speaker 1: Louis Duma like a, yeah, Hermes, like I spelled by
Speaker 1: the way, I may be mispronouncing. That's l E. I
Speaker 1: c A. I think you may have stopped me. This
Speaker 1: one is a tough one. Just Hermes made me what
Speaker 1: I guess if it was a bag, but it's it's not,
Speaker 1: which makes me think of the Saturday Night Live sketches
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. I'm brecky Um, Okay, I'm just gonna take
Speaker 1: a Probably it's probably herme is actually so I'm so ghosh,
Speaker 1: I'll take a I'll take a shot. Ghost is such
Speaker 1: a weird word because people who know the word ghost, yeah,
Speaker 1: are inherently not gosh. I like, I like where you're going. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so sorry, that's just some business for me to try
Speaker 1: to cold read you. Um, and I'm not giving anything
Speaker 1: like I know it's not working very well. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say a few things and see if you blink. Uh.
Speaker 1: Now you just gonna have to give a guess, all right? Um?
Speaker 1: Is it a laptop? No, it is a point and
Speaker 1: shoot camera. I should have known, like I should have known. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a point of shoot camera. It's digital camera. So
Speaker 1: it's not not a film camera. Uh, and it costs
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars. It's a fifty dollar point and shoot
Speaker 1: digital camera. It has calf skin leather that has been
Speaker 1: handsome um comes with multiple lenses that are cased in
Speaker 1: analyzed silver. It's very very I mean it looks beautiful.
Speaker 1: You look at, you look at and you're just like, well,
Speaker 1: that is a work of art. But still fifty thousan
Speaker 1: dollars for a point and shoot camera. I'm just glad
Speaker 1: it doesn't have a bunch of gold on it. No,
Speaker 1: it does not have a bunch of gold on it. However,
Speaker 1: if you want to talk about a bunch of gold,
Speaker 1: how about the Nintendo WE Supreme which is covered in
Speaker 1: twenty two carried gold? Why two thousand, five hundred grams
Speaker 1: of twenty two carried gold? Why the front buttons are
Speaker 1: made out of diamond? Oh okay, Oh that's different. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: It works, right, work, It does work. There are only
Speaker 1: three of them in existence, and it costs two pounds sterling,
Speaker 1: which if you if you were to convert to the
Speaker 1: U S dollars, about four hundred sixty five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for an into NOI also done by Stuart Hughes, the
Speaker 1: same company that did the Ridiculous Tea. So they switched
Speaker 1: the alligator skins just for TVs. You know, there's no
Speaker 1: alligator skin, which is weird because you know you could
Speaker 1: have done like Yoshi's Revenge or something and packaged it
Speaker 1: an alligator. Yeah, you should be. I'm just seeing them now,
Speaker 1: going this, we need something else? Can we kill an alligator?
Speaker 1: You know, we meltdown some more gold. Someone go to
Speaker 1: the alps. Yeah, they're they're actually um there. They've also
Speaker 1: done the same sort of thing with other consoles, but apparently,
Speaker 1: according to their website, this is the most expensive video
Speaker 1: game console in the world, the Nintendo we Subreme. You
Speaker 1: know what this this might date you and I, but
Speaker 1: do you remember um, the Neo Geo, Yes, where the
Speaker 1: actual game cartridges were like several hundred dollars. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was so. I was so envious that, and my parents
Speaker 1: let me try to pitch them on getting one, and
Speaker 1: I tried my best to justify how this would be
Speaker 1: an investment for our family. If you don't know, the
Speaker 1: Neo g O console so like the original consoles cost
Speaker 1: you know, a hundred bucks or more depending on what
Speaker 1: you were looking at. But Neo Geo was way more
Speaker 1: expensive and the the individual games were way more expensively.
Speaker 1: The individual games cost more than other video game consoles. Dad, Yeah, no, kidden,
Speaker 1: and they had. But it was that it was almost
Speaker 1: the same thing we're seeing now in microcosm, because it
Speaker 1: was the exclusivity of it over the actual the actual merit.
Speaker 1: Which makes me want to ask, is that with the
Speaker 1: with the WE, it's just the we, right, There's no
Speaker 1: nothing in the specs that's different. It can't. It doesn't
Speaker 1: like upscale it to HD. It's regular. I wonder it
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be possible in this age, but what if
Speaker 1: there was some exclusive video game content that only came
Speaker 1: like the most the most rarefied elite DLC. This, this
Speaker 1: actually makes me think I almost included it for this
Speaker 1: um this podcast, but I for god actually, But when
Speaker 1: the iPhone first came out, in the app store first
Speaker 1: opened up, do you remember that there was an app
Speaker 1: where you could buy a jewel for like or something like. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it didn't do anything, it was just to show that
Speaker 1: you could blow a thousand bucks on on an app.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I was you know, I was wondering if
Speaker 1: that was going to come up in this podcast. I
Speaker 1: really I thought about doing it. I just forgot to
Speaker 1: add it to the list. Most these are the things
Speaker 1: I looked at, were really consumer electronics as opposed to
Speaker 1: an app that gets added onto an existing product. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see, Well, well this is okay, so far, so far?
Speaker 1: Right now, um, right now, I'm torn. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of what which of these things I would pick
Speaker 1: if I could only pick one? You have, And I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear what you think about it too at
Speaker 1: the end. Okay, yeah, it sounds great. Yeah, at the end,
Speaker 1: we'll we'll discuss which of these ridiculous or extravagant or
Speaker 1: luxurious items we would want for our selves. That sounds good,
Speaker 1: all right. So the next one, this one you mentioned laptop,
Speaker 1: you guess laptop on the last one, this one is
Speaker 1: a PC, but a desktop PC, the Zeus Jupiter. It's
Speaker 1: a PC that costs It's a PC. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: even It's not even a really strong one, especially compared
Speaker 1: to today's standard. I suppose it's handmade. Uh close. It's
Speaker 1: plated with platinum, but it's a pctum and studded with
Speaker 1: diamonds and and and light can come through, and the
Speaker 1: studded diamonds make make constellations on the case, so when
Speaker 1: you turn the computer on and the light comes through,
Speaker 1: it looks like there's like a Ryan there, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. That's yeah, So it's has an until three
Speaker 1: giga hurts E six eighty uh fifty core two duo CPU,
Speaker 1: only two gigabytes of d d R two memory, a
Speaker 1: terabyte hard drive. So obviously if you or to compare
Speaker 1: this to like a A A even a lower upper
Speaker 1: tier gaming rig, it that would blow this thing out
Speaker 1: the water. Yeah, this was originally announced prior around two
Speaker 1: thousand like that, but as far as I can tell,
Speaker 1: there has not been another computer announced personal computer mind
Speaker 1: you announced that is more expensive. Now, That's why I
Speaker 1: wanted to say, like, these are expensive toys, they may
Speaker 1: not be the most expensive, because honestly, trying to track
Speaker 1: that down and verify it is really tricky. I for
Speaker 1: all of these, I wanted to go to multiple sources
Speaker 1: to make sure, preferably going to the the primary source,
Speaker 1: which is where I found out about the fair two phone,
Speaker 1: because the original one I had on that list was
Speaker 1: only ten thousand two hundred dollars, and then I found
Speaker 1: there was a model that was more expensive than that.
Speaker 1: Here's one that, uh that I actually knew about before
Speaker 1: I did this list, and it's not it's nowhere near
Speaker 1: it's not in the same ballpark as the other stuff
Speaker 1: we've talked about. Okay, so not thousands of dollars. But
Speaker 1: did you hear about the game Steel Battalion? Yes, for
Speaker 1: the Xbox. I may be thinking of a battle me. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's it. It was. It was a Mex simulator. You
Speaker 1: had a and the reason why it was expensive, by
Speaker 1: the way, it was it was two hundred dollars, which
Speaker 1: actually today you look at video games like say Rock Band,
Speaker 1: not that expensive. But if you were to look at
Speaker 1: Steal Battalion, it was a two game for the Xbox.
Speaker 1: It was the most expensive game for the Xbox. And
Speaker 1: the reason was it came with this controller that had
Speaker 1: forty buttons, so it was like it was like a
Speaker 1: panel that had two joysticks on it, plus a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of buttons and switches and three pedals that you
Speaker 1: would control with your feet. And it was a mech
Speaker 1: simulation game where you were simulating being the pilot of
Speaker 1: a mech and Uh. I never got to play it.
Speaker 1: I never saw I don't know anyone who had it.
Speaker 1: I'm so jealous envious the people who have that. Though.
Speaker 1: I wanted to play that so bad. When I heard
Speaker 1: about it, I thought, well, that sounds really cool, and
Speaker 1: it also reminded me of h I think there was
Speaker 1: like a virtual reality um video game arcade type experience
Speaker 1: where you could go and and do MEC battles like
Speaker 1: it was like it was like six on six type
Speaker 1: Mac battles or whatever, but it was a custom made
Speaker 1: experience where you went into the you know, you had
Speaker 1: to actually go to a place and play it. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like a home game thing, but this was something
Speaker 1: that made me think, this is about as close to
Speaker 1: that experiences you could have in your own home. UH.
Speaker 1: For comparison, though, the rock Band three complete set, if
Speaker 1: you wanted to have everything from rock Band three was
Speaker 1: three hundred sixty dollars, and that's because you had the game,
Speaker 1: the drums, two guitars, a microphone, plus the keyboard controller. UH.
Speaker 1: The current version of rock Band rock Band four that
Speaker 1: just came out, is less than that. They don't have
Speaker 1: the keyboard controller anymore. It's still more than two hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: but it's not three hundred sixty and still the time
Speaker 1: when it came it was the It's set the precedent
Speaker 1: for stuff like that. Uh, I'm gonna stick with video games.
Speaker 1: Talk about we're gonna go up another notch to a
Speaker 1: very expensive game. Alright, Resident Evil six Platinum Edition. This
Speaker 1: was only available in Japan. Okay, okay, it's more than
Speaker 1: three d sixty dollars. That's dollars for a game. Does
Speaker 1: it please tell me the box is not made of platinum. No,
Speaker 1: but it comes with a leather jacket replica of the
Speaker 1: character Leon Kennedy's jacket in the game. Really. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it came with a leather jacket, but I won't I
Speaker 1: won't spend thirte on a leather jacket either, unless the
Speaker 1: leather jacket is actually made out of gold. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: I am overjoyed after all we've been through together that
Speaker 1: there is not coded in precious gems or medals. Man,
Speaker 1: you're gonna hate the next one. Well. Well, one other
Speaker 1: thing I have to mention about the Platinum Edition is
Speaker 1: that it also came with four phone cases modeled after
Speaker 1: Resident Evil characters. So I mean there's where you make
Speaker 1: up the value. All right. So we're getting to the
Speaker 1: most expensive video game of all time, although it's only
Speaker 1: because of the packaging. I don't know. This the grid
Speaker 1: to Mono Edition. It's a racing game for the PlayStation three.
Speaker 1: It cost one thousand pounds sterling, which is just under
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars because it came with a supercar.
Speaker 1: The supercar was a custom made B a C Mono
Speaker 1: back Mono and had a max speed of a hundred
Speaker 1: seventy miles per hour and it wins zero to sixty
Speaker 1: and two point eight seconds. Okay, that I feel like
Speaker 1: it's worth it. Yeah, if you're gonna if you're gonna
Speaker 1: drop a hundred thousand bucks on a video game, at
Speaker 1: least it came with a supercar. It also included a
Speaker 1: PS three just in case you didn't have one, so
Speaker 1: that was also added, and you got you got custom
Speaker 1: made racing gear that you could work. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: this is one of my favorites so far. Okay, good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's because it's not just the game, No, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a great deal. It's a package deal. Now, now
Speaker 1: I'm going to kind of move on into because you know,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about consumer tech with like entertainment
Speaker 1: and stuff. I wanted to finish out with something a
Speaker 1: little more down to earth. I thought we'd talked about
Speaker 1: something like kitchen gadgets, kitchen kitchen stuff, kitchen consumer tech.
Speaker 1: Now we know that appliances and major kitchen purchases can
Speaker 1: be pretty expensive. For example, the lack Corn New Grand
Speaker 1: Palais stove range costs a starting price for one is
Speaker 1: forty seven thousand, three hundred dollars for the cooking range
Speaker 1: for just nge for the It includes both a gas
Speaker 1: oven and an electric oven. Uh so this is why
Speaker 1: it's like two of these. It's like two regular range
Speaker 1: stoves like next to each other. It has a lava
Speaker 1: rock grill, electric plate stovetop, and it's made by hand
Speaker 1: from cast iron, steel and brass with porcelain enamel. Damn,
Speaker 1: it looks it looks very uh, it looks very fancy.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want it doesn't appeal to me. It's not
Speaker 1: my my style. But the one that that that was
Speaker 1: in the picture was like this, this beautiful color of
Speaker 1: red with gold embellishment, and like the like the handles
Speaker 1: for the range top or a gold and that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And I thought it was pretty, but actually
Speaker 1: I guess it was technically brass not gold. But I
Speaker 1: thought it was pretty, but I I it wasn't the
Speaker 1: kind of style that appeals to me. Is it a
Speaker 1: French company? Yes? Is it? You know? Okay, this is
Speaker 1: just a very very brief thing. But a side note.
Speaker 1: One of my friends when she was living in New
Speaker 1: York I she was doing well, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: not that easy when you move into New York as
Speaker 1: a young person to make enough money to live there.
Speaker 1: So she tried a couple of different jobs and the
Speaker 1: jobs she ended up working at for a very long
Speaker 1: time was a place that only sold bespoke door knobs.
Speaker 1: That was their entire business. That's that blows my mind.
Speaker 1: And then there could be an entire business around that. Yep,
Speaker 1: ye talk about cottage industry. I mean apparently it worked well.
Speaker 1: So she would just ride the trade in the Manhattan
Speaker 1: every day. It's sell these door or project manage whatever.
Speaker 1: So it's just strange because this this company, it sounds
Speaker 1: like they might just be artists. And yeah, they they
Speaker 1: focus on making these sort of luxury high end kitchen
Speaker 1: appliance and specifically ranges dollars, though you could do so
Speaker 1: much other stuff. Well, how about a refrigerator. I'm I'm okay.
Speaker 1: There's a different company though, is the Menonghini at Adamanti refrigerator? Actually,
Speaker 1: I guess it's at a deminty. At a deminty. It
Speaker 1: keeps food cold. It's a refrigerator. It actually looks like
Speaker 1: an armoire. It doesn't look like a refrigerator. It looks
Speaker 1: like a big piece of furniture. Uh. And it has
Speaker 1: three three um doors and a couple of porthole cabinet
Speaker 1: type things. So there's actually a pantry, a refrigerator, and
Speaker 1: icebox all incorporated in this thing. So when you look
Speaker 1: at it looks like, you know, you know, like cabinets
Speaker 1: that have the kind of slatted doors. Okay, it looks
Speaker 1: like one of those, except when you open it, it's
Speaker 1: a refrigerator insight, as opposed to a closet or wardrobe
Speaker 1: or something. Um. But it definitely looks more like a
Speaker 1: piece of furniture than your typical refrigerator does. And obviously
Speaker 1: this was more about creating a sense of style for
Speaker 1: someone's luxury home. Sure, for someone who doesn't who wants
Speaker 1: to look as though they are above the common. For
Speaker 1: someone who I think I can almost certainly guarantee you
Speaker 1: has never cooked a darn thing in their lives. They
Speaker 1: have people to do that for them. Or how about
Speaker 1: the Hammocker double espresso machine that's only eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: eight dollars Okay, So why this is the thing that
Speaker 1: I've noticed there? And this goes back It's strange that
Speaker 1: there's a common theme here about comparative happiness or perception,
Speaker 1: because I didn't know that there's this niche of incredibly
Speaker 1: expensive espresso machine. Yeah, I um, it's funny, well, just
Speaker 1: incredibly expensive anything, right, Like you'll find versions of stuff
Speaker 1: that the price is ten times or more what you
Speaker 1: would find in the general consumer verse and of that thing.
Speaker 1: And often like you start looking at and you think,
Speaker 1: what sort of stuff sets this apart from the consumer version,
Speaker 1: like the regular consumer version where you would go to
Speaker 1: like a best Buy to go and purchase this, or
Speaker 1: you buy it off online, off Amazon or something. Often
Speaker 1: it's the handmade part that tends to be one thing
Speaker 1: that because it becomes this thing that's made by artists
Speaker 1: as opposed to made by a machine, and there's there's
Speaker 1: a definitely definite perceived value in that someone someone dedicated
Speaker 1: their time and skill into creating this thing. UM. Whether
Speaker 1: or not that makes it valuable to you is another question.
Speaker 1: But it shows that there was care given to the
Speaker 1: creation of whatever it was. UM And I think, I
Speaker 1: think again, status is a big deal. I don't think
Speaker 1: that most of the things we're talking about here are
Speaker 1: working at a level, uh, noticeably higher than what you
Speaker 1: would get the normal consumer market. Like, their objective performance
Speaker 1: is not superior exactly. I would say some of them.
Speaker 1: Maybe you know some of them. You're talking about stuff
Speaker 1: where it's on the cutting edge of technology, sure, right,
Speaker 1: like the supercar gonna go faster than your general car does.
Speaker 1: Though you can buy one of those separately without the
Speaker 1: game for significantly less. Well yeah, I mean like twenty
Speaker 1: dollars less. That's significant. That's a Vertu phone right there.
Speaker 1: Uh So this espresso machine in particular is topped with
Speaker 1: a copper dome on top of which purchase a brass eagle.
Speaker 1: Uh and it includes that this one. Okay, I I
Speaker 1: love coffee, alright, I'm not an espresso snob. I don't
Speaker 1: like I'm not a big espresso fan, but I do
Speaker 1: like coffee. But there's certain things in this that really
Speaker 1: appealed to me as a tech nerd and as someone
Speaker 1: who likes coffee. It has a microprocessor and it that
Speaker 1: controls exactly how much water is allowed to flow through
Speaker 1: the grind, so you can you can tailor make the
Speaker 1: str length of your espresso through a touch pad two
Speaker 1: exactly what you want, and it controls it to the drop.
Speaker 1: So that sort of precision. Now, you can argue that
Speaker 1: making coffee is not like precise chemistry, right, It's not
Speaker 1: because the quality of the bean is going to change
Speaker 1: over on and how old the bean is that's going
Speaker 1: to affect it as well. So it's not like chemistry
Speaker 1: experiment where you're going to get the exact same result
Speaker 1: every time, assuming that you follow the right protocols. But
Speaker 1: I like the idea that you can at least have
Speaker 1: the illusion of control in your life. I need that,
Speaker 1: then I need the illusion of control. I hope, I
Speaker 1: hope that's their mottosi. Also, it's it's a little hefty.
Speaker 1: It weighs three pounds, so then wonder so this is
Speaker 1: really for I guess these people will be prosumers at
Speaker 1: this point. Yeah, it actually said, well, it's funny because
Speaker 1: it's it's really designed to make like high volume amount
Speaker 1: of espresso. So you would imagine that you would see
Speaker 1: this more in like a I end coffee shop, like
Speaker 1: a boutique coffee shop type place. But as I was
Speaker 1: looking at it, because I was talking about I could make,
Speaker 1: you know, I forget how many cups of espresso within
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes it was. It was crazy. It
Speaker 1: was a lot more than any human would need to drink.
Speaker 1: But it said it also could do uh one cup
Speaker 1: serving deals like the little um podspresso pod. So with scales. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with that, you'd say, well, I guess if you if
Speaker 1: you really wanted this, you could get it. But I
Speaker 1: almost didn't include it because I thought it was a
Speaker 1: little closer to prosumer than consumer. But uh but you know,
Speaker 1: as a coffee lever, I had to add something. And
Speaker 1: you know, I remember somebody talking about this, this art
Speaker 1: of coffee tasting just a stranger. When I was out
Speaker 1: on on Thursdays. I go to the bar across the
Speaker 1: street from here and do the cross word because I'm
Speaker 1: living on the edge, and there was some guy who
Speaker 1: was an expert in coffee, and he was telling me
Speaker 1: about how how difficult it is to control those variables,
Speaker 1: and really, I think there's a market. We had we
Speaker 1: we hear it how stuff works. That one time had
Speaker 1: a guy from bat Doorphin Bronson, came in and did
Speaker 1: a whole thing on coffee tasting as well. That's a
Speaker 1: local roaster here in Atlanta that makes crazy good coffee.
Speaker 1: Um final item on the list not not huge. I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't want to do like the build up
Speaker 1: to the biggest, biggest, biggest. This is actually comparative, comparatively
Speaker 1: speaking to most of the things modestly expensive. The Blend
Speaker 1: Tech Stealth blender. This is one of the latest blenders
Speaker 1: on the market. Okay, it does not have any like
Speaker 1: platinum case or diamonds, none of that, none of that stuff.
Speaker 1: So it based upon its design and performance alone. It
Speaker 1: is used at two thousand, three thirty dollars for a blender.
Speaker 1: Does the sound of a blender bother someone that much?
Speaker 1: It in fact does have the sound control enclosure so
Speaker 1: that you don't hear the blender sound. Yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: actually called a sound enclosure. That's what they call the
Speaker 1: sound enclosure has a fifteen amp motor, touchpad controls, and
Speaker 1: as a USB port, so you can upload or download
Speaker 1: up to thirty six custom blend cycles. So if you
Speaker 1: want to make something by first like going super fast
Speaker 1: and then slowing down or whatever you can, you can
Speaker 1: you can tinker to your heart's content. That just seems
Speaker 1: so unnecessary. It seems like it would take more time
Speaker 1: to do that than to just hit a button for
Speaker 1: a second then hit a different button. You wouldn't really
Speaker 1: see any results from that for the first five years.
Speaker 1: Then if if you, if you make enough money where
Speaker 1: a two thousand, three thirty dollar blender seems like a
Speaker 1: prudent expense, you don't have time to push buttons. You
Speaker 1: know what, This should be my opening to ask for
Speaker 1: a raise. Guys, we spend a lot of time pushing buttons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or you or you go and say, listen, I can't
Speaker 1: even afford to buy a blender, don't you just you
Speaker 1: don't say which blender? All I want is a watch, exactly.
Speaker 1: I have my eye on this one watch. And it's
Speaker 1: not even that that it's not even that modern, like
Speaker 1: you know, it's uh yeah. In fact, what's funny is
Speaker 1: when I started looking at this, I also looked at
Speaker 1: things like the most expensive smart watch on there, which
Speaker 1: is nothing. It's like six hundred bucks, seven hundred bucks
Speaker 1: something like that. When when after you've been looking at
Speaker 1: that antique watches or luxury watches that have super rare
Speaker 1: materials worked into them, a lot of the electronics just
Speaker 1: doesn't even come close to the same expense because you well,
Speaker 1: I mean you think figure it, You're like, well, the
Speaker 1: unless you've got something crazy going on inside, those electronics
Speaker 1: are going to be very much the same from device
Speaker 1: to device. So that's not going to dictate how expensive
Speaker 1: your your gadget can be. You have to look at
Speaker 1: other things, like the actual material it's made from, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's an interesting thing too because although clearly I'm
Speaker 1: not on board with this put gold on everything movement,
Speaker 1: I understand that in some parts of the world that's
Speaker 1: very very popular just because of the intrinsic value of
Speaker 1: the material. Yeah. Well, we've covered everything that was on
Speaker 1: my list. Obviously there's tons more we could talk about.
Speaker 1: I'm having trouble picking one. Yeah, you gotta pick one
Speaker 1: that was your idea, I know, man, I'm cursing past
Speaker 1: it also doesn't help but you as much because you
Speaker 1: haven't seen pictures of these things, maybe one or two
Speaker 1: you might say pictures. Um, is the element ugly? That's
Speaker 1: my first question on the outside the element Palazzo. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm not crazy about it, but you guys, I'm watching
Speaker 1: John Did across the table trying to be fair. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to I'm trying to pull up an image
Speaker 1: of it. One thing is that whenever I see images
Speaker 1: of this thing, they all look like artists renderings. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever seen an actual picture of the
Speaker 1: thing itself. Um. But here, I'll turn this around. It
Speaker 1: looks kind of what a little weird and futuristic, right yeah?
Speaker 1: Um yeah? I Uh, Like I said, I've only seen
Speaker 1: artists renderings or like, uh like these little c g
Speaker 1: I computer graphics style things. Wow. That's um. If you
Speaker 1: want to look this up, by the way, folks, in
Speaker 1: order to do it, you need to know how it's spelled,
Speaker 1: because it's it's spelled in a jerk way. Element is
Speaker 1: spelled with two m's. It's E L E M M
Speaker 1: E N T and then Palazzo P A L A
Speaker 1: Z Z. Oh. Um. Yeah, I I don't find the
Speaker 1: design to be that appealing. But if if that's if
Speaker 1: it meets your desire for the r V of your dreams,
Speaker 1: that's fine. I just I need to I need to
Speaker 1: have Basically, I want the idea of the house without
Speaker 1: the commitment from the house. Right. Also, if you know,
Speaker 1: if the po po are interested in you, you can
Speaker 1: pick up and move to a different jurisdiction. That's true,
Speaker 1: and and blend in seamlessly. Okay, um yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna know, damn it, I'm torn, you know what,
Speaker 1: I know what I'm leaning toward. But go ahead, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm I'm gonna double down. I will take the element. Okay, alright,
Speaker 1: so three point one million dollars we will charge you
Speaker 1: on your way out. Um I you know, I've reached
Speaker 1: the point in my life where I don't really want
Speaker 1: to quire more things necessarily, Like the idea of buying
Speaker 1: more stuff doesn't have a lot of appeal to me.
Speaker 1: In fact, my wife and I we tend to save
Speaker 1: our money for experiences like a trip to someplace or well,
Speaker 1: we did something that was fantastic. We rented a a
Speaker 1: small cabin, modest cabin not super expensive, that was multiple
Speaker 1: bedrooms and invited some of our friends to just hang
Speaker 1: out for a weekend in the Georgia Woods. It was great,
Speaker 1: Like I was like, this is what I want to
Speaker 1: spend my money on our these kind of experiences because
Speaker 1: stuff doesn't really bring me joy anymore. I reached I
Speaker 1: just reached the point where I'm like, well, where am
Speaker 1: I gonna put it? But if I had a house
Speaker 1: that could accommodate it, I have to admit that the
Speaker 1: the refrigerator I mentioned is pretty nifty. Like I I
Speaker 1: like that. The design actually did appeal to me, so, um,
Speaker 1: that one would be the one that I would probably
Speaker 1: go with. It's not like it's um, it's not like
Speaker 1: it's it's uh super like jaw dropping lee fancy, but um,
Speaker 1: I like it. So I'm gonna show you a picture here,
Speaker 1: and that part of it too is Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: the outside looks like. Sonya right, So that's the outside.
Speaker 1: Let me show you what looks like when it's all
Speaker 1: open up. You're excited about this because I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty Oh whoa, yeah that's pretty right. Just got a
Speaker 1: sense of scale there too, Yeah, it's huge. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's it's it's like, folks. Since you can't
Speaker 1: see for this one, if you want to look it up,
Speaker 1: let me spell it out for you. The Mennghini is
Speaker 1: m E n E g h I n I and
Speaker 1: the era Demente is a r R E d A
Speaker 1: M E n T. I look that up. It's about
Speaker 1: the width of like three regular refrigerators next to each other. Um,
Speaker 1: and the doors open outward. Uh, and you've got you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it's gorgeous. It looks very nice. And that's
Speaker 1: something that appeals to me on a level where I'd say,
Speaker 1: all right, I could go in for that if I
Speaker 1: had crazy amounts of money and a house that could
Speaker 1: hold it. My house is not of a size where
Speaker 1: that that would not fit anywhere in my house. So
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, I don't know, when we go
Speaker 1: on a road trip, I'm not sure if it will
Speaker 1: fit in the element. Yeah, we might just have to
Speaker 1: strap it to the rooftop deck, all class. That's what
Speaker 1: our vanity license plate will say. Yeah, so this is
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. I mean, it was one of
Speaker 1: those things where I just thought, let's do something kind
Speaker 1: of silly. For the upcoming holiday season, and and look
Speaker 1: at some of the some of the excess that you
Speaker 1: can find in consumer electronics. I wish that people more
Speaker 1: people could go to c E s to see the
Speaker 1: ridiculous stuff. You see a lot of. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: the stuff that's fun to either make fun of or
Speaker 1: to just you know, kind of gawk at or whatever.
Speaker 1: But it's it's one of those deals where you're gonna
Speaker 1: see a lot of stuff that's all going to kind
Speaker 1: of blend together, right, like lots of lots of legitimately
Speaker 1: gorgeous electronics. But they there's tons of them, like tons
Speaker 1: of TVs, tons of stereo systems, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: It's when you come across something really unusual that you realize, well,
Speaker 1: this is special. It may not be something that appeals
Speaker 1: to me directly, but it's different enough. And maybe it's
Speaker 1: crazy expensive, which is always fun. So uh wait wait wait, wait, yeah,
Speaker 1: when are you getting the fridge? Well when when you
Speaker 1: and I are on that Forbes list of highest paid YouTubers,
Speaker 1: then maybe at that point I'll start looking around. Oh,
Speaker 1: in the meantime, can I just want to make a
Speaker 1: suggestion you want to talk over with you but uh
Speaker 1: listeners as always, thanks thanks for having me over as well.
Speaker 1: I just want you guys to know no pressure. I
Speaker 1: think I can speak for uh for both of us here,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Um. If you have a used copy of Steel Battalion, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you would like our may address, we will give
Speaker 1: it to you. I mean cool. We'd have to track
Speaker 1: down an Xbox, but apart from that, I'd be totally
Speaker 1: down with it. Like I don't have my Xbox anymore.
Speaker 1: I got rid of that. I've got the three sixty
Speaker 1: and I've got the Xbox one, but I don't have
Speaker 1: the original one held onto those. Yeah, but we we
Speaker 1: had one for the office. I have no idea where
Speaker 1: that one went. I think someone took it probably. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We our office before we moved to where we are now.
Speaker 1: We had an area called Area fifty one in the office,
Speaker 1: and that's where all of our games and goodies and
Speaker 1: toys and stuff were. Here's the thing, folks peak, behind
Speaker 1: the curtain it was there was like a ninety nine
Speaker 1: nine chance that you would not see anyone from the
Speaker 1: editorial side of the business in that room unless there
Speaker 1: was a meeting. The sales and marketing people, however, broke
Speaker 1: that foosball table at least twice. I always felt like
Speaker 1: that kind of thing was a trap. Yeah, exactly, like
Speaker 1: this is here for you. And then if you actually
Speaker 1: went into all right, let's just uh did not meet
Speaker 1: expectations on the employee with you oh man that that
Speaker 1: was cool to it. But yes, seriously, if you're not
Speaker 1: using Still Battalion, it's been one of I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you said when one of my childhood dreams to play
Speaker 1: that game. I would love to hear from our listeners
Speaker 1: if if any of you have played that game, if
Speaker 1: you owned it, what your what your perspective was on it.
Speaker 1: Was it a good game? Was it? Was it worth
Speaker 1: the two dollars? I would argue that if you have
Speaker 1: really fun groups of friends, that's something like rock band
Speaker 1: is certainly worth the money because of the experience you have,
Speaker 1: the shared experience you have with your friends playing together,
Speaker 1: like there's there's something really compelling about that. And I
Speaker 1: don't have people over at my house, so I have
Speaker 1: never I've gone to other places where they've had it,
Speaker 1: and I've had fun playing rock band, but since I
Speaker 1: never have anyone over at my house, I've never bought it.
Speaker 1: I just love how you made your house sound like
Speaker 1: the Forbidden City or something. Don't come to my house.
Speaker 1: I've got I've got a story. I'll tell you when
Speaker 1: we're off the air. Alright, So thank you Ben for
Speaker 1: coming onto the show. I appreciate you being the guinea
Speaker 1: pig and suffering through this listeners. If there's any particular
Speaker 1: extravagant tech that you ever saw that you think is
Speaker 1: interesting in merits mentioning on a list like this, right
Speaker 1: in and tell me, because I'll do a follow up
Speaker 1: and now I'll talk about some of the other things
Speaker 1: that you guys are aware of that I did not cover,
Speaker 1: or if there's anything specific you would like me to
Speaker 1: cover in future episodes of tech Stuff or guests or interviews,
Speaker 1: anything like that, let me know. Send me an email.
Speaker 1: This is the email address. You can send it to
Speaker 1: tex Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or drop
Speaker 1: me a line on Facebook or Twitter or Tumbler. I
Speaker 1: use text stuff H s W at all three and
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon for more on
Speaker 1: this and papens another topic because it has to works
Speaker 1: dot Com