Indulge for Jun 2012 by HT Media

June 2012 | Vol 1 | No 3 | Price R15.00

Retro tech: The intricate mechanism of an 18th century Jaquet-Droz automaton.

High Life. High Tech.

New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune*

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Contents Indulge June 2012 | Vol 1 | No 3

Gadgets 8|

An old monk

et me start with a confession: the temptation to plaster a “tech special” issue of any magazine with pictures of iPods and iPads and Bose headphones is overwhelming. And particularly so when it comes to an issue of Indulge that is committed to technology. And not just because you can always get away with a nice iPad story or two. (You can. Somehow, people lap them up faster than you can churn them out. “Dog bites man” was never a good story. “Man bites dog” is barely better. “Man bites iPad-using dog” is the way to go these days.) Our bigger problem was a more basic one: what the heck is a luxury gadget? A better gadget? A more expensive one? Or just a regular gadget draped in platinum? So we started by asking four certified geeks what they thought a luxury gadget was. I think Mahendra Palsule speaks for many, many techie types when he says that blinging up a regular device and charging more money for the “luxury” is not just stupid but also insulting to end users. You can read all their illuminating insights on Page 17. And then last month, I first came across the story of the King of Spain’s Clockwork Monk when it was mentioned on a

fascinating American radio show called Radiolab. And immediately I began to wonder: what were the techie gadgets of the preindustrial world? What was the 18th century equivalent of the vanity gadget? Our research took us all the way from a small village in Switzerland, to Srirangapatnam and Tipu Sultan. The pocket-size history of automata is on Page 10. But if you’re anything like us, you’re going to spend many enjoyable, astonishing hours Googling the weird and wonderful world of clockwork automata. Next we set ourselves a stiff challenge: to prepare a tech buying guide that did not reach for the usual clutch of brands and devices. Why settle for a tablet when you can buy yourself a water-powered jetpack? Or Seiko’s delicious new GPS Astron watch, one of my favourite pieces from BaselWorld 2012. And finally, our trusty columnists are back this month with some counterintuitive propositions: gin can be sexy too, fried foods are not all bad, and rich footballers seldom stay that way. But enough of this chit chat. Turn the page. Off you go.

SIDIN Vadukut (Issue editor)

A range of essential apps for the indulgent man’s lifestyle

| The Clockwork Monk and other gadgets

Columns

4| 5| 6|

Madhu Menon on how to fry food Joel Harrison on his new affair with gin

14| Gadgets people love 17| The luxury conundrum: is there a thing called a luxury gadget?

12| The

finest gadgets money can buy

Shashank Khare on the misleading paycheques of football players

Interview

19| Bulgari opens the first new luxury hotel in London in 40 years

Olympics

20| A glimpse into

the sophisticated web of technology that kicks into action before, during and just after the 100m sprint finals

Showcase

22| A look at Tesla’s new electric sedan aimed at the mass market

21| Peter Hürzeler

of Omega talks about the process of timekeeping Cover image: Jaquet-Droz

Mint Indulge Editor: SuKumar Ranganathan Published/Printed By Vivek Khanna on behalf of HT Media Limited, HT House, 18-20, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi-110001; Printed at HT Media Ltd presses at B-2, Sector 63, Noida, Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar (U.P.); Plot No.-6, MIDC , TTC Industrial Area, Near Digha Bus Stand, Thane Belapur Road, Navi Mumbai-400078. RNI Registration: Applied For; ©2012 HT Media Ltd, All Rights Reserved.

Column iStockphoto

Fry Without Fear, It’s Not That Bad

sk anyone going on one of those horrible things called ‘‘diets”, and no matter how nutty the diet plan is (which most of them are), ‘‘don’t eat fried food” is usually among the rules. Fried food gets a reputation as incredibly unhealthy, which is a pity because most of the unhealthy outcomes are simply because of bad cooking technique and a lack of knowledge. Now, I’m certainly not advocating fried food to be just as healthy as, say, steamed food, but with a few changes to the way you cook, you can get rid of the stereotypical greasy, heavy food that’s dripping with oil. Let’s figure out exactly what is happening when you fry something. Frying is a ‘‘dry” method of cooking. Don’t scratch your head; it just means it’s cooking without water. Instead, we use fat (chemically quite different from water). Oil has a few advantages. First, it can heat up to far higher temperatures. Water tops out at 100 degrees Celsius (its boiling point), while most oils can be heated up to double that temperature till they reach their smoke point (more on this later). This allows food to be cooked faster. It also allows food to brown, which creates delicious new flavour compounds via the Maillard Reaction (read my previous column on cooking meat for more on this). That happens only at such temperatures. Second, the hot oil dehydrates the surface of the food being fried, producing that crispy texture we all love so much. That hissing sound you hear when food is being fried? That’s water from the food surface boiling off, meeting the hot oil and instantly turning into steam. Lastly, in some cases, oil can also be used to infuse flavour. For instance, Malayalis love their coconut oil, while Bengalis are fans of mustard oil, both oils with strong flavours. But I still see you sitting there with a cynical raised eyebrow, waiting for me to tell you why frying is not so bad. Heck, you’ve seen with your own eyes the amount of oil that clings to pakodas, samosas, fried chicken, spring rolls and everything in between. What are these cooks doing wrong? Let’s get some frying fundamentals down. 1) Starting at the correct temperature: To fry food right, your oil has to be in the range of 175 degrees Celsius and 225 degrees Celsius (for most oils). If the oil is not hot enough, it will seep into the food instead of merely staying at the surface as it fries, especially with breaded and battered food. The most accurate way is to get a candy thermometer from a kitchen supplies shop that can measure such high temperatures. If that’s not possible, you can eyeball it by watching for a shimmer across the oil surface as it heats up. Make sure you don’t let it smoke. When you suspect it’s getting hot enough, drop a small piece of whatever you’re frying into the oil. It should immediately sizzle and dance merrily on the top. If it sinks and then rises, your oil is not hot enough. If it burns within 10-20 seconds, it’s probably too hot. Eventually you’ll know this by instinct. 2) Maintaining the correct temperature: This is the first big stumbling block. You may start off with the right temperature, but are you keeping it that way? When you drop cold food into hot oil, you also cause a drop in its temperature. When the food is finished cooking, you need to account for this before putting in your next batch. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve seen friends throw in a batch of pakodas, fish them out, and immediately throw in another batch. Wrong technique, people. You need to wait for the oil to heat again before you do this. If you don’t, you will spoil the food. Why? See above.

INDULGE | June 2012

Madhu

Menon chef

3) Using enough oil: Many people think that using more oil to fry is unhealthier, so they try to fry in as little oil as possible. That’s actually a bad idea. You’ll need to use at least 400-500ml of oil if you want to do a good job of deep-frying. Why is less oil bad, you ask? Well, less oil heats up faster, but it also cools down faster. As you put more food in, the relative temperature drop is more, and I’ve already explained why cooler oil is bad. (Imagine adding one litre of cold water to 10 litres of boiling water. Now imagine adding the same one litre to five litres of boiling water. The five litres will be much cooler than 10 litres, right?) Use an Indian kadhai or a Chinese wok to fry. Their bowl shape reduces the amount of oil you’ll need. 4) Cutting food into proper size and shape: The ideal shape for fried food is the same as for grilling— flat with as much surface area exposed as possible. Avoid dumping large chunks of food into oil. Large chunks risk having their exteriors cooked way before

the interiors are done, so you’ll have either burnt outsides or undercooked insides. Flat, thin slices are ideal whenever possible. If you absolutely must fry something like a chicken leg, turn the heat down after the first 30 seconds and maintain it closer to 175 degrees Celsius while it cooks through all the way. 5) Draining out excess oil after frying: The last step after you’re done is to remove all traces of oil that’s still clinging to the food. The best way is to use a wire spatula to fish out the food and let it rest over your frying pan for about 20-30 seconds while the oil drips down. Then move it to a flat plate lined with paper kitchen towels to absorb the rest. Do not wrap the food in kitchen towel and dab it like I’ve seen some people do. You will cause water vapour to condense and make your food soggy. Now, about that smoke point I mentioned earlier. All oils have a certain temperature above which they break down and start producing smoke. If you see this, you’re killing your oil. This smoke irritates your nose and eyes, and makes you cough too. Restaurants sometimes turn up the heat way high to fry faster, which is why you may get food with an acrid, burnt taste. For deep-frying, refined oils with a high smoke point are ideal. Peanut (groundnut), sunflower, mustard and coconut oils and ghee are all fats that can be heated to 200 degrees Celcius without smoking. Use any of them and you’ll be fine. If you’ve followed all these guidelines, you should have amazing, tasty fried food that barely has any oil in it. You can reuse your frying oil once or twice before it’s no longer usable. Just allow your oil to cool, strain it through a muslin cloth into a steel or glass jar, and refrigerate it. In a future column, I will write about breaded and battered foods and how to make them tastier when frying. Now go forth and fry without fear! I

Madhu Menon is a chef, restaurant consultant and food writer. Respond to this column at indulge@livemint.com

column iStockphoto

joel

harrison

drinks consultant

A Midlife Crisis

lease don’t tell anyone, but I’m having an affair. About 12 years ago, I was on a night out with some friends quietly enjoying myself when I was introduced to the love of my life. Was it love at first sight? Not really. I’d met someone like her before when I was much younger, much less experienced and much more naive. But that evening was different. I was ready and I fell in love. I fell in love with a drink called whisky. Now, this passion has burned inside me for over a decade, tearing me away from an influential and successful job in the music business, to a place of writing esoteric views on something I consider an art form; you could almost say that whisky is my Yoko Ono. However, I’m starting to have a midlife crisis. Where once I was the ultimate evangelist for whisky in all forms (and I still am, deep down), I now find myself looking longingly at the curves on a bottle of Bacardi Superior, or lusting after a busty brandy balloon full of Remy Martin or Hennessy. I have even caught myself wanting the cheapest thrill of them all—a cold shot of vodka. But I have managed to resist. Clearly, I am a man of inner strength and I am loyal towards my one love—whisky. That was until I got to know a cheeky and vibrant mistress; one full of flavour

and fun. Frivolous yet classy, gin is leading me astray. Wherever in the world I am, she is also present there. Always at the same bar, with her crystal clear smile and refreshing personality, she has proven to be too much of a temptation to resist, and now I find myself thinking as much about gin as I think about whisky. From being a naughty affair, sneaking a small gin and tonic or a martini when the whisky cabinet door was firmly shut so as not to be caught by the Chivas Brothers or Johnnie Walker peering out from behind the door, I’m now coming out and firmly nailing my colours to the mast by proclaiming my love for gin. One of the greatest things about whisky is its diverse categories. From the subtle smokiness of a Johnnie Walker Blue Label to the sweetness of a Royal Salute, there is a flavour profile to suit all men (and women), and the same is true for gin. The only rule when putting together a gin is that juniper must be the core around which the other flavours are wrapped. Apart from that, you can do what you want with it, in terms of getting the flavour profile developed. This means that there are gins with a strong element of juniper and floral notes (Gordon’s, Beefeater), and others with a greater hint of citrus fruits (Tanqueray, Tanqueray 10), and yet others with newer experiments such as the super premium Beefeater 24 that uses twenty-four different elements in its distillation, including grapefruit peel and green tea, to develop a totally unique flavour. Beefeater gets an honorary mention here, too, as my London home is in the shadow of the distillery and, from the roof of the Beefeater building, one can see directly in to the Oval cricket ground, providing the perfect place to have a gin and tonic while watching the English

team teach the Australians a lesson, I think! London is very much deemed the home of gin, and, with the growing popularity around the world, small artisanal and boutique gin distilleries are popping up all over the place. From Sipsmith’s in West London, which decided to start making gin in 2009 and whose spirits you can now find in duty-free shops at airports as well as top European hotels, to companies such as the online retailer Master Of Malt, which has developed a product made in small-batch demijohns and the brilliantly named Professor Ampleforth’s Bathtub Gin, alluding to the way the spirit would have been flavoured way back in the 1700s. Gin has an incredible story to tell,

which I will get around to over the next few issues of Indulge, along with discovering some of the key brands, their core flavours, and ideas on how to drink gin. I’m hoping that I can sing as loudly about gin as I do about whisky for it is a brilliant and versatile spirit that makes as much sense sipping at home as it does at a bar in Mumbai. But do me a favour: don’t tell the whiskies in my cabinet at home. They may just get a little bit jealous of my gindiscretion. I

Joel Harrison is a drinks writer and consultant, and co-founder of the website Caskstrength.net Respond to this column at indulge@ livemint.com

column

Poor Rich Footballers I

PL, the French Open and Euro 2012—what do they all have in common? The reflexive answer is constant summertime TV viewing that causes a strain on marital vows through incessant rows. Another correct answer is the display of sporting talent and prowess to millions of awed spectators. But to an investment professional better equipped to comment on ‘‘well paid” rather than ‘‘well played”, the common thread that joins all such sporting events is the bevy of incredibly well-paid sportstars. Events such as the European Championships occur once every four years, but the public’s focus on footballer earnings is perpetual. Every club and product-endorsement contract makes headlines. Whenever a footballing demigod shows human frailty, his pay is questioned and greed imputed as the sole motivating factor. Certainly, watching Fernando Torres (annual earnings of £14 million) make a hash of goal-scoring chances, one couldn’t help but think that Geoffrey Boycott’s mum could have done it for onetenth of the money. However, as usual, headlines on paycheques are misleading. There are two important factors to be considered before grumbling about money in football. The first is that pay packets that make headlines are only earned by a select few. These pay packets also make averages misleading. Not every footballer earns Lionel Messi’s salary of £13 million and not every club pays star-studded Barcelona’s average wage of £5.26 million. For example, in La Liga (the Spanish football league), the average player wage of the top 20 clubs is £1.63 million. The median is a more modest £0.65 million. Including second- and third-division teams reduces these numbers even more dramatically. Moreover, even for high-paying clubs, not every player is in the first team. A lot of clubs have a roster of poorly paid young players training to make it into the first team. The second factor is the extremely short career spans of footballers. The headlines draw focus to the permanence of money while the transience of players is forgotten. There are no Tendulkars in football. Headline-grabbing paycheques are only paid during a player’s peak that lasts, at most, five-seven years. Unless, of course, the players can find a rich American club more interested in celebrity than ability. Also, due to the total commitment required to play at the top level, most footballers lack the educational qualifications to secure a high-paying job after retirement. Most retired players do not find coaching or commentating jobs and thus try their hand at business ventures interspersed with ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Not only is the earning period short but youth, fame and money are not conditions conducive to a parsimonious lifestyle. Even as stars earn in millions, they spend millions on designer cars, clothes and houses for themselves and their friends and relatives. Irish footballer George Best put it succinctly: ‘‘I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.” Moreover, the demanding training regime and playing schedule leave no time for footballers to manage their money. It is no wonder that several stars find themselves in dire financial straits once the money stops rolling in. This is best illustrated by American football, where the consequences of profligacy and poor investment decisions show up fairly quickly. An extremely short three-four year playing career combined with a relatively low median annual salary of $0.8 million means that more than 75% of National Football League players find themselves bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retirement. Although flashy, high-rolling lifestyles are the norm, some sportstars still manage to retire with their wealth intact. The main differentiator is successful tax and investment management. Football earnings are more than enough to indulge in a £8 million Teletubby house (Gary Neville) or gold-plated Cadillacs (El-Hadji Diouf). But they can’t cope with speculative property investments (Jason Euell), ill-thought ventures (Brad Friedel’s football academy in Ohio), gambling addictions (Dietmar Hamann) and Ponzi schemes. Add in own goals due to tax complications (Diego Maradona’s £30 million tax debt) and you will actually be surprised to see a rich retired footballer. Investing failures don’t happen because footballers are more gullible or naïve than the rest of us. They are

INDULGE | June 2012

Shashank

Khare

investment professional due to two sets of ingrained behavioural biases. The first is the strong belief that effort leads to success. In sports, training and performance are highly correlated. Unfortunately, success in business and investing depends on a number of factors beyond an individual’s control. This is hard for sportstars to understand and accept due to the human tendency to translate exceptional ability in one field to all fields. The classic example of this tendency is Michael Jordan’s failed entry into baseball. Unfortunately, belief in business and investment ability coupled with the sunkcost fallacy leads sportstars to burn enormous amounts of money in ultimately doomed ventures. The second bias is the belief that an aggressive strategy is the winning one. In sports, the player who hangs around at the baseline or the team that keeps to its half seldom wins. Translating this into investments, sportstars tend to favour risky and speculative ventures. For UKbased footballers, investing in films and property seem to be favourite money losers. Former footballer Keith Gillespie blamed more than half a million in losses in films for his bankruptcy. More happily, David Beckham’s substantial fortune was better able to suffer the shock of his Dubai property investments. Not only do sportsmen invest in risky ventures, but they are blind to the actual risks. A lifetime of assessing fairly clear-cut riskreturn scenarios in sport makes such evaluation more difficult in business and investing. There are only two outcomes after bending it from 20 yards—a goal or not. In contrast, the percentage return from Dubai property can range from highly negative to highly positive, and catches even finance PhDs offside. These problems look theoretical and esoteric to the rest of us who have to agree with our bosses for our daily bread. However, they become real when the almighty passes on a windfall gain. A multiyear guaranteed payout by an employer or gains from a start-up’s successful IPO can put ordinary people in similar positions. As with footballers, financial freedom after a windfall gain depends on successful investment of the proceeds. Awareness of inherent behavioural biases is the first step towards overcoming them. The next step is making investment decisions in consultation with those who have expertise and ability. Just as one consults doctors and lawyers, one needs the services of professional money managers. The final realization is that higher returns only accrue due to higher risk. Unless excitement is more important than returns, most of the portfolio should be in boring low-risk assets to provide a steady income. In investing, unlike in football, German discipline is more successful than Brazilian flair. I

Shashank Khare is a London-based investment professional, learning from the capital markets what they didn’t teach him at IIM, Ahmedabad. Respond to this column at Indulge @livemint.com

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Gadgets

FlightTrack Pro

Upload your flight details onto FlightTrack Pro as soon as you book them, or let the app automatically pull in itineraries from your TripIt profile. Let the intelligent software take care of the rest. The app automatically keeps you updated on delays and cancellations, gate numbers, and even the historic punctuality of the sector you’re travelling on. It can even keep your calendar in sync with your travel plans. It also includes additional information such as terminal maps, weather, a SeatGuru layout for your flight highlighting good and bad seats, and even a service that looks up for alternative flights in case your original plans change. Worth every paisa. Platforms: iOS/Android

Uber

If you’re travelling to the US or London on work and need to pick up a client or a close friend in a fancy car, then Uber is the easiest, if not cheapest, way to do it. The company runs a private network of ‘‘friendly drivers and classy cars” to get you from point to point in style. Think of it as a high-tech limoon-call service.

The Michelin Guide

Good food is never too far away if you are a good cook. Or you have a good app. There are several Michelin guides available for various countries and regions. Hit a button to search for the nearest rated, approved and recommended eatery. Why take a chance when the masters at Michelin will do the hard work for you? No tips required.

Platforms: iOS/Android Alternative: Hailo does the same thing for licensed cabs and taxis.

Platform: iOS

Posh Apps What shirt should you wear on that date? A long weekend in three days and completely forgot to make plans? Stranded in Berlin without a morsel of food in your stomach? That vintage Rolex in the window...is it worth breaking the bank for? Rapidly going mental about your travel plans? Pull yourself together, man! Arm your smartphone with a range of essential apps for the indulgent man’s lifestyle. And don’t ever let things get out of hand. By Sidin Vadukut

100 Years of Rolex

The only thing harder than making up your mind about which vintage Rolex to buy is to figure out how much to pay for it. Based on the best-selling book of the same name, the app takes some of the mystery out of the process. It comes with a deep archive of hundreds of Rolex models and quick and dirty estimates of prices for all of them, even newer models. And it is perfectly okay to browse through the 500-plus pictures, humming gently to yourself, when nobody else is looking.

sidin.v@livemint.com

MetrO

Made by French software company Kinevia, MetrO is the Swiss Army Knife of international public transportation. Before setting off from home, download transportation data packs for all the cities you need to travel to. The app not only figures out how to get you from point A to B on the Paris Metro, London Tube or Geneva’s trams, but also suggests routes with fewer changes, routes to popular places of interests, and accounts for station opening and closing times. Can be somewhat buggy at times. But well worth persisting with. Don’t be surprised if you’re soon navigating a city better than the locals.

Platform: iOS Alternatives: Almost every major watch brand has elaborate iPhone and iPad apps, some of them with elaborate videos and demonstrations. If watches make you purr gently, why not buy an iPad for the express purpose of carrying around all those heavy apps? Makes sense. Ishh.

Platforms: iOS/Web

GQ Style Guide Skyscanner

Travel industry insiders will tell you that this is the definitive flight-search app on the planet. Not only does it bring together a deep search and a great interface, but it also has the ability to plan holidays on short notice. The app, much like the critically acclaimed website, helps you plan holidays months in advance with a 12-month fare search option. Save favourite sectors for speedy search. Great for business, brilliant for pleasure. Platforms: iOS/Android/Windows Phone

INDULGE | June 2012

Never be too far away from GQ Magazine’s wisdom on sharp dressing. The app combines style manuals, galleries, a how-todress guide, and previews from the print magazine. Frequently updated and refreshed. You’ve officially run out of excuses to look sloppy. Platform: iOS

Gadgets

The Automaton:

Yesterday’s Hottest Tech

Jaquet-Droz

Automata, the closest that pre-industrial man came to high-tech gadgets, are prized possessions in museums and private collections. A look at the history of the oldest ‘toys for rich boys’ By sidin vadukut

sidin.v@livemint.com he city of San Diego, California, is named after Didacus of Alcalá. Better known as San Diego de Alcalá, the Catholic saint was born near Seville in 1400 and died around 63 years later in the central Spanish city of Alcalá de Henares. Known in his lifetime for curing the sick, the veneration of San Diego really began with his death when, it is reported, his body remained incorrupt, did not go into rigor mortis, and emanated a sweet perfume. Within some years, a cult rose around the persona of this dead healer and soon even the Spanish royal family were aware of his growing reputation for miracles. Then one night, in the April of 1562 in the city of Alcalá de Henares, Don Carlos, the son of King Philip II of Spain, fell down a flight of stairs and landed on his head. Within hours, the prince was terribly ill. He went blind, lost consciousness and soon had a horribly swollen head. It seemed like the prince was on the verge of dying. The king and his court rushed from Madrid in a state of utter panic. Historian Henry Kamen described what happened next in a 1997 biography of the king, titled Philip of Spain: “On 9 May, following a suggestion made by the Duke of Alba, the embalmed body of a local saint, the Franciscan Diego de Alcalá, was brought in from a local convent. The prince was made to touch the body… One way or another, through the intervention of the saint…by 20 May, the fever had disappeared. By mid-June Don Carlos was walking about without problems. In gratitude for the recovery, Philip subsequently obtained from the Pope the official canonization of Diego of Alcalá.” But there was more. Legend has it that a desperate Philip, kneeling by the side of his son’s bed, made a promise to god. In return for a miracle, the saving of his son’s life, Philip promised to perform a miracle himself. (Remember that at the time the Spanish king was perhaps the most powerful man on the planet. If there was any mortal capable of a miracle, it was the Spanish monarch.) While the story of promise maybe apocryphal, what Philip did next is well documented. When his son was healed, Philip immediately summoned from the city of Toledo master clockmaker and engineer Juanelo Turriano. It was up to Turriano to perform the miracle for Philip: a reincarnation of the Franciscan saint. Not in flesh and blood, but in wood, metal and cloth. Turriano would create what has been called the Clockwork Monk. It is an example of perhaps the closest thing pre-industrial man came to a high-tech gadget: the automaton. Essentially, an automaton is a wind-up toy on steroids. Your regular wind-up toy might be a car

INDULGE | June 2012

that speeds off or a little dog that somersaults. But starting from the 15th century, royalty and nobility all over Europe, and eventually Japan, even India, began commissioning fantastic self-operating machines that could perform astonishing feats. There were lions that could roar, birds that flapped their wings, and even humanoid automatons that played musical instruments. In the case of Philip’s Clockwork Monk, the 15-inch model of San Diego, wound with a key, moved in a large square shape while striking his chest with one hand, and raising and lowering a cross with the other. His head moved, eyes rolled and his mouth opened and closed in silent prayer. Occasionally, the arm would lift and the monk kissed the cross. The Monk is currently part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection

Twitter time: One of JaquetDroz’ signature smaller automata featuring moving and singing birds inside a cage, with a clock fit into the bottom.

but there is a YouTube video, commissioned by the Smithsonian, which shows it in action. There is something utterly captivating and deeply disturbing about that video. Perhaps it is because, unlike most other automatons made in that period, the Clockwork Monk was

Starting 15th century, royalty and nobility all over Europe began commissioning selfoperating machines that could perform astonishing feats.

made not for amusement but for divine appeasement. The face of the monk is grim, the actions intense, the impact disconcerting. It is no wonder that this explosion of mechanical innovation coincided with the Renaissance, a period that saw Europe bloom with a somewhat secular fervour for science and investigation. Soon, workmen all over the continent were making hugely expensive automatons for European courts. The rich and powerful showed off elaborate, often remarkably lifelike automata, in much the same way that wealthy people today flaunt their cars, gadgets and their wine cellars. By the 18th century automata makers had refined their art to a mind-boggling degree. One of the later masters of the

Gadgets Jaquet-Droz

ultra-complicated automata, and supplier of wonders to the rich and famous, was Pierre Jaquet-Droz. Born in 1721 on a small farm in La Chaux-de-Fonds, one of the cradles of Swiss watchmaking, Jaquet-Droz learnt clockmaking and mechanical design from relatives who belonged to one of several local watchmaking families. After a personal tragedy— Jaquet-Droz’s wife and one of his children died in 1755—Jaquet-Droz decided to devote the rest of his life to work. The trajectory of his professional life changed in 1758, when he was finally able to present his clocks to an astounded Spanish court that paid him handsomely for his pieces. Then, flush with funds, and having tasted noble patronage, Jaquet-Droz went back to Switzerland and began working on the watches, clocks and automata that would win him eternal fame. By 1774, Jaquet-Droz and his partners were some of Europe’s finest mechanical craftsmen. And the culmination of his skill were three humanoid automata unveiled that year: The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician. As the names suggest, the automata were capable of drawing pictures, writing customizable text, and playing music. The machines were hugely popular and toured all over Europe and were even taken to Russia. Crowds thronged to see the devices, in much the same way that BaselWorld, the Geneva Auto Show and the E3 show in Las Vegas today draw enthusiasts from all over the world. Today Jaquet-Droz’s namesake company is part of the Swatch Group, and a fine purveyor of unique watches that blend high quality movements with exquisitely crafted dials. And his famous automata are still very much active and functioning. In December 2011, The Writer, currently housed at The Museum of The History of Art of Neuchatel, was taken on a three day tour of China. And earlier this year, several of these mechanical masterpieces were showcased at the Jaquet-Droz booth at the BaswelWorld watch and jewellery fair. With artists such as Jaquet-

Jaquet-Droz

Relics of innovation: (clockwise from above) The Draughtsman, The Musician and The Writer; Pierre Jaquet-Droz; Tipu’s Tiger.

Droz at their prime, this period is widely considered the golden age of automata. But Jaquet-Droz was also a businessman. And the automata served not only to showcase his talent but also to market the JaquetDroz brand. In the years to come, the brand would have representatives in far foreign markets such as China, Japan and India. Indeed, one of the most famous automata of all time was manufactured, if not designed, in India itself. And it was, without a doubt, the quintessential “toy for a boy” of the age. That boy being Tipu Sultan, the king of Mysore and scourge of the East India Company. Tipu, a charismatic leader and military genius, was obsessed with Victoria and Albert Museum, London

two things—tigers and Englishmen. He loved the first. And hated the second. And so sometime in the early 1790s, he commissioned the automaton that is today popularly known as Tipu’s Tiger. Constructed from painted wood and with metal, mechanical innards, the automaton shows a life-sized tiger mauling a European man lying on his back. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, where the automaton now resides, while the tiger is believed to have been made by Indian craftsmen in India, the mechanism itself appears to be of European origin, and quite possibly constructed by French craftsmen in Tipu’s court who probably came from the revolutionary government in France with whom Tipu maintained cordial diplomatic relations. (Tipu was prepared to make friends with any enemy of the English.) He, however, would not live to enjoy his toy for too long. In 1799, his capital, Srirangapatnam, was sacked and his palaces plundered. The automaton was soon shipped to the East India Company’s museum in London. There it drew huge crowds and was seamlessly integrated into the company’s antinative propaganda. Today, it is part of the V&A’s permanent collection and one if its most popular objects.

Tipu’s tiger l The piece may have been inspired by British civilian Hugh Munro, who was mauled to death by a tiger in 1792 in Bengal. Munro’s father was a general who had once beaten Tipu’s father in battle. l At 28 inches in height and 68 inches in length, the piece represents both the tiger and the victim almost life-size. l The tiger was damaged by bombs during World War II and had to be reinforced. l Operating a crank handle near the tail initiates two functions. As the tiger makes grunting noises, the man wails and beats the air with one hand. Simultaneously, the crank powers a small pipe organ inside the belly of the tiger that can be played through a set of small keys.

The decline in the world’s craze for automata came as a consequence of the French revolution which shook the foundations of European nobility. Soon there were only a handful of automata makers, most of them working out of workshops in Paris. But with the onset of the Industrial Age, and later the automobile revolution, the automata was soon eclipsed, not least because there was wider understanding of how things worked, thus dimming their mystique, but also because the rich soon had bigger, shinier, louder things to buy and flaunt. Today, automata are prized possessions in museums and private collections all over the world. Many of them, astonishingly, are still in perfect working order—a testimony to how well these toys for rich boys were made. These may have been some of man’s earliest frivolous gadgetry, but, much like today’s gadgets, they were also showcases of the limits of man’s technological ingenuity. I The Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel, the Musée international d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Musée d’horlogerie du LocleChâteau des Monts in Switzerland will all feature special exhibitions on the Jaqeut-Droz automata till 30 September. Go to http://www. jaquetdroz.com/automatesetmervei lles/?NumLangue=2 for more details, pictures and history. June 2012 |

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Gadgets

All Gadgets

Great And Small

he next time the tech bug bites you, don’t just buy another mobile phone, tablet computer or noise-cancelling headphones. Why settle for the mundane when you can acquire the unique? Indulge combed through tech outlets, catalogues and specialist retailers all over the world to handpick a collection of the finest thungummajigs your money can buy. Arranged in price bands for easy budgeting and acquisition. Not that you should let logic get in the way.

Dyson

Zeppelin Mini

AM02 bladeless tower fan

R27,000

The Dyson AM02 bladeless tower fan uses air multiplier technology to amplify air 16 times, generating an uninterrupted flow of air. With the bladeless technology, the fan gathers less dust and is easier to clean. It is safer too. Using the dimmer switch or remote control, the airflow can be adjusted to the level desired and the oscillation can be controlled. The price is a little on the higher side though. Price:

Brennan Brennan JB7 At the very basic, the Brennan JB7 is a compact and stylish digital music system. It’s essentially an MP3 player with a hard drive, USB port and CD slot. At the simplest level, it loads CDs in the front slot and rips them directly to the internal hard drive. It also offers backup and file transfer as well as recording from an external source. There are some niggles here and there such as the horrid remote, but the JB7 is a complete steal at its price range for what it offers. Price: Around

R40,000

Jaeger-LeCoultre

Numi Toilet

Duometre a Quantieme Lunaire

Looking somewhat like a fancy pop-up wastebin, the Numi comes with a heated seat, music, a lid that automatically raises and lowers, and a remote that controls everything—flushing, cleaning, drying, music heating—you just name it. You just have to walk up to the Numi and it will react to your movement for hands-free opening and closing of the cover. Motion at the floor level engages sensors to raise and lower the seat. Price:

R6.5 lakh

At the SIHH fair in Geneva this year, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced the Duometre a Quantieme Lunaire. This new model that comes with a smaller 40.5mm dial has 50 hours of power reserve. The Caliber 381 beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour, is composed of 369 parts and contains 40 Jewels. The true genius of this watch, however, lies within the dual-wing movement concept, which features two independent power supplies—one entirely dedicated to creating a perfect timing foundation and the other solely for the display of time as well as date and the phase of the moon for the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres. Price: Around

R19.6 lakh

R1 lakh-5 lakh

Bowers and Wilkins

Price: Around

R10 lakh-50 lakh

Kohler

write to us at indulge@livemint.com

R25,000-50,000

The compact and slick Zeppelin Mini is not as striking as the original Zeppelin but packs a punch. It is one of the best sounding iPod docks in its price range. The dock also swivels for a horizontal view of the iPod or iPhone so you can enjoy movies in a better way. The downside is that it doesn’t work with several early iPod models. Also, the remote control is awkwardly shaped.

R5 lakh-10 lakh

R33,000

Resolution Cantata Music CenteR

Fisher and Paykel Cooldrawer The CoolDrawer is built on the concept of distributed refrigeration—ActiveSmart technology with a multitemperature drawer-based fridge that can be placed anywhere in the kitchen, home or entertainment area. CoolDrawer provides five temperature settings to deliver total flexibility—fridge, freezer, chill, pantry and wine mode. Price:

If the name brings to mind a table, a cassette deck, radio, CD player and amplifier all packed into one gadget, you are right. Whether it’s a CD played via the built-in transport, an uncompressed iTunes library stored on a Mac or Windows computer, or a dedicated music library on a network storage system, the Music Center plays every note as if it were from the original CD. The Cantata Music Center and C50 integrated amplifier are controllable from an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch via the Cantata App. Other digital sources such as a DVD player can be played through the external inputs. Price: Around

R9.15 lakh

Leica M9-P Edition Hermes camera Leica, the German manufacturers of high-end cameras, teamed up with French fashion house Hermes to bring out a limited edition of 300 Leica M9-P Edition Hermès rangefinder cameras. Finished in ocre-coloured calfskin and a matching shoulder strap, the camera features a redesigned, smoother top plate and control points, designed by automotive designer Walter de’Silva. The body is finished in silver chrome, with the lens also anodized in silver. Of course, a metal protective lens cap comes with the set. Price:

R14-28 lakh

R1.65 lakh

Seiko Astron GPS solar watch

Over R1 crore R50 lakh-1 crore

Japanese watchmaker Seiko revolutionized the industry by launching the first quartz watch in 1969. It took another leap in March this year by announcing the first solar GPS watch. Using its own patented technology, the Astron receives GPS signals and identifies time zones, time and date data using the global network of GPS satellites. It recognizes all the 39 time zones on earth. The Astron will be released simultaneous in all markets this autumn. Price: around

R1.30 lakh

R50,000-1 lakh

Parrot Zikmu speakers Designed by Philippe Starck, the Zikmu wireless speakers stream audio through an iPod/iPhone docking station and Macs, other computers or smartphones using WiFi, and Bluetooth technologies. The two speakers communicate with each other using Bluetooth technology enabling the user to position both speakers anywhere in the room. The two-and-a-half foot high trumpet-shaped speakers come in five colours—white, grey, black, lime and red. Price:

R85,000

INDULGE | June 2012

Jetlev r200 jetpack The Jetlev R200 lets you do what you’ve dreamt about since you were a kid—fly. This personal jetpack uses the volume of water that comes out of the two hoses that are attached to the jet pack to push you up in the air. The jetpack is able to shoot out 10 times more water volume than a fire hydrant. Unlike other jetpacks out there, the R200 uses water for propulsion because its high density is able to carry huge amounts of power at a much lower velocity when compared with air. Price: Around

R56 lakh

Panasonic TH-152UX1W 3D TV The monster 152-inch 3D TV is by far the world’s largest commercially available flat-screen, and by some stretch. Weighing more than half a tonne, it has a 4K2K display— 4,096x2,160 pixels, which exceeds the current high-def standard nearly fourfold—and a 17:9 aspect ratio, which is the same as that used in movie theatres. Price: Around

R5.25 crore

June 2012 |

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Gadgets

All Gadgets

Great And Small

Dyson

Zeppelin Mini

AM02 bladeless tower fan

R27,000

R40,000

Jaeger-LeCoultre

Numi Toilet

Duometre a Quantieme Lunaire

R6.5 lakh

R19.6 lakh

R1 lakh-5 lakh

Bowers and Wilkins

Price: Around

R10 lakh-50 lakh

Kohler

write to us at indulge@livemint.com

R25,000-50,000

R5 lakh-10 lakh

R33,000

Resolution Cantata Music CenteR

R9.15 lakh

R14-28 lakh

R1.65 lakh

Seiko Astron GPS solar watch

Over R1 crore R50 lakh-1 crore

R1.30 lakh

R50,000-1 lakh

R85,000

INDULGE | June 2012

R56 lakh

R5.25 crore

June 2012 |

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Gadgets

Connoisseur’s

Choice

We asked geeks from all walks of life what there favourite gadgets were, and what gadget they would invent if they could. Time travel and teleportation top the list of the one device they would invent if they could. By Pradip Kumar Saha pradip.s@livemint.com

Viresh Oberoi

Founder CEO and managing director, Mjunction Services Ltd

My favourite gadget:

Though some gadgets I use on a daily basis won’t affect my life adversely should they suddenly disappear, a good number of them do improve my quality of life, both in and out of the office. One such gadget that I never needed but now I can’t live without (because of its obvious bearing and value addition to the quality of my life) is the iPad2. It’s a supremely convenient device that helps me check my emails, surf the Web, read books or get any work done via the Internet, adding productivity, portability and convenience to the way I live or conduct business. If I could invent: I am pretty satisfied with the features invented by Mr Jobs for the iPad2. But I would certainly like to incorporate a few more that would make its normal functioning even faster and even more convenient. Features like a RAM upgrade, near-field communications (NFS) support for using the iPad as a digital wallet and an SD card slot/USB port for padding up storage. Having said that, I still feel that the iPad2 shall remain unchallenged for a while as the best tablet computing device.

Nigel Harwood

President and CEO, THE ESTD

My favourite gadget:

It has to be the iPad because it’s the ideal combination of a business and personal gadget. I can use it in meetings for presentations, I can answer my emails from anywhere, and with its 10-hour battery life, I can watch movies, read books or play games while I travel. It’s just perfect. If I could invent: I would invent the ultimate gadget—a time machine. I could go back in time and meet the people who created history and travel into the future to see just what awaits.

Shekhar Kapur Film maker

My favourite gadget:

I will have to say the third-generation iPad. It has revolutionized the way I work, and now I can carry my entire office with me wherever I go. It has a 4G card, which enables data transfer at crazy speed. Its screen is awesome and watching movies on my iPad is even better than watching them on the TV. I carry all my movies, music, books everything on the iPad. It has made travelling so easy. If I could invent: Remember the catchphrase “Beam me up, Scotty” from Star Trek? I would love to invent something that can enable particle transfer. Imagine how easy travelling will become.

Vishal Dhupar Managing director, Asia South, NVIDIA

My favourite gadget:

I just love my HTC One X. It is by far the most stunning smartphone in the market today. A gorgeous display along with a fantastic camera, the One X has really astounded me. Playing games and watching videos over a mobile phone have never been such fun. Powered by the Tegra 3 quad-core mobile processor, I’m assured of maximum performance with a battery that lasts really long—a perfect combination for my roundthe-clock mobile needs. If I could invent: Two of my biggest passions in life are wearing exclusive watches and playing golf. However, my schedule leaves me with little time to visit a golf course to have a complete day for golf, but it does make me look at my watch every now and then. If I could, I’d devise a watch that would take care of my urge of playing golf. Say I’m waiting for a meeting to begin or travelling outstation, I can just touch a button on my watch, and a virtual golf course would appear, where swinging my arms and rotating my wrist would let me virtually practise and perfect my straight drive. That would be a remarkable invention!

INDULGE | June 2012

Sukanya Dutta Roy

Managing director, Swarovski Consumer Goods Business

My favourite gadget:

I would have to say my iPod. It’s the one gadget I can’t live without—in fact, my iPod is refreshed and updated at the end of each day with my own selection of music that I love. For when I travel, when I commute, when I’m at the gym or just have some spare time, the iPod is a constant source of joy and entertainment. It gives me the chance to be nostalgic when I listen to the music I grew up with and the opportunity to be up to date with new music and artists. It is an indispensable element of my day to day life. If I could invent: I would love to invent a personal flying suit aka a

feminine version of Iron Man. No more planes, no more rush-hour traffic jams or the horrors of commuting, and no more walking—just a suit that lets you fly anywhere. It would truly change our daily lives and the convenience of a flying suit is staggering. Perhaps, it’s time I start inventing and develop my very own patent.

Gadgets

Sharmila Nicolett Golfer

My favourite gadget:

My laptop is my best friend and I cannot imagine my life without my MacBook Pro. Two things that I can’t do without are music and movies and that is where my MacBook Pro fits in like nothing else. Also, while travelling, apart from the movies, music, apps, etc., I use my laptop for professional purposes and to keep myself updated with daily news around the globe. If I could invenT: A lot of my time is spent travelling from one place to another, playing various tournaments, hence a teleporting device would be that one thing I would want to invent. Nothing sounds more genius an act these days than something that saves my time of travel.

Vikram Aditya Bhatia Managing director, Fitness First India Pvt. Ltd

My favourite gadget:

The watch—it is one of the most amazing inventions after the telephone and computer. No matter what one does or plans to do, he will need the reference of time. It has become all the more pertinent as we are living in a fastpaced world. As everyone is struggling with time, having a watch helps you in managing time in a better way and makes your life more organized. A chic and beautiful watch always lures others. It speaks about your taste and leaves a lasting impression on others. This can be used by anyone who seeks to lead a successful personal and professional life.

Chander Agarwal

Executive director, Transport Corporation of India

My favourite gadget:

The one gadget I really feel is indispensable is my iPhone. These gadgets have become so intrinsic to life today that one wonders how we used to manage without them. The iPhone is not just a phone but so much more—it’s almost a way of life. The iPhone can be turned into many different devices thanks to its easily-downloadable apps—some useful, some entertaining, and some downright bizarre. Apart from being a phone, an Internet-surfing pocket computer, a camera, a video camera, a recorder and a device that stores and plays songs, films and TV shows, your iPhone can also be a satellite navigation system for your car; pocket tenpin bowling alley; a Scrabble or chess opponent; and a barcode reader that tells you if you can buy an item cheaper elsewhere. No wonder the iPhone has become a cult unlike any gadget before. Indeed, many experts regard it as the greatest electronic gadget ever made. The iPhone’s sheer usefulness has made it a global sensation whose history is only in its early stages. If I could invent: One thing I would like to invent if I could is a time machine. A gadget to stop time so I could get things done on my own time. I would travel back in time and maybe witness all the major historical events that have helped shape the world’s history. As I love travelling, it would also be fun to go back in time and see how the ancient civilizations lived their lives—their traditions and cultures, eating habits, the clothes they wore, what sort of transportation they used, etc. Maybe I could carry some of today’s technology back with me. My time machine would also have the power to propel me into the future and check out how the futuristic world looks like. With technology changing so fast in today’s world, one can only but be amazed by what would happen then... Maybe I will be able to bring back some futuristic technology back to this world now.

If I could invenT: I would like to invent a watch with artificial intelligence. This would basically be a watch that can read your brain waves and act upon it. It would be able to sense what you’re thinking, what you want to do and would be able to sense the waves and programmed to execute it. This watch can easily review sports, the daily news, weather forecast and stock market information just by a simple click. This watch would also support research and development. It is great to have a device on your wrist that would be able to do all the things that are there in your mind.

Ashish Puri

Founder and chief operating officer, Rock.in

My favourite gadget:

My favourite gadget is my iPhone. It addresses all my digital needs and is intuitive in its interface. Technologically speaking, it’s a piece of art. My digital requirements are many and the iPhone addresses them all—emails, contacts, calendar, social networking, maps, applications. I actively use cloud computing services and all of them are possible through this device. Moreover, it allows me to monitor the key performance indicators of Rock.in in real time. I’m always amazed by its versatility. If I could invent: The one gadget I would like to invent is a digital wallet. Cash is old school and with digitization, this is possible. Also, with credit/debit, loyalty programme cards and more, the wallet becomes bulky. A digital wallet would be a unique ID that would adapt to the services I am using.This technology would soon be possible with a mass roll out of NFC (near-field communication). It would also be a great driver for e-commerce businesses like ours. So no more pick-pockets.

C.G. Muthana

Vice-president, Manipal Health Enterprises

My favourite gadget:

It would be my iPhone. Working for a highly demanding/dynamic industry such as healthcare where one is always expected to keep up with the news and information, my iPhone comes really handy and quick. Be it having 24x7 access to emails, surfing the Net, synchronizing my phone with the hospital’s gadgets/ applications/software or just being available at every beck and call—my phone has been there for all of it. If I could invent: It has to be a perpetual pocket power source for all gadgets, the thing I need most at this hour. Gone are the days when one was contended with a basic device that served one’s basic needs. Today, for professionals like me, who need to be on the job 24x7, in the office, on the move, where it becomes important to have access to multiple gadgets, a perpetual pocket power source will erase a problem from my list.

June 2012 |

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Gadgets

Che Kurrien Editor, GQ

My favourite gadget:

My Sennhieiser wireless headphones, which allows me to watch late night television without imperiling my domestic circumstances.

Sanket Akerkar

If I could invent: A dictaphone that actually works when I need it to. Last year, I interviewed Kumar Mangalam Birla, who is not the most accessible person on this planet. Soon after this long and engaging conversation, I was horrified to learn that my recording device had failed to pick up any of it. This had happened to me in the past, which is why I always scribble lots of notes. But make no mistake: the initial shock sickened me to the guts.

Managing director, Microsoft Corp. India Pvt. Ltd

My favourite gadget:

The Nokia Lumia 800 is my most loved gadget. I am addicted to its fluid metro user interface. It is not just a phone but my doorway to the world. There have been so many times that Nokia Drive and Maps have helped me reach my destination and find places. With its social media hub, I am always in touch with my friends and its great camera ensures I can share loads of photographs with them too. The best feature yet is perhaps the integrated Bing search that helps me discover the world on the move. If I could invent: My invention would be “Pandora meets Slingbox”—I have always wondered if there could be a device that searches across all Live TV content based on your preferences or viewing habits, stores them in the cloud and allows you to watch them anytime, anywhere.

Narain Karthikeyan Formula One driver

My favourite gadget:

Ritu Dalmia Chef

My favourite gadget:

I think my phone. Staying in touch with emails, social networking sites and the Internet while being in any part of the world is something we now take for granted, but it is quite incredible. So yes, my phone would be that one gadget.

Being in the kitchen at all times, the Fisher and Paykel CoolDrawer is a must for me. It is so convenient, since I can control the temperature depending on what I am storing. Be it fresh organic fruit or a bottle of wine, all it takes is a touch of a button. Also, it is easy to work around.

If I could invent: I think we need to figure out a way to transport ourselves way quicker than possible currently. I spend a huge chunk of my life on planes. So something that would help reduce that drastically would be welcome. Maybe something like a teleporting device?

If I could invent: How so often we cut our fingers while chopping food in the kitchen. So my invention would be a knife that chops food but spares the fingers. There would be some gadget of some sort attached to the knife which will stop chopping if the blade is too close to the skin. That would be wonderful, no?

Gunjan Gupta Designer

My favourite gadget:

I can’t live without my BlackBerry. It is my daily organizer for emails, phone calls, quick Internet searches, BBM, WhatsApp and address/contact database. I will have to say that I love my iPad as much. It is used mostly for meetings and presentations. I think its super-slick design and interface are ideally suited for presentations and catching up on my reading backlog. I am a total addict and so are my daughters (aged nine and one-and-a-half years). If I could invent: I would like to design a super customized time management clock—a bit fashioned in terms of product design integrated with all the latest time management softwares and tools. I am a romantic and would love to capture time in a tactile as well as a visually appealing format. Two products that I would like to mention in that space are Hulger’s Retro Phone for the future and the new candlelight LED chandelier by Ingo Maurer.

Sanjeev Mansotra

Chairman and global CEO, CORE Education

My favourite gadget:

Currently I am indulging in the Asus Transformer Prime Eee Pad. I am a big fan of the tablet revolution and have tried almost all the latest models. However, I personally find the Asus Transformer Prime extremely cutting-edge. The quad-core processor and Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) provide a very vivid Internet experience. This gadget surpasses the normal tablet performance and shows the glimpse of the upcoming tablet computer generation. The ultrasensitive touch screen and the real QWERTY keyboard are phenomenally integrated and inter-changeable making the interface a lot more interesting. All the other features such as the dual camera with flash, high-quality SonicMaster audio system and the battery performance make it a gen-next tablet. If I could invent: I think today, we live on the edge of a futuristic world. Technology, particularly in telecommunications industry is at its peak and it amazes me to see how the wafer-thin machines hold the key to tomorrow’s information trade. This technology gives each one of us a chance to unlock immense knowledge bank. I want to thus make this technology available to the coming generation

INDULGE | June 2012

who hold the key to the future of not just our country but the mankind. I want this technology to not just be toys at the hand of rich and elite but to trickle down to the grassroots of the society. I want to invent a devise, which would make education cheap and mobile by breaking the constraints of infrastructure and means. These devices would help open the imagination of a child’s mind. I am currently working towards making the technology user friendly and help children understand and learn with ease. Thus absorb all the knowledge around them.

Gadgets

The Luxury

What does luxury technology mean? Is there a thing called a luxury gadget? Four experts debate.

Conundrum by Sidin Vadukut

sidin.v@livimint.com

Gautam John (GJ) works with non-profit

organizations in the primary education and publishing space.

Atul Chitnis (AC) is a consulting technologist,

focused on product development, Internet, free and open source software, mobile computing, virtual communities and future technologies.

Mahendra Palsule (MP) is an editor at Techmeme.

Rajat Agrawal

(RA) is executive editor of Boy Genius Report, India.

alk along some of Geneva’s most shopping streets and, if you’re a tech enthusiast in any case, you notice something odd. The shoppers prognosticating over the Patek Philippes and Piagets in the stores on the Rue du Rhone often share nothing more than their species with the more valueminded window-shoppers gawping outside. Yet almost everyone in sight—sales staff, buyers, gawkers, locals, tourists, Russian oligarchs, Arab sheikhs, even the hawkers and vendors—all use the same mix of iPhones, Samsungs, iPods, tablets and Kindles. Indeed the tech devices they use are the most obvious common social denominator. So why do we not see highend and luxury segments within technology products in the same way we see them when we buys shoes, clothes, watches, hotel rooms and homes? Why does the student backpacking through Europe use essentially the same clutch of gadgets as the guy hopping from boutique to boutique in his private jet? And even when gadget makers decide to make high-end technology, why does it so often end up being unusable gold-anddiamond monstrosities that scream not so much “classy” as much as “Class A Felon”? We asked some of India’s most widely-read technology writers and tweeters about this luxury tech conundrum, what luxury tech meant to them, and what tech brands should do to target the high networth individuals (HNIs). Indulge: Does luxury tech even make sense? GJ: Yes, it does, but not across all product lines. There are products where the luxe elements are merely product embellishments—to wit,

diamond-encrusted cellphones, to products where the elements are add-on service—such as a concierge service (that said, iPhones might have Siri but Vertu has a real live human being as a concierge service). And there are those products where the luxury elements are core to the product and to the experience. Say, a Ferrari. I am of the opinion that luxury technology is really cutting-edge technology and the early adopters subsidize the cost of this technology for the mass market where adoption happens later on. RA: I don’t think there is anything called luxury technology, it’s technology after all, but, yes, tech products in luxury space certainly exist. I’d classify them under two categories: products associated with a luxury brand (read a Porsche design BlackBerry or a Lamborghini label slapped on an otherwise normal laptop hardware) and high-end products that give better performance but end up in the luxury space because of the pricetag associated with it (a Bose Sound Dock, for instance). There is also a third category, which would be niche products that require a lifestyle shift, which usually start from HNIs and eventually trickle down over a period of time. A R14,000 Airfryer from Philips that uses air to fry foodstuff, anyone? It might sound silly at the moment but 10 years down the line people might laugh at you if you still “deep fried” stuff using oil. Indulge: Do you own a technology product that you would consider a luxury buy? Why so? AC: I own a lot of tech products that others might consider luxury products, but they are essential either to my profession, or my personal life. For instance, anything more than a Nokia 1100 as a cellphone would be considered a luxury product, but I own an iPhone June 2012 |

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Gadgets

because it allows me to fulfill work obligations I would not be able to meet with a low-end phone. Similarly, I use an iPad simply because what I can do on the iPad, I cannot do on any other tablet. Both products would technically be considered luxury products, but I do not consider them so. MP: Luxury in technology can be very ephemeral. When I bought a 42” Plasma TV many years back, it was a luxury purchase then. Today it is mainstream. Indulge: Many products have clear demarcations, when it comes to price range. For instance, furniture, clothing and watches all have affordable, mid-range and luxury segments. Do you think there are parallels in technology? GJ: I think there are segments that are created. Whether or not they are real, to an individual, is a different matter. I don’t draw much distinction between a normal phone and the same phone with diamonds. It’s not core to the experience of using the phone but is core to the experience you have with others of carrying the phone. Luxe, to me, is something very personal. I’m sure there is much to be said for the social validation but that’s not how I look at it. AC: Of course, there are such segments in technology. However, the lines separating these segments are getting seriously blurry. For example, in the US, few people would be able to buy a $859 iPhone 4S/64GB, but everyone can afford $200 down and a 2-year contract. The $200 is cheaper than buying a mid-range Samsung phone cash down, so is the iPhone a luxury purchase, or a mid-range purchase? MP: I think luxury technology has two clear and distinct aspects. One is about fashion and style, while the other is about functionality and performance. Exclusive and expensive technology caters to either one or both these aspects. When a product with mainstream functionality is turned into a luxury item by using diamonds or some

INDULGE | June 2012

Luxury technology is really cutting-edge technology, and the early adopters subsidize the cost of this technology for the mass market where adoption happens later on. —Gautam John

such elements frivolous to its function, it becomes a joke. On the other hand, a car that automatically recognizes the owner and unlocks itself, remembers the preferred seating position, and turns on headlights on its own when it is dark delivers luxury through functionality and isn’t a joke. Luxury in technology that only caters to fashion and style belongs to the world of ostentation, which offends the sensibilities of true geeks who are least concerned with such frivolous matters. Hence, I would say that the target market of these two different kinds of luxury tech products is vastly different. Indulge: Generally, you see that the more sophisticated the technology, in terms of usability, the less the scope for upscaling it. For instance, you have upmarket headphones and iPod docks that seem to make sense. But luxury mobile phones are almost always ridiculous. Do you agree? Is there a deeper implication here? RA: I don’t agree with the argument that the more sophisticated the technology, the more difficult it is to upscale it. I’d reckon, it is usually the opposite. Think about it, a Bose home theatre system that automatically tunes itself according to your room—that’s pretty sophisticated technology and has a perfect use case. On the contrary, what more can you do with a luxury phone that you can’t with a high-end smartphone? Flaunt it, probably? Call a dedicated concierge service? It’s not because cellphone technology has reached a stage where nothing more can be added. It has more to do with the function of the gadget in question.

Also, considering the fact that how ubiquitous cellphones have become, we seldom see HNIs being the early-adopters in this space, unlike an Airfryer or a smart home theatre system. Instead, it is power users that matter. So the only options left are to either create a luxury cellphone brand (Vertu), tie-up with an existing luxury brand (Porsche, Christian Dior) or take an iPhone, slap an unhealthy dosage of gold, stud it with diamonds and rubies, and send a ransom note to prospective clients. Indulge: What would make you, personally, pay a premium for in a tech product? GJ: Only if the experience demands it. AC: Quality, flexibility, use within my peer-circle, longevity, design. MP: Functionality and performance, period. A basic level of aesthetic elegance is taken for granted in any high-end product. I would avoid any premium-priced tech product where aesthetics is the driver behind the premium and functionality is relegated to mainstream. Indulge: If a brand wants to make tailor-made gadgets for a purely HNI client what advice would you give them? RA: If you are talking about a tailormade gadget, ensure it is unique and not just using the guts of an existing usual product with a highend looking cover on the outside. Nothing is more insulting than there being no significant product difference between a normal

Considering the fact how ubiquitous cellphones have become, we seldom see HNIs being the early-adopters in this space, unlike an Airfryer or a smart home theatre system. Instead, it is power users that matter. —Rajat Agrawal

product and what you are trying to peddle as an “exclusive” product and demand top dollars for it. And yeah, keep it exclusive! MP: There are HNI clients and then there are techno-geek HNI clients. Be clear from the start which segment you are targeting. There is a different market of HNIs who will opt for fashion and style, and a different market of those who will opt for premium functionality and performance. Choosing the right segment for each product will help in product definition and positioning. GJ: Make the experience unique, personalized and valuable. You can clone products but not experiences. Indulge: What is your favourite gadget that you own? And the favourite one you’d like to? AC: My iPad/2012 and my iPhone 4S, and my 1980 Ibanez AR-50BK Electric Guitar. But what I absolutely desire is a mind blowing music system from Denon, super speakers, and an earthquake-proof room to use these in! Kidding! (But not much!) What I desire the most, and simply cannot afford, is a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, and a high-end Marshall amplifier to play it through. GJ: I really don’t have a favourite gadget—they are all nice and utilitarian. Honestly, one that gives me the most pleasure to use is probably my Peugeot Pepper Mill. MP: My favorite gadget purchase in the last few years is PlayOn HD, a universal media player, and I am presently exploring options for a high-end home theatre solution, which I expect to be my favorite gadget very soon. In my dreams, I would like to have a Sonos wireless audio set-up that lets me seamlessly connect to my media library or any music streaming service, control it from any tablet/smartphone, and listen to it anywhere at home. RA: One gadget I’d like to own is a robot bartender. But don’t tell it I called it a gadget. That might just hurt its feelings. I

Interview

Luxury’s New Address:

Knightsbridge

Bulgari’s new property in London will be the first new luxury hotel to open in the city in more than four decades. Indulge spoke with Antonio Citterio, the architect, about the architecture and design of the hotel, and the use of technology. Edited excerpts: By SIDIN VADUKUT

sidin.v@livemint.com hen somebody tells you, design a hotel for me, how do you start? What is your first thought? Everything starts from the client. To do a hotel…everything is tailor-made. You just can’t imagine anything isolated from the brand, the owner and the city itself. And then you need a story. So you start talking to the client. You need to figure out the client’s vision. And then you need to create your own vision. And you keep populating elements of the hotel’s story. So in this case…one of the elements of the vision was to use silver. From the Bulgari collection. England has an important tradition of working with silver. And, most importantly, Bulgari has a tradition of working with silver. That vision was part of our discussions right from the beginning. People think the architect just sits down and dreams up a hotel. Absolutely not. It all starts with the client. What is the story you are telling through this hotel? What is the narrative? The story of this hotel has several parts. First, there is London. And the Knightsbridge neighbourhood. For three years, we were focused on nothing but just the building itself, forgetting everything inside. This is the first new luxury hotel in London in the last 40 years. No? That is the first part of the story: Look, this is the first new big, beautiful hotel in London in the last 40 years. Then comes the interior. Here the story is about the material,

the atmosphere…and even the lighting. What should be the colour of the lighting, the position, the luminosity. So many things. We started asking ourselves: Should there be a swimming pool? A cinema? Let me put it this way: I don’t imagine a hotel as a collection of empty spaces. A lot of people think that is what we do in our heads. No. In fact, a hotel, any hotel, is a vision of life. You are creating a certain vision of life and creating a building to facilitate that vision of life. You get what I mean? So when I imagine this hotel, I imagine it with people inside. Living a certain kind of life. And then story starts revealing itself. That is interesting. Somehow you always hear architects talk about the spaces they are making and the inherent quality of those spaces. People sometimes seem secondary to the aesthetics of the space itself. True. In fact, a lot of architects think like that. They talk about things like the shape of the space and natural lighting and things like that. But that is not how you should think of a hotel. A hotel is a small version of the world. You need to think of how people will live inside. Don’t you think nowadays there is a tendency to obsess over space? To obsess over form rather than function? Some hotels look nice in photographs but are often extremely unemotional places to live in. They seems so industrial. Absolutely. Hotels must be organic in many ways. This is because a hotel is nothing if not for the experience. When you buy a watch or a product, you have something tangible in your hands. But in a hotel what is tangible? Nothing.

the inside story: (clockwise from top) The theatre; a living room at the hotel; the spa pool.

Everything depends on the experience. It is supposed to create memories. So in this hotel, we wanted people to go back with memories of London. And you see that in everything we have done—the lighting, the mahogany surfaces, the black accessories and trimmings and, especially, the theatre. The theatre is the primary public space in London. And we’ve tried to give a theatrical feel to many of spaces in this hotel. On the other hand, the spa and the rooms are much more private, they are your London homes. They are quiet, warm and retrained. When I look at it as a whole, I think what we’ve tried to do is create a space where people want to spend many hours. This is different from a lot of other new hotels in London where the purpose is to give you a base from where you can escape into the city. Here there is no need for escape. There is London on the outside and inside. Are you happy with the end product? Sure. I am very happy. It not only looks nice but it is also built very well. We found very good workers in Italy who were brought in to construct the hotel. There is a lot of Italy in this hotel. It was an interesting experience. Not just the end product but the process itself was quite remarkable. Sometimes, you just know that people are not doing something because they get paid for it, but because they care. It is nice when you see this enthusiasm. And I think that enthusiasm is now a part of the hotel. Look at all the young staff members! What is your favourite space in the hotel? The swimming pool and spa. For sure. In fact, that is where I want to go right after this interview. How important is technology in modern hotels? Not just the lights and controls but also things such as TVs and the cinema theatre and so on? Technology is not an important part of the hotel. Technology IS the hotel.

Look up. All the lightings are LEDs. Also, we’ve worked very hard to make it a green building. And this is very hard; you need to use a lot of very clever technology. Also, our rooms are very quiet, and this means very quiet air-conditioners. People don’t realize this, but quiet, environment-friendly air-conditioners are products of some very high technology. Technology is not just WiFi or connectivity. That you will find everywhere. You know what is very good technology? Closing the door of your room and finding yourself in a perfectly quiet, perfectly temperaturecontrolled room. Technology is about being able to build a swimming pool five floors under the ground. It is about being able to design a restaurant where you can see the cooks but can’t smell all the odours from the kitchen. To me the technological showcase of this hotel seems to be the cinema. Why did you invest so heavily in it? And did you have an architectural vision for that space as well? In fact, the space was directly inspired by Bulgari’s heritage. Today, you have a booming film industry in India. But in the 1950s, Rome was the capital of the world’s film industry. Bulgari was a part of that atmosphere. Actors like Richard Burton bought a lot of jewels from Bulgari. So did Elizabeth Taylor. So we wanted to evoke memories of the Cinecittà studios and heritage of Rome. In the hotel, we wanted to reiterate this aspect of Italy’s and Bulgari’s history. So we thought why not create a nice space to watch movies? What is your favourite space in the world? If you had to sleep in one room and nowhere else for the rest of the life, where would it be? Oh. I think it should be my house. Or maybe my house in the mountains. See, that is my point. The space itself is irrelevant. I like it because of the emotions associated with a space. That is true for everybody. The emotions matter, not the spece. I June 2012 |

INDULGE

Olympics

Gone In

10 Seconds On the morning of the event, Omega staff recalibrate all the equipment used to time athletes at the finishing line. At the finish point, two sets of timing devices are set up and calibrated. The first is a set of two light-sensitive devices that detect anyone cutting a light beam across the finish line. The instantaneous timing received after an event is produced by this device. Two sensors are placed one above the other to compensate for athletes who often bend over severely at the line. The main timing device is a “digital line-scan” camera aligned with the Omega control room and focused right over the finish line.

The starter pulls the trigger on the electronic gun. At this point several things happen. The sound of the gun is not only relayed around the stadium and on TV screens, but also through speakers behind each athlete. Thus ensuring that everyone hears it clearly and at the same time. As soon as the gun goes off, the sensors in the starting blocks check for false starts. These sensors are also used to later check for reaction times.

INDULGE | June 2012

he Olympics in 2012 may be the largest, most watched, most diverse sporting event in the world. Over a period of two weeks, London, and a scattering of sites all over the UK, will host the world’s best proponents in 302 disciplines across 26 sports. Events range from the universally popular football to more obscure competitions such as Keirin track cycling. This means that organizers not only have to deal with a plethora of sporting facilities and equipment, but also a mind-boggling array of technology to keep track of times and scores. Today, the Olympics run on a sophisticated interplay of hardware and software that track times, tabulate them and then display them in the stadium and beam them to thousands of

TV channels and Internet websites. All within seconds. And no Olympic event is watched more keenly, or timed more carefully, than the men’s 100m sprint. With stars such as Usain Bolt in the running, world records are expected to tumble in the Olympic Stadium in London during the final on 5 August. But what really takes place behind the scenes in those 10 frantic seconds? Indulge asked Omega, the official timekeeers for the 2012 Olympics, to give us a glimpse of the sophisticated web of technology that kicks into action before, during and just after the 100m sprint finals.

By Sidin Vadukut

sidin.v@livemint.com

Athletes prepare in the bowels of the stadium. Meanwhile, Omega staff equip each athlete with an RFID chip that is inserted into their bibs. Before the athletes step out on to the track, the chips are double-checked to make sure that the timing systems are assigning the right chip set to the right athlete.

Timers double-check the electronic starting guns and back-up timing systems to make sure they are ready to go. Some events even require a human back-up timer armed with a stopwatch.

Sensors embedded in the track detect the RFID chips as the athletes blast past. The 100m is too short an event to use these timings. But for longer events, these chip readings are used for split timings. In any case, currently RFID readings are not good enough to be used for official timings.

Athletes cut across the finish line and an immediate timing is published by the photo-sensor. Once again, two processes are set in motion. A detector placed by the track at the 50m mark immediately relays data on wind speeds. Tailwinds above 2 m/s automatically invalidate any records. Secondly, an IAAF official in the control room checks the main timing device, the digital line-scan camera photos, for any potential issues—photo finishes or minor timing corrections. This takes a few seconds. He then certifies the result. The officially confirmed timing is beamed into the stadium and, through a suite of softwares, to television channels.

Olympics

Peter Hürzeler, Board member, Omega Timing

We are 20 years ahead of the federations P eter Hürzeler of Omega Timing, a veteran of 15 editions of the Games, spoke to Indulge about the process of timekeeping and recent innovations. Edited excerpts:

with a weight of around 240kg. At first, we thought the system was malfunctioning. And how closely do you work with the federations? Very closely. But we are always 20 years ahead of what the federations expect from the timekeeping systems. Way back in 1948, during the London Games, we had developed an automatic connection between the starting pistol and the photo finish camera, years before such a system was demanded by the federations. And it wasn’t used. Twenty years later in Mexico, only when TV broadcasters said they didn’t want to show a big group of people with stopwatches at the finish line, did the federation switch to electronic timing.

What are the major improvements you have made in terms of timing systems for this Olympics? Our goal is always simple. To provide 100% service to the Games. And to make no mistakes and give the right results. Exactly what we do for any other event. We do nothing special for the Olympics. In fact, we more or less use the same technology we use for any other sporting event. This creates comfort for the athletes. And one of our jobs is also to keep the athletes happy. What have you done new this year to keep the athletes happy? In track and field, we are using the same systems that we have used in the previous season. Except for the starting blocks. Previously, we were using a mechanical system developed in 1976 for the Montreal Olympics. The athletes told us that they prefer blocks that didn’t move. The old blocks used to move by up to 5mm when the athletes started. This gave them the sensation of throwing away something from the body at the start. We started working on changing the blocks seven years ago. Eventually, we developed the new electronic blocks. And it has been checked and approved by all the world and Olympic champions. What is interesting is that these blocks can now be connected to a computer to study how athletes start the race. We discovered at a meet in Lausanne recently that Asafa Powell pushes off the blocks

What do you think is the future? What will happen in the next 20 years? Let me talk about track and field. Today, there is a delay between a race ending and the official time being declared. In the future, this delay can be reduced, perhaps with the use of radio transponders attached to each athlete. Currently, we are testing this system in long distance races. But we can only get accuracy within one-tenth of a second. In the future, these transponders will get better and we should be able to have results within a few hundredths of a second after a race. Without any controversy. I

He sees business opportunities everywhere, in wind, water, biomass, carbon credits, hard work—ingredients he put together to build a rapidly growing renewable energy business.

He was unsure of his job in the US but sure of himself. His medical equipment company today sells more than 100 products globally and has acquired 168 patents.

ANIL CHALAMALASETTY

VINOD RAMNANI

READ ALL ABOUT HIM IN THE BOOK

AVAI LAB E

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Chairman and managing director, Opto Circuits India Ltd

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Chief executive and managing director, Greenko Group Plc.

SS IN D

Showcase

Tesla Model S

The Make Or Break Car

Photographs: Reuters, Bloomberg, Tesla

A look at Tesla’s new electric sedan aimed at the mass market

By Pradip Kumar Saha

pradip.s@livemint.com

lectric car maker Tesla Motors has embarked on a mass market experiment that it can’t afford to fail. The first batch of the company’s $50,000 Model S sedans, with which it aims to break the niche tag for electric cars, was rolled out earlier this month from its factory in Palo Alto, California. The company got low-cost US government loans in 2009 worth $465 million to fund a US plant to make the Model S and engineer future electric cars. Tesla will start repaying the loans, with interest rates of 0.9-3.4%, late this year, making it imperative that the rollout of the Model S goes smoothly. When Elon Musk, the PayPal billionaire and SpaceX founder, came with the idea of starting a car company from scratch in the highcost state, most analysts scoffed. In fact, the delay in the launch of Tesla Motors’ first car-a $109,000 twoseater Roadster-due to boardroom turmoil and technical glitches, only made the analysts’ doubts stronger. But Tesla did one thing that made the price irrelevant: it eliminated petrol out of the equation and still made a car that was beautiful and could tear up a race track. But now, it has to do something more difficult: it has to persuade the masses to buy a relatively expensive car from a smaller, untested company. Tesla is counting on the car to generate the company’s first profit. It can be cash-flow positive in 2013 with about 8,000 Model S sales, Musk told shareholders on 6 June. Tesla plans to deliver at least 5,300 units, including a $57,400 base version, this year and 20,000 in 2013. The car The Model S is a five-passenger four-door sedan with a light-weight aluminum body. It’s available with three battery capacities—40, 60 and 85kWh—for a range of 160, 230 and 320 miles, respectively. A 350hp AC induction motor drives the rear

INDULGE | June 2012

Technical specifications:

wheels. It has a top speed of 130mph and can do 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds (on the performance model). The lithium-ion batteries are liquid cooled and packaged in a 4-inch thick slab that covers the entire floor pan of the car for a low centre of gravity and a near 50-50 weight distribution. A 10kW on-board charger is standard. There are eight airbags inside, an optional panoramic sunroof and twin rear-facing jump seats for children. Still, the interior’s centerpiece is the 17inch touchscreen that controls every aspect of the car, from the infotainment system to climate control. I Bloomberg contributed to this story.

Dimensions: 195.9x 77.3x56.5 inch (LxWxH) Seating: Five adults, two child seats Range: Up to 300 miles Charge: 45-minute quick charge, charges from 110V, 220V or 440V Turning circle: 37 ft Curb weight: 4,647.3 lbs Weight distribution (%, front/rear): approx. 48/52 • 17-inch infotainment touchscreen • 3G wireless connectivity • 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds • Braking 60-0 mph in 135 feet • 9-inch liquid-cooled electric motor • All-wheel-drive available (option available in future production models)