It’s true, I have one here in the US of A working on T-Mobile. After a very successful acquisition of the coveted Blackberry BOLD from my favorite auction website, I unlocked it with some Google Kung Fu (it was a Rogers version) and began playing. I plan on doing a more in-depth review after I’ve spent some time on it traveling around the globe, but here’s a quick break down.

Why I Splurged

I’m headed on a trip around the world and wanted a phone that would work in Europe, the USA and Japan. GSM service doesn’t work anywhere in Tokyo, so I had to find a Quad-band phone that had WCDMA 3G for Japan, as well as standard GSM for China, Europe, and the US.

The Blackberry BOLD boasts the most number of bands, service offerings, and coverage of any phone I’ve ever seen. In fact, the Quad Band nature makes that Blackberry World Edition look like a kids toy.

Why T-Mobile, You Ask?

One simple reason:

As far as I can tell, it’s the only service provider that offers a real unlimited international data plan. Everyone I know who has ever left the country on AT&T was sucker punched with a data bill that put them in tears. On top of that, what an unlimited international data plan really means is unlimited e-mail, web data, and Blackberry Messenger service from anywhere in the world for that same monthly flat fee. Sure, if you use the phone it will cost an arm and a leg, but I can retrieve voicemails as MP3’s through Simulscribe for free, as downloads.

What About The Phone?

• Although the screen isn’t nearly as large as the iPhone, it’s still gorgeous. The resolution is twice as much as the current Curve model– very sharp.

• The keyboard is noticeably different, a little bit wider. It will get take some getting used to but so far I like it.

• The back of the phone is some kind of faux-leather, very sexy and makes the utilitarian Blackberry seem a bit more fashion and design friendly.

• The User Interface has changed a ton, and it’s dead sexy. There are plenty of videos floating around the web with walk through, but they really went to town with the transitions, icons, and applications as a whole. Great improvement.

More soon… If you can’t wait, check out what my pals from Gizmodo had to say.

New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Shanghai, London, Geneva, New York.

My travel schedule for the next 3 weeks takes me all the way around the globe. I’ll be in meetings, taking a breather at a hot spring resort outside Tokyo, scouring the streets of Hong Kong, participating in the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, tasting food in Shanghai, speaking at a conference in Geneva, and blogging the whole way (or most of it).

As always, if you’re in any of those cities and have a tip for the inside track or something I must see, send it our way!

You can read the likely spotty, on and off but nitty-gritty details of my trip as they unfold on a new blog I’m testing out, called Flying Standby. Play nice, it’s in alpha. Of course normal shop, product, design, art, or trend findings or related posts will still happen here at the flagship. Off I gooooo!

Today I’m going to highlight the first ingredient in the four part Veuve Clicquot Recipe that I promised you yesterday: 1 part design. It became clear to me during my time in France that design plays a central role in the Veuve Clicquot brand. Through collaborations with some of the world’s foremost luxury brands and designers, it has been successful in parlaying it’s famous and storied heritage into a modern brand with modern appeal. During that process, it rings true that the history of Veuve Clicquot is never lost in one of their many modern updates — rather, its authenticity has been artfully preserved.

While there are many more examples of how VC has tapped the talents of some of the worlds most astute designers to keep the brand constantly updated and relevant (case in point, it’s collaborations with Christophe Pillet), I’ve chosen to feature four of my favorite projects in this post…

Veuve Clicquot Vertical Limit by Porsche Design (photos above). With a limited production of twelve units and a staggering cost of 120,000 Euros, the Vertical Limit is not your ordinary champagne cooler. Its design aesthetic is unmistakably Porsche Design, with those cool, clean metallic lines and warm back-lit interior. Veuve Clicquot’s contribution inside is even more impressive… a collection of twelve vintages; twelve perfect marriages of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. When one of the lucky owners decides to vacate one of the spots in the Vertical Limit, she can fill the empty spot with another one of her favorite vintages. The year of birth of a given vintage is printed on the end of each individual door on a metallic placard. For lack of a better description, this thing’s “baller.”

My other 3 design picks are after the jump…

READ MORE…

Last time we checked in on Royal Remarkable (aka Joshua Gajownik), he was getting busy with Grafuck and Hand Job, two of the most graphically brilliant projects with sexual undertones that we’ve ever laid caresses on. Since then, the man’s been hard at work tuning out great stuff for clients like Burton, Nike and Nixon, and filling the time between with a piece for The Train Car Project, a promising group show featuring the work of 60 international artists.

The project (a brainchild of art collaborative PROCESS) supplied each artist with a train car illustration, either as a vector file or a screenprint. They were then instructed to take complete creative control over the trains, resulting in a miniaturized versions of THE BEST train cars you’ll ever not see chugging along the tracks. Check out a few of the participants completed work here, and if you are in the Brooklyn area on October 10th through the 16th, be sure to swing by Papa B Studios for a solid range of graffiti, digi, and artsy-in-general inspiration.

We all walk past people selling things on the street every day. It is really easy just to pass them by and continue on. Phil Clarke-Hill couldn’t just pass them along on his journey through Bolivia. For one, the street venders wear masks to hide their identity because the social stigma. He tells their story and the important role of street newspapers for the unemployeed through his new photo series Lustrabotas. The hard hitting photographs operate both as art and social commentary of its subjects. The Lustrabotas exhibition opens on October 3rd with a private opening at the Viewfinder Gallery in London.

Greetings. Salutations. Time to win some free #$#% again!

If you’ve kept up with the site, you know about Hulger and their desire to see the whole mobile phone carrying world go retro. This week we’re giving you the opportunity to take home any of their chunky, corded handsets that connect to your slim, cellular phone.

The Prize: One Hulger handset of your choice (retail value, from $39 - $190)

This Week’s Rules: We’re feeling a little jaunty this week, so here’s a pop culture themed phone question: What is the worst cell phone product placement in a movie? Everyone has seen a flick that either puts the brand name front and center, uses the phone as a major plot device, or — if you’ve been out recently, as we have — just puts a whole f-ing commercial before the film. Point these out to us, and the one that makes us groan the loudest wins. Winners announced on Friday.

Louise Despont, Jackie Saccoccio, and Randy Wray are just some of the unique talents that Brooklyn-based fine arts publisher Element Editions have been cultivating. Their mission: to bring experimental printmaking (we imagine this to be something like using a Pantone color wheel outside the visible spectrum of light — or printing with meat) to average art lovers. Despont goes after a more geometric milieu, while Wray dabbles in ikybana (Japaneses flower arranging) with animals, vegetables, and minerals. Odd, exciting, and most importantly, reasonably affordable.

Our pals at dbclay have extended a rather irresistible offer to our readers, and it goes something to the tune of doodly-dum-HALF OFF-doo-dada. Yep, not quite sure how they decided y’all are worthy of nailing their current collection of earth-amenable pocket pals at cost — but nonetheless, they did, they are super cheap, and they are as awesome as ever. Well, awesomer actually, because once you get your wallet in the mail, put the money you would have spent on it into it, and you’ll be smiling from here to, oh, about your next five burritos.

To make good on this offer, head here, then use the promo code joshspear50 at checkout.

Kidrobot has just dropped word of their releases for October, and the theme is dark. With toys spanning sex, death, nightmares, zombies and psychos, there’s officially something for everyone. The month opens and closes with 8-inch Dunnys: the kickoff figure is a dystopian Dunny by Australia’s Jeremyville on October 2nd. A week later, Kidrobot tips its hat to Playboy with two figures: a 1978 pinup in vinyl as envisioned by comic artist Paul Pope and Hugh Hefner as a PEECOL platform figure by eBoy. Cheekily suggesting that size matters, October 9th also sees the release of giant 18-inch DIY GID Munny figures. Death is not the end; it’s just a continuation as Andrew Bell brings out KidReaper 15, the 15th edition of Kidrobot’s iconic character, on October 16th. On October 23rd, Ryan Bubnis’ tricked out sugar-coated zombie mini-figures hit the shelves. And finally, to close out the month in style, Kidrobot releases Huck Gee’s Hello I’m Insane Dunny on October 30th. This Dunny will be a boon to collectors whose pockets aren’t deep enough to get in on Huck’s custom toys. But with Huck’s sets of 10 custom Dunnys selling out in 8 seconds, simple math would suggest that 500 affordable production figures will come and go in less than 7 minutes. Be prepared for an insane month.