Smartbuy issue dated December 1, 2010

Smartbuy Business Line

G A D G E T S

|

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

A U T O |

L U X U R Y

www.blsmartbuy.com

The Yeti has been sighted...

Page 8

+

LG Optimus One reviewed 2010’s most innovative watches

WHAT’S HOT this week

Team Smartbuy Editorial Anushya Mamtora anushya@thehindu.co.in

Ketaki Bhojnagarwala ketaki@thehindu.co.in

Mahananda Bohidar mahananda@thehindu.co.in

S. Muralidhar muraliswami@thehindu.co.in

Design Bryan Gaughan aqua@thehindu.co.in

Balakrishnan designkbala@thehindu.co.in

Advertising Contact R. Diwakar ramdiwakar@thehindu.co.in

Web Advertising Contact N. Amarnath amarnath@thehindu.co.in

www.blsmartbuy.com Become a fan of our Facebook page: BL Smartbuy Follow us on Twitter

Flaunt your colour Acer AOD 255 Acer has launched the AOD 255, a netbook that weighs 1 kg and is less than 1-inch thin, making it easy to carry around. The netbook features a 10.1-inch screen, Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB RAM and 160GB hard drive. However, it ships with a Windows XP Home OS, so you might want to upgrade to Windows 7. The laptop also packs in a 93 per cent-sized keyboard and multi-gesture trackpad, along with eight hours of battery life. It is available in four funky colours Aquamarine, Diamond Black, Sandstone Brown and Ruby Red. Rs 16, 499

Cover photo: S. Muralidhar

Work n’ play BlackBerry Bold 9780 The Bold 9780 is the latest in the BlackBerry line-up, and features the all-new BlackBerry 6 OS. Some of the key features of OS 6 are an all new WebKit browser, integrated access to BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging apps, a dedicated YouTube app, redesigned Music and Pictures apps and universal search. The phone also comes with a 5-meg camera, 512MB of flash memory and an expandable memory card slot up to 32GB. Rs 27,990

Blink to shoot Fujifilm FinePix F300 EXR This 15x zoom camera from Fujifilm claims to be the world’s first ‘Phase Detection pixel built-in CCD’, which gives you an Auto Focus speed as fast as the blink of a human eye. It also features Contrast Auto Focus for taking shots in dark scenes. The camera is a 12-megger and includes a Motion Panorama feature up to 360 degrees and 3-inch LCD. It also includes a new mode which sets off the camera shutter as soon as the subject looks into the lens, for fast shots.

Rs 20,999

Smartbuy

2

December 1, 2010

Entertainment at hand HP DreamScreen HP has created a touch-enabled intuitive interface targeted at keeping your family entertained. The system is an icon-based interface that comes with an entertainment package that includes music, movies, TV programmes and games. The DreamScreen also caters to your lifestyle needs by offering interactive lessons, news, astrology and a web browser. It can be customised to display two languages – English and Hindi.

Rs 19,999

Beauty in black TAG Heuer Black Diamond The latest from TAG Heuer comes encased in a stainless steel case with Black PVD (titanium carbide) surface treatment. The rest of the body of the luxe phone is in black lizard leather and the 2-meg camera has an 18carat rose gold shutter set with black diamonds. The bling is carried over to the side keys as well, where the brand name is engraved in 18-carat rose gold and the dual LCD screens are lined with 60.5 carats of smoked sapphire crystal glass.

Rs 7.85 lakh

Ready to surf Toshiba AC100 Toshiba launches its ďŹ rst Androidbased MID (Mobile Internet Device), the feather-light AC100. The display is a 10.1-inch LED-backlit screen and the body has a full-sized physical keyboard that makes it easy for you to be in touch through e-mails and IMs. The device takes just about a second to boot thanks to the NVIDIA Tegra 250 processor. The MID comes with a 1.3-meg camera and an integrated HDMI output for you to be able to stream HD content from it on a bigger screen.

Rs 18,721

Smartbuy

3

December 1, 2010

SMARTPHONE review

LG’s Android breakthrough?

A couple of months after the sleek-looking LG Optimus smartphone was launched, the Optimus One, a hashed up version of the former, hit the shelves.

KETAKI BHOJNAGARWALA tells you if this Android-based smartphone packs in a punch

Photos: S.R. Raghunathan

L

G made its entry into the Android market with its first smartphone, the LG GW620. While the phone wasn’t a bad first attempt, it failed to make its mark in the smartphone market. LG then introduced the Optimus, an entry-level smartphone which took some flak for its resistive touch screen. The company recently launched the P500 (Optimus One) in India, a handset which reportedly sold one million units in its first 40 days in the market. We got up close with the phone to see if this was really LG’s redeeming Android attempt.

First impressions At first glance, the P500 is a very unconventional looking smartphone. Encased in a slim rubberised panel, the phone certainly feels sturdier than most smartphones, but doesn’t really give you that sleek, corporate feel. The screen is a decent sized one, at 3.2-inches. There are four buttons below the screen, and instead of the usual touch sensitive ones that we’re seeing on most phones now, these ones are physical. While these buttons (for Menu, Home, Return and Search) don’t really impress with their looks, it was nice to physically click them. The two buttons in the centre are placed on a brushed aluminium surface, which reminds you of the phone’s predecessor, the Optimus.

The 3.5mm headphone jack and power button are located at the top, and the mini-USB-cum-charging port is at the bottom. The sides are bare except for a volume rocker

switch. There is a 3-meg camera located at the back, but the phone lacks an LED flash. We also missed having a physical camera button.

Unlike in the Optimus, the P500 doesn’t have a blinking indicator light, to alert us for new notifications.

keyboard was actually a pleasure to type on, and even offered predictive text. In portrait mode, you can choose to have either an alphanumeric or QWERTY keyboard, which gets a thumbs up from us. We are big fans of handset customisation!

User interface

Media

The P500 runs Android v2.2 or Froyo. Although v2.3 or Gingerbread has already made an appearance in the market, Froyo isn’t outdated yet and worked well on this handset.

You can choose to have either five or seven home screens, which are customisable.

LG has added a curved dock at the bottom of the screen which houses buttons for the dialpad, contacts, messaging and browser. You can’t customise the dock though. You can choose to add a number of widgets on your home screens, including a handy little messaging widget which displays your most recent texts. However you may want to skip this one if you’re a stickler for privacy.

You can also add folders to your menu screen, and you can drag and drop applications into that. This feature is especially useful if you have a lot of apps.

Unlike the previous Optimus, the P500 has a capacitive touch screen, which was quite responsive. The only time we had problems was during scrolling, when we would inadvertently activate icons.

You have a choice of Android or LG keyboards. The LG

LG has always outdone itself when it comes to being media friendly, and the P500 doesn’t disappoint. The 320x480 TFT screen was excellent for viewing images, and displayed detail well. Videos played without any visible stagger while loading, and although the screen is not high-def, colour reproduction and clarity were good. However the phone does not support AVi files, which most smartphones in the P500’s category do.

The phone comes with the standard Android 2.2 media player which organises music according to artist, album, songs and playlists. Sound quality was good, and the speaker was loud enough to be heard in a crowded room.

With memory expandable up to 32GB, this phone can be your alternate to the music player.

The camera was a decent 3-megger. It comes with a variety of scene selections, a macro mode, face tracking and controls for ISO, exposure, white balance and colour effects. We especially liked the inclusion of a timer switch for those group shots. Images turned out well for a phone camera, and it took surprisingly good night shots. Images taken indoors in low light were a bit grainy, but that’s to be

Smartbuy

4

December 1, 2010

we were on a call. We were able to hear our callers clearly, and they didn’t complain of too much background noise when we were outdoors.

While we had no problems with the screen, it didn’t fare too well under direct sunlight. However, for the price LG is offering the phone at, you can’t expect an AMOLED screen.

expected from a phone camera. But like we mentioned earlier, an LED flash would have been a welcome addition to the camera.

The P500 supports practically all email accounts, including MS Exchange, and even prompted us to set up a Google account the first time we started up the phone. It also has a handy Gtalk client.

No phone of today would be complete without Facebook and Twitter integration, and the P500 supports syncing for all your SNS contacts. We liked the fact that the phone displays SIM and SNS contacts separately, so we could differentiate between them.

Our verdict Overall, the P500 was a pleasure to use. It didn’t slow down when overworked, and the battery life was great. LG has finally got it right with this phone, but we think it can still do better. We’re hoping to see a high-end smartphone from the company that will give competition to the likes of the Nokia N8 and Samsung Galaxy S, but until then, this is one of the best ‘starter’ smartphones out there.

Performance The P500 is powered by a 600 MHz processor. We didn’t have any problems with multi-tasking when it came to using the media player. It even worked with the camera on, which some phones do not support. We were able to run Facebook, Gmail and Gtalk in the background and use the phone normally, without slowing down any processes.

The phone comes with a built-in accelerometer, although it wasn’t very sensitive, sometimes taking a while to switch between portrait and landscape modes. There were rare cases when the touch screen became unresponsive, leading to a lot of stabbing at the screen.

The phone comes with a standard Lithium Ion 1500 MAh battery, and the charge lasted us two days with a couple of hours of talk time, and social networks logged in, which was quite impressive.

Call quality was also decent. The phone has a proximity sensor, which worked flawlessly, locking the screen when

Love: Good battery life, media friendly Hate: Clunky looks Ratings: Aesthetics: Features: User Interface: Value for money: Rs 13,500

Send feedback to ketaki@thehindu.co.in

Yet another Milestone!

A

nother Android-based smartphone launched in the market recently was the Motorola Milestone XT720, which promised to make up for all that its predecessor, the Motorola Milestone lacked. Despite a jump in the budget bracket, this smartphone looks like it has gone the extra mile in trying to pack in all it can to lure you. Here’s how the handset fares.

Design The Milestone XT720 features a more ergonomic design than its predecessor. Its 2.7-inch high-resolution touch screen is delightful to work with. Although it is much slimmer than the original Milestone, the absence of a physical keypad affects usability negatively.

User interface As far as the UI is concerned, absolutely every kind of motion is as smooth as silk, and the widget screens are wide enough for you to pack in your apps. The processor lets you run all applications without any hiccups, and we able to run four apps simultaneously. The XT720 also does a great job in contact integration with Google.

Connectivity The XT720 features Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 and GPRS; and 3G and wireless connectivity is seamless. It also features great GPS functionality out of the box.

Applications such as QuickOffice, Motonav, Moto Phone Portal and a PDF reader are pre-loaded.

One new software add-on is the magnifying glass for the text fields. Essentially, it brings up a small magnified area above your thumb, showing you where your cursor is.

The battery life of the XT720 is impressive. Its predecessor, the Milestone, did have issues with battery life, but that has been rectified here, with the battery lasting us close to a day with maximum usage.

All in all, the Milestone XT720 is a joy to use and a great Android phone.

Love – Good touch response and media capabilities, long battery life Hate – Lack of physical keypad, no memory hot-swap Ratings Aesthetics : Features :

Media

User interface :

The 8-meg camera is great for outdoor photography and it can also record HD videos at 720p. The audio player is good enough to give the iPhone a run for its money, while the FM radio manages to catch clear signals.

Value for money :

Smartbuy

5

December 1, 2010

Rs 27,490

CHIP

SOFTWARE profile

‘Life’ lessons from Apple Ketaki Bhojnagarwala pple revolutionised the way we used software for capturing and organising the images of our everyday lives and also met our other media needs. Comprising of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb and iDVD, the iLife bundle changed the way we used our photos, made movies, edited music, created websites and made DVDs. Apple has now launched iLife ’11, which has updated versions of iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.

A iPhoto

One of the first things we noticed when we started up iPhoto was the inclusion of a full screen mode. When that is selected, the photos used up all that screen ‘real estate’, as Apple put it, keeping only essential controls for iPhoto at a one-click distance. We viewed iPhoto on a 27-inch iMac, and the results were stunning. iPhoto is also Facebook friendly now, and we were able to link up our Facebook account to the Mac. This application let us post photos from iPhoto directly to our Facebook wall, and even select a photo to make it our profile picture. There is also a handy side-bar that displays realtime comments friends make on Facebook photos, so we didn’t actually have to log in to our account to view our photo notifications. There is also the option of linking up MobileMe and Flickr accounts to iPhoto, which is a really useful feature, especially if you’re a photo buff like our team.

Similarly, iPhoto also has email support now. We had no problems linking up our Google account, but it also supports practically any email provider out there, so you don’t have to worry. The software let us choose our photos, place them using one of the eight customisable themes, and send it to any of our contacts, without exiting iPhoto.

And the best part, emails we sent appeared exactly like we sent it, so there were no formatting issues to deal with.

There are a couple of new slideshows that have been

added as well; we especially liked the Holiday Mobile one which displayed photos as if they had been strung up on a mobile. iPhoto also lets you create gorgeous letter press cards, which you can customise with your photos and text.

These can be ordered from Apple itself, but we’re not sure about shipping rates to India.

iMovie If you thought that the new iPhoto sounds revolutionary, then iMovie will definitely blow your socks off. One of the new features Apple has added to iMovie is trailers. First, you have to pick out a theme, from one of the 15 that are available, including two new themes – ‘News’ and ‘Sports’.

We chose ‘Adventure’ for our footage. You also get to personalise cast and credits for your theme. Once that’s done, iMovie brings up some ‘Animated Drop Zones’ which prompt you to add certain scenes, such as Action Shot or Group Shot.

You can leave the rest up to the software, which will take the required amount of footage from each scene you use, and create a Holly-

wood-style trailer. Apple even throws in original soundtracks by the London Symphony Orchestra that have been recorded at Abbey Road Studios.

An additional control that we found particularly useful was the ‘people finder’ tool, which tracks people in your videos and narrows them by a single person, two people, or a group, so that makes finding your required footage much easier.

Another feature we found really easy to control was the sound in our different clips, because iMovie shows you colour coded waveforms, which you can adjust simply by selecting and dragging. This helped us regulate volume between different scenes.

For professional movie-like effects, we were able to select a particular scene and apply a special effect, such as Slow Motion, Fast Forward, Instant Replay and Rewind.

And of course, once we made our clip, it was easy to upload it from iMovie itself to Facebook, YouTube and MobileMe.

GarageBand GarageBand can turn an amateur recording into a studio finished product, without you having to do all the work.

This is combined with Flex Time. What this does is basically display your recording as a wave form, which lets you elongate or shorten specific notes. This worked especially well for guitar riffs.

For more detailed control, we tried Groove Matching. This comes in handy if you’re doing a band recording – and working with guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums. If your tracks are out of rhythm, you can select a particular track - for example the guitar riff – as the Groove Track, and GarageBand automatically adjusts any other track you select to match it, so you have a uniform result.

GarageBand continues to teach you how to play music – including Blues, Rock Guitar, Classical, Pop and Jazz Piano.

Apple has added 22 new lessons to bring it to a total of 40. If you want to know how you played a particular track, you can record yourself, and GarageBand will highlight your performance with coloured notes and a progress bar.

Rs 2,800

Smartbuy

6

December 1, 2010

COMING soon

3 6 9

months

months

months

Intel smartphone processors

iPad 2

Wii 2

Destined for production in early 2011, Intel’s first foray into the mobile market will be a lightweight variation of the Atom processor that graces most netbooks. Can it dent Qualcomm and ARM’s market share?

Deep Black

When Steve Jobs walks out on stage at Apple’s June 2011 announcement, he will be clutching the sequel to the iPad. The addition of a webcam for video calling looks like a near certainty, but what else will Apple add?

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Warhammer’s elite super soldiers are marching out of Games Workshop and into the world of online gaming. The result is tipped to be one of the biggest MMORPGs around when it launches in spring 2011.

Bio terror and espionage, 20 leagues under the sea. This plot-heavy thirdperson shooter boasts stunning set-pieces and intelligent gameplay and looks set to be an aquatic Metal Gear Solid. It’s out early in 2011.

Rango

The Hangover 2

Johnny Depp voices this offbeat animation about a chameleon who becomes a reluctant hero in a spaghetti westernstyle plot. Yes, that old chestnut. An animated Hunter S. Thompson makes a cameo appearance when it debuts on March 4.

Rugby Six Nations Championship

The overwhelming success of 2009’s stag do comedy didn’t go unnoticed by the Hollywood execs and the inevitable sequel is scheduled for release on May 26, 2011. All of the original cast have signed up for another heavy night.

Cannes film festival The 65th Festival du Cannes will take place from May 11-22 and, as usual, it will be the Champagne-swilling, celebcrowded testing ground for many of 2011’s best films, from big screen blockbusters to lowbudget arthouse flicks.

France won five of the noughties Championships. Can one of the home nations’ cauliflowereared squads reign supreme in 2011? Ireland, England and Wales all have a chance. The action kicks off February 4.

Nintendo executive Satoru Iwata recently revealed that he’s hard at work “studying and developing the next console to Wii.” The tech inside is said to be “surprising”. Will it follow the Nintendo 3DS’s lead and enter the third dimension?

Rage Originally due to launch in 2009, this ultra-violent blend of post-apocalyptic first-person fragging and dune buggy racing has been given a new release date of September 15 2011.

Available on PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and iPhone.

War Horse The adaptation of the novel War Horse is currently enjoying huge success as a West End show, complete with a massive wooden horse. Now the equinethemed war story is getting the big-screen Spielberg treatment. Out August 2011.

London’s digital switchover The final region to flick the switch on analogue TV will be London. From the end of 2011 everyone in the UK will need a digital TV or set-top box to view the latest episode of Eastenders.

Make sure you warn your aunt…

This material is translated or reproduced from T3 magazine and is the copyright of or licensed to Future Publishing Limited, a Future plc group company, UK 2010. Used under license. All rights reserved.

Smartbuy

7

December 1, 2010

AUTO focus

For the ‘Adorable Showman’

Photos: S. Muralidhar

S.Muralidhar he Skoda Yeti is as rare a species as the mythical creature it is named after.

In terms of design it is a soft-roader, a metrosexual’s testosterone fix. It is neither an oversized hatch nor is it a true-blue sports utility vehicle. So, if you were to buy the Yeti, you’ll not get the road presence of an SUV, but you’ll also not be the target of Jairam Ramesh’s ire!

There are other crossovers that have already been launched in the Indian market in the same price segment.

And yet, the Yeti is likely to stand out and prove itself to be as unique as its namesake. Unusual in design, and unusual off-roading capabilities for a soft roader, the Yeti will seek to create an altogether new sub-segment in the car market.

I spent some quality time with the Yeti a fortnight ago, had a few not-so-abominable experiences and here are my driving impressions.

T

Design The Yeti’s design is a bit like the furry, cuddly stuffed toy version of the mysterious, gigantic snowman that is rumoured to live in the Himalayas. Its design is pretty imaginative though and there is enough versatility in the design to allow the Yeti to be fairly capable on rough, uneven terrain.

The Yeti is more compact than it seems in these photos.

Its overall length is only 4,223 mm, just about 10 per cent more than the average B+ segment hatch. But, thanks to its short overhangs and smart design, it manages to pack in considerable space inside the passenger cabin.

At the front, the Yeti sports classic Skoda design traits. It

shares the Laura’s underpinnings and of course, a lot of the latter’s lines too. The classic bonnet ridge engine with the company logo at the centre of the grille, the vertical slatted bonnet grille, the ‘squared-off’ wheel arches are all design elements that come from the Skoda gene-pool. Lending it the ambitious off-roader looks at the front are the headlamps and the uniquely designed and integrated circular fog lamps. The fog lamps are offered with the cornering function, where they light up gradually to illuminate the blind spot at the corner every time the vehicle is negotiating a turn.

In addition to the fog lamps, the over-sized front bumper also features a large airdam. With a dual-tone (body coloured and unpainted black plastic) finish, the front bumper also integrates within its design an underbody protector, further enhancing the Yeti’s off-roader looks.

From the side, the Yeti seems to have been endowed with a unique floating roof. With a blacked-out A-pillar

Smartbuy

8

December 1, 2010

and a blacked-out C-pillar at the rear, the roof seems to be only supported by the B-pillar. In fact, the rather invisible C-pillar gives the impression of a wrap around the rear glass too.

While still standing beside the Yeti, the other features that catch the eye are the large door mirrors with integrated LED turn indicators and grab type door handles – like the Laura’s. Though I am not sure how rugged or useful they will be, the elegantly designed roof rails make the Yeti look more SUV-like. 16-inch alloys don’t fill out the wheel arches, but are probably the more practical choice in Indian conditions.

The Yeti’s rear features a vertically opening hatch door and since the design features a very gradual rise upwards at the rear and the rear overhang is shorter, the departure angle also seems to be larger than the approach angle, a very helpful design element if you happen to take the car off-roading.

Interior The passenger cabin of the Yeti looked very familiar. The overall layout of the dashboard and a number of other interior design elements have been carried forward from the Laura. The Yeti’s interior sports leather seats, a dualtone colour theme, wood trim inserts, dual-zone automatic climate control with separate vents for the rear bench, steering wheel mounted controls and an integrated multimedia system with touch screen, which also doubles up as the display for the ‘Parktronic’ warning system. The display can also potentially deliver traffic information.

With a large glass area on all four sides, the Yeti’s interior is airy and well-lit. A wheelbase of 2,578 mm

(same as the Laura’s) and an overall width of 1,793 mm, also ensure that there is ample shoulder room and legroom inside the Yeti. Predictably, the interior also has oodles of headroom – will come in very handy if the Great Khali decides to ask you for a lift.

The uniqueness of the Yeti’s interior lies in what Skoda calls the VarioFlex Space Management system. The Yeti is normally a five-seater, but thanks to the system, you can move the rear seats on rails or just remove them alltogether. So the Yeti can be converted into a four-seater, a three-seater or even a two seater, if more space at the rear is needed to accommodate large objects. Storage capacity can go up from 416 litres in the luggage area to 1,665 litres with all the three rear seats removed. However, yanking and lifting the seats off the car is quite a heavy duty task.

Engine and performance The engine in the Yeti is the same two-litre power unit that is available in the Laura. The 2.0 TDI CR/ 103 kW diesel engine is the re-rated version of the 1,968cc unit that was originally offered with a lower (110 bhp) peak power in the Laura. Sporting a turbocharger with self-aligning blades, this 16-valve unit is now rated at a higher 140 bhp of peak power that gets delivered at 4,200 rpm. Peak torque of 320 Nm is generated from as low as 1,750 rpm and is available all the way up to 2,500 rpm.

The engine seems to be a good choice for the Yeti in terms of performance, though for Skoda, sharing it with Laura also makes commercial sense. With 140 horses available under the hood, the Yeti can be pretty fast on normal tarmac and easily manages to cross 170 kmph during my test drive. Straight-line stability is really good

and there was no sense of trepidation that I was driving a fairly tall crossover. Rated top-speed is said to be 185 kmph.

The engine is mated to a six-speed manual transmission that is pretty closely set. Crank the engine, slip the Yeti into gear and press the throttle, and the engine turbocharger takes just short of a second to spool up. Once it is on the boil, there is a lot of power on tap in every gear.

With easy, clear slotting, the shift stick in the Yeti is also a pleasure to use and there was no feeling of this being a hulking crossover even during very tight overtaking manoeuvres.

To truly boost its off-roading prowess, the Yeti gets permanent four-wheel drive with automatic torque distribution. The Yeti’s 4X4 system gets an advanced Haldex clutch, which in coordination with the braking systems distributes torque to individual wheels based on slippage and terrain-based requirements. As much as 90 per cent of the engine power can be directed to the rear wheels, including up to 85 per cent to just one wheel to prevent slippage, enabled by the electronic differential lock.

On sandy, slippery terrain the Yeti held its head up, managing to pull out of the challenges that it faced on some of the ‘kutcha’ tracks surrounding the Yamuna near Delhi, where I had tested it. Some of the electronic aids that help the Yeti deal with rugged terrain come in the form of the Off-Road Assistant package, which includes Hill Descent Control, Drive-Off Assistant and the OffRoad Traction Control.

EBD, six airbags, active front head restraints, Parktronic and automatic rain-sensing wipers. The Yeti offers considerable personalisation options such as a steering that can be adjusted for rake and reach, the driver’s and front passenger seats can be adjusted for height, better lumbar support and legroom,. But all of these are manually adjustable only.

The Yeti is a classic Skoda in its build quality and overall fit and finish. But it is targeting a small niche of buyers and there is a good chance that some of them may have considered the Laura too, before being swayed by the Yeti’s charms.

For some buyers in this segment, the Yeti might also fall a bit short in terms of overall refinement levels. There was a slightly elevated level of wind noise and road rush intruding into the passenger cabin during my drive. And though the manual transmission can be fun if the Yeti is owner-driven, it might be a bit ‘lurchy’ if it is chauffeurdriven.

The suspension of the Yeti is very European in its set up and is ideal for off-roading and high-speed travel. But, during low speeds on bad quality tarmac, the ride can get a bit uncomfortable. The Yeti is offered with two variants – Ambiente and Elegance and has been priced at Rs 15.40 lakh and Rs 16.62 lakh (both ex-showroom, Delhi).

The Yeti will fill out the ultra-niche that it is pretty much creating. Apparently, there are already over 1,000 takers for the Yeti.

Unlike its mythical namesake, the Skoda Yeti may not be as rarely sighted on the roads, after all.

Bottomline The Yeti has other safety features including ABS with

Smartbuy

9

December 1, 2010

Send feedback to muraliswami@thehindu.co.in

From top (clockwise): Interior of the Yeti, very Laura -like, but plush and comfortable for long drives Engine too, shared with the Laura. Packed neatly into the bonnet, this 2-litre unit feels like an ideal choice for this soft-roader The six-speed manual gearbox can squeeze the best out of the diesel mill in every slot.

But an automatic option would have been welcome Shot at night for effect, this picture of the door mirror with LED turn indicator is just one of the many premium features that the Yeti offers

Smartbuy

10

December 1, 2010

MELANGE luxury redefined

Fashion fundas If Bohemian chic is your personal style, then Pavers England’s latest AW10 collection of handbags and belts for ‘her’ and socks and belts for ‘him’ adds a dollop of fun glamour. Available at its exclusive franchise outlets and select lifestyle stores.

Rs 699 to Rs 5,999 (entire range)

Wrap the bandage!

Not around the knee, but your curvy self as you don French Connection’s exclusive bandage dresses. Take your pick from the Dani Crepe dress or the Ribbon Knit dress at its stores.

Rs 4,299 to Rs 4,499

Delightful combos

Ode to the waters

ST Dupont’s tribute to the calming blue waters takes the form of this deep blue Chinese placed lacquer Neptune limited edition pen, named after the God of Water and the Sea. Available at William Penn outlets to order.

Price on request

Forever young Getting you a tad bit closer to your dream of embracing youth forever, L’Occitane’s Immortelle Divine collection does its bit with its newest range of youth serum, antiaging day cream and eye cream. Available at its stores in New Delhi.

Rs 3,400 to Rs 5,900

Smartbuy

11

December 1, 2010

Passion fruit, flashing star, sugar & spice, lazy daisy and first kiss – Chambor goes charming and colourful with its two-colour combo pack of DUOH!2 nail enamel. Head to select lifestyle stores and pocket free nail art tattoos that come with the pack.

Rs 295

PREMIUM interiors

“I’m game for room arrest!”

Children’s rooms maybe fun to design but need to keep evolving in colours, materials and themes as the years go by to accommodate their changing tastes. Here are some interesting havens for kids of different age groups

0-6 years

● Wall-mounted games and soft boards will keep your five-year-old happy. A dedicated scribble area will also save the walls. Instead of a black board, you could opt for a back-lit acrylic sheet that can work as a light box and a scribble pad. Wardrobe shutters fitted with blackboards or acrylic sheets will also work beautifully. ● Bunk beds are no longer a novelty, but they cannot be matched for their space-saving property. ● Kids in this age bracket will have plenty of toys and books so make sure you have enough space to stow away their playthings. This will also ensure a neat, clutter-free room. Dual function furniture – such as a toy chest that doubles up as a bench – will fit in quite nicely. ● Thematic furniture pieces can be used to weave in a sense of fantasy or playfulness that is very important to this age group. ● The fantasy element can also be incorporated through wall art, designer wallpapers or bed linen. ● The colour schemes could be red, indigo, yellow, orange, bright pink and rust. These colours are better used as accents, where you paint one wall in a vibrant shade and leave the rest neutral or white. This allows for greater decor flexibility. ● Make sure you don’t use chandeliers or other types of suspended lighting, especially above the bed. Wallmounted and ceiling lights are recommended. ● As far as possible, lighting should be kept natural. ● Avoid hard flooring materials such as ceramic tiles and stone. Vinyl, rubber laminate or wooden floors will be more comfortable under tiny feet. ● If using area rugs, make sure they have a non-slip backing.

7-13 years ● Use wall panelling in coloured stripes or fabric, particularly in a girl’s room. Paisleys or retro patterns can be an alternate to stripes. ● A wall-mounted dart board, or for the more intrepid, a black and white chess pattern on the floor, can cater to the child’s indoor play needs. ● The colour schemes have to suit your child’s personality and temperament. Lilac and pale shades of blue and green can be offset by white. ● A sturdy, comfortable chair and a work table with adequate lighting are a must. ● Storage for games and books is very important. To accommodate your child’s hoard, create a shelf above door-height running along the perimeter of the room. ● Create a loft bed that allows space below to house a study area or a wardrobe. An alternative to a loft bed, is a trundle bed that will come in handy during those numerous sleepovers. ● Placing baskets to store odds and ends will provide a more organized look. ● Usually considered novelty lighting, children’s room lighting is fun, with theme features like hot air balloons, air planes, sports cars, clowns, etc. Make sure there is a good mix of light. There should be one main light in the room and ambient lighting in the form of lamps or wall-lights. ● Wood flooring works best for this age group as it is warm and suitable for lounging around.

14-18 years ● Music and technology play a big part in a teenager’s life, so you must consciously work towards bringing an entertainment/tech aspect into the space. ● Your children are now young adults, so do not forget plenty of space for clothing, personal care products and magazines. ● Posters can be mounted in a funky metal frame without glass, which is backed with foam core. This makes it easy for the child to change the poster whenever he wants. ● Teen rooms also tend to sport a lot of graphic elements. ● Wardrobe shutters lend themselves well as a canvas for graphic elements. There is an explosion of laminates in psychedelic colours and striking patterns. ● Try and use neutral creams and browns. Then accessorise with colourful sheets and throw pillows, rugs and curtains. For a shy teen, think of a brighter palette, with hues of maroon, purple and pink. For someone who is hyperactive, soothing shades such as white, blue, aqua and sea green are recommended. ● A teenager is sure to enjoy mood lighting. LEDs that are funky and functional, rope lights in false ceilings, multicoloured motion lights and quirky shapes can help change the look of the room. ● Support the above-mentioned unusual lights with task lighting in the study area. ● The room is a lounge for your child and his friends. A floor- or low-height bed works the best. ● Since the focus is on a lounge-like ambience, bring in beanbags, loungers and floor cushions instead of conventional sofas and chairs.

Better Interiors

BEYOND the hour

Ideas.

Inspiration.

Innovation.

Anushya Mamtora

2

Chopard L.U.C 150 ‘all in one’ The invention of the perpetual calendar was in itself a commendable feat. Automatically adjusting the watch’s calendar to accommodate for months with different lengths and leap years was a complication that found it to the feature list of exclusive watches. But Chopard has gone a step ahead, a few rather, to feature a major complication – Equation of Time- which shows the difference between true solar time (that of nature) and mean solar time (or civilian time). The period of time between two passages of the sun is 24 hours just four times in a year (April 15, June 14, September 1, December 24) and the rest of the year, the elapsed time is sometimes shorter or longer. This difference between true solar and mean solar time varies from minus 16 minutes and 23 seconds (on Nov 4) to 14 minutes and 22 seconds (Feb 11) and is called the equation of time – and is featured on the lower dial of the new L.U.C. Highly complicated for sure, but a marvel, it is.

010 has been an interesting year for watches. Doing away with hairspring for a mechanical movement, eliminating the slightest error in timekeeping by including rare complications and letting you check the time of eight time zones in one dial. These are but a few.

Technology and horology have had a raging love affair since Louis Audemars invented the stem winding and setting mechanism in 1838 and continued through the invention of quartz, perpetual calendar, minute repeater and a host of other features and complications over the years.

Even as we glance at our humble wrist watches, there is a one-second error that is being eliminated or the sunrise time during winter solstice that’s being accommodated along with efforts to make the watch the slimmest or the lightest.

For watch connoisseurs who are on the look out for collectibles and for watch lovers who want to be clued in to the most innovative minds in the world of horology, here’s what the best brands had to offer this year.

Tag Heuer Grand Carrera Pendulum Concept Ever since the hairspring was invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1675, it has served as the regulating organ of all mechanical watches. However, it came with its own design limitations like sensitivity to gravity and thermal expansion. Tag Heuer’s Pendulum Concept is the world’s first oscillator in a mechanical movement without hairspring, replacing it instead with an invisible or virtual spring derived from magnets. It works at 43,200 beats an hour (6 Hertz). It eliminates the problem posed by the effect of gravity due to mass, there is no loss of amplitude and the movement’s frequency can be modulated on a very large spectrum of frequency without overburdening power supply. The result? Spectacular increase in precision and performance. Patents have been filed and are pending but the world is waiting for it to be unleashed in the commercial market.

Zenith Christophe Colomb The first thing that strikes as you glance at the Christophe Colomb is the sapphire glass dome that bulges out from the dial and caseback. This ‘excrescent’ covers a unique gryroscopic system made of 166 components, 10 conical-geared wheels (with six spherical wheels) and six ball bearings, and ensures perfect horizontal positioning of the regulating organ. Going a few notches ahead of the precision seeking tourbillon, Zenith aims for exactness by minimising rate

variations due to the position of the watch on the wearer’s wrist.

The best position for an escapement is the horizontal position which ensures the best amplitude for the balance and on which gravity is perpendicular to the components and does not disturb their rotation.

Based on the design of a marine chronometer – the Christopher Columbus – Zenith’s latest ensures the stable horizontal position of the exclusive timepiece despite the wearer’s movement and makes it an inviting buy for absolute precision seeking watch lovers who indulge in sporting activities.

Other innovative timepieces that made it to the wrists

Dior Christal 8 Mother of Pearl For globetrotters who shuttle between continents on business trips, the dual time zone feature in watches came as a blessing. Dior takes it to another level with the new Christal 8, which displays the direct day-night reading in eight time zones simultaneously – London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, Mumbai, Tokyo and Hawai. So whether you want to take a peek at the time in Paris before you call your client or wrap it around your wrist as you hop in and out of charter jets, Dior Christal 8 fulfils your timekeeping needs. The timepiece dazzles in sapphire crystals and mother-of-pearl dial in hues of grey, white and gold. The back of the dial completes a full tour in 12h, the disc which indicates the 8 time zones in 24h.

Seiko E-Ink: The world’s first EPD watch with an active matrix system, the E-Ink uses Electrophoretic Display with electronic ink technology but now with an active matrix display. This means strikingly clear display, richer range of imagery and a four-shade grey scale for rich graphical expression with perspective.

Piaget Altiplano: Piaget has set the record of crafting the thinnest self-winding movement in the market at 2.35mm. Moreover, the movement is cased in the Altiplano watch which is 5.25mm thick, setting another record of being the slimmest in its category.

Harry Winston Opus X: Moving away from the traditional fixed dial and watch hands, this watch uses a display of rotating indicators mounted on a revolving frame. It further strengthens the challenge by ensuring that the dials of each indicator turn in the opposite direction as the frame completes a full rotation, to ensure that the orientation remains constant.

Vacheron Constantin Metiers d’Art Chagall watch: Artistic brilliance rather than a technical one, Metiers d’Art’s dial features a ‘faithful’ replica of the ceiling of Garnier Opera House by Chagall, using the Geneva technique of ‘grand feu’ enamelled miniature painting.

Breguet Tradition Fusee Tourbillon: This Breguet in platinum gets a silicon balance spring with the brand’s iconic terminal curve.

Hamilton Time Player Have you ever played a puzzle on your wrist? Time Player lets you play a game of its own with its fingeroperated timekeeping. Hamilton’s latest watch boasts a futuristic design where a totally flat 48mm by 42mm titanium case is split into nine squares, eight filled with movable counters and one left empty like a sliding puzzle.

“These counters, separated by lines symbolising those of latitude and longitude, enable the wearer to set and measure time in the current location, plus three others.” The brand logo marks the current time and those of Dubai, Tokyo and New York are identified by colour coded printed names to match the colours of the individual watch dials. To set the time in a desired time zone the wearer moves the corresponding miniature watch to the central square and adjusts with the crown. The remaining squares can be moved around for some fun!