Most Expensive Headphones

If you’re like me, you think the point of headphones is to be able to listen to music on the go. Clearly, though, that isn’t the case for some audiophiles. The world’s most expensive headphones are hardly portable.

Sennheiser, a leading manufacturer of studio and stage microphones, created a limited number of what have been called the best headphones in the world. That’s right, only 300 of these headphones exist—possibly because they’re handmade. The set includes a high-end vacuum tube amplifier with an all-valve signal path and equally high-end electrostatic headphones with gold connectors.

The most expensive headphones in the world originally retailed for around $15,000 and can still be found for less than $30,000. Of course, if you plan on hooking them up to your iPod, you’ll need to leave the amp at home.

Another pair of expensive headphones, the ULTRASONE Edition 9 Limited Edition S-Logic Natural Surround Sound Headphones, come with some cool features. The S-Logic natural surround sound takes the sound out of the headphones and into the room around you for a three-dimensional sound similar to a live concert. Less stress is put on your eardrums because pressure is decreases by up to 40% (3-4dB), allegedly reducing the risk of hearing damage.

Ultrasone’s expensive headphones also utilize ULE technology with an MU metal shield that reduces radiation by up to 98%. . The ULTRASONE Edition 9 Limited Edition S-Logic Natural Surround Sound Headphones are certainly a luxury to be had by the most discriminating audiophile. At a retail price of $1499.00, they’d better sound good.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Top 10 Expensive Android Apps

Android smartphones continue to fly off their shelves. According to a new report by IDC, Android now has 68.1% of the smartphone marketshare worldwide after experiencing 106% year-over-year growth.

“Android continues to fire on all cylinders,” said  Ramon Llamas, an analyst with IDC. “The market was entreated to several flagship models from Android’s handset partners, prices were well within reach to meet multiple budgetary needs, and the user experience from both Google and its handset partners boosted Android smartphones’ utility far beyond simple telephony.”

The Android Market was opened in 2008, a mere day after Google released the initial version of its mobile operating system. Since then Google has rebranded the Android Market, Google Play. In June 2012, Google announced that it currently had 600,000+ apps in the Google Play marketplace, just under Apple’s reported total of 650,000 in their App Store. The company also announced that over 20 billion android apps have been downloaded.

If you were looking for a list of most expensive android apps, the first thing you should recognize is that unlike the Apple App Store’s maximum price point of $999.99, Google only allows developers to charge at most $200 for their android apps.

10. I’m Rich!! (White Diamond) – $130.00

Described as a “non-functional app to place on the desktop of your Android Device to show off your Wealth.” Isn’t there a saying about how people don’t get rich by being stupid?

9. pcMapper Db – Nova Spatial – $149.00

Have a big passion for collecting GIS data and editing maps? We’ve got the app for you!

8. Anesthesia Central – Unbound Medicine, Inc – $149.95

Anesthesiologists can make a lot of money so they should be able to afford this app. I’m not sure I’d want an anesthesiologist that needs an app to tell him or her how to do their job though.

7. Nursing Central – Unbound Medicine, Inc – $159.95

Unbound Medicine dominates the upper end of Google Play apps with their medical reference apps. This app caters to both nurses and students, including Davis’s Drug Guide, Tabor’s Medical Dictionary and a study system to help aspiring nurses pass their exams.

5. Medicine Central – Unbound Medicine, Inc – $159.95

This app, intended for physicians, nurse practitioners and students, includes a “5-Minute Clinical Consult”, MEDLINE journals and resources on drugs and drug interactions. With all these medical apps, before you know it we won’t even need health care professionals!

4. MBE Preparation – e-BarReview – E-MBE, LLC – $199.99

Study for your bar exam inbetween games of Angry Birds or Words With Friends right on your android device! Just one easy payment of $199.99.

3. Vuvuzela World Cup Horn Plus – $200.00

Missing the sound of vuvuzela’s since the last world cup? Don’t fret! Download this simple app to hear the sound again. As the one app reviewer Kevin states, “This app is crap. For $200 it should come with a happy ending.“

2. The Most Expensive Play App – Etay Cohen-Solal $200

Another app that does nothing. You’d think maybe Google would just not approve these expensive worthless apps. The practice should be considered digital begging.

1. Got Cash? – Vishnu Menon – $200.00

Yep, this app is completely useless. It should probably be called, Do you want to get rid of cash? Thankfully it is compatible with all android devices.

Now you can stop staying laying awake at night wondering what is the most expensive android app.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Expensive AdWords Keywords

When we type a word into google, we generally don’t think about how much companies pay to ensure that word generates their ads at the top of the search results.  Thanks to a study conducted by Wordstream, a company whose software helps users create search engine marketing campaigns, we now know which keywords garner the highest costs per click (CPC for those in the know) in Google AdWords. For over a decade Google’s AdWords solution has allowed companies to create ad campaigns on google’s search results and participating websites and bid on which keywords lead users to those campaigns.  Considering advertising makes up 97% of Google’s total revenue, or 33.3 billion dollars a year, selling these keywords is an integral part of Google’s business model.

Wordstream, a pay-per-click software company, recently study compiled the top 10,000 keywords into categories by weighting the number of keywords within each category and the estimated monthly search volume and average cost per click for each keyword.  The results aren’t as exciting as the most searched for keywords on google, (which mostly involve celebrity scandals, current events, and the weather) but they still reveal some interesting trends.

Insurance – $54.31 per click

It turns out ‘insurance’ ranks number one for CPC.  That in itself is an astonishing number considering the millions of people who see these ads every day.  Keywords in this category include ‘auto price quotes’

Loans – $44.28 per click

Following close behind are ‘loans’, a category that includes ‘consolidate’, ‘graduate’, and ‘student’.  The emerging trend here reveals the type of company that can afford to spend a lot on advertising since they’re able to acquire consistent revenue from their customers over the course of their lives.

Mortgage – $47.12 per click

Keeping in mind these figures correspond to the number of keywords in the top 10,000 keywords that belong to that category, Mortgage come in third.  Keywords include ‘refinanced’, ‘second’ and ‘mortgages’.

Attorney – $47.07 per click

Continuing the trend of either borrowing or spending large amounts of money for major life activities, ‘attorney’ ranks 4th, with keywords like ‘personal injury attorney’.

Credit – $36.06 per click

It comes as no surprise that ‘credit’ makes it on the list, as well all know credit card companies are constantly looking for new card holders.  ‘home equity line of credit’ is an example of a keyword that would generate ads from this category.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Expensive Apps on the Android Market

The Android Market was opened in 2008, a mere day after Google released the initial version of its mobile operating system. This mobile software store, according to a 2010 survey by Distimo, over twice as many free apps, by percentage, as any of its competitors—including Apple’s vaunted App Store. Additionally, unlike the App Store’s maximum price of $999.99, Google only allows developers to charge up to $200 for their Android Market apps.

In December, 2010, Business Insider published a list of the most expensive Android apps. Here are the five apps that topped their list.

MobileNavigator GPS – $126.58

This GPS navigation app from Navigon features text-to-speech, live traffic updates and photo-realistic displays.

Emergency Central – $129.95

Unbound Medicine dominates the upper end of the Android Market spectrum with their medical reference apps. This one, intended for use in the ER, features “the Emergency Medicine Manual, Davis’s Drug Guide, Diagnosaurus DDx, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, and MEDLINE Journals.”

Anesthesia Central – $149.95

For anesthesiologists, this app is a go-to resource full of information about diseases, drugs, tests and procedures.

Nursing Central – $159.95

This app caters to both nurses and students, including Davis’s Drug Guide, Tabor’s Medical Dictionary and a study system to help aspiring nurses pass their exams.

Medicine Central – $159.95

This app, intended for physicians, nurse practicioners and students, includes a “5-Minute Clinical Consult”, MEDLINE journals and resources on drugs and drug interactions.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Apple Computer

Before the iPad or the iPhone, before the iPod or even the Macintosh, a pair of Steves created what would be the first model in a long line of Apple computers. One of those computers has become the most expensive Apple computer in the world.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs met in 1971, when the latter was only 16 years old. Five years later, Jobs was able to convince a local computer store to buy fifty preassembled computers for the price of $500 each and, based on that purchase order, managed to convince a local hardware supplier to credit him the parts he needed to assemble the fifty computers. The two Steves assembled the fifty computers in time to pay off their credit and the Apple I went on sale for a marked up price of $666.66.

Apple Computer, Inc. went on to produce approximately 150 more Apple I computers before introducing the Apple II. It is considered the first commercially available personal computer, as computer hobbyists at the time usually had to purchase the parts and assemble them on their own.

The Apple I came with 4 KB of memory, which could be expanded to up to 48 KB, and a 1 MHz CPU. Users still needed to supply their own keyboard and monitor—in this case, oddly enough, a television set.

An original Apple I went on sale at Christie’s in London in November, 2010. The computer, model number 82, sold for over $210,000.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Apple MacBooks

Apple’s MacBook laptop computers may have gotten off to a rocky start in 2006, but that doesn’t mean things can’t get rockier still. Of course, we’re not talking about random shutdowns anymore. No, this time the rocks are diamonds and Swarovski crystals.

PowerMax Maxbook pro – $6,499 or $7,999

In late 2007, PowerMax introduced us to the gold-plated MacBook Pro. The 24k gold case, complete with diamond-studded Apple logo, housed a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and could be purchased in 15.4” and 17” models.

 

 

 

Bling My Thing MacBook Air – $40,000

The extraordinarily thin MacBook Air has been given the Swarovski treatment. The Golden Age MacBook Air is coated with 12,000 hand-set Swarovski crystals. These special lead crystals bring out the sparkle in the 24k gold plate that forms the laptop’s case. Only twenty of the expensive MacBook were made and it took about a week to place all those crystals by hand.

 

Stuart Hughes MacBook Air Supreme Ice Edition – $200,000

Stuart Hughes’ “Supreme” luxury devices are usually high-end consumer electronics with their outer shells swapped out for solid gold and buttons replaced with precious stones. With the MacBook Air, however, he’s gone a slightly different direction. This time, the shell is made of 2.5 kilograms of pure platinum. Of course, he hasn’t forgotten the stones–the Apple logo is made with 53 flawless diamonds weighing in at 25.5 carats. The most expensive MacBook in the world is a limited edition of only 10 notebooks.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Hard Drive

Okay, technically it’s a whole lot of hard drives.

The most expensive storage on the market is an array of twenty RamSan-620 solid state drives weighing in at a grand total of 100 terabytes. According to Texas Memory Systems, makers of the storage system, the RamSan 6200 is capable of 5,000,000 IOPS (independent operations per second) and sustained bandwidth of up to 60 GB/s.

The RamSan 6200 offers data protection with dependable chips, an “active-spare” system in case a drive actually does fail, and data mirroring in separate Logical Storage Units.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the system is that it draws only 6 kilowatts.

The world’s most expensive storage system has a hefty price of $4.4 million.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Netbook

Netbooks, smaller and less powerful laptops meant to be used in conjunction with a host of web-based applications, entered the public consciousness with the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Association’s goal of distributing the ultraportable computers throughout developing countries. Now netbooks like Asus’ Eee PC and Acer’s Aspire One are starting to overtake the laptop PC market.

So, you know, eventually someone will have to go and stick some diamonds on one.

Until then, the most expensive netbook in the world is this unique Aspire One painted in the Kyo Yuzen tradition by UFO-Hayashi, a Japanese artist known for his work on iPods, phones and other gadgets. The painting represents life in its spring, rebounding after the long and cold winter. Painting the device took the artist around three months to finish and shavings from nautilus shells were used in the process.

As for its specs, the unique netbook features the Aspire One’s typical 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB memory and a 120 GB hard drive.

The world’s most expensive netbook is up for grabs on eBay until May 1st with a starting bid of $3,000.

[Source: Most-Expensive Journal]

Most Expensive Desktop PC

Zeus, a Japanese manufacturer, is selling a computer in just such a case. Their PC, called Jupiter, is the most expensive desktop computer in the world.

A desktop computer can be an expensive investment, but most of that expense usually goes to the monitor and the gear inside the case. After all, an extraordinarily expensive case is still only $600 and nobody’s going to put a case like that over hardware that costs less than two or three times as much, right? Well, what if the case was made of platinum and diamonds? Zeus, a Japanese manufacturer, is selling a computer in just such a case. Their PC, called Jupiter, is the most expensive desktop computer in the world.

Jupiter features a case made of platinum and encrusted with jewels arranged in the shapes of constellations. As for the hardware, Jupiter features Intel’s 3GHz E6850 Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of DDR 2 memory, a 1TB hard drive and a dual Blu-Ray/HD DVD drive. Additionally, it ships with a 24” 1920×1200 native resolution monitor.

The world’s most expensive desktop PC has been released in Japan, where it can be purchased for ¥80,000,000 ($748,720 USD). Of course, if you’re on a tight budget then you could opt for gold instead of platinum, reducing the price to ¥60,000,000 ($561,540).