By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

As the world’s love affair with high-tech gadgets spreads like wildfire, it’s not enough to own the most advanced tech, they have to look good too. Shiny, glossy, matte finishes, eye-catching technical wonders of the world, it’s a constant arms race to have the best and prettiest tech. And with all arms races, he with the deepest pockets has the biggest guns. Which is why some of the best tech is in the hands of the rich and famous. What sets celebrity tech apart from the tech of mere mortals? Bling and plenty of it – from gold-plating to Swarovski crystals and even diamonds, celebrity devices are in a class all by themselves.

Case in point, a gold plated Macbook owned by Chris Brown, or Pharrell Williams, the once proud owner of a gold-plated Blackberry that switched it up to a gold-plated iPhone. Alicia Keys is also crazy about blinged out tech, rocking a 24k  gold-plated Nokia E71. Even Sasha Fierce alter-ego Beyonce is rocking a Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold.

So where does all that floss-worthy tech come from? Some of it comes from the cell phone companies. Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericcson are some of the better known phone manufacturers pushing luxury tech. Ericcson recently teamed up fashion designer Dolce&Gabbana to create the Jalou by D&G, a luxe cell phone set to hit stores by the end of this year. Motorola actually literally covered one of their phones in ice. But if you’re looking for something truly exclusive, check out Mobiado, Vertu, Gresso, and Goldvish that are the proud makers of a cell worth a cool million dollars.

For iced out laptops, you have to do a little more legwork. Since it isn’t in computer manufacturers’ best interest to make gold plated units, so those desiring a Midas makeover need to find someone that specializes in doing custom platings. Pharrell has been getting his tech upgraded by the Hip-Hop jeweler, Jacob the Jeweler. And if you want to pimp your laptop, check out Computer Choppers, the company responsible for Chris Brown’s ridiculously ostentatious Macbook. Goldstriker International is also a good place to bling out your phone since they are the mastermind behind Keys’ Nokia.

It seems a little crazy to spend thousands of dollars to give gadgets that were already hott in both looks and tech, but like Lil Wayne says, “It ain’t trickin’ if you got it.”

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

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