Philips dazzles with jewel encrusted peripherals

• 
• 

 1 of 2

Gallery

By Dave Stevenson in Berlin

Posted on 30 Aug 2007 at 17:50

Has Philips been taking product advice from Paris Hilton? Far from Sony's muted blacks or Apple's nondescript whites, Philips has teamed up with jeweller Swarovski to produce a range of
PC peripherals set to blind passers-by if they catch the light the wrong way.

Why? Apparently it's one way to get women to spend money on technology: "We are delighted to be partnering with Swarovski," says CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics, Rudy Provoost. "The alliance enables Philips to enter the market of luxurious and fashionable electronic accessories for women."

The range itself encompasses a heart-shaped USB key, as well as a Lock In memory key shaped like a padlock, which includes password protection.

In a slick, hour-long presentation at IFA 2007, Provoost outlined Philips' upcoming range, including the BDP7100, a new set-top Blu-ray player, as well as introducing a 42in HD LCD TV named Aurea. The TV is 1080p compatible and according to Philips the panel has a 3ms response time.

Impressively, the Aurea also has a total of 26 integrated speakers, including 24 front drivers and a pair of sub-woofers in the bottom. You also get no fewer than three HDMI connections, plus a pair of SCART inputs, component-in and a USB port.

UK pricing of the Aurea and Swarovski range has yet to be confirmed.