Smartbuy issue dated January 19, 2011

Smartbuy Business Line

G A D G E T S

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A U T O |

L U X U R Y

www.blsmartbuy.com

Preen in style Luxury bathroom makeovers Page 12

WHAT’S HOT this week

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

Wider than imagination Fujifilm F300EXR

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

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The new 12-megger from Fujifilm packs in the power of a 15x zoom and a super-wide angle lens in a compact body.

The F300EXR features ‘Motion Panorama’ that lets you capture a complete 360 degrees panorama in a single photograph. The digicam comes with a Super CCD EXR that works on a ‘3-in-1’ sensor combination of Fine Capture Technology, Pixel Fusion Technology (for high sensitivity and low noise), and Dual Capture Technology for a wide dynamic range.

Rs 20,999

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Cover photo: FCML Luxurious Bathrooms

One for the road

Smart like this!

Plantronics K100

Huawei IDEOS X5

The Plantronics K100 is a Bluetooth speakerphone for your car, so you can have long conversations and keep your eyes on the wheel. It has two noise reducing microphones as well as a high quality speaker, and features an FM transmitter, so you can listen to your conversations on your car’s speakers. It also has A2DP so you can stream music from your A2DP enabled phones.

The speakerphone offers 17 hours of talktime as well as a car charger, so you’ll never run out of juice when you’re driving.

Rs 4,699

Smartbuy

The new smartphone from Huawei, the IDEOS X5, is powered by Android 2.2. The screen is a 3.8-inch touchsensitive display with a 5-meg camera and a LED flash that also let’s you record highdef videos at 720p.

The smartphone runs on a 800 MHz processor and comes with an internal memory of 4GB. To be announced

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Take a call Jabra Wave This new Bluetooth headset from Jabra has been designed with a behind-the-ear fit, which molds itself for maximum comfort. It has an answer/ end button, wind reducing microphone and automatic volume adjustment. Voice prompts inform you of low battery and connectivity. The headset can be connected to two devices at a time, and can even be hooked up to a PC for internet calls.

Rs 3,899

Ease at your fingertips Logitech MK260 This Logitech wireless combo of a mouse and keyboard for your home or office PC features Logitech Advanced 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity with virtually no signal loss in even the busiest wireless environments. Eight hot keys on the keyboard give users instant access to their most regular activities like internet access, email and volume control. The Media Combo MK260 also uses one of the highest levels of security available, 128-bit AES encryption, to keep your information secure wherever you choose to use it.

Rs 1,495

Twice the fun Samsung ST600 This 14.2 meg camera from Samsung features a WVGA touch screen as well as a front screen, so you can take that perfect self portrait. The camera features a 27mm wide angle lens as well as 5x zoom, and can focus on up to 20 faces – great for a family photo. The ST600 also supports 720p HD recording, so you can take home videos on the go. Other features include a variety of scenes and effects, including a fish-eye effect.

Rs 19,990

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SMARTPHONE review

Second time lucky?

Nokia C7 Mahananda Bohidar he most recent launch from Nokia’s stable in the smartphone market is the Nokia C7, the second handset to feature the Symbianˆ3 OS. We had earlier written about how Nokia’s platform fared in the N8 and here we check if the Nokia C7 pulls it off with any more flair.

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Build and design Styled like a candybar, the Nokia C7 has two touch buttons on either end of the bezel at the bottom and a longish physical button at the centre which enables you to access the main menu that displays all the apps and widgets. On the right side of the body, you have a quick camera launcher button which also doubles up as the Shutter button in case the virtual one is not to your liking.

Between the volume buttons, you have a voice activation button. A long press of this will prompt you to speak into the phone, to say either a name or a nickname of a contact you’ve already recorded and stored, and dial the contact for you.

You have the Power button, a 3.5mm jack and a mini USB port on the top and the charging slot for the mini-plug on the left.

The full glass capacitive touch screen is an AMOLED display, something that most Nokia smartphones aren’t endowed with so the C7 scores a couple of brownie points with this.

To get the SIM card in, you have to yank the battery out every time, which is quite inconvenient and is a step backward considering even lower-end models from other brands have done away with this rather cumbersome design.

What’s inside?

After the Nokia N8, the Nokia C7 is the second Symbianˆ3 smartphone to be launched, but the hardware crafted for the platform is very different from the first one that had been marketed heavily.

You have the Social Network App which is a tad better from the Communities App that slightly lower-end Nokia handsets featuring the S 60 OS include. While the social widgets on Symbianˆ3 provide you with the most popular clients, Facebook and Twitter, the presentation and features are still very rudimentary compared to the likes of Sony Ericsson’s Mediascape.

A longish press of the physical button on the handset launches a matrix of all the applications running in the background and you switch from one to another or kill whichever ones you want at a touch.

The touch response of the C7 proved to be quite smooth and precise though it faltered more than just once while typing messages, especially in the portrait mode. The virtual keypad automatically swaps to QWERTY when held in the landscape mode.

On each of the home screens you can have only six widgets or app shortcuts. We tried a long press on an app icon from the main list but this action doesn’t automatically move it to the homes creen of your choice, unlike in

Apple’s iOS or Android.

Camera One feature that sets the C7 apart is the presence of a front-facing camera along with an 8-megger at the back. This is aided by a dualLED flash that fills in light perfectly when the surrounding is badly lit. There’s no auto-focus but a full-focus feature means you save on the extra time that the lens takes to focus on the subject before you click it.

The pictures we shot were clean, without any noise and the colours too remained true to life. You can also record videos at 720p with the 8-megger cam.

The interface supports multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom. You can use two fingers to zoom in to your pictures or have a clearer look at the web pages you are browsing.

Apps The Videos and TV app which is a new addition to the Nokia series has YouTube, Nat Geo, a series of teasers of Hollywood flicks, E! and a CNN app (came loaded in the review unit). Nat Geo and CNN had some playback issues but we checked out a couple of videos and interviews on ‘E!’, which streamed just fine.

While videos streamed on YouTube with ease, we had problems with the resolution and weren’t able to expand the video to fit the screen completely while it buffered in the landscape mode.

We played back a couple of Boney M tracks and some by Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Both played back without any hitches and the sound quality was quite enjoyable.

To test the video quality, we loaded Frost/ Nixon on to the smartphone and the video came out quite crisp on the AMOLED screen. The volume level is good enough for a couple watching a movie or a sitcom in a not-too-large room.

The native player, however, did not recognise .avi files but DivX ones played back without a hitch.

Connectivity On connecting to a laptop or PC via the mini-USB the C7 only shows up as a still camera; to access the internal memory for the rest of your data needs like videos, music or documents you’ll have to go to Connectivity settings and tap on Media Transfer or Mass Storage for those files to be detected. With 8GB of internal memory available you could even do away with the need for external storage, which is otherwise expandable up to 32GB. Priced much lower than the N8, the C7 however, doesn’t include a HDMI port. The battery lasted us close to two days with the regular number of calls made and with multimedia use.

We did have a couple of issues with the unit that we reviewed. The phone froze a couple of times and that too while performing simple tasks like scanning for Bluetooth

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Photo: S.S. Kumar

devices to pair, without any other applications running in the background. And this was despite having better RAM and more processing power than its predecessors in the same series.

Our verdict While Nokia has been getting its smartphone strategy right, even if only in the Indian market, the Nokia C7 is something that doesn’t really stand out despite having a couple of media capabilities that put it ahead of its rivals.

The Symbianˆ3 did not bring about as radical a change to the user experience in the N8 and it doesn’t do the trick with the C7 either.

Rs 18,999 Love – Excellent camera, decent touch response Hate – Occasional sluggishness, not the best OS

The future of mobile gaming?

The rumours that Sony was working on a mobile phone version of the PSP have been around for years. And now – well it’s still not quite official, but – fresh pictures of a prototype were recently leaked online. Bearing a Sony Ericsson badge and looking decidedly like the Vivaz Pro, but with PSP controls in place of the keyboard, it even had prototype software pictured on-screen, a customised version of Android’s marketplace no less. Spec-wise, it seems we’re looking at Honeycomb (Android 3.0), a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, 512MB RAM and 1GB ROM. The screen is somewhere between 3.7 and 4.1-inches, and the touchpad is rumoured to be multi-touch, so should support gesture controls, which would add an iPhone-esque dimension to gaming. True to the PlayStation name it has shoulder buttons too. Additional storage is via microSD rather than the memory Stick used on previous PSPs. Sony Ericsson and Sony Computer entertainment Europe both refuse to comment, though the source – engadget – claims it’s confirmed the story through “multiple, trusted sources”. We’re expecting a launch at mobile World Congress – so stay tuned for more updates!

3D Image: Peter Crowther @ Debut Art

Screen - Rumoured to be between 3.7 and 4.1 inches, so think of it as a better Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro with a gaming upgrade

Gaming controls The PSP Phone will feature shoulder buttons to help you handbrake turn while playing GTA

Dual analogue sticks - A rumoured feature for the PSP 2, they could also feature on the PSP Phone Memory - Instead of Sony’s own Memory Stick, the PSP Phone takes microSD cards, like the Vivaz Pro

Processor - The 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor is equally as powerful as the iPhone 4 and Windows Phone 7 handsets

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.

Lost in a smartphone sea Ketaki Bhojnagarwala hen the Samsung Wave was launched last year, many were surprised to learn that the company had chosen to market this highend handset with its proprietary operating system, ‘bada’. A few weeks ago, Samsung added three new handsets to its Wave series, the 525, 533 and 723. We got the Wave 533 on our test bench, for our first look at the bada operating system.

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out keys. The keypad has dedicated arrow keys, as well as Alt, Caps and Symbol keys. The Alt key can be used to access the secondary function on a specific key, by short pressing and immediately pressing the key you want to use after.

Using it can take some getting used to, especially if you’ve been a BlackBerry user. However, we had no complaints when it came to using the keypad – we were able to type out text quickly, and we especially liked the big spacebar.

First Impressions The Wave 533 lacks the sleek look of most smartphones in the market today. It features a 3.2-inch WQVGA touch screen with a 240x400 resolution, which is a bit of a disappointment, because the original Wave shipped with a Super AMOLED screen. We expected to see at least a WVGA screen. The phone feels a bit clunky, with could be attributed to its slide-out QWERTY keypad. The exterior is shiny black plastic, and feels quite sturdy. The back panel has a dotted texture, presumably to offer more grip when typing on the pull-out keyboard.

The front has three buttons – for Call, End and a larger menu button in the centre. Unlike Android phones, the Menu button here only pulls up the phone’s Menu, and doesn’t display options specific to applications. We would have liked these buttons to be backlit. To make any changes, you’ll have to manually go to your Settings and configure from there. The phone also lacks a Search and Home button.

On the exterior, other features are a mini USB slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is also a power button on the side, as well as a dedicated camera button. The back panel features a 3.2-meg camera, but no LED flash.

The pull out QWERTY keypad has large, well spaced

User Interface Android has pretty much become the standard OS on most smartphones, so when we tried our hands at bada, we couldn’t help but compare features.

The screen can be unlocked with a simple sweep feature to either side of the screen, which is actually easier to use than the Android sweep that we’ve seen on most smartphones. By default, the phone displays three home screens, but you can add up to 10 screens by tapping the small widgets toolbar on top and turning the phone to landscape mode. Similarly, you can add up to 10 screens to the Menu by using the Edit option. There is a constant touch panel at the bottom of the screen that by default displays Keypad, Contacts and Messages, and you can even choose to edit this and replace them with your most used apps. We would have liked the option to group apps into folders. While we appreciate the fact that we can customise the number of home and Menu screens, finding the option to do so was tedious and not intuitive – we had to read the user manual to even discover the feature was there.

The Widgets button also lets you add widgets to the home screen, and lets you rearrange them.

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One feature the bada OS has in common with Android is the notification panel on the top, which displays recent alerts, as well as gives you one touch access to activate Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Silent mode.

Media We faced some complications when it came to media usage of the phone. The Wave 533 only supports mp4 and 3gp file formats. However, we had serious issues when it came to file compatibility.

The phone refused to play videos in any format – we tried mp4, and even loaded a couple of divX and avi files – but nothing played. We downloaded vPlayer, a third party video app from Samsung Apps, but videos didn’t play on that either. Although the Samsung App store has a few thousand apps, it’s way behind the Android Market and Apple App store in terms of the numbers and quality of apps.

The phone has an in-built music player, so you can listen to all your favourite tracks. Volume levels weren’t too great though.

The camera is a decent 3.2-megger. It supports a variety of shooting modes, including Smile shot, Continuous, Panorama and Mosaic. There are a couple of scene modes to choose from as well. It picks up ambient light reasonably well – and is pretty decent for a phone camera. We liked having a physical camera button, but missed having a flash.

The handset comes with Facebook, Twitter and Orkut apps preloaded. The phone provides for contact integration, which is pretty standard on all phones. There is also an IM app preloaded, which gives you access to Palringo, as well as Yahoo and MSN Messenger. There’s no dedicated Google Talk or Gmail app though – something you’ll miss if you’re used to Android.

Performance The phone’s battery life was really good – it lasted us two days with a few hours of talktime, web browsing and social networking sites logged on.

Call quality was clear too – Samsung always scores on this front.

The capacitive touch screen was one of the best in the mid-range smartphone segment we’ve come across so far, and we were even able to type without error using the touch QWERTY keypad in portrait mode.

The phone was able to run multiple applications smoothly, without slowing down performance. Longpressing the menu key will bring up a list of running apps, and give you the option to switch between apps or end them.

Our Verdict Overall, the phone just about classifies as an entry level smartphone – but just barely. In terms of looks and performance, it’s like any other touch screen phone in the market. bada is a good first attempt by Samsung as an OS, but its nowhere near Android or Apple iOS. Until bada gets a few more updates and removes some of its glitches, it’s better to stick to Samsung’s lower end Androids like the Galaxy 3 or Galaxy 5.

Love – Good battery life Hate – Not so user-friendly OS, clunky looks Rs 9,900

Dreams of gold Dior Feuille d’Or captures the essence of luxury as beautifully as gold. While most Nothing devices of communication are looked at and manufactured as just that, Dior goes the extra mile and a half, and crafts handsets that go on to become objects of desire.

The latest glamorous handset to be crafted is the Feuille d’Or or what literally translates to ‘Golden Leaf’. An ultraslim clamshell handset, the façade of the Feuille d’Or is a black sapphire crystal plate with gold leaves encrusted in the trademark ‘cannage’ pattern.

The flip keyboard has ultra-flat electroluminescent keys and the hinges holding the clamshell together too are black sapphire crystals. The circular browser button on the keypad is inlaid with 0.2 micron gold leaves.

The Dior Feuille d’Or comes packed in a hand-brushed gold-plated case.

Included with the handset is My Dior, a miniphone with a matching black sapphire and gold leaf design, that be linked to the Dior Feuille d’Or via Bluetooth.

The handset comes with a two-year warranty.

Rs 3,63,950 Photos: S.S. Kumar

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AUTO focus

Hyundai’s nimble super luxury sedan!

Jason H. Harper t’s bonus time, that season when some trade in aging Audi A4s or tired BMW 3 Series for something bigger and more grandiose. Rather than snapping up an Audi or Jaguar executive sedan, why not consider a Hyundai instead?

That probably depends if you’re a label monster versus a designer agnostic. It’s fair to assume that if you like Tom Ford suits and Piaget timepieces, the Audi A8 or Jaguar XJ will be more to your liking. Yet if you’re the type of dealmaker who finds duds at T.J. Maxx, the new Hyundai Equus might call your name.

The Korean brand has been winning territory from companies like Toyota and General Motors in the smalland mid-size categories. But luxury-sedan wars are bloody. Nearly a decade ago Volkswagen tried with the $95,000 Phaeton W12. It was a quick, painful casualty swiftly repulsed back to its homeland.

The Hyundai Equus is a savvy steal. The well-stocked Signature model is $58,900 and the kitted-out Ultimate is $65,400. Notably, neither is offered with extra-cost options. The major difference is the Ultimate has a rear passenger seat which reclines and has an automatic leg rest. There’s even a personal refrigerator.

Compare that to starting prices for the new Jaguar XJ ($73,575) and the cheapest Mercedes-Benz S-Class ($91,875) - no fridges there! and buyers almost have to give it a moment of consideration.

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17 Speakers From the Equus’s Xenon headlights, which adapt to corners, to the 17-speaker stereo system (both standard on the base), it’s obvious that a team of cold-eyed technicians made a “must have” list, benchmarking elements needed to entice jaded buyers. Trust me, this sedan is no study in privation.

Unlike the Jag, the Equus isn’t art. It lacks the flow and design vigor, the engineering passion. Technicians can’t reproduce personality, nor a long design and engineering

heritage.

The Equus is big and slablike, announcing itself more through solidity than any sense of grace. At 203.1-inches, it’s longer than the 202.2-inch A8 and the 201.7-inch XJ, though they’re also offered as long-wheelbase models.

Its generically handsome grill seems vaguely Germanic.

In an attempt to assuage those label mongers, Hyundai offers a new badge on the front, two intertwined wings.

While there is the stylized “H” on the rear, you won’t find “Hyundai” anywhere on the skin.

mentioning. The business-class seat has everything from a vanity mirror to its own radio controls. Impressive, though I wonder how much use it would get after the first few months.

The trunk is big and opens and closes automatically, one of those tell-tale details which separate luxury from the not- quite.

None of which makes it a contender unless the Equus drives like a powerful and stealthy titan and not an elongated economy car. Mostly, it does.

Simple System

Silent Running

The process of catching up but not overtaking is echoed in the interior, which has neither the techno glitz of the A8 nor cocktail-lounge comfort of the new Jaguar XJ. The gauges on the instrument panel and controls for the nav system are a study in simplicity. Not super innovative, but it’s nice to forgo a 30- minute tutorial to turn on the stereo.

Too bad the leather on the dash is hard to the touch and bits of dull plastic peek-a-boo from the door panels. At least the front pillars are sheathed in Alcantara and the wood accents and metal bits are the real stuff.

The rear passenger seat on the Ultimate model is worth

The 4.6-litre V-8 engine is good for 385 horsepower, the same amount of kick as the Jag. By the late part of the year, it will be offered with a larger-displacement engine and an eight- gear transmission, versus the six-gear currently employed.

Library-quiet most of the time, this Hyundai floats over asphalt on a pliant air-suspension system. Shifts are barely noticeable. Back-seat passengers who dislike sports-car antics will be big fans.

If the Equus doesn’t exactly cry out for high-speed abuse, the V-8 will awaken when the driver deems it necessary, especially when you’re at 50 mph and suddenly prefer to be going 80. Drop the gas pedal to the floor and you’ll hear the thrum of heavy machinery.

It does not dance around corners like a BMW 7 Series - a car I’ve actually taken on the racetrack. Nor does it have the heritage of the Mercedes, a vehicle so assured of its station that it passes a sense of prestige to its owners.

Yet in many ways it stands up to the Lexus LS. After all, Hyundai is using the same model the Japanese employed to muscle into the luxury market decades ago.

Buy the Equus and you may not impress all your highflying friends - just the ones who appreciate the bottom line.

The 2011 Hyundai Equus Ultimate at a Glance Engine: 4.6-litre V-8 with 385 horsepower and 333 pound-feet of torque Transmission: Six-speed ZF automatic Speed: 0 to 60 mph in about 6.8 seconds Gas mileage per gallon: 16 city; 24 highway Price as tested: $65,400 Best feature: Those many features come standard Worst features: Bits of interior plastic; ho-hum exterior Target buyer: The contrarian dealmaker

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(The author writes about autos for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

BLING corner

Calming waters

Ethnic cuff

The latest iconic necklaces by Ganjam, inspire in their platinum, diamonds and hollow beads.

Resembling a cascading waterfall or a flowing river, this Iraja ‘born of water’ collection is enchanting. Head to Ganjam, New Delhi and Bengaluru for more.

Price on request

This traditional jadau kada from Jaipur Gems is set in 23k gold, layered delicately with uncut diamonds and rubies in ‘takkar’ setting using fine enamel. Available at Jaipur Gems, Mumbai, Chennai and Coimbatore.

Price on request

Precious flutter Diamonds set in 18k white gold and shaped into a dainty butterfly ring. Minawala’s latest collection takes a leaf off nature. Available at its outlets in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Rs 25,700

Ethereal designs Exclusive platinum with just the right sparkle of diamonds, this bracelet from Platinum Guild India adds elegance to the wrist. Available at select jewellers.

Rs 20,000 onwards (entire festive range)

It’s really big!

At about 35 carats each, these round flawless Yin Yang from Steinmetz are the largest pair of round brilliant cut, D colour diamonds. Available for sale through Sotheby’s Diamonds.

Price on request

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MELANGE luxury redefined

Chic colour block!

If striking contrasts appeal to you, then this Fendi Textured Calfskin Bicolor Top Handle bag is a delight to own. Pick one with the rich green calfskin with black bottom or a black and soft brown pair at its boutique in New Delhi.

Rs 85,000

Spring time Animal prints, limey greens and strappy looks, the Burberry Spring Summer collection for 2011 bowls us over with its fun and peppy range of bags and key chains. Head to its boutiques and join the spring celebration.

Price on request

Go Gucci!

Greens, blues and deep red hues, dominate the powerful yet flirty look of Gucci’s Spring Summer 2011 collection. Check out the satin neck tie shirts and shimmery ‘malika’ clutches at Gucci stores.

Price on request

Penning love notes Chopard steps in for the Valentine gifting season by letting you wrap up a lovely pen for your sweetheart.

This roller pen in pink resin features a moving heart set with 16 rubies in the cap. Available at its boutiques in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Price on request

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Utterly ‘shea’ butterly L’Occitane entices shea butter fans with a special range of products made with the nourishing ingredient. From creams to balms and soaps in exotic fragrances, the collection is available at its stores in New Delhi.

Rs 290 to Rs 2,195

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BATHROOM trends

What-a-loo!

Pristine white ruled the bathing space for a long time, and still does. But stepping in to catch the fancy of those who love their bath experience are interesting colours, materials and design styles.

ANUSHYA MAMTORA lists out the latest trends to treat your bathroom to

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re you one of those who want your bath space to be as impeccable as your living room? Or want to create a personal retreat rather than a ‘splash and dash’ zone? Here’s the latest from the designers’ stable to do up your bathroom.

Antique touch In a modern home, stepping into an old-world bath can be like transporting yourself into a new world. If you are starting from scratch, then you might want to begin by soaking in the antique charm with Victorian inspired tiles or intricately patterned wall paper. If it’s just a redecorating plan for spring, then bringing in some antique accessories and furnishings can do the trick.

The most striking effect is to opt for an antique-looking bathtub, and let it take the pride of place in the bath area.

Bathline Sensations has some quaint looking ones in copper and cast iron and even dainty freestanding ones with carved golden or wooden legs. They also have toilet seats in mahagony with golden hardware. FCML Luxurious Bathrooms has an interesting range of metal bathtubs too with perfect accessories to glam up the look. This should be followed by replacing your chic dresser with an antique cabinet and an intricately carved wooden or gold leaf mirror and even getting a copper basin to add to the drama.

A stunning piece to own is Kohler’s Marrakesh collection, named after the ancient capital of Morocco. The designs on the basins, faucets and undercover lavatories are inspired by mosaics in quaint courtyards and intricate and abstract floral patterns found in mosque artwork.

Once the main things are taken care of, smaller accessories can be added depending on how much you want to plunge into the theme. Antique golden faucets, cloth hooks and rods, curtain finials and soap dishes can be matched to work up the theme.

Funky colours Imagine tip-toeing into an immaculately white restroom, with white bathtubs and cisterns, glass faucets and minimal décor and BANG! You are hit by a sudden burst of cheery yellow peeping in from the shower. Well, it’s not the sun, but a fun hand shower.

This theme is easier to implement, especially if you have one favourite colour every season. The mantra for this to work across seasons is to have a sparkling white bathroom

FCML Luxurious Bathrooms

or a monochrome grey, beige or cream colour scheme. The pop of colour can be in the form of faucets, a brightly-hued cabinet or mirror, bathing linen or décor.

Products to look out for are Grohe’s Rainshower WaterColours collection of showers in peppy colours like yellow, red and pink and blue, Bathline Sensations’ colourful faucets and a pick from FCML’s funky kid’s range.

Multifunctional style Then there is the issue of space crunch that comes between you and your home spa. But thanks to compact, stylish and innovative products, this too shall pass! From bathtubs that double up as storage to all-in-one cabinets to multi-purpose mirrors, one can choose from a wide range of national and international brands on offer.

Roca, for example, has designed oak and walnut water resistant panels to bathtubs that not only gives it a classy look but also comes with laundry baskets and towel supports. FCML also has a neat range of accessories like the

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Valli Valli bathroom mirror which has a magnified portion to help shave and wear make-up and also features double neon lights, and a Margaroli heated towel rod to dry linen and clothes.

The green effect It is not just a pot of aloe vera by the window or a mini garden by the tub that makes your rest room one with the environment. The trend is to have the best of products with the least carbon foot print. Reputed brands are ecoconscious and it shows in every innovative technology they come up with. Water saving, water recycling, reducing electricity consumption, recyclable raw materials, less energy consuming manufacturing process… these are but a few areas where the best minds are at work.

Gessi, an Italian faucet manufacturer has launched ecofriendly faucets that change colour from blue to pink to red, depending on the temperature of the water. The electricity generated to light these LEDs is generated

through a turbine within the tap itself, hence consuming no electricity.

Roca takes it a step further with its W+W (Wash basin + Water closet) technology which saves both water and space. The renovation tap filters the waste water from the basin and reuses it in the discharge of the cistern. The best part is, both the basin and cistern is combined into one classic L-shaped piece.

Varun Gupta, Joint MD of Bathline Sensations, who has a whole range of eco-friendly products adhering to strict norms says that while the demand for products like these are mainly from the hotel industry, there have been increasing queries from builders too. This only goes to prove that these features are going to be an intrinsic part of high-end homes.

Unique lighting The stress on appropriate lighting for the bathroom is on like never before. Apart from the regular bright lights near the mirrors and dimmer ones for the bath tub, people are looking for different lighting options and unique fixtures.

For those who have the leisure of space, chandeliers are getting popular - ones that blend in with the bath décor.

Emphasis is also given on mood lighting. Abhinav Khandelwal, Managing Partner, FCML Luxurious Bathrooms explains, “Showers with inbuilt lights that turn on when the shower does also enhance the mood and are available from Gessi, Fornara or Dornbracht brands in India. As mood enhancers, colour changing lights, soft wash lighting and sconces shades to diffuse the light are also available and are good for relaxation and unwinding.”

Recessed lights are neat options in shower areas. Some unique touches include walls with carvings that emit light, mirrors with inbuilt focus lights and halogen spotlights to highlight plants and other decoratives.

Apart from these five fashionable bathroom trends, designers are experimenting with minimalism and contemporary art.

Gessi

Colourful faucets and antique bathtub: Bathline Sensations

FCML

TASTER’S choice

Portugal’s ‘Great Red Hope’ Elin McCoy he steep narrow road, high above Portugal’s Douro river was half washed out. The car skidded around hairpin curves with vines on one side and no guard-rails on the other, leaving me whiteknuckled in the passenger seat.

I had asked to see Touriga Nacional. The name sounds like a football team or an obscure political party, but it’s an iconic Portuguese red grape variety, thought by some to rival Cabernet Sauvignon.

Last month, Touriga Nacional was the theme of Portugal’s first ever wine conference, held in the northern city of Porto. The country’s wine industry heavies were selling the grape as their “national” varietal, hoping to follow the success of Argentina with Malbec and New Zealand with Sauvignon Blanc. US wine writer and blogger Joe Roberts calls it “their great red hope”.

Up to now, the grape has mostly been a star component in the mix of native varieties in the country’s famous sweet fortified Ports. Using it alone to make dry reds is recent, and winemakers disagree about whether 100 per cent Touriga can make wines of great quality.

I spent several days at tasting seminars and visits to quintas (wineries) to find out who’s right.

In a cavernous auditorium at the Alfandega Congress Center, a former customs building fronting the Douro in Porto, I’d donned earphones for the English translation of the basics. Portugal boasts more than 250 grape varieties

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Photo: Bloomberg

and Touriga Nacional accounts for only 2.2 per cent of the country’s vines.

Brazil to Australia The grape’s birthplace is the Dao region, but it’s now grown in six, from the Douro in the north to the warm Algarve in the south, and no one agrees on which one produces the best wines. This native grape is now planted in Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Spain, California and Brazil.

The seminar sampling of the top dozen 2007 and 2008 examples, selected by an international panel of judges in a pre-conference blind tasting, provoked plenty of heated discussion.

The best all-Touriga Nacional wines have exotic floral aromas (think violets and Earl Grey tea), intense blueberry and chocolatey flavours with an iron tang, and plenty of tannin so they can age. But sipping through the winning line-up from six regions, I was mostly underwhelmed.

Some lacked concentration and complexity and tasted like big ripe reds with a hole in the middle of the taste. The 2008 Munda was loaded with oak. Two from southern regions had that hot finish that screams high-alcohol. My favourites were from the Douro and the Dao regions: deep-coloured, structured 2008 Quinta do Vallado ($40), well-balanced, powerful 2008 Churchill’s Estates ($25), and the vibrant, earthy 2008 Quinta das Marias ($30).

‘The Winner Is...’

The winners had been announced the previous evening at a gala dinner at the grand 19th century Palacio da Bolsa, once Porto’s stock exchange. As we sipped from a choice of 30 Tourigas under a vast metal-and-glass dome in the 32-meter-high Hall of Nations room, names of the winners were drawn from white envelopes, then flashed on a screen. It was like the Oscars minus the jokes.

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Attendees grumbled that other labels regarded as the best - like Quinta do Crasto - weren’t on the list, and some claimed they showed why Touriga Nacional needed to be blended with other grapes to make great wine.

Touriga Blend So I headed to Quinta do Crasto and a few other estates far up the Douro, where the steep terraced vineyards produce the grapes for Port, and increasingly, for table wines.

Historic Quinta de Roriz, owned by a partnership of the Symington family of Port fame and Bruno Prats, former proprietor of Bordeaux’s Chateau Cos d’Estournel, lies close to the river down a vertigo-inducing road from the highest vines.

Here, Prat & Symington makes rich, smooth, layered Chryseia ($50), a 50/50 blend of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca.

“Nacional gives structure and mineral notes, Franca gives freshness, bright red fruit, and floral aromas,” says the winemaker, who let me try barrel samples of each. The blend was definitely more complex.

At Quinta do Crasto, Miguel Roquette, whose family owns the quinta, points out to old twisted Touriga Nacional vines backed by a setting sun and explains they made the first 100 per cent Touriga in the Douro in 1995. The 2009 tank sample is savoury, rich, spicy, chocolatey and very pure. “You need old vines for it to be great on its own,” he says. Just like Cabernet, Touriga Nacional can make wonderful wines on its own (think Napa Valley) but only in the very best sites. Often it’s better as the backbone of splendid blends (think Bordeaux).

I’d hate to see Portuguese winemakers fixate on a single role for Touriga Nacional - or forget their other grapes.

(The author writes on wine and spirits for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News.

The opinions expressed are her own.)

BEVERAGE launch

A bird in hand…

‘Pure’ and perfect

… is better than Two in a Bush. Well, that’s just the pun. Bird in Hand Wines has launched the Two in the Bush range in India. While the Semillon Sauvignon has fresh aromas of lemongrass, citrus and apple and goes best with ‘Casarecce’ pasta with butternut puree, the Shiraz has a rich fruity palate with white pepper and fruitcake flavours and is paired with beef, lamb or veal dishes.

Rs 2,090 to Rs 3,125 (entire range of wines)

The oldest and said to be the ‘purest’ vodka in the world, Finlandia vodka, from The House of Brown Forman is created using glacial spring water and ‘avategarde technology’ in the little village of Koskenkorva and is available in fruity flavours of grapefruit, mango, lime and cranberry.

Price on request

For vodka lovers Modi Illva India has launched the delicate, crispy and pleasantly fruity Artic Vodka in India by Italian Spirit maker Illva Saronno S.p.A. While the bouquet reminds you of the lime tree with hints of sage, apricot, and peach, the bottle has been exclusively crafted by the Claessens International, London and appeals in its frosty yet pristine container.

Rs 700 (750ml, New Delhi)

Luscious lychee Adding one more to its portfolio, Nirvana Biosys has introduced Lychee wines to its LUCA brand.

Apart from the sweet and tangy taste of the exotic tropical fruit, the wine wafts of the classic aroma of lychee and also boasts health benefits as it’s enriched with Vitamin C. The wine can be paired with white meats and Asian cuisine.

Rs 760 (750ml) and Rs 390 (375ml)

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January 19, 2011