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Wednesday, June 8, 2011
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Right Light! Bring home the glow Page 12
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Reviews: Samsung Nexus S Acer Iconia Tab A500
WHAT’S HOT this week
Team Smartbuy Editorial Anushya Mamtora anushya@thehindu.co.in
Worth the wait?
Ketaki Bhojnagarwala ketaki@thehindu.co.in
Apple iPhone 4
Mahananda Bohidar mahananda@thehindu.co.in
S. Muralidhar muraliswami@thehindu.co.in
Apple has finally launched the iPhone 4 in India. Chances are you’ve already handled one yourself in the last few months, but here’s a lowdown on what to expect if you haven’t FaceTime video calls, an ultra sharp Retina display, HD video recording and editing, folders for apps and a 5-meg camera with flash. Rs 34,500 (16GB), Rs 40,900 (32GB)
Design Bryan Gaughan aqua@thehindu.co.in
Balakrishnan designkbala@thehindu.co.in
Advertising Contact R. Diwakar ramdiwakar@thehindu.co.in
Web Advertising Contact N. Amarnath amarnath@thehindu.co.in
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Cover photo: Better Interiors
Serious gaming
ASUS Vulcan ANC
Twice as nice!
ASUS has added new PC peripherals to its Republic of Gamers (ROG) range of gaming products. The Vulcan ANC gaming headset is equipped with active noise-cancelling technology, which ensures an immersive audio experience. It features a detachable boom microphone in case you’re feeling anti-social while gaming. Made with tough plastic and leather, the black and red colour combo will leave you raring to go! To be announced
Samsung ST700
The latest digicam from Samsung sports dual screens - a 1.8-inch LCD screen at the front and a 3-inch touch screen at the back panel. The ST700 comes with a whopping 16.1-megapixel sensor and a 26mm, 5x optical zoom lens. You have Smart Filters like Soft Focus, Half-tone Dot and Cinema along with capture modes such as Fish-Eye, Miniature and Sketch. You can also make use of the Magic Frame to instantly create personlised postcards or posters to share with friends and family. Rs 16,990
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A small spark
HTC Wildfire S One of HTC’s smallest phones ever, the Wildfire S sports a 3.2-inch HVGA display. The homescreen can be fully customised with your favourite apps and widgets. You can snap your favourite moments with the 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and record HD videos with it. The handset comes with a microSD slot and supports a variety of audio and video formats, making the Wildfire S a great multimedia device to carry around with you. Rs 14,700
Time to twist it Logitech
C525
The latest webcam from Logitech features autofocus and a built-in mic that make sure background noise won’t spoil your video calls. It also allows you to capture software-enhanced 8-megapixel images. You can make video calls via Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger among others, and even chat in HD (720p) on Logitech Vid HD. It also features a oneclick HD video upload to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter so you can instantly share your video recordings with others. Rs 2,995
Digital safehouse
Transcend JetFlash 200 This trendy USB drive from Transcend not only looks good, but also protects your data from hackers. 256-bit AES hardwarebased encryption, JetFlash SecureDrive software and a password-protected Private Zone prevent anyone from stealing your files. It offers a maximum write speed of up to 5 Mbps and read speed of 17 Mbps. It is available in three storage capacities to suit different requirements. Rs 910 (4GB); Rs 1,380 (8GB); Rs 2,570 (16GB)
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SMARTPHONE review
A winning collusion? Samsung Nexus S Interface
Photo: R. Ravindran
Mahananda Bohidar hen the Nexus One was launched last year, one couldn’t help but compare it to the iPhone. At the time of release, the Nexus One had a better screen, better camera and did stand up to the mighty Apple iPhone. This year brings home the Samsung Nexus S, one of the very first to feature the Android 2.3, coupled with a potent processor, married to an ergonomic design and with the lure of future-proof tech like Near Field Communication. Will this take over the much coveted position right at top of the smartphone pyramid? We had the Samsung Nexus S on a long-term review and here’s what we have to say.
W Design
The much-hyped ‘Contour Display’ on the Nexus S is barely discernible but it does provide for a decent palm grip. Did we mention the screen feels smooth as silk? And it’s not just the gestures (that register fluidly on the display) we’re talking about here but the physical glass display being delightfully smooth. Like some of the handsets in the Galaxy series, this too has no physical buttons except the volume rocker and Power button on the sides. The four touch buttons have been re-shuffled a bit but it’s nothing you can’t get used to under two minutes.
The Samsung Nexus S is the first high-end smartphone from the company to be stripped of the TouchWiz interface but with Gingerbread taking care of the user experience, we can’t say we miss the former much. The immediate user experience of Android Gingerbread (Ver 2.3) isn’t drastically different from its predecessor, Froyo. However, there are a lot of small changes working behind the screen, targeted at making the Android experience more hassle-free. You have access to a task manager directly from the home screen. Part of the new interface is also a bunch of interesting apps. The first one to deserve mention would be Tags, an app based on the Nexus S’s NFC (Near field communication) capabilities that let you organise and share NFC tags. These ‘tags’ could contain pictures, text, internet links etc. You have ‘Car Home’ that serves as a personal navigation and infotainment app letting access to navigation features, control via voice actions and the like. You also have a dedicated ‘Downloads’ app that keeps track of all your purchases or downloads from Market, a big relief for those who’ve have had to wonder which little nook of the phone the app they downloaded is hiding in. Pre-installed apps include the cluster of Google mobile services such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps with Navigation, Voice Actions, Google Voice and YouTube. The most ineffective of the lot would have to be Voice search. Google probably needs to run the app through a sort of ‘cultural sensitivity workshop’ because the long-winding Indian names almost always failed to register on the app. Apart from NFC, Nexus S can also be set up to be a portable hotspot. You can tether the handset’s data connection via an USB or turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot option to have other devices connect to the web through the handset.
Multimedia With about 16GB of internal memory, we made the most of it by downloading a ton of apps from Market. We flagged off the experience with some ‘productivity-killer’ apps on the handset. We went to half-the-world’s favourite - Angry Birds. Catapulting the red, yellow and black birds to
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topple the green pigs looked delightful on the screen, owing to the 4-inch Super AMOLED display. The screen is hands down one of the best lookers in town even if the handset is not! We played BlastMonkeys, Bomb Toss, Donkey Jump and Drag Racing among others. We played all games without a hint of a stutter or lag. The same went with videos that we played back on the handset from YouTube. Running on the 1GhZ Hummingbird processor, we barely had any freezes on the Nexus S and despite more than a handful of apps running in the background the handset didn’t seem like it was slowing down. We ran the Quadrant Standard benchmarking test on the Nexus S to see the handset come out right at the top scoring a 1417 over the Nexus One. Snaps taken with the 5-megger camera (with auto focus) didn’t exactly give us stunning results. The colours weren’t rich enough but we did have a couple of decent results while trying out the various scene modes. Pictures captured under low-light were also better than photos from other cameras we’ve tried out. Apart from the 5megger at the rear, you also have a front facing-VGA camera for video calls. Voice calls on the Nexus S were quite clear and we never had any dropped calls while using the handset. The battery life on the Nexus S was also slightly better than most smartphones in the market. With the Wi-Fi switched on, push mail activated, regular app usage and a bunch of voice calls, it needed to be charged after almost 24 hours of keeping us connected and entertained.
We say With an excellent display and operating system, and equipped with promising tech like NFC, WiMax and portable Wi-Fi, the Samsung Nexus S manages to impress despite not being the best-looking thing in town. If substance over style works for you, then you need wait no longer. Love: Brilliant screen, super-fast processor, NFC-enabled Hate: Average camera and video, uninteresting hardware design, no external storage Rs 29,590 mahananda@thehindu.co.in
TABLET review
An ace for Android tablets Docking port
Mini HDMI port
Mini USB port
USB port
Micro SD and SIM card slot
5-meg camera with LED flash
Photos: R. Ravindran
Ketaki Bhojnagarwala he Acer Iconia A500 has a lot going for it. For one, it runs on Android 3.0, so that effectively makes it the only Honeycomb tablet commercially available in Indian stores. Second, it resolves a lot of the issues surrounding the tablets launched in the market so far – throwing in two USB ports, an HDMI-out and a micro SD card slot. So does Acer really have a winning formula with this one?
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Not another clone Looks wise, the A500 is like a breath of fresh air – it is nothing like an iPad. With a screen size of 10.1-inches and a net weight of nearly three-quarters of a kilo, it’s got netbook-ish dimensions. A shiny black bezel surrounds the screen, and the back and sides are made of brushed aluminium, an increasingly popular casing material for mobile phones and laptops. There are two cameras, the front cam is a 2-megger, while the rear is a 5-megapixel, with LED flash. The two USB ports we mentioned include a mini USB. Apart from the mini HDMI port, there’s SIM card and micro SD card slot concealed in a pull-out flap. You also get a volume rocker switch, 3.5mm headphone jack as well as a dock connector (which hooks up to a docking station that ships with an IR remote – sold separately). The device is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 enabled.
User interface There’s a transparent grid on the screen which Acer has included to help you arrange your icons on the five customisable home screens. However, even though we found it helpful, the grid was visible even when performing other tasks, and ended up disrupting the view. One thing that’s missing from the tablet is the lack of dedicated Android buttons. What you get are just some vague arrow keys and an icon that opens up recent apps. The only plus side of course is that the screen can be oriented in any of the four directions. We should add that auto-orientation was really sensitive, but you can turn it off via a physical lock switch on the side. Acer’s outdone itself on the capacitive touch screen. It’s
very smooth and responsive, and we had no problems when it came to scrolling or typing. Because of the screen size, the keyboard is comfortable even for two-handed typing, and we found it easy to tap out long emails or perform a quick search online.
Media usage With a hefty 16GB of internal memory, the A500 can take a further 64GB of storage via micro SD card. And that’s not all, you can even hook up your external hard drive via USB and play content directly off it. We connected our 160GB WD hard drive to the A500, but it took ages for videos and photos to show up on the tablet. We tried Acer’s Nemo Player, Android’s Gallery and even some third-party apps like QuickPic, but nothing seemed to accelerate the process. This is more of an Android issue than an Acer one, and Honeycomb still has a lot of limitations when it comes to USB support, which we hope will be ironed out in future Android versions. The rear-camera has a couple of scene and colour modes to choose from, and you can also tweak White Balance and Flash settings. Results were far from satisfactory – our photos looked washed out and the colour reproduction was poor. The front camera wasn’t great either – we got a lot of flare from light sources – but it’s good enough for video chats. The browser was snappy and convenient to use, and let us open multiple tabs easily. The screen also supports multi -gesture like double tap and pinch to zoom, so we had no problems reading web pages. Acer has its native apps for social networking, ebooks and media which we’ve used on their phones before. These include Social Jogger, the afore-mentioned Nemo Player, Photo Browser and LumiRead. We preferred the
Android versions of these apps, which are faster and more intuitive. We played some high-def (it only supports 720p playback) videos on the A500, and although the 1280x800 screen was clear and colour reproduction was good, there were a lot of pixels visible to the naked eye, which was quite a turn off. The stereo speakers located at the rear are better than what you get on most tablets, and despite the sound being tinny, were loud enough to watch a movie comfortably. Gaming on the tablet was an impressive experience. We did a few laps on NFS Shift, and were surprised when the gyroscope kicked into action, letting us steer and manoeuvre as well as the iPad 2! Of course we tried Angry Birds Rio and Hero of Sparta HD, and graphics reproduction on the latter was excellent. The touch screen also made navigating in the game a breeze.
Performance This tablet runs a dual-core Tegra 1GHz chip, so it’s considerably snappier than the Samsung Galaxy Tab. We ran a couple of Android benchmarking tests to compare scores. On Quadrant, we achieved a score of 2,090, while the Motorola Xoom clocks up to about 1,850. On Linpack, we scored 41.77 MFLOPS, and just to give you an idea, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 managed only 35.643 MFLOPS as its top score. Multi-tasking is a breeze with the A500, but the tablet takes ages to perform simple tasks like opening the Gallery once you’ve snapped a photo, which is really frustrating. Battery-wise, the A500 doesn’t do too well, giving us only about 4-6 hours of usage with Wi-Fi on, even though Acer claims 8 hours of play-back time.
Our verdict Despite being a little rough on the edges, Acer wins points for innovation with the A500. It’s been priced almost on par with an entry-level iPad 2, so if you don’t really want to go the Apple way, this might just be the Android tablet to pick. Love: Good connectivity options, doesn’t freeze Hate: Poor battery life, sub-standard screen Rs 31,515 ketaki@thehindu.co.in
GAME review
C
rysis was a game well known for its
visuals as well as its open-ended gameplay. As a marine strapped with a million-dollar Nanosuit on a fictitious island, players could analyse and approach an enemy encounter any way they wanted to, be it with deadly stealth or excessive force. Despite the move to a more concrete jungle, Crysis 2 still remains a gorgeous and enjoyable shooter that thankfully will not melt your PC this time round. Gameplay Crysis 2 takes place nearly three years after the events of Crysis, where New York has been hit by a deadly virus and an alien invasion. Most of the citizens are dead, and the few that survived are dying painful deaths. You are Alcatraz, a special ops dude sent in to survey the situation and provide backup to a certain scientist. Obviously, things don’t go quite as planned and you end up in a world of hurt. As fate closes one door, it opens up another for you and hands you the Nanosuit, leaving New York’s salvation in your hands. Like its predecessor, Crysis 2 is all about the Nanosuit. Thanks to its plethora of abilities, it allows players to adopt and run with their very own style of gameplay, opening the door for multiple play-throughs. Most of the suit’s abilities are back from the first game, so you can run fast, cloak yourself, jump real high and hit real hard. Where the first game tied it all down to the mouse, Crysis 2 allows players to map the suit’s abilities to the keyboard. So instead of clicking the middle mouse and then choosing cloak from a dial, you simply hit [E] and bam; invisible man in the house. This definitely adds a layer of swiftness to the game where players truly feel like predatory hunters. Unfortunately, the new system is also a bit imbalanced. Shooting even a silenced pistol while cloaked rapidly drains your energy, and unless you get to cover quickly, you’ll soon be visible to all. Crysis 2’s enemy AI is so dense that you rarely felt threatened or challenged. Most enemies are so clueless that they just stand on the battlefield as you run around with reckless abandon slaughtering their mates. . Then there are times during intense firefights when you see certain enemies running away – into walls. Things do improve a bit when you start battling the Ceph, but besides their acrobatic, fast movements, they charge at you in a straight line, making it very easy to kill them. Besides the run-of-the-mill grunts, you’ll face some mini bosses who, once again, can be killed pretty easily thanks to their lack of grey cells. After an hour into the game, you’ll be able to upgrade your suit using nano catalysts dropped by dead Ceph, making you an even more powerful force to reckon with. Graphics There’s a huge hue and cry about the game’s visuals and about how Crytek has let PC gamers down by not putting in DirectX 11 support in the game, but the truth is that the game still looks
phenomenal. It’s highly scalable as well. On the modest GTX 280, the game performed flawlessly at a 1920x1080 resolution on Very High settings. You could nitpick about how Crytek has used certain low-res textures in the game, but unless you actually zoom into stuff, it won’t be apparent during the frantic action. New York looks phenomenal and the amount of detail that has gone into recreating the Big Apple is admirable. The game’s score has been performed by Hans Zimmer and it grows on you through the course of the game. The Xbox 360 version obviously doesn’t look as good as its PC counterpart, but it plays just as well thanks to a solid control scheme. Multiplayer in Crysis 2 is more Call of Duty than Battlefield, primarily because of the absence of vehicles. Like Activision’s juggernaut, you play well and earn points that can be used to purchase and enhance upgrades like better cloaking, faster reloading, stronger armour, etc. Of course, the biggest challenge in multiplayer is balancing your suit to face real opponents. By default, your suit will have certain abilities like the ability to cloak or sprint faster and the more you use them, the cooler stuff you unlock. The game even has its variation of killstreaks, which, if you haven’t played any Call of Duty game in the recent past, means racking up an ‘x’ amount of kills without dying. Successfully doing so will allow you to call in for radar support (displaying nearby enemies on the map), a devastating laser strike, and lots more. But like every multiplayer game in the recent past, the game’s multiplayer is not without its issues. For starters, on the PC, you have to enter the CD key multiple times when the game should have registered it the first time. Even though the game released here on the international release date, there was a dearth of low ping servers for Indians. Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations stems from the fact that you suddenly lose nearly three levels out of nowhere along with the unlocks that you earn with them. Though there are a few apprehensions about the game at first because of all the negativity around how Crytek ‘sold out’ by developing games for the console, ditching their die-hard PC gamers in the process, the end product delivers, and that’s what matters. Besides the dumb AI and a few multiplayer niggles, Crysis 2 is a visual powerhouse backed by lofty production values, solid gameplay and frantic action across both single and multiplayer. Love: Gorgeous visuals, frantic, fast paced action, multiplayer is a blast Hate: Stupid enemy AI, multiplayer has a few issues Rs 999 (PC), Rs 2,499 (PS3, Xbox 360) CHIP Publisher: EA Developer: Crytek Distributor: Milestone Interactive CHIP
AUTO focus
Driving the Hummingbird in sunny Malibu
Photos: Bloomberg
Jason H. Harper ity of Malibu, may I introduce the Lotus Evora. Evora, meet Malibu, which, among its many charms, has miles of magnificent mountain roads curling above the Pacific. The kind of roads you were designed for. Kismet! The result of this automotive harmony? I’m hurling the sprightly, two-door sports car up a windy section of tight asphalt, the steering wheel dancing in my hands like a living thing. Third gear bounces off the engine’s rev limiter as I rage through an L-shaped corner. I love the smell of burning rubber in the morning.
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A small package Lotus does sports cars. Tiny ones. If BMW has veered into heavyweight territory with oddball fast rides like the X6 M crossover, Lotus has stayed true to making two-door welterweights. The scrappy British company got its start racing in the 1950s and has seen its share of business ebbs and flows. There are storied models like the 1960s Elan and the 1970s Esprit, which made a guest appearance as a submarine in James Bond’s “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Of late, the only two model choices were the two-seat Exige and Elise. To say they are driver’s cars is not simply a euphemism; passengers larger than Kate Moss will be constricted. Additional storage space is best suited to postage stamps. Two more fun cars you will not find, however.
The $64,000 Evora is the first of many promised new models, each with more room. These include the return of the Esprit in 2013, the Elite, and eventually a four-door called the Eterne.
Elf seats In the meantime you can purchase the Evora, which has room for four - sort of. There is a space behind the driver that can be optioned with seatbelts and what one might call sub-seats, which might accommodate Keebler elves.
Otherwise, you can opt for a shelf that fits a backpack nicely. The reason for this scrunching is both a function of the car’s dimensions and overall engineering. The 3.5-litre V-6 engine is situated behind the cockpit rather than inside the hood. This leaves the car perfectly balanced, like a wellmade chef’s knife. It changes directions effortlessly, dicing and mincing pavement. The downside is that the mechanical components take up the space where you’d normally fit a backseat. The
Evora also has what might be charitably called a small trunk. So you can bring your whole stamp collection. No question that it’s a first cousin to the Exige and Elise, with the same quirky nose and stance. The rear windshield folds into an up-raked spoiler and a deep fold in the bottom rocker gives the side view drama. Random air intakes and outlets along the body make it even more toylike. I wouldn’t call it classy; just fun.
Hummingbird My test car is an eye-searing yellow and doesn’t include the optional back seats. The roof is only as high as the door handle of the average SUV, and motoring around heavy traffic can be intimidating. You’re a hummingbird darting among flocks of geese. (No wonder the paint job is so bright - it’s a safety feature.) It feels like you’re almost sitting on the ground, and any hard jounces travel straight through the lightly cushioned seats and into your spinal column. Comfort and practicality are not key in Lotus’s world. Performance is. The engine is actually sourced from Toyota, with 276 horsepower and 258 pound feet of torque. Modest by today’s standards. Top speed: Only 162 mph. Zero to 60 in
4.9 seconds. (A more powerful ‘S’ version will be available with 345 hp.) But get on those narrow Malibu roads (which lead to not-inexpensive mansions with killer ocean views) and the Lotus will spank an expensive, high-horsepower sports car. It’s light and easy to manoeuvre.
Falling rocks Occasionally I sweep around a corner to find a large rock has tumbled into the road from a cliff above. A quick twitch of the wheel is all that’s needed to sidestep such
The 2011 Lotus Evora at a Glance Engine: 3.5-litre V-6 with 276 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque Transmission: Six-speed manual Speed: 0 to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds Gas mileage per gallon: 18 city; 27 highway Best feature: The brilliant handling Worst feature: Let’s be honest, those back seats won’t fit anybody happily Target buyer: The driver who prefers the long and winding road
Price as tested: $75,920
obstacles. Throw on the brakes and the front and rear rotors pull you from 60 mph to a stop in a mere 100 feet. After driving up from West Hollywood and gunning around for a full day, I still only burned through half a tank of gas. That modest engine gets 18 city, 27 highway. My test car has the optional sport, technology and premium packages. It has heated seats, a leather interior, crossdrilled brakes, a titanium tailpipe, and an Alpine touchscreen navigation system. Total cost, including $1,175 delivery charge, is $75,920. At first glance it looks pretty snazzy, but by the end of the day I found that sun glare often obscured the dials, the buttons could be finicky, and the navigation system had frozen - insisting that I was still on the Pacific Coast Highway even as I pulled into my hotel. None of which bothers me a whit. As dusk falls I pull onto a narrow lookout point high above bustling Highway 1. The sea seems to be swallowing the sun and a full moon stands in stark relief above. My roadside seat sure isn’t big, but it’s the best perch I can imagine. (The author writes about autos for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
BLING corner
Two to tango Jewellery designer Poonam Soni and artist Nawaz Singhania have come together to create the S2 range of limited edition signature jewellery, beautifully woven around miniature paintings by Nawaz. These sautoirs are stylish and crafted with precious gems, stones and leather. Price on request
Wedding glamour Sparkling diamonds and rare rubies are an intrinsic part of CERES’ Royale collection for the gorgeous summer bride. Available at its flagship showroom in Mumbai. Rs 5 lakh onwards
Golden trends Elegant cuffs and peacock motifs, the World Gold Council has predicted some fab trends for this year. This is one eye-catching cuff from Tre-Spighe, capturing marine life in yellow gold and red enamel, we absolutely loved. Price on request
Regally yours
At the auction!
The opulence of the Nizams takes the form of this exquisite collection from Ganjam in brilliant cut diamonds, lustrous gem stones, cultured and South Sea pearls, all set in yellow gold. This ‘sarpech’, is as royal as it can get. Available at its stores in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Price on request
This elegant pair of coloured and white diamond ear pendants from Nirav Modi created a flutter at Christies, Hongkong. Rs 6 crore (auction price)
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MELANGE luxury redefined
Artist edition Alfred Dunhill Sidecar Sketch Pencil is an artist’s delight! It boasts a black matte finish lacquer on the barrel for a perfect grip and a neatly hidden sharpener within the ‘AD’ branded cap. Available at its outlets. Price on request
Classic clutch Exchanging glances Fossil’s sunglasses for ‘her’ and ‘him’ are dominated by sleek designs, innovative materials and a wide range of styles and colours. Available at Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop outlets. Rs 2,795 to Rs 4,795
Suneet Varma’s Russian inspirations take the form of gorgeous cutlass and crystal clutches, in rich textures and interesting motifs, and form part of Judith Leiber’s Fall ’11 collection. Price on request
Luxe luggage This classy orange bag is for the busy head honcho. Porsche Design’s French Classic collection is striking in its purist design, high quality cow leather and solid-hand brushed metal parts. Available at Emporio Mall, New Delhi. Price on request
Bag for a cause Gucci has launched a new version of its bestselling Sukey bag as a support for UNICEF. The soft calfskin top handle bag has gentle ruches and a detachable leather charm and is an ideal bag for a day at work. Available at Gucci stores. Price on request
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PREMIUM interiors
LET THERE BE LIGHT M
ost people do not realise the impact of wellplanned lighting in a given space. Putting a light fixture on every wall of every room will only create, simply put, a lit room. Yes, there is no substitute for natural light but when the sun goes down, we all need a little help from some man-made lighting devices. There are four key aspects to remember while creating a lighting plan: Place the right ‘type of light’, with the ‘right intensity’ and ‘colour’, in the ‘right location’. The overall look, mood and feel of the room depend on the kinds of light you use and their positioning. Different techniques
and types of fixtures can change the feel of the space. Here’s a look at different aspects of lighting and a few simple solutions to help you create the right setting.
mood lighting in low isolated spots would be around 100 lx while that in highlighted areas would be around 250 lx.
Types of lighting Intensity While some spaces need bright clear light, it could prove harmful for others. Did you know that indirect and lowlevel lighting protects the vulnerable eyes of premature children from blindness in the paediatric ward of hospitals? Designers keep lux levels down to between 30 and 50 per cent in such areas. While we need around 350 to 400 lux (lx) for long working hours and 250 lx for regular use,
Lighting is classified by its intended use as general, localised or task lighting, depending largely on the distribution of the light emitted by the fixture. TASK LIGHTING is mainly functional. Usually the most concentrated, this type of lighting is used for purposes such as reading. ACCENT LIGHTING is mainly decorative, and intended to highlight pictures, plants or other elements of interior
design or landscaping. GENERAL LIGHTING bridges the gap between task and accent lighting and is intended for general illumination of an area. Indoors, this would be a basic lamp on a table or floor or ceiling fixture. ANGLE OF LIGHTING is just as important as its quality. It changes the total character of the object under display just like placing a torch under the chin changes a pleasing face into a scary one. DOWNLIGHTING is a common method of lighting with fixtures on the ceiling, casting light downwards. It tends to be the most efficient. The 1 watt/square foot rule works best with this type of lighting. With a good reflector, this type of lighting makes for maximum efficiency. UPLIGHTING is less efficient than direct lighting. However, it is common in offices where contrasting dark and bright spaces are undesirable. It is often achieved by bouncing light off a ceiling. It can also be effectively used for dramatic effect with indoor and outdoor plants or across textured surfaces of brick or stone. FRONT LIGHTING is used to highlight artwork on the walls or artefacts. Tracks on the ceiling or spotlights help in achieving this lighting. This type of lighting tends to make the subject look flat as its casts almost no shadow. SIDE LIGHTING is less popular. It tends to give off glare at eye-level, but does wonders at increasing the visual depth of a 3D object. BACKLIGHTING either around or through an object is mainly for accent.
Types of fitting Let us have a quick look at the types of light fittings and how best they can be placed to get the best results. Wall fittings or wall pendant lights and ceiling lights or chandeliers are available in every shape and size with all types of fixtures. These are best used for ambient lighting and in large halls. Electronic dimmers for wall and ceiling lights set the right intensity but they are expensive, prone to frequent breakdowns and induce a low frequency humming sounds in the fixtures. Table top and floor lamps are still the most versatile fittings to create mood lighting in a room. An articulated lighting system around foliage can bring your mundane plants into focus. Be it small indoor shrubs, creepers or outdoor trees... light can help highlight shades of green that you wouldn’t notice in daylight and accentuate the textures of wood.
Light, naturally! Daylighting can be defined as the act of illuminating rooms naturally (i.e. anytime you are able to light a room with a window or a skylight instead of flipping on a light switch, you are daylighting). It’s that simple! Though the concept of daylighting is as old as the window, recent advances in lighting research, window and glazing technology have opened up new horizons for daylighting. To make the most of the natural light available in your home, you need to know how to use it. Enlarge windows by dropping sills and removing a section of the wall below. This won’t affect walls structurally. Add a window on a flanking wall. Change a non load-bearing wall or stud a partition into a glass-brick wall. Small skylights can be very helpful in bringing natural light into a dark room. But be careful, during the summer, when you don’t want heat and have the sun directly overhead, they let in an abundance of heat. In the winter, when the sun is at a low angle, you get the least amount of
available sun. As an alternative to skylights, one can also construct clerestory windows (part of an interior wall rising above the adjacent roof with windows admitting light) or roof monitors. Today, there is a variety of high-performance glazing which makes it possible to use more glass while minimising heat loss, heat gain and glare. If you’re building a house, remodelling or replacing windows, you can choose from a wide range of options, selecting glazing best suited to a particular window. If you work from home, you’ll need good task lighting as well as natural light. Avoid putting your desk near the window, as the light will be too intense — about 1 m away is the ideal distance.
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If you want to get more natural light into areas that are away from windows, clerestories, atria or skylights, there are a few of these daylighting techniques can help: Try to bounce natural light off the ceiling. A window located close to the ceiling works well. Louvres or operable blinds can direct light, too. Hang mirrors, particularly opposite windows. Take down unnecessary window dressings and replace with filmy materials, such as voile and muslin, to diffuse light. Block out harsh sunlight with perforated roller blinds. Turn an inner door into a glazed panel, or replace it with stained or clear glass. Trim trees or bushes that overshadow windows. Use light-reflective surfaces, and pale carpets and furnishings. Navneet Malhotra (Better Interiors)
Wedding spread
Happy seating
An ideal gift for a ‘just married’ couple is Maspar’s Eternal Treasure collection of bed covers, sheets, pillow cases, cushion covers, gowns and more. Available in two colour variants in luscious silk at its outlets. Rs 85,000 (per set)
Tangent – The furniture mall’s latest offering includes modern lounge chairs in sleek designs, rich colours and plush fabrics. Available at its showrooms across India. Price on request
Modern touch Italsofa, from the Natuzzi Group has introduced the Luson range of modular sofas with terminals that not only offer comfortable seating but add to the contemporary look of your interiors too. Available at Italsofa Gallery, Gurgaon and Bengaluru. Rs 2.75 lakh (five-seat version)
Monsoon calling @home helps you gear up for the rains with some bright and sparkly décor to dress up your homes with. From cushions to rugs, mirrors to wall hangings, in dark blues, orange and yellow, take your pick at its stores across India. Price on request
Smartbuy
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June 8, 2011
TASTER’S choice
Rediscovering the Super Tuscans
Photo: Bloomberg
John Mariani ention the term “Super Tuscan” to winemakers from the Italian region like Axel Heinz and you’ll get either a wince or, more likely, a shrug. Heinz has been a winemaker since 2005 at Ornellaia, an estate long in the company of other illustrious single labels like Sassicaia, Solaia, and Tignanello that inspired the Super Tuscan label, but also came to include many inferior wines that merely appropriated the name. The classification has no standing under Italian wine law, which by regional tradition dictates which grapes are allowed in typical Tuscan wines like Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino. The term Super Tuscan, concocted in the 1980s by the media and promoted by the industry, refers to wineries that don’t play by those rules and who, as a result, may only label their bottles “I.G.T.” (typical regional wine), just a step up from the lowest appellation “vino da tavola” (table wine). Thus, over lunch at Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center, Heinz, 39, ignored all the hype and concentrated on the enviable reputation that Ornellaia’s 26-year old winery has achieved on its own, using a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and, since 2003, a little Petit Verdot. To that end, much like Bordeaux’s Mouton-Rothschild has done for decades, the winery has commissioned artists to illustrate its vintages. Under a program called Vendemmia d’Artista, large format bottles with labels by an artist are auctioned off to support the arts, as when a Salamanzar (12 regular bottles) of the 2006, entitled “L’Esuberanza” with a design by Luigi Ontani, was sold for €17,000 ($24,255) to fund resto-
M
ration work at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan.
HIGH ALCOHOL At the luncheon, I asked Heinz, who looks like action movie star Jason Statham with wild hair, about his wines’ high, 14.5 per cent alcohol level. “The higher the alcohol level, the harder it is to make a great wine,” he said, a comment that flies in the face of many winemakers around the world who deliberately boost alcohol content. “If you are actively trying to make a blockbuster, you will not have a good wine.” Part of the problem, he said, is global warming. “Just in the last decade, alcohol levels have accelerated 1 to 1.5 per cent because of the heat,” he said. “A winemaker has to be very careful in monitoring how the grapes grow through each season and figuring out the best time to pick them.” Ornellaia has always been a big, bold, luscious wine that shows enormous finesse and an Italian refinement that can be amiably pleasing even when young. The wines we tasted, 2006 through 2008, including Ornellaia’s second, less expensive wine from younger vineyards, Le Serre Nuove dell’ Ornellaia, made since 1997, showed just how different vintages can be yet still show the unique character of terroir.
PERFECT WEATHER Of the 2006 L’Esuberenza ($150-$175), Heinz said, “The wine made itself,” from a harvest that was near perfect, with uniform ripeness. The wines were aged in barriques for 12 months, when the final blend was made, aged six more months, then bottled and kept for 12 months before release. I thought it was a truly magnificent expression of the Ornellaia style with several levels of complexity and
tight but wondrous fruit qualities. The 2007 Harmonia ($130-$150), with a label by Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh, was very tight, even after an hour with food, with a modest nose, needing a long time to emerge from its glass cocoon. It was definitely not made from over-ripe grapes, so its virtues are going to take time to develop. The 2008 L’Energia ($155-$170), with a design by Rebecca Horn, lives up to its moniker: it’s got a big nose with a woody, but not oaky, bouquet, and a remarkable herbaceous content of violets and mint. The tannins are already loose, and I enjoyed this youthful wine enormously, knowing it will get better and better over the next decade.
‘BRUTAL DROP’ Heinz said it had the “lushness of the Mediterranean,” which is an apt description of a vintage that began wet, had a dry, hot summer, whose temperatures were lowered by the northerly tramontana winds. At harvest, a “brutal drop in temperature” turned out to be a blessing to prevent over-ripening. The equivalent vintages of Le Serre Nuove showed exactly the same characteristics but in a lighter, more approachable style. Although the 2009 was not available for tasting yet, Heinz called it a “very difficult vintage to make. The grapes were picked early and the tannins are soft and the wine will only be of medium weight.” No name for that one yet, but maybe he’ll call it “mal di testa,” which is Italian for headache. (The author writes on wine for Muse, the arts and lifestyle section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)