Vertu have launched in Hong Kong a new collection of Ascent Ti phones inspired by Ferrari’s cars. The Ferrari Ascent Ti collection consists of three phones directly inspired by Ferrari and named after their respective colors; a limited edition phone called the Nero and two special edition phones named Rosso and Giallo.

The Nero phone is an all black Ascent Ti made of titanium coated with scratch proof PVD with a red sapphire crystal pillow. The Rosso and Giallo phones are red and yellow receptively and feature PVD coated battery covers and keys, they feature ceramic pillows. The battery cover of all three phones has been redesigned to resemble the hood of a Ferrari and features a three dimensional Cavallino on the battery cover as well as a smaller one on the front.

The phones feature Ferrari inspired themes as well as ring tones featuring Ferrari engine sounds, only 2,009 examples of the Vertu Ferrari Ascent Ti Nero will be made. They sell HKD 70,000 HKD each ($6000)

Motorola’s going upmarket with its latest phone Aura, a luxury model featuring what the company claims is the world’s first circular display on a mobile device.

The Motorola Aura features a unique design in which the cover twists one hundred and eighty degrees to reveal the keyboard, it has a round sapphire crystal high resolution LCD display. The switch-blade design comes with 2 megapixel camera, 2 GB memory, video capture and streaming capability and about 7.3 hours of talk time.

The case of the Aura is made of chemically etched PVD coated stainless steel whilst the twisting mechanism is made of Tungsten Carbide coated gears and features one hundred and thirty ball bearings meaning each twist is identical.

“The hand-sculpted richness of Aura can literally be felt in its stainless steel housing, textures and patterns chemically etched into its surface,” says Motorola.

The Aura is available for pre-order now and is expected to be launched worldwide beginning in Q4 2008 for a cool $2000. It really looks elegant, but it also costs a lot !

LG have released the second iteration of their Prada phone named the Prada II. The Prada II phone is based on the first Prada phone but features numerous improvements.

It boasts of 7.2Mbps HSDPA 850 / 2100, WiFi, TV-out, FM radio, and a 5-megapixel camera. The side-slider also hosts a full QWERTY keyboard.

LG Prada II also has an FM radio and TV output, together with a full HTML browser. It uses a capacitive touchscreen, similar to that of the iPhone, but without multitouch functionality.

iPhone has been a target of haute couture brands where they grab and slap it with precious stones in order to elevate its exclusivity factor. The honor of the most expensive iPhone is bagged by Amosu Ultimo Diamond but the iPhone used isn’t a 3G version. Even so, we do have a few blinged 3G iPhones like Gold & Diamond from Goldstriker, Diamond studded Olympic iPhone and Diamond-Studded iPhone 3G by Knalihs Athem.

The latter being the most expensive jeweled 3G version till date. Today we have one more company that is aiming to revive the union of gemstones with hyped 3G iPhone. Continental Mobiles, well known for its range of luxurious cell phones, has pimped the 3G 16GB white luxury iPhone with Pigeon Blood Red rubies and white diamonds. It is exclusively and intricately handcrafted. This piece of art comes from England and retails for £3099 (about $5,550).

As we saw a couple months ago, to celebrate Boucheron’s 150th anniversary, the jeweler is partnering with other companies to create some amazing pieces.

About 2 years ago Boucheron collaborated with Vertu to make an incredibly expensive phone that dripped with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.

At the time only two versions of the phone were being made one styled after a Cobra and the other a Python. Boucheron obviously loved the collaboration pretty much.

Nokia just announced a new addition to the Arte series, the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte.

Until now, there was the original variant in black metal and the Sapphire Arte with a gem in the D-pad and genuine leather on the front and back.

The Carbon Arte, as its name implies, has panels of carbon fiber in its front and rear faces, along with titanium, stainless steel, and polished glass.

Internally, the new Carbon Arte is identical to the previous two models, and the only improvement is that the integrated memory is now 4GB instead of 1GB.

The new model will be available before the end of the quarter at a price of about EUR1100 ($1600). It remains a Europe-bound tri-band GSM, which means it won’t be fully usable in the States.