Remember these hideous "Birkin inspired" bags I'd posted on a few months ago?? Well, here's another bag that is an eco-friendly reusable shopping tote that can give you the looks of the glamorous Birkin, only for $45!!
I came across this on Bag Snob and actually thought it looked quite cute! Considering the Birkin has just become WAY too common and overused in Dubai, I'd love to have one of these tongue-in-cheek versions and look different! Alas, like the regular birkin, these canvas versions too are apparently back ordered for a few months with a wait list. I tried searching for a website or company name (all the blog says is that a friend of theirs bought it from Taipei) to no avail.
What do you guys think? Funny or you don't quite get it?
So I've been loving my new phone. The screen is gorgeous, the processor is much faster so speed is incredible, and overall things are great. People have been writing in and asking me if I've had issues with signal- the answer is no, I haven't. But I'm having issues of another type- the phone is just too damn sensitive. With ANY type of movement on my device, the screen comes on while I'm on the phone and either tries to FaceTime the person, puts the caller on speaker or hold, but more often that not, just hangs up the call. I don't know enough people with this phone to ask them if they're having the same problem, but I hope to God it's just my device, in which case I can ask them to exchange it for me when I'm in London next week.
There is one part of the phone though I'm absolutely LOVING... and that is the camera. The camera on this baby is just AWESOME. I could come up with more adjectives to describe the quality from it (amazing, incredible, super- that kinda thing) but I figured I'd just take some random pictures through my day to demonstrate really how clear it is. Now mind you, these pictures aren't supposed to be pretty or poetic.. they really are just supposed to show different types of lighting and how the camera handles in those situations. Please click on the pics to see them in their full size-
My morning workout at Le Reve with my fit and good looking trainer, Kelvin Garner
Saying hello to Chintu (I think he has his camera-face down pat!)
Heading to work!
The corridor to my office is paved with gold (lights)
The dimly lit parking lot at around 7 PM
Home! At around 730.. already beginning to get dark out
Later that night in the car.. with flash and without. The flash is very, very powerful!
I am not a huge Chris Brown fan- love his music, but can't stand him. Recently people have been having a tough time to differentiate between the two but ast night might just change all that. Brown performed at the BET awards and did a tribute to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. He was really, really, really good! Watch the video below to see for yourself-
So someone in the Daily Mail needs to fact check their stuff before it goes out! The Daily Mail ran an article quoting "Steve Jobs" and began with the following-
"The much-vaunted new iPhone 4 may be recalled, Apple boss Steve Jobs revealed last night.
Posting a message on the social networking site Twitter, the tycoon said: ‘We may have to recall the new iPhone. This I did not expect.’"
(Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1289965/Apple-iPhone-4-recalled-says-Steve-Jobs.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-mailonline)
So turns out the same "Steve Jobs" also tweeted, " Just FaceTimed my wife. If you know what I mean" and "I heard the CEO of AT&T got married recently. The service was great but the reception was terrible" and "The unshaven unemployed population is starting to line up at Apple stores. Ugh, go stand outside a FedEx sort facility." Umm.. the account (@ceoSteveJobs) is NOT really Steve Jobs, and had someone from Daily Mail spent a few minutes checking the same or even reading some of his other tweets, would have figured that out. Hell Twitter even bothers to "Verify" the accounts of celebrities just so people can figure out who the fakes are and who are the real deal! And if that isn't enough, the Bio of the of the account states, "I don't care what you think of me. You care what I think of you. Of course this is a parody account." Maybe the reporter from Daily Mail didn't know what "Parody" meant? -
Most people who read my blog will remember my post on the most stylish little girl in the world. It was probably my most popular (non gadget-related) post as people were blown away by the gorgeous five year old's style, her wardrobe and more than anything, how unbelievably cute she was! Friends would ask me about her mother and wonder, "if the 5 year old daughter is like that, what must the Mother be like?" Well, you don't have to wait anymore to know the answer!! Here is my gorgeous friend Eka- beautiful, glamorous and mother of 3. Yup, you read that right.. and mind you her youngest (whom I featured here too) just turned 3 months a few days back!
Eka was in boarding school with me and is an absolute sweetheart. Not in the "I'm-sorry-I-was-a-bitch-when-I-was-younger-but-now-I-know-better" types... she was always down-to-earth, humble with a sunny personality and an infectious laugh! To give you an example of what she's like, with I approached her with the idea of doing a fashion diary for me, she promptly responded saying Tatler in Moscow had approached her with a similar idea, and she had turned them down, but would love to oblige for my blog! After that she would daily send me pictures of herself with small notes on what it is she was wearing, and informed me she had taken to carrying a camera with her everywhere, so she could request people to take her picture. Sorry for putting you through all that Eka, but the pics look GORGEOUS!!!
So here she is- Eka over 7 days with 7 day and 7 evening looks- the most stylish girl I know. I SO want to take a peek into her closet and I'm sure after reading this, you will too!!
If you're following me on Twitter, you'll know what lengths I went to today to have my iPhone 4 in my hands before sundown (the pic above is me holding it). I must admit most of the work was done by my friend Jimmy Grewal (@jimmyg on Twitter) to get the order here. He had ordered 2 devices from the UK a few hours after Apple opened the floodgates to allow pre-orders for the device, and decided to use the Aramex Shop & Ship (to find out more, read here) to get his hands on it ASAP. He called his bank to make sure the authorization for payment went through, and crossed his fingers in hopes that his order for the "bumper" (the Apple side casing for the phone) wouldn't delay the entire shipment. It didn't. He tracked his package hourly (and kindly sent me updates on the same) and called Aramex here on Thursday the 24th, the day his package was delivered in London, to make sure it got shipped out on the next flight. Having no luck with customer service here, he tracked down the Aramex number in London, tracked down the entire phonebook, tracked down a Sardarji in the phonebook, convinced him that they were both cousins from Ludhiana, and had him promise for the sake of pride of the land that a fellow Sardar would be the first out of all the 280 iPhone packages received by Shop & Ship that day, to be put on the next flight to Dubai. Whew! Package shipped out at 1 AM Dubai time late Thursday night, and arrived yesterday morning, which was Friday. Jimmy went over to the Aramex office, since they had no one answering the phones, and was told that he could only pick up his package early next day. I messaged Jimmy early this morning to find out if we'd had any luck, and was shocked to learn that Aramex told him it would take one more day to clear his package. Livid, he was ready to pack his lunch, a few bottles of water and an iPad and was en route to camp out at their office, till i decided to tag along and asked him to pick me up on the way. A Twitter progress tracking ensued (with a Marketing rep from Aramex joking tweeting it as a "hostage situation") and then FINALLY at around 4 PM this afternoon, we were handed over our iPhones. What an adventure!!!
The Review-
So was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!!! I had read online about the build of the device and the beauty of it, and being a Leica-buff, was very intrigued when Steve Jobs likened the looks of the new phone to that of an old Leica camera. He wasn't exaggerating. The device is stunning, and makes the iPhone 3GS look like a cheap, plastic toy. Since we didn't have our computers with us (we'd gone armed with our iPads to keep us entertained) we had to wait till we reached a computer to activate the device to see what the fuss about the screen was. Again, the whole thing about "Retina display" on the iPhone 4 isn't mindless jargon.. the screen is crisp and beautiful and very, very readable. Since I've already reviewed the iOS 4 I won't go into that here either. Let me however, show you the stuff that I think sets apart the iPhone 4 from the iPhone 3GS- The camera and FaceTime.
Jimmy and I were both blown away by the clarity of video on FaceTime and thought maybe it was so clear just because we both were using the same WiFi network to test it out, in the same room. When I went back home however, it was just as crisp although I'm yet to try it out with someone in another country. Here's a short video clip I recorded (and edited using "ReelDirector") on my 3GS to demo FaceTime-
(Please remember the "echo" is because Jimmy is in the same room as me, and isn't from the video)
The camera is also absolutely brilliant, and I took a few pics an hour back, of my friend's dog in the dim light outside a coffee shop. Here is a sample pic of the dog, and another one to show you how the camera handles light (it's taken at approximately 10 PM, so it's very dark outside!)
And here's a short video clip of the same scene-
These are just my initial thoughts about the Phone.. will post if I find out more stuff about the device. The only issue I'm having right now is the over sensitivity of the screen. I sometimes hold my phone in between my neck and shoulder (without my hand supporting it up) and I've already managed to mistakenly hang up on calls a couple of times already. The phone seems to light up at the slightest of movements and I think I hit the "End Call" button by mistake. Will also take some more pictures during the day and post them up!
Hope you enjoyed the review. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about the device in the comments field below.
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The blogs are ALLLL about the iPhone today. I laughed when I saw this comic on Gizmodo and thought, reverse the roles and that could so be me. My secretary in the office always says I'm the happiest with a shiny new gizmo in my hand.
Anyhow, back to the comic.. as funny as it was, I was even more amused by some of the comments that were left by readers. Here are a few-
- Once Apple approves that mature section for the app store there'll be no need for girlfriends.
Unfortunately, (or maybe thankfully?) that'll probably never happen.
- #7. Man tries to make call using special Apple-approved holding method.
#8. Phone slips out of man's hand and shatters.
#9. Man stabs self
And my favourite- - They obviously had relationship troubles prior to this incident. She didn't even know he was getting the new iPhone4? She should have been inline with him or at least brought him refreshments during his long wait. If she can't even take an interest in her significant other's hobbies, then she's just a whore.
The iPhone 4 is suffering with a problem where it drops calls when held a certain way. Of course someone decided to take matters straight to the top and decided to email Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple (and my Idol!) about the problem. In true Jobs' style, he responded with a short, succinct and pointed email, clarifying the issue- (click on it to zoom)
I laughed out loud when I read this. I can imagine a young Steve Jobs breaking up with a girl via email on his Apple Macintosh- "It's not me. It's you."
Steve Jobs has a way of describing Apple's products like they were dreamy, magical unicorn-like objects of lust. He has, on many occasion, described his iPad as being "magical" and introduced "Face Time" (their name for video chat that has been around on 3G devices for YEARS) as if it was right out of a Jetsons cartoon. When the iPhone first came out, users everywhere were amazed with what the accelerometer in the device could do- I'm sure I'm not the only one who watched the milk/beer movement app when it just came out. Looks like the iPhone 4 has it's own tricks up its sleeve... however this is one I wish my device doesn't have! Many users have complained of the iPhone loosing complete signal upon being touched! Since the antenna is built on the outside of the device, holding the device in one's left hand apparently causes it to completely block. A reader on the blog MacRumors posted this video of the iPhone doing just that. Watch the magic trick below-
Many new owners of the device are also complaining of yellow spots or yellow lines on their device-
If you're planning on picking up your device in the UAE before it's being launched, do check your source has some type of warranty that allows you to exchange a faulty piece!
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I was at Bur Juman last evening when I came across these and thought they were absolutely brilliant! These are food carvings and set ups made with sugar, chocolate, bread, pasta... They were split into different categories and were being judged amongst others in those. The judges must have had a really hard time, as most of them were extremely well done! Here are a few pics of my favourites-
The OS4 refers to NOT the new iPhone, but the new software that is running on my existing iPhone 3GS. Two nights back (Dubai time) Apple launched their new Operating System that is a part of the new iPhone 4, but is also available for download for existing 3G and 3Gs users. I was excited to finally have multi-tasking and a host of new features on my device, and immediately downloaded it onto my computer. However, I struggled with my phone all day yesterday as Google Sync (that I use to sync all my contacts to and from my iPhone) was acting up, and I was flying blind without having any contacts saved on my device. Thank God for my second phone! Finally last night Google and Apple played nice and I was back to having my phone function as normal.
Now that I'm finally content on that side of things, I can look through the OS more calmly, and am really excited with what I see. OS4 has some really cool new features!
- Now you can FINALLY multi-task on your iPhone. What does this really mean? You know how sometimes you are in the midst of sending a text, but forgot something that was in your notes application, or wanted to use the calculator? And when you do, your long text is GONE? NO MORE!! Now you can switch from one application to another without "closing" it. All you have to do is open an application- lets take Safari for instance, and double-tap the home button, and swipe the menu at the bottom to click on any other app you want to open, et voila! You're there. And if you want to go back, you follow the same method, and it takes you back to your webpage, or half written SMS or wherever it is you want to go. All the apps have to update their software to allow for multi-tasking, which is why you might see some, but might not see others.
- Another cool feature that OS4 has is "Folders".. the same way you can put your documents in folders on the computer, the iPhone now lets you put your apps in an "App folder." You can drag an app now, on top of another app, and it'll automatically create a folder for them. If you want to put all your photography apps in one place, it actually recognizes it and names the folder "Photography"! You can, however, change that and name it to whatever you want too, or drag that and put it in the dock, if you want to have easy access to it.
- Mail on the iPhone- For iPhone users who use their device to get email, the OS4 is apparently God sent. Apart from being able to have multiple Exchange accounts on their phone, they now also have other features like a unified inbox which shows them all their messages at once.
And of course, you can now have a background picture saved on your home screen FINALLY! You can even have a different one from the one on your "lock screen" in case it is too distracting.
To get a detailed look of all the new features, read this very interesting blog post on Gizmodo.
iPhone users, go ahead and download the new OS4! All you need to do is have your iTunes up to date, and then connect your phone to your computer. On your iTunes it should give you an option to download the latest software on to the phone. You just click it, and it does everything else for you. If you have any questions, just leave them in comments and I'll help walk you through it.
A friend of mine brought me these adorable bite-sized mini cupcakes yesterday by Sugaholic. If Dr Shefali Verma is reading this, she needn't worry.. I didn't have any! I made my friend just give me one to take pictures of it with the adorable boxes. I thought the packing was SO cute, and thought they are adorable to give to people or take over to a friends house- I know they brought a smile to my face.
Here are their contact details, as shown on their card- (click on the picture to see the full size)
In case you hadn't heard, the Net-a-Porter sale started today! While I HATE shopping in sales, I found this cute Elizabeth and James jersey and leather jacket that I decided to buy. Unfortunately, after I hit the "add to cart" icon I decided to browse the site and went into the new shoe collection, during which time somebody else snapped up my item.
Either way, I found some gorgeous shoes that I couldn't wait to get my hands on, and thought I'd post some of them over here. While Christian Louboutin and Alexander Wang need no introduction, K Jacques St Tropez have been around for decades, but are still relatively unknown globally apart from "those in the know." To be honest I'd only seen them online recently, till I walked into Boutique 1 and found that they were being sold over there for ages! Anyhow, these are my fave shoe picks for this season-
What do you get when you put together a young girl who calls herself "AppleGirl002", a bunch of iPhones and the tune to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"? Well.. this of course! Watch her.. you will be amazed!
Lisette Lee Morita (pictured above) who claims to be an heiress of the Samsung fortune, was caught at the Ohio Airport a couple of days back, carrying $500,000 worth of marijuana. Lee arrived to Ohio on a chartered Gulfstream to meet a mystery boyfriend, whose belongings, she claims, she was carrying back from LA. He apparently owns a horse farm, and on questioning, she claimed she didn't know his last name. She is said to have been carrying back the marijuana, 3 cellphones, cocaine and a ledger recording profits exceeding $300,000.
I've been following this case with some amusement for a few days now, as Samsung has denied having any knowledge about her existence and that her claims of being a relative of the Lee family, are false. Acquaintances of hers in LA swear that her spending habits and stories of her family would suggest that she is very much a part of the Samsung fortune -coz of course, her drug dealing ways could possibly not be supplying her the cash. But what is most amusing to me is her last name- Morita. Akio Morita, famed founder of Sony anyone? So she claims that someone from the Samsung empire, and someone from the Sony empire went ahead and made babies and she was the result? How very Montague and Capulet of them! While officials are trying to find out her true identity, I'm MOST curious about one little detail the press hasn't mentioned- were the 3 phones Samsung or Sony Ericsson??
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I can't possibly think of anything I'd wear less!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These CD-logo'ed lenses are absolutely hideously grossly horribly WRONG!!! This takes the whole logo craze to whole different level!
What do you think? Would you wear them??
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Every time I visit New York, I spend forever in the hair accessories department at Henri Bendel's. It also helps that my hairdresser at Frederic Fekkai is housed in the same building, so after she gives me the perfect cut I am always tempted to buy loads of headbands and another accessories to stick into my shiny hair. (Never mind that nobody else in the world can ever recreate the look.. it's a momentary pleasure thing!)
I've seen Jennifer Behr's headbands at Bendel's before, and I remember falling in love with their design and quality.. and probably recoiling at the price tag! I stumbled upon her website yesterday, and am in love all over again.. and unfortunately recoiling from the prices all over again. However, I thought I'd share some of my favourite pieces with you guys, and maybe someone out there might like to invest in one of them? My personal favourites are from her bridal collection.
First, some of her seasonal stuff-
And here are some of her bridal collection pieces-
Aren't they absolutely stunning??
If you live in NY or are visiting there anytime soon, be sure to check her stuff out at Bendel's.
Alternatively, you can also order them online at www.jenniferbehr.com
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