Sony launching 3D ready cameras!!

This is huge! NVidia has announced that the new range of Sony Alpha cameras (the NEX series) are going to come  compatible along with 3D image processing software! What this means for you- YOU'RE GOING TO WANT THESE CAMERAS!! I've done a review of the pre-production unit here and think it's an absolutely revolutionary product anyway. It is not only more than half the size of an SLR, it takes fantastic pictures, with an almost "dummies-guide-to" approach to shooting. Now the fact that your pictures can actually be viewed in 3D is just the cherry on an extremely large, yummy, chocolate laden hot fudge sundae! I can't WAIT for it to hit Jumbo stores over the summer!

Chanel Paris-Shanghai collection

Last week the Chanel boutique in Dubai Mall got in their pre-orders for the Chanel Paris-Shanghai collection. I snapped a quick picture of this Yellow sweater dress- my favourite look of the entire collection- Can't wait to get my hands on mine!

You can see Claudia Schiffer sporting the same look below with black tights-

Speaking of black tights, another look I loved from the collection but could unfortunately never pull off, are the leather pants with camelias on them. SO beautiful!

While they don't photograph well (they look kinda crumply in the pictures) they are really gorgeous and very well crafted. The pieces weren't out on the main floor yet, so call ahead before you go if you're interested in them.

Days with my father

Over the weekend I saw something so beautiful and touching, it made me cry. Philip Toledano, a well known and successful photographer, has put together a photographic journal of his relationship with his father upon the passing of his mother. It has parts that will make you laugh out loud, and parts that will make your heart break and cry. Over all, it will take you 5 minutes to go through it and you will be so happy you did- Click on www.dayswithmyfather.com

You can also read my own tributes to my father- the first one I wrote a few days after his demise can be found here, and the second one written five years later, found here was a cover story I did for Weekend magazine.

Jean Paul Gaultier leaves his mark on Hermes!

When Jean Paul Gaultier joined Hermes seven years back, I remember thinking it was a very odd match. A brand that represented understated elegance was to be headed by someone whose brand stood for anything BUT understated! It didn't quite make sense. Two days back however, JPG announced his departure from Hermes after their Spring-Summer 2011 collection in October.

I LOVE Hermes! I own a lot of their clothes, some pieces of accessories, I practically live in their Oran sandals (the one with the "H" on them.. I have them in at least 5 different colours) and I absolutely ADORE their bags. I remember putting a global hunt out for my first birkin, that I finally acquired some 7 or 8 years back- long before their first store opened in Dubai. My sister acquired her first birkin almost a decade back! It has now become one of those bags that almost everyone and their mothers have, and has really lost its meaning, and I  use my regular leather ones only for traveling. If you are thinking of getting your first birkin now, DON'T! Get a Kelly instead- not as popular, and for that very reason, probably a lot more chic!

Going back to JPG, seven years later I can see now the wonders he did with the brand, making it slightly more edgy while retaining it's original sophisticated appeal. Here are some of the funkier bags he came out with-

1) The shadow birkin- 

It's the original birkin with a bit of a twist! Costing $11,000 without any of of the hardware is not really my cup of tea, although this would be a fabulous collector's item. You know you've got an iconic bag when Marc Jacobs, who could carry anything out of his own collection or Louis Vuitton's for that matter, is spotted carrying one-

2) Silky Pop and Silky City-

These bags are a great take on the Hermes scarves, and are not only gorgeous but are great to travel with. The silky pop actually folds out of a small wallet-like pouch, and can be slung over the shoulder after opening out. I love the silky city and think it is such a gorgeous bag and so convenient! You can just wear it as a cross bag when you want to go out and have your hands free.

3) Kelly Danse-

Unfortunately, this was the only nice picture I could find of this bag online. It can either be used as a clutch, or it has straps at the back that convert it into a cross bag. I had seen this bag two years back while visiting Boston with my best friend, and she made me not buy it. BIG mistake! Now that the cross-style is in, it's very hard to get one.

4) The Lindy-

Here is a picture of Naomi Campbell with her Orange Lindy. I love the two-tone versions of this bag like this one-

(taken from Purse Blog)
5) The Constance Elan-

I'd mentioned the Constance in my post here, and this is the new take on the classic, which is longer than the original. I took a picture of this bag last week at the Hermes in Dubai Mall, so if you like it maybe you can try your luck to see if it's still there (doubt it). I like the original better, but this shape is also very interesting-similar to the Chanel 2.55.

It's usually very difficult for a company to come out with ONE "it" bag every few years, but as you can see, Jean Paul Gaultier has been successful coming out with new ones as well as reinventing the look of the old cult classics. It now has to be seen whether Christophe Lemaire, the current Creative Director of Lacoste who will be taking over JPG's reigns, will be just as successful.

And the winner is....

Drum roll please.... Pinky Mulani from Dubai!
The competition was SOOO close, and I had already decided who was going to be the winner, till I received this entry in at 11 last night!

Pinky is here depicting the cremation of all her old phones... which is what she says she would do (and take a pic of) on winning the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini! Let's hope she doesn't really, and instead recycles her her old gadgets.

My other favourite, that unfortunately did not win due to Pinky's last minute entry, was a pic sent in by Chicco Hiranandani-

Other pics that were relevant were these sent by Bhavishya Kanjhan and Sunil Lalvani respectively-

I received some really great entries- some were very interesting, and some were really beautiful photographs. But unfortunately, what I was looking for was a bit of out-of-box thinking that answered the, "What would you do on winning" part of the competition. Either way here are some of my other favourite entries and I do apologize for not being able to put all of them up, as I got quite a few.

 Please click on the entire collage above, to be able to zoom into it.

Thanks for participating, and hopefully we'll have a new competition set up soon, just in time for Football season :) Stay tuned!

Gold plated playing cards!!

First Abu Dhabi had the gold-bar vanding machine.. then a particularly card-obsessed friend went and got herself gold-plated playing cards! How ridiculous are these?? I'm halfway between finding them absolutely hideous and finding the detailing on them absolutely intriguing! I guess they are at least more interesting (and probably cheaper) than Hermes playing cards, but if it was me, I'd still use a cheapie deck to get the job done. 

Preview of the Sony NEX3 Camera

A few weeks back I'd written about the NEX3 and NEX5 cameras being launched by Sony and a couple of days back I was actually lucky enough to get my hands on one to test and play with for a while. I had the gorgeous red NEX3 with the E 18-55 lens, and I thought it looked absolutely beautiful and took SUCH great pictures.

Before I go on any further, let me guys explain to you exactly what Sony has come out with here. The average Joe (or Jane) knows there are a lot of cameras out there promising a lot of things, so you're probably wondering what is the difference between this Sony as opposed to a lot of the other cameras out there. In very simple terms, without boring you with specifications, there are a new breed of cameras out there which are slightly bigger than the point and shoot cameras (the regular, digital cameras that come in various sizes) but much smaller than the SLR cameras (those large, bulky things that professional photographers or crazy enthusiasts carry around). In SLR's too, there are different models depending on how high end and pro you want to go, or if you want just a basic entry level model that takes nice photographs. You would still need a crash course in photography for someone to explain to you the Aperture and ISO, etc, as having an SLR and taking pictures on the auto mode is just a no no. They might even come out worse than they would on a point and shoot!

So back to these small format cameras. Right now there are 2 brands only that make such cameras- Panasonic and Olympus. The Olympus EP2 is the  camera I'd taken and tested here and here and absolutely LOVED. I loved the small form factor as well as the art filters, and even though I didn't post the demo I loved the quality of the video recording that came with it. Now with all these cameras, especially SLR's, the video recording is absolutely amazing, and I had recently even written about how the season finale of House MD was shot on a Canon 5d. The downside to video recording is that the file size is very large and that the lens doesn't automatically autofocus. You need to move around the lens with your hand to get it to focus on the image if you zoomed or moved away from it. With me so far? Whew.

Now Sony has come out with this new form of Camera similar to the Panasonic and Olympus, which is small in size but if possible even BETTER in image quality. This small little camera gives you pictures as good as the entry level SLR's, or in some cases, maybe even better. The video quality in this camera is absolutely gorgeous too, and remember the autofocus problems that other cameras have? THIS ONE DOESN'T!! It's an amazing device and despite using it for only 2 days, I'm in love with it and am not liking the idea of giving it back.

Since I felt the same way about the EP2, you'd be right in wondering what sets this camera apart from the Olympus. The beauty is that this camera has an even thinner body and has all the advantages that come with a Sony camera. The lens quality is fabulous, the camera has the panoramic setting as seen here where you can take a sweep of a place at a 60 degree angle, and it also has the smile capture mode, where the camera automatically clicks when someone in front of it smiles. The two most unique things that I found about this camera though, are ease of use and it's picture quality in dark places. In a lot of ways this camera is a novice's answer to wanting to take amazing pictures as there are "tips" being given to the user at every turn, and has different pre-set options for landscape, sunset, portrait, etc. Ever seen pictures that focus in on the person or object in front of you while giving you a gorgeous blur in the background? Without needing to know about f-stops and aperture, the camera actually does it for you, with a sliding option on how blurred or how vivid you want the pictures! Like I said, incredible ease of use! And when it comes to images in dark places, the camera takes multiple pictures of the target image, and finally gives you an amazingly well-lit image of it. For example, the picture of the plant I took below, was in a darkened corridor, with me barely able to see the plant in front of me-

Below are other sample shots I took with the camera- all of them in my office, car or garden and are here to showcase image quality rather than my artistic ability! So please view them as such-

The last image above is taken to showcase the macro setting of the camera.

If you want to read more about the camera or want to see more sample pictures, read one of my favourite tech journalists, David Pogue from the New York Times, write about Sony's new home-run here

The NEX3 and NEX5 will be available in Jumbo stores in July

Want free cupcakes?

Me too!! After all my talk of sugar-free delights and weight watching, I saw this on Facebook and instantly visualized biting into a yummy double chocolate cupcake! It's a good thing my computer is drool-resistant! I've written about Sweet Stuff only a couple of days back here, and if you haven't tried them, I don't know a better opportunity than this to change that. See you there!

My iPad and iPhone get a Kiran's Corner makeover!

It's not a secret that I love things that are unique and that nobody else has. Even stuff that others DO, I try to make mine a little unique and make them stand out from the crowd. How are you guys liking my iPhone and iPad??

How GORGEOUS are they??!! And how very ME!!! I love the way the wallpaper of the iPad blends perfectly with the cover of the iPad. And the iPad now looks even better in it's case that I wrote about here

All the pictures here have been taken with the demo unit of the Sony NEX3 that I wrote about here
Check back in tomorrow to see some more demo pics and the full review of the amazing camera

Blackberry vs iPhone

A friend just forwarded me this and I thought it was worth posting.
I use both.. an iPhone and a BB. Don't think I could do without either!

Summer coffee options

Recently I've been trying to watch my weight in ways other than watching it rise. (another favourite- who says I'm not in shape? Round's a shape!) Jokes aside, I've been spending a lot of time in coffee shops as I've cut out eating out and drinking, which has really put a damper in my already limited social life. Since I wanted coffee- based drinks that would help keep me cool in the summer months without indulging in Frapps and shakes, I went out and did research on what I could have. If you're off sugar or are trying to control ur diet, try having iced latte's instead of the sugary drinks, and add ur own artificial sweetner to it. Since a lot of the glass is also filled with ice, it's a lot less calorific than a cappuccino or hot latte. Starbucks has a really yum iced latte that u can get with skimmed milk or with soy milk, which is a healthier option.U can also try the iced latte at Gloria Jeans and ask them to blend it for you.. It tastes soooo good! I also discovered coffee bean and tea lead have a "no sugar added" version of their famous iced blended drinks. The one pictured above is the mocha iced blended and I swear it tastes like a milkshake. I asked them to show me their mix and it really was sugar free and had asparteme in it instead. Starbucks has sugar free vanilla syrup in the US but I'm not sure they have that here. Either way, my CBTL drink is my new favourite. I don't know how useful you guys will find this post, but I figured I'd put it up anyway as I wish I'd known abt these sugar free options out there. It's also good to remember that just because it's sugar free, doesn't mean it is fat free or has no calories, so limit your intake to when u have a sweet craving :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Simpsons take on Lost

And there you have it! The Simpsons, in their opening credits, paid homage to the Series Finale of Lost- one of the most anticipated episodes of any TV show in recent times. While the dog might not have had much to do with the explanation of what went down, he did make a guest appearance in the Series finale, as did all the old-timers.
Being a Lostie, I was super excited to rush home from work and get on iTunes to watch the Final Episode. Two hours later, I was teary eyed from all the emotional drama that took place on screen, but I couldn't help feeling a little cheated. I went online to check what the other fans of the show had to say, and I wasn't surprised to see that 50% of the people thought it was the best Series Finale of a show EVER, and 50% thought they had been involved in a long con job. I, sadly, felt a bit of both. I was emotionally satisfied with the ending and thought the idea of them coming a full circle was beautiful.
But when it came down to it, I thought the Finale helped explain the "Sideways" world, which pretty much meant they only explained the last season. I just felt there was SO much stuff unanswered, beginning with the basic- what is the island??!! WHY did we have to watch 5 extra years of stuff that happened, if it didn't mean anything?!
I have two friends getting very upset with me over my getting upset over the end. They say Lost was about the bond between the characters, and not about the island, its inhabitants or what happens to them while on the island. Really? I seem to have missed the point of the show then!
Any other Losties out there?? Would love to hear what you guys have to say!!

UPDATE: Seems like I'm not the only one who thinks a lot was left unanswered!-

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

SATC 2 Premiers!!

Last night, the Sex & the City 2 movie premiered in NYC, and the girls looked ravishing, as expected, on the red carpet.





SJP wore Valentino couture with Ferragamo heels.. I thought she looked absolutely stunning in the dress as the colour is fresh and makes her look youthful. It's really hard to pull off such a colour without looking like big bird!

I thought Kristen Davis was the best dressed of the night, in her 50's couture Jean Dresses gown. Despite it being vintage, it fit her like a glove and I absolutely LOVE the colour on her!















 Kim Catrall wore Naeem Khan, and Cynthia Nixon wore Carolina Herrera.



Later that evening, both SJP and Kristen Davis changed into their party gear and this is what they chose-

Erm.. I don't care how "fashion forward" SJP is, or who she's wearing (Ellie Saab, in case you were wondering), I don't love her outfit. With a rumoured 10 Million USD budget for the wardrobe of the movie, one would think she could afford more material to cover up?? LOVE the Nicolas Kirkwood shoes though!

And then, there was Liza Minnelli...

   ...No comment!!

Have you seen the trailer yet? It's ironic that a lot of the movie is filmed in "Abu Daby"where it probably will never even get screened. But for your viewing pleasure, here's a sneak peak...

Sad, shocking, horrific, extremely disturbing...

I read something this morning that was all of the above. It is just so disheartening to know that any human in the world could have this much hatred, malice and lack of respect for human life... The fact that such a person exists in the UAE and is verbally attacking and abusing the Indians, just makes it so much worse.

I am not a news blog, but I'm always on the lookout for interesting stories that people might like to read. Considering that only 50% of my readers are based in Dubai (according to my blog statistics) I have been looking for interesting news items on Dubai and the UAE that others too might find interesting. It saddens me to post my findings this morning.

An Emirati blog online (that for reasons I'll explain later, I shall not name) that prides itself on being "a local take on the World" blogged on the Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangalore that crashed a few days back, killing 158 people. This is what the author of the post had to say:

RIP Plane Victims:

Not really. Not only do I not care if the victims "rest in peace" but it seems to me that they are, rather, resting in pieces!

I am of course talking about flight IX 812 from Dubai to Balglapour (or some other hell hole, they're all the same) that recently crashed 

I know I know. Mean, blah blah. The way I see it is as follows. The UAE is (about) 50% Indians, Something that I, and 90% of all other Emaratis see as a bad thing.

This plane, carrying Indians who live and work here, means that 160 indians that clog up the roads, cause accidents, fail code inspections at Indian restaurants, speak like this guy, and are a general drag on the security of the UAE, wont be coming back. That is a very GOOD thing!

I can only pray that this happens every week!

Sadly, we'll probably have 160 new VISAs for 160 new Indians issued in 3 hours... And the authority in charge of this will flaunt that, as if it's a good thing.

For those who do give a damn, and sadly see this as a sad thing, here is a full list of the flight's passengers:

1. Rajkumar
2. Kumar Malalavajayapalamaniyanukrishnanananana
3. Babu Pinto
4. Parata
5. Masala Dosa

Repeat that list 32 times.

When all is said and done, they're probably better off dead. I mean, look at the world, they arent missing anything special.

-----

 The photograph accompanying this site was this-

In the comments post, a lot of  people (mostly Arabs and locals, who are the readers of his blog) are condemning his words, much to the amusement of the author: 

Actually most Emaratis I talked to said things like too bad it wasnt carrying 200! to too bad there wasnt a 2nd plane full of zalamat (Syrians, Jordanians...) So yes, THIS IS WHAT THE MAJORITY of Emaratis THINK but dont SAY. At least give me credit for being honest.

BTW, As you said, my view MIGHT (not is, might) not be very Islamic, but is it Islamic to call me stupid and a donkey? Again, an opposing opinion is NOT something Arabs can handle. And this is why this region will forever be licking the west's ass. btw Sammy, Are you a zalama? lol.

When another commenter asked him why there is an option to translate the site in Hindi if he hates Indians so much his response was, "It's called Marketing!" 

And in regards to the video of the crazy drivers on Sheikh Zayed road his response was, "Mashallah, He can multi task. Doing that AND no causing an accident. Indians cant even just drive!"

Unfortunately, his blog is going viral and this is what he had to say about the people posting comments on it-

"Holy shit! 51 comments waiting to be approved on this post! Just more proof that humans are a vile bunch who love bad things. Amazing how when we blog about good and real issues we don't get this response.

I wonder who is "worse" me for posting this or the people who don't comment unless I post stuff like this..... Wow. I should just write crap like this everyday! 60 comments in a few hours and counting!"

I refuse to give him and the blog more publicity, which is why I'm not posting it's URL neither did I leave a comment below his post. Its just sad that someone exists so close to home with so much hatred in their heart. My family has lived in Dubai since before I was born, and Jumbo Electronics, a company that my father started in Dubai, now spans the globe. We've received nothing but support from all the Locals we've ever interacted with for almost 4 decades. Does this make reading this any less blood curdling? Not really.

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Sarah Ferguson dirty dealings!!

News of the World has a video of Sarah Ferguson doing a deal whereby she quotes a price of Half a Million GBP to be paid to her, in return for a meeting with her ex-husband, Prince Andrew.
I just got directed to it via Twitter, but since only a few of my readers follow me on Twitter and Facebook yet, I thought I'd post a link to it directly here.
Watch it.. It's shocking!!
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/video/?videoId=2160_823094&videoChannel=NOTW:News

And "follow" me on Twitter here

Only 4 days left to win the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini!

Here are some reviews of the amazing phone-
As seen on Tech Radar
Lengthy review on GSM Arena
Preview by Best Mobile Contracts

In fact, the gadget blogs are buzzing with news about this tiny piece of wonder!! Sony Ericsson has really hit a home run with this one, and it's really astonishing to see a full Anroid phone be fit into such a tiny package!

THERE ARE ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!!!


CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW TO ENTER THE COMPETITION!!

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For the people whose car is their mini office...

Here is a picture of a mini office in a Mini car. Mini Cooper that is! I came across this on the net, and thought it was just SOOOOO cute!! Such a shame I bought a desk already, but I don't know what could possibly be cuter than this $4,400 one-of-a-kind item! Would you want one if you had the money to spare?

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Presenting the $450 YSL Power Adapter!

Giorgio Armani, Prada and Dior have their own phones, Vivienne Tam tied up with HP to have their own edition of netbooks and most recently, Versace too came out their own own ridiculously expensive communications device. Not to be outdone, Yves Saint Laurent decided to recently join the ranks of the designer gadget makers and launch their people-will-buy-it-because-its-designer-and-lets-hope-they-dont-notice-its-price power adapter. Oh and just in case you were too busy oggling and it's pretty pink case and didn't notice it's price, it's 450 USD. Yes, crazy, I know.

The painting that took my breath away!

Over the past few months, I've been meaning to get a painting commissioned for my new home, but never got my act together and collected the photographs I wanted to be a part of it. I've mentioned Mrs Roy on my blog before, and how much I love her work, and how I've been going to her to study art ever since I was a little girl. When the time came, and I had enough furniture in my apartment to start focusing on the art to grace its walls, there was little doubt in my head that only Mrs Roy could translate what was in my head, on canvas. In my office, I have a giant printed canvas that overlooks my desk with pictures of my late father and I over the years (you can see it faintly here). I wanted something similar for my home that would be the center of my living room, and that would invoke feelings of safety, love, protection and being cherished every time I looked at it. Mrs Roy thought of the concept and the colour scheme and got to work, promising me that I would be the first one to lay eyes on the finished product once it was done. Keeping her word, she messaged me excitedly late last night, and I saw the finished work early this morning before heading to work. Like the title says, it truly took my breath away.

You can't really get an idea of the proportions here, but the canvas was made to measure and spans from floor to ceiling- it is MASSIVE! As gorgeous as the above photograph is, it doesn't do the entire work of art true justice, neither can you really see how exact the the rendering is to the original till you don't see the pictures they were drawn from.

This is the upper left hand of the canvas with the words "The show must go on," which were the last  words my Father uttered to me the evening before his demise. It also shows him talking to Mother Theresa, and was done from a picture taken when he had visited her in Calcutta.

This portion is a close up of the images of him and my mother on their anniversary. The little boy incidentally, is from a photograph of his from when he was young.

This side has pictures of me with my dad through the years. I LOVE!!! 

 

And this part is in the center of the canvas- with the Jumbo logo, and a picture of him receiving an award from HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. 

The painting is nostalgic in its subject, but still modern enough to go with the decor of the room, and is flawless in its execution. Like I had mentioned in my previous post about Mrs Roy, she has known my family for decades now and had repeatedly expressed a desire to my Father over the years that she wanted to paint him. I'd gone over to her house a couple of times over the past few weeks to have a quick look at her work as she executed it, and as I got teary eyed seeing it, she too got misty eyed and narrated stories about him and how he was with me when I was a child. While anyone else could have painted it, nobody else would have truly understood the feelings behind it, or understood the man behind the angry stare. When Seemita Roy goes PLACES, no one will be prouder than me. Thank you Mrs Roy!

Click on the pictures to get a close up of them!

UPDATE: A lot of the pictures that were used in this painting can be found here including a piece I wrote on my Father for Khaleej Times immediately upon his demise.
Five years later when I started my column with KT, my first piece was also on him. You can find that here

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