Last week we posted an eBay auction where the seller—an ex-employee of Apple—was selling a broken step from the Fifth Ave New York Apple store. Threatened with legal action, he was forced to remove it. Here's his story.

Hi. I?m Mark Burstiner. I host a show called The Circuit. I?m an all around geek, I?m a project manager on a freelance basis, and I consult in digital strategy. I want to talk to you about a story that?s still unfolding.

It may seem trite, but for me, it?s about the principle at this point. I also want to thank Gizmodo for taking this story, and allowing me to publish it in my own words. Multi billion dollar corporations should not be able to bully an innocent ex-employee into cooperation, especially when the corporations are at fault.

A year and a half ago, I was an Apple employee at the Fifth Ave flagship store. In that time, there was a silly, unfortunate accident. A woman came down the magnificent spiral staircase, and dropped a Snapple bottle. Yes, a Snapple bottle. After bouncing once or twice, the bottle severely cracked one of the steps. Since these steps are so well engineered, the structural integrity of the step wasn't compromised, but it was certainly a cosmetic problem. Later that month, four or five very big men came to replace the step with a new one. After they were finished, and the steps that were replaced were out on the curb, I left the store. Off the clock and in civilian clothes, I asked the contractors who were there on behalf of Seele, the manufacturer, if I could have a step. "It could be a collectible some day," I said. They, of course, saw no problem with it, and even collectively helped me lift it into a vehicle. That is the story of how I came to be in possession of a step from the spiral staircase at Apple Fifth Ave.

Fast forward to six days ago, February 20, 2010. I?ve been cleaning up my apartment, because I?m going to be moving soon, and I realized I really didn't want to move (for the third time) with this step. It should be about time I put it up on eBay, see if anybody wants it and see if I can?t make some cash to help with moving at the same time. That makes sense, right? I mean people end up with rare memorabilia all the time. After all, I did procure it through totally legitimate means. I asked for permission from the person who?s possession it was in. They helped me lift it into the vehicle for chrissakes. We should be all hunky dory, right? Wrong.

The very next day, the eBay posting got a lot of press, and it even ended up here on the Giz. Not 24 hours later, the stair was up to $255, dozens of eBay questions, and 200+ watchers with 9 days to go on the auction. Things were looking good until I was reached out to by a Seele VP. This gentleman informed me that Apple has caught wind of this and is quite unhappy. He requested I remove the eBay listing so that we may work this out when we both had more time. Of course, I?m a reasonable guy, so I complied immediately.

Later that same day, we spoke again. He assured me he was doing me a favor by reaching out to me and requesting that I remove the posting and return the glass step. He repeatedly made the point that if I complied that he would be so kind as so email Apple and tell them I?ve been cooperative. "Oh, how magnanimous of you," I thought to myself. As tempting as it might be to relinquish what is now my property, I passed on the offer.

The VP continuously threatened me with "thousands of dollars in legal fees" because both Seele and Apple would not hesitate to take legal action. Even after repeated explanations of how I came into possession of the step, he continued to mitigate for Apple and attempt to make the point that it was Apple?s position that since I was on Apple payroll as an employee (part-time, non-exempt, off the clock, out of uniform), that requesting the step was on par with giving a direct order to the contractor. That, if you will pardon my language, is bullshit. I don?t buy it. He proceeded to assure me that Apple would take the position that anything that began in its stores is Apple?s property. Frankly, Apple can take any stance they like, it doesn't change the facts.

This man then attempted to convince me that if I were to move forward with not relinquishing the step, that it would be my responsibility in a court of law to prove that I had not stolen it. This, again, is bullshit. In the United States, we are innocent until proven guilty. If Apple would like to attempt to prove that I managed to wrestle a 250lb step from the five very large men handling it, then they are on the good drugs, and I want to know where I can get some.

What this sounds like to me is Seele trying to save face because Apple is furious that they were irresponsible enough to relinquish ownership of the tread. Though it may be embarrassing for both corporations, it may simply be a lesson learned at a high price. Let me put it this way: If you caught a foul ball at a World Series game, got it signed by a player, received a high five from the security guard on the way out of the stadium, and went home, that ball is now yours, right? It started as one entity?s property, and through a series of consensual transactions, it ended up in your hands. Now, let?s say a year and a half later, the player who signed it is huge, and you decide to put it up for auction. If the MLB reached out to you and said, "Hey! No way, buddy. That was OURS. Hand it over!" Guess what? That wouldn't fly.

The next day, we spoke once more over the phone. Again, I heard the same points from the man, but this time I did not take a passive approach. I made it quite clear that if he wanted the step, he?s more than welcome to purchase it from me, or participate in the eBay auction. He made me an offer lower than the most recent bid on the auction, and I declined. At this point, I?ve lost time and money due to dealing with this. Not to mention, now that the step has seen some press, the demand is growing. (I?ve been receiving eBay messages all the way up until this morning.) He assured me if I did not comply, my information would be forwarded to Apple, and the conversation ended.

As far as I?m aware, I have done nothing illegal. I have not stolen. I have not deceived in any way. The step is not confidential, and it is not IP. The step is the very same that any New Yorker could see by walking into Apple Fifth Ave. The only thing I am guilty of is taking the risk of throwing out my back through having to move the step multiple times. I saw an opportunity, I asked for permission, received it, and proceeded. I won?t allow a major corporation to bully me into a corner. At the time of this posting, it has been seven full days since I put the listing up, and I haven?t heard from Apple directly a single time. I have every right to sell my property, and I plan to do so.

Here?s what I?m going to do. I?ve put the tread back up for auction, but have shortened the auction period from 10 days to 3, starting at the same $200 price point and I?m dropping the buy-it-now option. I just want to get rid of this thing. If it sells for a lot, great. If it sells for a little, whatever. Either way, I?ll keep you posted if I hear from Apple or on any other developments.

I realize this has been long-winded, but it was important to me to share this. I just don?t think it?s right for corporations to take cases that might otherwise be passed off as trivial and turn them into a week-long ordeal, all for the sake of paranoia. If you?ve read through all this, thank you. I appreciate your attention and time.

From the ball to special uniforms that make you jump higher, this year's World Cup could very well be the most techie soccer tournament the world's ever seen.

The ball, for example (called the Jabulani, fyi), isn't stitched together—it's thermally bonded. It's also the roundest ball ever created for a World Cup. Last I checked it was about $140 and available to the public, so get Googlin' if you want to kick around a near perfect, leak proof sphere.

Those uniforms I mentioned? Somehow, thanks to specially designed Adidas "TechFit" crisscrosses in the back, they allegedly help a player increase vertical leap, speed, endurance and power by anywhere from 0.8 to 4 percentage points throughout a match. Sounds like snake oil to me, but that could just be jealousy talking since I didn't have access to the tech during my team's 11-3 drubbing yesterday afternoon. You can see the shirt on number 8 in this video:

Even the shoes got an overhaul for South Africa this year. Looking more like carbon fiber inserts on my friend's Audi A5 than soccer boots, they're light, streamlined and contain something called a Powerspine.

Again, there's more Adidas witchcraft at play here, but they promise the spine reduces the chance of an ACL injury. Nothing wrong with that. [CrunchGear]

Hey you! Be all that you can be! Help the U.S. military design an autonomous robot capable of ferrying injured troops from the front lines to safety with little or no help from a human hand:

It's no joke—direct from the Pentagon comes word that the Army wants someone out there, beyond its secretive five walls and uber secret underground lair, to develop a robot with powerful limbs and grippers that will be able to adapt to "the large number of body positions and types of locations in which casualties can be found."

Oh, and not that this is a surprise or anything, but the robot also needs to be able to enter, navigate and escape terrain "without prior knowledge" of the geography. Flying blind, so to speak. Finally, if the robot can perform as part of a hive mind, and cooperate with a swarm of other robot rescuers, that'd be just peachy with the military too. You have until March 24 to submit your life-saving ideas. [Pentagon via New Scientist]

Capitalism! Sprint was cool offering Palm Pixi for $100, until Verizon's Palm Pixi Plus slid in underneath at $79. Well Sprint's having none of that, slashing the original Palm Pixi's price to a mere $50 for new customers, after all of the rebates and contracts and what have you. Remember, the candybar Pixi doesn't have Wi-Fi and has a slightly smaller screen than the Pre, but if you or someone you know isn't quite ready for a big boy phone, a $50 Pixi could be hard to resist. Also remember, hard times ahead for Palm. [Sprint]

It's possible that you've been reading reports of Microsoft's body-capturing Project Natal with some skepticism, wondering, "how well can this cockamamie setup possibly work?" Well, going by this video of it perfectly tracking a guy breakdancing, pretty damn well.

As best we can guess, Natal will be making its way to Xboxes sometime this fall. That means we've still got a good deal of waiting ahead of us, so every once in a while it's nice to have a reminder of why we're so excited. February's reminder: this video of Natal perfectly tracking a dude dancing during the requisite playground ball demo game.

The video isn't as much of a slam dunk on the lag factor. At some points it looks like there's a definite delay between the dancer's movements and those of his avatar on screen, and at other times the lag seems imperceptible. It's hard to say for sure. But as for the motion capture itself, even in low light situations, it appears to be undeniably smooth. [Project Natal Games - Thanks, Jordan!]

Aaron Woodman, the director of consumer experiences for Microsoft's mobile division, was a guest on today's Engadget Show, and he had a nice surprise for everyone: a prototype of LG's Windows Phone 7 Series phone.

There's not a whole lot in the way of details—it's a slider that's a bit thicker than the iPhone, it has a 5MP camera, and sports six hardware buttons—but it's still exciting to see the new operating system on a branded device for the first time.

Woodman wouldn't confirm nor deny if Windows Phone 7 Series would support Mac OS, only mentioning that it was a topic the team was currently discussing. Hey, at least the notion hasn't been shut down out of hand, so we'll take this as a no news is good news type of thing for now.

Head over to Engadget for more pictures and a quick video clip of the LG phone in the round. [Engadget]

When the iPad was unveiled in January, everyone could agree on one thing: it did look a lot like a big iPhone. Begeek.fr extends Apple's consistent design to its logical conclusion in the company's next two revolutionary devices.

I hear the iBoard's going to implement twenty finger multi-touch and the iMat's even going to support Flash. [BeGeek.fr]

If the iPad seems a bit extravagant and the JooJoo's sordid past turns you off, the 7" iLet Mini HAL might be up your alley. It's no powerhouse, but at least you'll be able to say you own a tablet.

The 600MHz VIA CPU isn't blazing fast and the 7" touch screen isn't luxuriously wide. The 2GB of flash memory isn't great. The Android 1.6 OS isn't ideal.

But if you just want a tablet without all the bells and whistles for doing some surfing from the couch or reading some documents in bed, the HAL seems like a fine option, especially considering the $199 price tag.

And anyway, the storage is expandable via SD card and the OS is upgradable. It has Wi-Fi, 128MB of RAM, a USB port, and claims a 16 hour battery life. Best of all, Haleron says it's shipping the HAL on March 1st. So, if only for a few weeks, you can be the first of your friends to be officially on the tablet bandwagon. [Haleron via Ubergizmo]

We recently heard that Android 2.1 was on its way to the Droid, but now sources tell AndroidandMe that all U.S. Android phones will be receiving Android 2.1 firmware in coming months, though some will require a wipe to upgrade.

As we've heard is the case with the Droid, some niceties like animated wallpapers probably won't make the jump, but if the updates come to fruition, increased text-to-speech support and enhanced widgets will likely come along with them. The price of getting up to date, Androidandme explains, might be wiping your phone clean. A bummer, but that's life.

Google has shown its awareness that fragmentation is a serious issue for Android, so it wouldn't be surprising to see them try to make things a little more even across the board. The G1 and MyTouch are supposedly candidates for the first wave of updates, so keep an eye out for confirmation in coming weeks. [AndroidandMe]

February has not been a good month for the Apple supply chain. After the assault, the arson, and the poisonings, now Apple's annual supplier report reveals that this year 11 minors were found working in factories that manufacture their products.

The 24-page report is full of bad news. The worst of it: three different factories Apple uses to manufacture parts employed 15 year old workers, 11 minors total, in countries that had a minimum working age of 16.

Other unsavory findings include over 50 factories keeping workers on the job for longer than the maximum 60 hour work week and at least 24 factories paying workers less than the minimum wage. Stuff that would be bad normally but doesn't seem quite as bad in light of the child labor: only 61% of the factories Apple uses were following correct safety regulations and only 57% had the necessary environmental permits for operation.

Apple didn't reveal which factories were culpable, or the nations in which these facilities were located—they contract independent factories in China, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic and the United States—but they are still using them to manufacture their products. Apple confirmed that the child laborers are no longer employed.

Apple's no stranger to supply chain controversy, and all of these details come right from their own supplier responsibility report. You'd imagine that at some point people would stop gawking at Apple's supply chain scandals and actually put pressure on them to make some significant changes in their manufacturing. Hopefully these latest discoveries are enough to start that process. [Telegraph and Bloomberg]

Update:
Many commenters have made some good points about Apple's report and how it should be received. To be fair, these discoveries did come from Apple's own audits of the factories it uses. I changed the title of the post to better reflect that. But the reason they're performing those audits in the first place is to rectify their image when it comes to overseas labor. It's great that Apple's putting more resources into finding these problems, and it's admirable that the company is making this process public. But with such a long running history of ugly supply chain incidents, it's discouraging that the audits found conditions to still be as unfavorable as they are.

We got an eye-opening look at Apple's attitude toward manufacturing when a tipster recently told us Steve Jobs' mantra circa 1996: "Apple will be the Nike of consumer electronics." I'm glad that the company's trying to clean up their act, but with a legacy like that, it's hard for me to applaud them for admitting they found underage workers.

Image credit gnta

Hammacher Schlemmer, purveyors of expensive, goofy gadgets, are now peddling the Foldaway Massage Chair, a shapeshifting piece of furniture that will keep your muscles relaxed, your apartment uncluttered, and your buyers remorse so potent you can almost taste it.

Picture a Transformer. But instead of being a really cool car that turns into an ass-kicking robot, it's a little red cooler that doesn't actually keep things cold that turns into a mediocre massage chair. That should help you capture the essence of the Foldaway Massage Chair. I can't attest to how well it massages, but if I had to guess, I'd say not very well.

The folding design makes it easy to stow away, though even if you manage to keep your friends and family from finding out you spent $800 on a folding massage chair from Hammacher Schlemmer, deep down you will always know that you did. And you will regret it. And regret you can't just fold away. [CrunchGear]

Online retail is nothing new, but now brick and mortar stores want to get in on the high-tech action. The New York Times has a disquieting look at new technologies that will make you shop 'til your signal drops.

Take, for example, Norma Kamali's boutique in Manhattan, which recently implemented a system called ScanLife that allows shoppers to find more information on products from their smart phones. So far, so good. But ScanLife also lets shoppers buy those products from their phones, even when seen in passing in a display window, even when the store is closed. Impulse buying just got a whole lot more impulsive.

Sure, ScanLife will certainly make physical shopping more convenient, but you have to wonder if it's going to make shopping too convenient.

Whereas ScanLife could make it dangerously easy for you to spend your money, another system called Presence, developed by IBM, could make it downright annoying to do so. Presence tracks you as you walk through the store and reminds you of things you might have forgotten you wanted to buy. By way of example, the Times article describes a trip to the supermarket in which Presence beams coupons to your phone in real time as you walk through the aisles and suggests items that would go well with the one you just put in your cart.

Of course, shoppers will have the option of using these new systems; no one is going to force you to augment your shopping. But at the same time, the internet age has a way of sweeping people up into using new technologies, even when the headaches equal the benefits. Presence could let you pinpoint an item's location in an unfamiliar grocery store, but would this capability be worth it if it came at the price of shopping with an overbearing digital assistant?

The article mentions Crate & Barrel and Walmart specifically as companies who are interested in these types of systems, but you can be sure that all major retailers are considering software that let you use your gadgets to spend more money on their products. Still, I imagine that many people will be content keep on window shopping the old-school way, without their phones and without their credit cards. [New York Times]

Yesterday the Department of Defense released a memo outlining the government's first official policy for social media access by military personnel. Somewhat surprisingly, it gives them unrestricted access to blog, Tweet, poke and ping just like everyone else.

Effectively immediately, Department of Defense personnel across the board, including civilian employees and troops alike, have full access to popular new media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the rest.

Before the new policy was announced, appropriate internet usage was determined individual commanders, many of whom barred those in their charge from posting on blogs or accessing social media networks.

Of course, there are still some measures in place to ensure that new media activity doesn't take up bandwidth when it's limited or compromise mission security—"cleaning my rifle on the john, lol!" is a good troop overshare; "cleaning my rifle before we storm this Taliban bunker in Marjah, lol!" is a bad troop overshare—but the Pentagon's new policy gives the OK for uses both personal and official.

It's always heartening when our government shows itself to be forward-thinking on matters of the internet, and allowing DoD employees to use the internet to its full, inane extent is definitely a step in the right direction. There's no word on the Pentagon's official Farmville policy at this time, however. [Defense.gov via BusinessWeek and Fast Company]

No one likes getting stuck in traffic, but some roadblocks are better than others. A few of the best: an exceptionally cute string of ducklings; an ice cream truck with a flat tire; a stunning spread of 800 LED-equipped books.

Earlier this week, the books blocked traffic on Water Street in Brooklyn, New York. They were installed by the Spanish design team Luzinterruptus to promote reading, though I'd imagine in reality they just promoted a lot of confused gawking.

The designers explained:

we want literature to seize the streets and become the conqueror of public spaces, freely offering to those who walk by a space free of traffic which for a few hours of the night will succumb to the modest power of the written word.

The line between enticing people to read and forcing them to do so by physically impeding their travel is pretty thin here, but the idea is pretty spectacular nonetheless. [Designboom]

Yesterday we heard that a CDMA version of the Nexus One was approved by the FCC, and now Neowin has word from an anonymous Google employee that the Google phone will land on Verizon on March 23. That's the day the CTIA wireless convention kicks off and it's less than a month away; Perhaps a bit sooner than we'd expected, but certainly plausible. [Neowin]

If you want peace and quiet, current technologies require a compromise: settle for thick, unsightly foam or use thinner panels that don't block bass. A new technology developed in Hong Kong, however, is both super thin and super effective.

The researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Kowloon have made their noise-canceling strides with the simplest of materials: latex and plastic.

The latex is stretched over a grid of plastic squares that's only 3mm thick, with a small piece of plastic in the middle of each square. Depending on the weight of that plastic button, the panel can be tuned to cancel out a different frequency. Five of these panels stacked together effectively canceled 70 to 550 hertz and was still only as thick as a ceramic tile.

Technological progress results in a lot of noise—think stereos, airplanes, trucks, and the rest—so it's good to hear that some researchers are hard at work developing technologies that offer an increasingly rare commodity: silence. [PopSci]

OCEntertainment wanted to know why we don't have a Comment of the Week. I don't really have an answer to that, but how about a collection of this week's best #whitenoise comment threads instead?

If you don't like the gallery view, you can click here.

We're proud of our comment system and commenter community. A great display of the sheer insanity and brilliance of the gals and boys who make it so wonderful is our open forum, #whitenoise. From Whitenoise is a regular feature to show the best of the best and the weirdest of the weird.

It's the weekend, so Jux and some pals are getting an early start on #drunkmodo. In their defense though, they're being responsible and keeping track of their BACs.

Oh, Nathan Obbards! Always ready with a new game thread or a Batman-themed photoshop challenge.

jeevesofRKdia wants you to stick a caption on his strange creation.

So far my favorites are WolfCobra13's

I'm the Twitter whale's depressed cousin!

and otko's

I'm blue da ba dee ba da bi

Ok, maybe I'm fibbing about being all that fond of Otko's line—I really hated that song—but I'm just happy he's rejoined us in #whitenoise.

Modest Mouse is giving everyone—including himself—in #whitenoise a pat on the back:

You guys are especially hilarious today, bringing your A-game and whatnot. Good work, you've entertained me... now get back to it.

MagicalTrev is getting serious and needs some advice:

Ok, I could use some advice, or at least some educated opinions. I'll settle for what I can get here, though.

Jabs aside, I have relied on a PDA in some sort or another for the last 10 years. I do not want to spend a monthly fee for the privilege of using a smartphone when I'm not interested in the data features. I need something to keep track of appointments, can store simple notes quickly, and I wouldn't mind if it stored an address book or could play music. Displaying pictures would also be a strong plus, as would syncing with either outlook or google calendar. If I could get these features in a phone without needing to sign up for a data package, that would be ideal as I'm tired of carrying around multiple devices. Thoughts or suggestions?

Picture by Jiri Brozovsky

SmokeyRivers missed most of it, but there was a grand war. The troops of #whitenoisers went off into battle against Lifehacker and Kotaku. Thankfully, General Bill Can't Fart helped keep things organized:

OK, troops. In about 1 hour, we will begin war against Kotaku. This battle will be more challanging. There's a good chance the enemy could retaliate and attack our base. There will be lives lost.

So, battle plans. We'll be attacking Kotaku's #speakup at 11am EST. Let's gather all our contest ideas and games and post them there. If you don't understand what's going on, take a look at what's left of Lifehacker's #openthread ([lifehacker.com]) and the #greatgizwar tag.

Remember guys, we're going over there to have fun. Some of the editors have reminded us to not let things get too out of control. So don't get too crazy, obnoxious, stupid, etc. We're not trolls, we're #whitenoisers. Our goal is to spread our ways to the other Gawker blogs.

REMEMBER! Wear the #greatgizwar hashtag in all of our comments there, this needs to be organized.

Ok, Ok. I'll be honest. I do have a favorite comment thread right now. It was started by a fellow named BobotheTeddy and is a tribute to most of the Gizmodo editors (though I think that Brownski still wants to know what makes me so darn special that I get to hold the great banhammer).

Wednesday is supposed to be #wednesdaybookclub in #whitenoise, and Fractal the Meek and jeevesofRKdia made sure to get some discussions started.

Picture by Ian Wilson

I'm not sure what Kotaku commenter deanbmmv was thinking when he posted this picture in #whitenoise, but it certainly kicked off one heck of a thread.

This week's Fake Rumor Thursday and the fantastic Damage, Splash brought us this silliness:

7. This rumor is sponsored by Windows 7.

7. Further spurred by the current Thread Raids, rumor has it other Giz commenting team is forming plans for counter attack. For instance, lifehacker will either use automated comment attack or use outside third party to handle that, as using actual manpower would really cramp their productivity. io9 is rumored to use cyborgs from outer space, while Japolik will employ bunches of degenerate car lovers.

All sign points to the LEGION invading Gizmodo. Thanks guys, like we really need that.

7. Apple's Mighty/Magic/Hyper Mega Mouse will be replaced by the super sleek G-Spot Mouse. Lines forming as we speak, developing.

7. Kingston, outraged by reports of not so nice memory cards entering their supply chain, purchased several Chinese factories in Shenzen, and introduced new lines, such as Samdisk, SanSunk, and Rexar. Developing.

7. Sony will completely abandon Memory Stick and adopt XD as their primary memory format. Then the XD will be immediately supplemented by XD-HS-PRO-XG-PS3++ and XD-DUO-PRO-PS4+++.

7. Jay Leno will introduce a new sidekick: Conan O'Brien. Andy Richter will be their personal slave for the rest of the term.

It seems that jmcm's friend was really bored while decorating his or her room, but it still looks neat.

Conspiracies! Zmx15 wants to play a game:

This one is called Conspiracy. You just keep relating things to other things and end up with a whole huge conspiracy theory.

ExamplePersonA: January is a Month
ExamplePersonB: January Starts with J
ExamplePersonC: Jesus also starts with J
ExamplePersonQ: Jesus works for Gizmodo

Jason Chen also works for Gizmodo.
Jason just got a bunny.
Bunnies are evil...

Adafruit's Monochron kit lets you build custom clocks. You can use and abuse its animated display for whatever evil setups you can imagine, but my favorite is the retro arcade game based animation in this video.

Wonder what happens if that clock ever gets better at playing the game though. Will time freeze? [Adafruit]

With a new iPhone expected to debut this summer, Apple's phone-related patents start to take on added weight. Especially when they're as badass as the one unveiled yesterday that turns the iPhone's camera into a swipe pad.

The technology described in the patent, dug up by the diligent folks at Patently Apple, would allow an iPhone user to fast forward and rewind through voicemails, navigate web pages, or scroll through contact lists and iTunes simply by swiping one finger against the iPhone's camera.

The proposed controls would also be tap sensitive, meaning that you can access different phone or UI functions simply by tapping the camera with your forefinger. Theoretically, all of these controls would also apply to the iPad... should it ever, you know, get a camera.

The patent was originally filed in Q3 of 2008, which may have left just enough time for Apple to have implemented the tech by this summer. Let's hope so... this is one of those patents that actually seems as functional as it does cool. [Patently Apple]

On March 18, at the Baselworld watch show in Switzerland, a vaporous French company called Celsius X-VI-II will unveil the Papillon, a $300,000 mobile phone that is packed with the most advanced micro-mechanics of any gadget ever created.

All of this according to a recent profile in PCMag, one that frankly raises more questions than it answers. In the piece, Celsius co-founder Alejandro Ricart offers a vague picture of his team's ambition, citing high-end Swiss watches as the inspiration for his company's ultra-luxury, mechanical mobile phone.

"We want to take the useful functions of the cell phone and try to re-think them, and re-create them in a mechanical way," he explained. One such suggested mechanism is a kinetic hinge that powers the phone when it's flipped open and closed shut.

Sascha Segan, PCMag's reporter, seems pretty enthralled by the whole business, describing the device as a "hand-made art-watch with more than 600 mechanical components, many of which are visible to the naked eye."

Papillon is French for "butterfly," an insect that apparently inspired the design of the phone and, when you come to think of it, is sort of a strange little creature in its own right. As you can see, a butterfly floats fleetingly through the teaser clip for the phone.

All of this is quite bizarre and potentially very dumb, like something out of a Dan Brown novel*, and it certainly feels like it could all blow away in a cloud of vapor. The x-ray shown above is the only image of the phone available. But in a genre of gadget that is almost categorically uninteresting to us, this ultra high-end device has piqued our curiosity. [Celsius X VI II via PCMag]

*If Celsius's shadowy forces silence me for making all of this public, or for ripping the weird promo video from their site without permission, just FOLLOW THE SIGNS.