smartbuy issue dated april 6, 2011

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

G A D G E T S | A U T O | L U X U R Y www.blsmartbuy.com

Business Line

Lick or lather?Beauty treats good enough to eat

2

Smartbuy

2 April 6, 2011Smartbuy

WHAT’S HOT this week

These trendy looking laptop cooling pads from Zebronicsare designed for comfortable use. It provides enough

clearance for a wide-sweep, 80-mm fan to create an airflowvolume to keep your machine from over-heating. The device

that comes in two colours – Matt Black and Electric Red –can be used for notebooks ranging from 8–15 inches.

Rs 350

Oh so cool! Zebronics NC3000

This smartphone isa product of aventure betweenHTC and MTS. Thephone comes with a3.2-inch TFT LCDcapacitive touch-screen, with320x480 HVGAresolution. Featuresinclude a 5-megcamera with auto-focus, 288 MBRAM, and memoryexpandable up to 32GB. The phone runsan Android 2.1 OS,and is based on theCDMA platform. Rs 18,000

The newlifelineMTS Pulse

Team SmartbuyEditorial

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Design

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Designed for productivity, familyentertainment and kids’ education, the Aspire4253 notebook enriches every day computingwith a better high-definition experience,greater multi-tasking capabilities andsignificant power savings. At the heart ofthese laptops is the powerful new AMDE-Series Accelerated Processing Unit(APU) and the VISION Enginefrom AMD, enabling stutter-free HD movies and HDInternet videostreaming,enoughprocessingpower tohandle even themost demandingapplications, DirectX 11 capablegraphics and extended battery life. Rs 25,749

Unleashing creativityAcer Aspire 4253

Cover photo: Bourjois Paris

The new MacBook Pro range from Apple has undergone a major revamp. Equipped with quad-core Intelprocessors, Intel HD Graphics 3000, Thunderbold I/O technology and a FaceTime HD camera, this laptop is

the ultimate performer. Add to this, the standard Apple hardware which consists of an aluminium unibodyenclosure, glass Multi-Touch trackapd, LED-backlit widescreen display, illuminated full-size keyboard and up

to 7 hours of battery life. Available in 13, 15 and 17-inch sizes with varying storage capacities.Rs 69,900 onwards

Charged up Apple MacBook Pro


Running on a 1GHzprocessor, the 10-inchsuper-slim HCL MEtablet comes with acapacitive touchscreenthat supports multi-touch gestures. Thetablet runs on Android2.2 and features a 1.3-meg camera. Apart frominputs like USB,Ethernet and an HDMIport, connectivityoptions include Wi-Fi,Bluetooth 2.1, built-in3G and GPS with a highsensitivity receiver. Rs 32,990

Just for youHCL ME AP10

This latest laptop fromFujitsu is powered by anIntel Core i3-350Mprocessor, and runs on aWindows 7 Professional OS.The 14.1-inch SuperFine HDLED display is perfect forwatching movies or gaming.The laptop comes with BIOSLock, Hard Disk Lock, Anti-theft Lock Slot and a spillresistant keyboard, which

ensures the safety of allyour data. Available

in Shiny Blackand RubyRed. Rs 39,000

It’s foolproof!Fujitsu LifeBook LH530


SMARTPHONE review

Ketaki Bhojnagarwala

Samsung’s affiliation to Android seems to havedone wonders for its handset sales. The phonewhich kick-started the revolution was undoubt-edly the Samsung Galaxy S. A year down the line

and many smartphone launches later, Samsung an-nounced three new phones in the Galaxy series. Thisweek, we get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Ace, themost high-end smartie of the lot.

Sizing it upAt first glance, the front of the phone reminds you a lot ofSamsung’s first-generation touch phones. A standard shi-ny black bezel encases the 3.5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen. At the bottom is a single rectangular button, whichstands out quite jarringly compared to the delicatelycurved, chrome plated edges. Our doubts about an Apple-like Home button were put to rest when we turned on the

phone, and two LED touch-sensitive buttons came to lighton either side, for Menu and Return.

The left side of the phone has a volume rocker switch,and on the right you’ll find the Power/Lock button and amicro SD card slot. The Power button conveniently comeswithin your natural grip while holding the phone. On top,you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack and a mini USB charg-ing and transfer slot with a retractable cover.

The back panel is dotted and rubberised, so you get afirm grip on the phone. A 5-meg camera with LED flashand a single speaker are the only adornments at the rear.

User InterfaceWhen you unlock the phone, you are greeted by a homescreen that discretely reminds you of the bada interface.However, Samsung should be commended for taking theeffort to customise the interface, so it stands out fromstandard Android phones.

There are some features which are distinctly Androidthough. For one, you can have up to 7 customisable homescreens, to which you can add shortcuts and widgets ofyour choice. There’s also the standard notification panelon the top which displays time, connectivity options andalerts. The phone can be locked and unlocked using theAndroid sweep feature.

When it comes to Samsung’s part, there’s a 4-icon bar atthe bottom for quick access to Call, Contacts, Messagingand Menu. These buttons have been customised, with aslightly ‘cartoony’ design, which doesn’t really suit thebusiness-like exterior of the phone.

Pressing the Menu button will bring up your standardAndroid menu with all your apps. Except here, you swipeleft and right instead of up and down to navigate throughyour Menu. The icons of many apps have also been cus-tomised, Samsung style.

The touch interface of the phone was outstanding, to saythe least. It was extremely responsive, registering even theslightest touch. It’s safe to say that it can be put on a parwith the iPhone’s screen, which should give you an idea ofhow good it is. It also supports multi-gesture, includingpinch to zoom and double tap.

In the Galaxy Ace, Samsung uses its own keyboard – wecouldn’t find the option for an Android version anywhereon the phone. We found it extremely easy to type inportrait mode, since the keys were nicely spaced out.Galaxy S fans will be pleased to know that the Ace alsosupports Swype, which makes typing easier.

Messages are displayed as threads, and you can choosefrom a few skins to customise the layout like, ‘Sticky Note’or ‘Memo’.

MediaYou get your standard smartphone media options withthis phone. From Android’s side, you get the Music andVideo player. We played some MPEG-4 video clips to testthe quality, and we got sharp and clear results. The onlyfactor that doesn’t work in Samsung’s favour is the speak-er, which isn’t really suited to loudspeaker use. Even whenwe plugged in headphones we weren’t too impressed,because the volume levels remained quite low. What wedid like was the fact that we could adjust volume evenwhen the phone was locked, using the toggle switch.

There’s built-in FM Radio, which automatically scansand tunes in the available FM channels. Unlike a lot ofolder generation phones, the Ace itself functions as anantenna, so you don’t have to plug in the Samsung headsetfrom the box; you can just use your favourite pair andlisten away.

The camera gave us some good results, especially in lowlight. There are also a number of scene modes you canchoose from, so it’s pretty advanced as far as mobile phonecameras go.

We downloaded the Facebook app from the Androidmarket, but you can also download Social Hub from Sam-sung Apps, which integrates all your SNS and IM clients inone place.

We set up our Gmail account in one easy step. Thephone supports push notifications, so you’ll get alerts forany new emails in the inbox. If you have an alternativeemail account, you can use the dedicated email client to setit up. Once we logged into the Android market, we alsodownloaded the WhatsApp messenger service, whichworked without a hitch. .

The phone comes pre-installed with ThinkFree Office,so you can edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Exceldocuments.

The ‘Ace’ of hearts

Fring, available across platforms,allows you to make free video calls,

voice calls and live chat to other‘fringsters’. You can use MSN,

Gtalk, AIM, ICQ, Facebook andTwitter, all through an integrated

phone book.


PerformanceThe phone is powered by an 800 MHz ARM 11 processor,and although Samsung could have charged it up and gonethe whole hog with a 1 GHz one, we didn’t feel like theperformance was lacking in any way. To test the gaminggraphics of the phone, we installed our favourite AngryBirds. Many tech geeks will tell you that Angry Birds needsat least a 1GHz processor to work without any lags, but wehad no trouble with this phone. The smooth touch screenmade it an even better experience

The accelerometer worked smoothly, and the proximitysensor was spot on. Battery life was better than average, itgives you about a day and a half on a full charge. Thisincludes heavy talktime usage, browsing, social network-ing, watching videos and listening to music.Our VerdictThe Samsung Galaxy Ace lives up to its name in every way.It’s a good fit either as a business phone or for someonewho wants it for heavy media use – which makes it almostuniversal in that aspect.

Love::Excellent touch screen, no lags in performanceHate: Unflattering designRs 18,290

SPECIFICATIONSOperating system: Android 2.2

Talktime: up to 660 min (2G), 390 min (3G)

Display: 3.5-inch, TFT HVGA (320x480)

Camera: 5-meg, LED flash, 2x digital zoom

Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11 b/g/n

Wi-Fi, USB

Dimensions (HxWxD): 112.4x59.9x11.5mm

CPU: 800 MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno

200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset

eBuddy is an IM service that isavailable on practically all mobile

platforms. It integrates your Gtalk,Facebook, MSN, Yahoo, AIM and ICQcontacts into one list. You can sign into

all your accounts at once, or choosewhich ones you want to sign into.

Nimbuzz combines your web andmobile communications into one.

The live Contact list keeps you cluedinto who’s online, offline, busy or

away, their status messages, avatarpictures and social community

activity.

Offering free video calls to yourfriends and family around the world,

Tango populates the app contactsautomatically from your existing

mobile phonebook. The app runs onvaried user interfaces, letting you

switch between video to audio calls.

Connect with your Facebook andMySpace friends directly from

TweetDeck by updating your status,posting photos or videos, commenting,and liking. Available only on Androidas of now, it’ll soon be coming up with

iPhone/iPad versions.

WhatsApp is a free messagingservice that works across all

platforms, using your phone’scontact list. It uses the internet

plan on your phone, and allows youto send unlimited images, video

and audio messages.

Photos: R. Ravindran

[email protected]

Pings, calls and videochats - staying

connected has neverbeen this easy. These

apps across allplatforms use your

existing data plan orWi-Fi connection to

help you keep intouch, and like all

other good things inlife - they’re for free!

Alwaysavailable

Photos: R. Ravindran


SMARTPHONE review

Mahananda Bohidar

Stepping into the handset arena in India only lastyear, Huawei is yet to become a household name.However, it does not stop the company fromtrying to get a foothold in what is currently the

most popular handset segment in the country - the budgetsmartphone. In a genre where the first name that comes tomind is Nokia – Huawei is a company which despite somedrawbacks, still manages to retain the loyalty of many. Hasit played its cards right with the IDEOS, a touch-smart-phone that promises to be easy on the pocket withoutcompromising the user experience?

Mini-barDesigned with a mini-candy bar form factor, the IDEOSlooks spunky with its bright blue back panel. Power it onwith the slim button on the top left, which also doubles upas the virtual lock, and the 2.8-inch screen comes alive.

It has two thin, slat-like ‘Accept’ and ‘End’ buttons – thegreen and red ones to put it in simpler terms. Betweenthese you have a circular navigation pad with a metallicrim which serves as a 5-way navigator. This would bepreferable to those who might take some time getting usedto a touch interface or just prefer physical buttons in thelong run. Above these three physical buttons, you have aslim row of four touch-functions – Return, Settings, Menuand Search. All four prove to be useful shortcuts whileusing the smartphone. The Search button launches a win-dow, where you type in whatever you are looking for – it

could be a contact, an Italian restaurant or an address - andconveniently presents both your Phone Book and Googlein the same window.

Getting a feelThe user interface was all that you’d expect from the greenrobot – neatly threaded messages, navigating via Places,the Market app and the five home screens to customise –among other things that Android 2.2 comes with.

The touch (capacitive) experience was quite smooth,accurately launching functions with a press. But the vir-tual keyboard feels especially cramped when you type inthe portrait mode, however we could avoid a lot of typoerrors when we just typed in landscape.

IDEOS holds in store a 3.2-meg camera which we triedout under various lighting conditions. The camera doesnot have a Flash but it manages to reproduce colours quitenicely both indoors and under bright sunlight. Most pho-tographs we took were reasonably sharp although they didlook slightly distorted in the low-res display (320x240).Double tap to zoom in to the image and tap on the Menubutton to access options like Crop, Share or start a digitalslideshow.

The handset is marketed as a low-budget Androidsmartphone and this shows in the display and processorcapabilities. However, when it comes to connectivity,IDEOS isn’t much of a compromise. It packs in a Wi-Fi802.11b/g/n and can act as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot toconnect other devices to with Bluetooth 2.1, apart from the

availability of HSDPA (7.2 Mbps) that’ll let you stream ordownload media at decent speeds over a 3G connection.

Also, as with most other budget smartphones, you getthe token 512 MB internal storage but you can pick up anSD card – the handset can accommodate one with up to32GB of external storage. With its 1200mAh battery, theIDEOS easily gave us close to two days of usage with onlyvoice calls. However, this was obviously reduced to just aworking day with Wi-Fi, GPRS and app activity.

The compact handset, although with a affordable pricetag, doesn’t let you down with most of its features andwould be a spunky handset to show off with its Blue, Pinkand Yellow rear panels. Huawei seems to have tried not tocut corners with the build quality as well – the handsetdoes not feel flimsy and plasticky when you hold it.

We sayDespite being one of the later entrants in the smartphonemarket in India, Huawei seems to have got a major part ofits formula right in putting together a budget smartphonefor the masses here. With the latest version of Android,good connectivity options, and a decent touch screen, theIDEOS seems to be a great smartphone to go for, especiallydue to the price tag.

Love – Accurate capacitive touch screen, good connectiv-ity optionsHate – Low-res screen, disappointing cameraRs 8,499

Top knocks by a featherweight

[email protected]


LAPTOP review

The MSI GT663R packs in a lot of firepower andlooks stunning to boot. The chunky, all blackdesign will remind you of an exotic supercar.Those who like ‘bling’ will love the metallic red

hue around the keyboard and speakers. The keyboard isgreat, with large, spaced out buttons and the ability totoggle the WSAD keys into arrows keys for left-handers.The separate numpad is a plus. While the touchpad is bigand wide, it’s quite unresponsive and has a sandpaper-ishquality to it, which kills the experience.

Attractive packageThe GT663R is powered by a quad-core Intel i7 processor(Q740M @ 1.73 GHz) and has a 1.5 GB Nvidia 460M GPU.While the standard rate of 1.73 GHz won’t raise eyebrows,Turbo Boost allows it to go up to 2.93 GHz when required.The Turbo Drive Engine overclocks the GPU’s core ratefrom 675 MHz to 709MHz, and the shader rate from 1350MHz to 1417 MHz. The notebook has 8 GB DDR3 RAMand two 500 GB Western Digital hard drives in RAID 0 toboost read/write speeds. The 15.6-inch display (1366x768)is great, but it’s glossy and gives off a lot of glare.

The device sports four USB ports, two of which are USB3.0, plus an eSATA port, an Express Card slot and a 5-in-1card reader. In addition, there are HDMI and VGA outputsas well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and Gigabit Ether-net. The integrated webcam can record at 720p in 30 FPS,which is really good.

Game for performance

The MSI GT663R posted very impressive results in ourvolley of tests. It bested the ASUS G53J and G51J insynthetic and real world tests, and in games. It could playCall of Duty: Black Ops at 48 fps, and Mafia 2 at 33 fps, butin Metro 2033, the GT663R only managed 8 fps. Gameslike Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which are CPU-intensive,ran at 29 fps at maxed out graphics. The GT663R also hassuperb sound thanks to the two built-in Dynaudio speak-ers. Audio is clear, crisp and loud enough.

MSI has done a good job at heat dissipation. At full load,it does get quite hot, but thanks to the large vents, the heatis pushed out well. The GT663R is quiet as it completesday-to-day tasks, but fire up a game and you will hear thefan whirring as it moves into high gear, which is a littledistracting. At full charge, the battery will last you a goodhour and 10 minutes of intensive gaming, and over 3 hoursunder low load.

The MSI GT663R tears through almost anything youthrow at it. At Rs 1,49,999, it does provide the performanceit promises and is a great option for gaming on the go. Thebad touchpad and its 3.5 kg weight are downers, but that isa small price to pay for this kind of horsepower. Love - Striking looks, superb performance, packed withfeatures.Hate - Bad touchpad, noisy at full load.Rs 1,49,999

SPECIFICATIONSProcessor - Intel Core i7 Operating System - Windows 7Memory - DDR3-1333 MHz up to 12 GBDisplay - 15.6-inch Full HD or HD LEDbacklight (16:9)Graphics - Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M -1.5GBVideo Output - 1x HDMI, 1x VGAHard Disk Drive - 500GB/640GB RAID 0/1TB RAID 0Optical Disk Drive - DVD Super Multi/Blu-rayInterfaces - 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x eSATA,1 x Express Card, 5-in-1 card readerSound - 2.1 ch speakers sound by Dynaudio,DTS surround sensation UltraPCCommunication - 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, 1 x Gigabit LANWebcam - HD (30fps@720p)Battery - 9-Cell Li-IonDimensions - 395 x 267 x 55mmWeight - 3.5 kg (with Battery)

On-the-go gaming: MSI GT663R

CHIP

Sound BytesDynaudio, the Danish sound specialists, were one of the first high-endspeaker manufacturers to integrate their technology in a notebook. Theyendowed MSI’s earliest gaming notebook, GT660, with true-to-lifeacoustics. Other notebooks with integrated high-end audio systems areASUS NX90 (Bang & Olufsen), select Toshiba Satellite models (HarmanKardon) and the recently launched 3D-enabled Dell Alienware M17X thatsports Klipsch audio.


AUTO focus

Jason H. Harper

This is every kid’s dream. I’m sitting in the Batmo-bile, a gonzo fantasy car with parachutes and finsso big they look like wings.

I’ve arrived at a custom-car garage in NorthHollywood to meet two automotive legends - the originalcar from the 1960s Batman TV show (“Pow!” “Zap!” “Ka-boom!”) and its creator, 85-year-old George Barris.

I’ve even been promised a drive in the Caped Crusader’scruiser... if only it will stop raining.

Barris calls himself the ‘King of the Kustomisers.’ He’sbehind innumerable TV and movie cars, including the‘Back to the Future’ DeLorean, ‘The A-Team’ van andKITT Trans Am. His most famous car will always be theBatmobile, fashioned in 1966.

Most were built at Barris’s Riverside Drive garage,where I arrive in a deluge - hardly typical LA weather. TheBatmobile has no roof, which signals trouble.

In a car world populated with big kids who’ve simplygraduated to bigger toys, Barris is Peter Pan. A small manwith white hair haloing his skull and funky 1970s-stylegold-rimmed glasses, he’s a live wire who constantly tellsstories about former clients from Elvis and Michael Jack-son to Clint Eastwood.

Bat wingspan“I wasn’t really aware of Batman before making the car,”he says. “I knew the comic books, I guess, but had no idea it

was going to turn into such a big thing.” ABC Studios gave him less than three weeks to concep-

tualise and build it. “The only idea they had was to cut out abat face and stick it on the front of a Lincoln. Ridiculous!”

Barris had a long-standing relationship with Ford andowned a concept car called the Lincoln Futura - an out-landishly long, bubble-windowed coupe hand-built in Ita-ly. It became the base.

Almost 20 feet long, it’s too big to take in at a singleglance. Barris’s team fashioned wings that start from themiddle of the doors and rise over the beltline, coming to asharp rake in the rear.

There’s a fake jet exhaust in the back (actually a painted10-gallon bucket), and two packed parachutes that actual-ly work, used to effect a “Bat turn.”

“I popped them once on the Hollywood Freeway andgot pulled over,” Barris says. “The officer asked, ‘What doyou think you’re doing?’ I told him, ‘Just checking the Batchutes out before you and me go out to catch the Riddler.’‘Now I’ve heard it all!’ he said.”

Bat phoneFashioned from steel, the car doors are incredibly heavy. Islip into the black-leather bucket seats where Adam Westonce perched (“He’s a good driver,” says Barris). The largesteering wheel has a tachometer in the centre (an originalconcept-car detail), and controls for various James Bond-like gadgets on the dash.

They include oil slicks, an ejector, rockets, nails and ananti-theft system, all helpfully labelled - and all very imagi-nary. The oil-slick nozzles on the front of the car areactually sprinkler heads.

There’s a radar screen and, rather inexplicably, a largeplastic bubble-encased compass mounted on top of thevinyl dash.

To my right is the Bat phone, a clunky hunk of redplastic attached to a coiled phone cord. A pretty revolu-tionary idea for its time. Instead of a roof, there’s just aPlexiglass half bubble front and rear which make up thewindscreens.

A Ford badge adorns each side. While the car runs andhas a 500-horsepower engine, Barris prefers not to drive itoften.

Sprucing up the Dark Knight’s ride! Photos: Bloomberg

“I wouldn’t sell it for the world,” he says. “It’s for mykids.”

No ‘bat’ turnDuring the TV show, which ran from 1966 to 1968, mouldswere made from the original and some half dozen fibre-glass replicas were created for stunt work and promotion-al events. In 2007, one sold at auction for $233,000.

Car No. 2, the first reproduction, is also here and Barrisfires it up. It’s loud and rough-sounding. “As soon as it

stops raining...” he says pointedly. I look outside. Bucketsof rain.

As we wait, Barris shows me around. “This is my Bat-cave,” he says of a room brimming with Batman toys intheir original packages. I contemplate their worth oneBay.

Every inch of wall space is covered with movie postersand promotional photos of shows Barris has worked on.He’s currently a judge on Speed channel’s “Car Warriors,”where two teams compete to customise cars. “It’s awe-

some what these guys do,” he says breezily. Still, he complains that cars used on retreads of TV

shows like “Knight Rider” and the movie “Green Hornet”aren’t as cool as the versions he worked on. “They usecomputer effects. Our cars actually had to do all that stuff.”

One last look outside. The rain has gotten even worse.Foiled! No Bat turns today.

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


AUTO news

Spot on without the top onIt is a bit of an odd time to be launching a convertible,

what with the sweltering Indian summer just aroundthe corner. But, there really isn’t an Indian season that isexactly the most conducive for a car in that class. Possibly,that is good enough reason for buying a convertible. Afterall, the ability to transform the car, with the flick of abutton, to handle the weather’s unpredictability is the USPof a convertible.

BMW launched the new 650i – the 6 Series convertible– and that, along with the increasing maturity of theIndian luxury car buyer, are clearly the reasons for theconfidence exuded by Dr Andreas Schaaf, President ofBMW India. “The convertible is not too popular in India,but like in the other markets and countries in Asia, heretoo the change in consumer preferences will happen”, hesaid.Called the Dream Car for many aspiring luxury carbuyers, the BMW 650i is accentuated by sophisticatedstyling and aesthetic proportions, elegant lines and theclassic BMW kidney grille.

Internal specs include an eight-speed sports automatictransmission with gear shift paddles on the steeringwheel. It also features Drive Dynamic Control, whichallows drivers to vary the car’s characteristics and comfortby choosing the desired suspension settings (Normal,Sports and Sports+).

The new BMW 6 Series Convertible conceals class-

leading power beneath the hood, combining instantane-ous power generation, high torque and outstandingsmoothness. A 4.4-litre V8 engine with BMW TwinPowerTurbo Technology and direct injection develops a maxi-mum output of 300 kW/407 hp between 5,500 and 6,400rpm as well as maximum torque of 600 Nm all the wayfrom 1,750 to 4,500 rpm. The car accelerates to 100 km/hin just 5 seconds with a top speed of 250 kmph.

BMW EfficientDynamics has innovative technologiessuch as Intelligent Lightweight Design, Electronic PowerSteering, TwinPower Turbo Technology and Brake Ener-

gy Regeneration. It is part of the comprehensive tech-nology package for the reduction of fuel consumption andemissions in the 650i.

The 650i will be available in Alpine White as non-metallic paintwork and in a range of metallic colours –Orion Silver, Titanium Silver, Black Sapphire, Havanna,Space Grey, Deep Sea Blue and Vermillion Red.Dakotaleather is the standard upholstery and is available in Black,Ivory White and Cinnamon Brown.

It will be available at an all-India ex-showroom price ofRs 95 lakh.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd has announced the launch ofthe Accent 2011 edition with a dash of premiumness

and elegant styling. The exteriors of the Accent get a newlook with a chrome finish front grille and chrome insertsin the body coloured waistline molding.

The wooden finish interiors, leather-wrapped gearknob and steering wheel, rear de-fogger and front and rearpower windows come as part of the standard package inthe Accent. It is also available with alternate fuel optionssuch as CNG and LPG.

The Accent 2011 edition will be available at a specialprice of Rs 5,01,900 (ex-showroom, New Delhi).

A new Accent on the way


MELANGE luxury redefined

Chambor’s secret togorgeous eyes this

summer is its rangeof eye shadow,

eyeliner, kohl andmascara in shades of

gold, peach, brownand pink. Available atselect lifestyle stores.

Rs 375 to Rs 525

Spring flutter

Don these acetatematt black cat-eyeframes from JohnGalliano in blue andpink retro shades anddesigner-stamp details,and you’re sure to be ahead turner. Availableat select opticians.

Rs 18,700

Meow!

This is for all themen who stressover their tress.Kerastase haslaunched its newdaily haircare rangefor men whichincludes shampoos,boosting sprays,styling gels,modelling pastesand more. Availableat its salons.Rs 1,350 to Rs 8,970

Hommespecial

Giving the stilettosand your feet a muchneeded break, Ozelhas come up withthis colourfulButterfly twists.These lightweightballet pumps cantwist and slip into apouch and can bestashed away intothe bag when youwant to replace themwith sky-highpumps. Available atOzel, New Delhi.Rs 1,250 to Rs 1,500

Let’s twistagain! With minimal overlays that allow for a

much wider range of motion, Nike’sFree+2 shoe for runners is very flexibleand can bend completely. Available atNike outlets in blue and orange formen and black and purple for women.Rs 4,995 to Rs 5,200

Free spirit


SKINCARE trends

The fragrance is intoxicating and the texturesmooth as silk. As you generously slather it on,your skin takes on a natural-looking tan, just likethe warm caramel colour of the self-tanning

cream. What makes this skincare product from Clarins a deli-

cious addition to your beauty kit is its use of cocoa beanextract, which soothes and prevents skin-ageing. Cocoaunsaponifiables penetrate deeper to help to moisturiseand nourish the skin. When the entire beauty industry iscompeting against nature to make our skin and hair lookgorgeous for a little while longer, new ingredients and funcombinations are being experimented with. So now,what’s on your plate is literally on your face!

A cuppa in your creamThe refreshing cup of tea you sip in the morning has foundits way to skincare products. While green tea is the mostpopular of the lot, white, black and chamomile tea extracts

are blended with other active ingredients and fragrancesfor a nourishing skin cream.

Two brands that have added some healthy teas to theircollection are L’Occitane and Elizabeth Arden. The for-mer wins hearts with its Tea collection that blends Berga-mot from Calabria and black tea leaves to bring out arefreshing range of body milk mist, hand cream and per-fumes. Arden’s Green Tea Honey Drops body cream has afragrance to flip for. Green tea as an ingredient works wellin unisex products.

Berry-liciousFrom tarts to packs, delicious berries are a popular in-gredient, especially for anti-ageing formulas and radianceproducts. Rich in antioxidants and vitamins, they are usedin masques, cleansers, peels and lotions. Some popularberries that find their way into the ingredient list includeblueberries, raspberries, blackberries and acai berries toname a few. Acai berries, in fact, are a fairly recent hit and

Wearthe maskand eat it too

Tasty, aromatic,organic, GMO-free and

pH-balanced -thebeauty industry’s newfound additives soundmore like ingredientsfrom your favourite

recipe! ANUSHYAMAMTORA gives youthe lowdown on the

latest trends which arebound to make youlook lip-smackingly

goodKérastase


are said to be rich in flavonoids, amino and fatty acids thathelp fight inflammation and regenerate skin cells. Emi-nence Organics has quite a few products with the good-ness of berries, blended with other organic ingredients.

Fruit punchWhile orange, banana and apple have been used in differ-ent permutations and combinations by skincare brands,grape seed and pomegranate extracts are the most spottedingredients in the new set of products. Pomegranate isfilled with antioxidants and works well in stimulating theskin’s collagen production and counters the ageing effectdue to exposure to sun and pollution. The extract findsmention in anti-aging creams and anti-wrinkle potions.

Grape seed on the other hand is high in vitamin E,linoleic acids and flavonoids, and is a natural antioxidantand protects skin cells. Its extracts are also used in creamsthat help you look young and radiant.

The Body Shop uses both grape seed oil as well aspomegranate in its select range of products. Its Naturliftkit is a hit with pomegranate seed oil and includes day andnight cream, toner and cleanser.

Getting exoticThen of course is the thrill of dabbling with unusual,absolutely exclusive ingredients. Luxury skincare brandsgo out of the way to hunt for some rare plant or unknownmineral to stand apart from the rest.

Some exceptional ones are Dior’s L’Or De Vie range ofproducts based on the vines of Yquem, ‘an exceptionalvineyard that has the gift of regenerating and improvingitself year after year’.

L’Occitane has developed exclusive active ingredientsfrom organic Red Rice from Camargue into a whole rangeof products. The range, which includes cleanser, toner,mask, exfoliating powder and face fluid, meets specificneeds of combination and oily skin, mattifies and restoresbalance.

But taking exclusiveness to a whole new level is Kéras-tase with its hair care product developed with mimeticcaviar concentrate. The Chronologiste collection is aninnovative formula of pearls (immersed in sea-water tomimic the structure of caviar) and velvety cream.

This is one helluva beauty platter! Slurpp!

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TASTER’S choice

John Mariani

Remember those 1970s Beaujolais Nouveau par-ties held in November at the release of the wine’sharvest?

Fortunately, that fad quickly faded and reallydied in the following decades. Ever since, Beaujolais’sreputation has been so damaged by those unfinished, un-aged wines that even wine lovers give relatively littlethought to well-made, well-aged non-Nouveau Beaujolais.

Because of poor sales, after the 2001 vintage, more than1.1 million cases of Beaujolais (mostly Nouveau) weredestroyed or distilled into alcohol. Since then, there havebeen almost yearly scandals about Beaujolais being adul-terated with other wines or sugar.

All of which is really too bad, because in a good year, acarefully aged Beaujolais can be sheer delight. Made fromthe deep purple gamay noir grape, Beaujolais is producedon hundreds of small-to-medium-sized properties over50,000 acres in southern Burgundy.

Most of it is sold through distributors called negociants.The best Beaujolais come from 10 village crus, whosewines are a couple of degrees higher in alcohol (13 percentand a little higher) than basic Beaujolais or BeaujolaisSuperieur.

These are Brouilly, Chenas, Chiroubles, Cote de Brouil-ly, Fleurie, Julienas, Moulin-a-Vent, Morgon, Saint-Amour, and Regnie - none of which is made as NouveauBeaujolais.

All represent very good value, usually costing between$10 and $15 a bottle.

King GeorgesThe largest negociant, sometimes called the “King ofBeaujolais” for his marketing efforts in the 1970s and1980s, is Georges DuBoeuf, 77, who still ships 2.5 millioncases annually.

He himself has not escaped scandal, as when he wascharged in 2005 and found guilty of mixing low-gradewines into the weak 2004 harvest.

Since then some US wine stores have been tentativeabout buying Beaujolais, and one retailer I spoke with saidhe was offered a special deal on DuBoeuf wines but turnedit down for a general lack of interest .

Nevertheless, a recent tasting of the well-regarded 2009DuBoeuf crus showed me that Beaujolais can still beamong the most charming wines at the dinner table.

‘Gamine’ GamyThe six I sampled were purchased from New York’s Sher-ry-Lehmann and were labelled “specially selected by Ge-orges DuBoeuf” for the wine store. All had been blindtasted when in barrel by the Concours des Vins du Macon-nais et du Beaujolais and awarded the Medaille d’Or.

“The ‘09 vintage was so good that even the sale ofNouveau was a great success,” said Chris Adams, chiefexecutive officer of Sherry-Lehmann Inc. in a phone in-terview.

There were definite distinctions among the crus I tastedthat showcased why these village wines generally riseabove the rest. The Saint-Amour ($13.49) and the Chenas($12.49) were very feminine compared to the heft of a

Chiroubles ($12.49) and Julienas ($12.95).Attending a tasting dinner, I scribbled “gamine” on the

Saint-Amour label, the very well-fruited cherry-like soulof Gamay at its best, a wine that could be served withanything from pork to roast chicken, which was stuffedunder the skin with herb butter.

The Chenas - supposedly Louis XIII’s favourite wine -was more complex than one might think about Beaujolais,with plenty of the village’s ripe fruit atop spicy, greenflavours.Crowd PleaserAnother night my dinner was seared and roasted vealchops and with this the Morgon ($11.95) stood out for itsbold Beaujolais spirit and its ability to age well, still withsoft tannins and creamy fruit flavours.

A Chiroubles was the driest of my sampling, showingthe minerality of its 400-meter hillside altitude and gran-ite soil and the richness of even some mightier Burgundianpinot noirs.

I wasn’t very fond of the Julienas, whose unimpressive,flat bouquet was followed by a one-dimensional metallicflavour I don’t think would be a match for many foodsabove the hamburger level.

Brouilly ($12.95) is almost always a crowd pleaser, withgood body, plenty of flower scents in the nose, and anearthy vibrancy of fruit that knits it all into good balance.

I think it’s an ideal wine to go with grilled salmon - muchbetter than most white wines would - as well as a terrine offoie gras on toasted country bread.

Rejoicing in the revival of Beaujolais Photo: Bloomberg

(John Mariani writes on wine for Bloomberg News. The opinionsexpressed are his own.)


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smartbuy issue dated april 6, 2011

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