Got Extra Cash? There’s an App for That.

By Adrienne Crezo
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

The Consumer Electronics Show 2011 is in full swing and geeks around the world are in tech-rapture mode. The first big reveal (and perhaps the forerunner for Least Necessary New Technology) is the Human Touch AcuTouch 9500, a massage chair controlled by iOS devices through the HT-Connect app. So how much will having an app for that run you? A cool five G’s. That’s right, $5000 to have your iPad give you a rub-down. Good news, though: the HT-Connect app and White Glove shipping are free! < /sarcasm>

Cost aside, the chair looks kind of awesome. Though the company’s focus on wellness seems like a thinly veiled attempt at justifying technological hedonism, the AcuTouch 9500’s inner workings appear to be high-end, well designed and effective. (This isn’t one of those weird, vibrating La-Z-Boy things your grandma had.)

So let’s break it down:

• HT AcuTouch 9500: $5000
• HT-Connect app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad: $0
• Shipping: $0
• Dropping a sack of gold dubloons on a chair solely for the gimmicky perk of running it from a device you’ll replace before CES 2012: PRICELESS