I'm not quite sure who the Spartan DX is aimed at, apart from a rich man determined to find out which one of his four farmhands is guilty of schtupping his daughter in the hay loft. And research labs, obviously.
Up until now all DNA analyzers have been batched, mainframe machines, which mean that results can be both slow and costly, but the Spartan DX is the first non-mainframe version—kind of like the Apple II of the DNA world. The $15,000 machine can give the results of up to four samples in just half an hour—which won't give the naughty farmhand a chance to make it over the state line.
What caught my eye, though, is what comes free with it. If you do order one of these babies you get a free iPod nano.
Product Page [Spartan Bio via Medgadget]