SmartbuyWednesday, December 1, 2010

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

Business Line

The Yeti has beensighted...Page 8

LG Optimus One reviewed2010’s most innovative watches+

2 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

WHAT’S HOT this week

Team SmartbuyEditorial

Anushya Mamtoraanushya@thehindu.co.in

Ketaki Bhojnagarwalaketaki@thehindu.co.in

Mahananda Bohidarmahananda@thehindu.co.in

S. Muralidharmuraliswami@thehindu.co.in

Design

Bryan Gaughanaqua@thehindu.co.in

Balakrishnandesignkbala@thehindu.co.in

Advertising Contact

R. Diwakarramdiwakar@thehindu.co.in

Web Advertising Contact

N. Amarnathamarnath@thehindu.co.in

www.blsmartbuy.com

Become a fan of our Facebook page: BL Smartbuy

Follow us on Twitter

Cover photo: S. Muralidhar

Acer has launched theAOD 255, a netbookthat weighs 1 kg and isless than 1-inch thin,making it easy tocarry around. Thenetbook features a10.1-inch screen, In-tel Atom N450 processor,1GB RAM and 160GB harddrive. However, it ships with a Win-dows XP Home OS, so you might wantto upgrade to Windows 7. The laptopalso packs in a 93 per cent-sized key-board and multi-gesture trackpad,along with eight hours of battery life. Itis available in four funky colours -Aquamarine, Diamond Black, Sand-stone Brown and Ruby Red.Rs 16, 499

Flaunt yourcolourAcer AOD 255

This 15x zoom camera from Fujifilm claims to be theworld’s first ‘Phase Detection pixel built-in CCD’, which

gives you an Auto Focus speed as fast as the blink of ahuman eye. It also features Contrast Auto Focus for taking

shots in dark scenes. The camera is a 12-megger andincludes a Motion Panorama feature up to 360 degrees and3-inch LCD. It also includes a new mode which sets off the

camera shutter as soon as the subject looks into the lens,for fast shots.

Rs 20,999

The Bold 9780 is the latest inthe BlackBerry line-up, and fea-tures the all-new BlackBerry 6OS. Some of the key features ofOS 6 are an all new WebKitbrowser, integrated access toBlackBerry Messenger, Face-book, Twitter and instant mess-aging apps, a dedicatedYouTube app, redesigned Mu-sic and Pictures apps and uni-versal search. The phone alsocomes with a 5-meg camera,512MB of flash memory and anexpandable memory card slotup to 32GB. Rs 27,990

Work n’ playBlackBerry Bold 9780

Blink to shootFujifilm FinePix F300 EXR

Smartbuy

The latest from TAG Heuercomes encased in a stainlesssteel case with Black PVD(titanium carbide) surfacetreatment. The rest of thebody of the luxe phone is inblack lizard leather and the2-meg camera has an 18-carat rose gold shutter setwith black diamonds. Thebling is carried over to theside keys as well, where thebrand name is engraved in18-carat rose gold and thedual LCD screens are linedwith 60.5 carats of smokedsapphire crystal glass. Rs 7.85 lakh

Toshiba launches its first Android-based MID (Mobile Internet De-vice), the feather-light AC100. Thedisplay is a 10.1-inch LED-backlitscreen and the body has a full-sized physical keyboardthat makes it easy for you to be in touch through e-mailsand IMs. The device takes just about a second to boot thanksto the NVIDIA Tegra 250 processor. The MID comes with a1.3-meg camera and an integrated HDMI output for you to beable to stream HD content from it on a bigger screen.Rs 18,721

Ready to surfToshiba AC100

Beauty in blackTAG Heuer Black Diamond

3 December 1, 2010

HP has created a touch-en-abled intuitive interface target-ed at keeping your familyentertained. The system is anicon-based interface thatcomes with an entertainmentpackage that includes music,movies, TV programmes andgames. The DreamScreen alsocaters to your lifestyle needs byoffering interactive lessons,news, astrology and a webbrowser. It can be customisedto display two languages – En-glish and Hindi. Rs 19,999

Entertainmentat handHP DreamScreen

4 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

SMARTPHONE review

Photos: S.R. Raghunathan

LG made its entry into the Android market with itsfirst smartphone, the LG GW620. While thephone wasn’t a bad first attempt, it failed to makeits mark in the smartphone market. LG then in-

troduced the Optimus, an entry-level smartphone whichtook some flak for its resistive touch screen. The companyrecently launched the P500 (Optimus One) in India, ahandset which reportedly sold one million units in its first40 days in the market. We got up close with the phone tosee if this was really LG’s redeeming Android attempt.

First impressionsAt first glance, the P500 is a very unconventional lookingsmartphone. Encased in a slim rubberised panel, thephone certainly feels sturdier than most smartphones, butdoesn’t really give you that sleek, corporate feel. Thescreen is a decent sized one, at 3.2-inches. There are fourbuttons below the screen, and instead of the usual touchsensitive ones that we’re seeing on most phones now,these ones are physical. While these buttons (for Menu,Home, Return and Search) don’t really impress with theirlooks, it was nice to physically click them. The two buttonsin the centre are placed on a brushed aluminium surface,which reminds you of the phone’s predecessor, the Opti-mus.

The 3.5mm headphone jack and power button are locat-ed at the top, and the mini-USB-cum-charging port is atthe bottom. The sides are bare except for a volume rocker

switch. There is a 3-meg camera located at the back, butthe phone lacks an LED flash. We also missed having aphysical camera button.

Unlike in the Optimus, the P500 doesn’t have a blinkingindicator light, to alert us for new notifications.

User interfaceThe P500 runs Android v2.2 or Froyo. Although v2.3 orGingerbread has already made an appearance in the mar-ket, Froyo isn’t outdated yet and worked well on thishandset.

You can choose to have either five or seven homescreens, which are customisable.

LG has added a curved dock at the bottom of the screenwhich houses buttons for the dialpad, contacts, messagingand browser. You can’t customise the dock though. Youcan choose to add a number of widgets on your homescreens, including a handy little messaging widget whichdisplays your most recent texts. However you may want toskip this one if you’re a stickler for privacy.

You can also add folders to your menu screen, and youcan drag and drop applications into that. This feature isespecially useful if you have a lot of apps.

Unlike the previous Optimus, the P500 has a capacitivetouch screen, which was quite responsive. The only timewe had problems was during scrolling, when we wouldinadvertently activate icons.

You have a choice of Android or LG keyboards. The LG

keyboard was actually a pleasure to type on, and evenoffered predictive text. In portrait mode, you can chooseto have either an alphanumeric or QWERTY keyboard,which gets a thumbs up from us. We are big fans of handsetcustomisation!

MediaLG has always outdone itself when it comes to being mediafriendly, and the P500 doesn’t disappoint. The 320x480TFT screen was excellent for viewing images, and dis-played detail well. Videos played without any visible stag-ger while loading, and although the screen is not high-def,colour reproduction and clarity were good. However thephone does not support AVi files, which most smart-phones in the P500’s category do.

The phone comes with the standard Android 2.2 mediaplayer which organises music according to artist, album,songs and playlists. Sound quality was good, and thespeaker was loud enough to be heard in a crowded room.With memory expandable up to 32GB, this phone can beyour alternate to the music player.

The camera was a decent 3-megger. It comes with avariety of scene selections, a macro mode, face trackingand controls for ISO, exposure, white balance and coloureffects. We especially liked the inclusion of a timer switchfor those group shots. Images turned out well for a phonecamera, and it took surprisingly good night shots. Imagestaken indoors in low light were a bit grainy, but that’s to be

LG’s Androidbreakthrough?

A couple of months after the sleek-lookingLG Optimus smartphone was launched, the Optimus One, a hashed up version

of the former, hit the shelves. KETAKI BHOJNAGARWALA tells you if this

Android-based smartphone packs in a punch

5 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

Another Android-based smartphone launched in themarket recently was the Motorola Milestone XT720,

which promised to make up for all that its predecessor, theMotorola Milestone lacked. Despite a jump in the budgetbracket, this smartphone looks like it has gone the extramile in trying to pack in all it can to lure you. Here’s howthe handset fares.

DesignThe Milestone XT720 features a more ergonomic designthan its predecessor. Its 2.7-inch high-resolution touchscreen is delightful to work with. Although it is muchslimmer than the original Milestone, the absence of aphysical keypad affects usability negatively.

User interfaceAs far as the UI is concerned, absolutely every kind ofmotion is as smooth as silk, and the widget screens arewide enough for you to pack in your apps. The processorlets you run all applications without any hiccups, and weable to run four apps simultaneously. The XT720 also doesa great job in contact integration with Google.

MediaThe 8-meg camera is great for outdoor photography and itcan also record HD videos at 720p. The audio player isgood enough to give the iPhone a run for its money, whilethe FM radio manages to catch clear signals.

ConnectivityThe XT720 features Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 and GPRS;and 3G and wireless connectivity is seamless. It also fea-tures great GPS functionality out of the box.

Applications such as QuickOffice, Motonav, MotoPhone Portal and a PDF reader are pre-loaded.

One new software add-on is the magnifying glass for thetext fields. Essentially, it brings up a small magnified areaabove your thumb, showing you where your cursor is.

The battery life of the XT720 is impressive. Its prede-cessor, the Milestone, did have issues with battery life, butthat has been rectified here, with the battery lasting usclose to a day with maximum usage.

All in all, the Milestone XT720 is a joy to use and a greatAndroid phone.

Love – Good touch response and media capabilities, longbattery lifeHate – Lack of physical keypad, no memory hot-swap

Ratings

Aesthetics :

Features :

User interface :

Value for money :

Rs 27,490CHIP

expected from a phone camera. But like we mentionedearlier, an LED flash would have been a welcome additionto the camera.

The P500 supports practically all email accounts, in-cluding MS Exchange, and even prompted us to set up aGoogle account the first time we started up the phone. Italso has a handy Gtalk client.

No phone of today would be complete without Face-book and Twitter integration, and the P500 supports syn-cing for all your SNS contacts. We liked the fact that thephone displays SIM and SNS contacts separately, so wecould differentiate between them.

PerformanceThe P500 is powered by a 600 MHz processor. We didn’thave any problems with multi-tasking when it came tousing the media player. It even worked with the cameraon, which some phones do not support. We were able torun Facebook, Gmail and Gtalk in the background and usethe phone normally, without slowing down any processes.

The phone comes with a built-in accelerometer, al-though it wasn’t very sensitive, sometimes taking a whileto switch between portrait and landscape modes. Therewere rare cases when the touch screen became unrespon-sive, leading to a lot of stabbing at the screen.

The phone comes with a standard Lithium Ion 1500MAh battery, and the charge lasted us two days with acouple of hours of talk time, and social networks logged in,which was quite impressive.

Call quality was also decent. The phone has a proximitysensor, which worked flawlessly, locking the screen when

we were on a call. We were able to hear our callers clearly,and they didn’t complain of too much background noisewhen we were outdoors.

While we had no problems with the screen, it didn’t faretoo well under direct sunlight. However, for the price LGis offering the phone at, you can’t expect an AMOLEDscreen.

Our verdictOverall, the P500 was a pleasure to use. It didn’t slowdown when overworked, and the battery life was great. LGhas finally got it right with this phone, but we think it canstill do better. We’re hoping to see a high-end smartphonefrom the company that will give competition to the likes ofthe Nokia N8 and Samsung Galaxy S, but until then, this isone of the best ‘starter’ smartphones out there.

Love: Good battery life, media friendlyHate: Clunky looks

Ratings:

Aesthetics:

Features:

User Interface:

Value for money:

Rs 13,500

Yet another Milestone!

Send feedback to ketaki@thehindu.co.in

6 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

SOFTWARE profile

Ketaki Bhojnagarwala

Apple revolutionised the way we used softwarefor capturing and organising the images of oureveryday lives and also met our other medianeeds. Comprising of iPhoto, iMovie, Garage-

Band, iWeb and iDVD, the iLife bundle changed the waywe used our photos, made movies, edited music, createdwebsites and made DVDs. Apple has now launched iLife’11, which has updated versions of iPhoto, iMovie andGarageBand.

iPhotoOne of the first things we noticed when we started upiPhoto was the inclusion of a full screen mode. When thatis selected, the photos used up all that screen ‘real estate’,as Apple put it, keeping only essential controls for iPhotoat a one-click distance. We viewed iPhoto on a 27-inchiMac, and the results were stunning.

iPhoto is also Facebook friendly now, and we were ableto link up our Facebook account to the Mac. This applica-tion let us post photos from iPhoto directly toour Face- book wall, and even

select a photo tomake it our profilepicture. There isalso a handyside-bar that

displays real-time com-ments friendsmake on Face-book photos,

so we didn’t ac-tually have to log into our ac- count to viewour photo notifications. There is also the option of linkingup MobileMe and Flickr accounts to iPhoto, which is areally useful feature, especially if you’re a photo buff likeour team.

Similarly, iPhoto also has email support now. We had noproblems linking up our Google account, but it also sup-ports practically any email provider out there, so you don’thave to worry. The software let us choose our photos,place them using one of the eight customisable themes,and send it to any of our contacts, without exiting iPhoto.And the best part, emails we sent appeared exactly like wesent it, so there were no formatting issues to deal with.

There are a couple of new slideshows that have been

added as well; we especially liked the Holiday Mobile onewhich displayed photos as if they had been strung up on amobile. iPhoto also lets you create gorgeous letter presscards, which you can customise with your photos and text.These can be ordered from Apple itself, but we’re not sureabout shipping rates to India.

iMovieIf you thought that the new iPhoto sounds revolutionary,then iMovie will definitely blow your socks off. One of thenew features Apple has added to iMovie is trailers. First,you have to pick out a theme, from one of the 15 that areavailable, including two new themes – ‘News’ and ‘Sports’.We chose ‘Adventure’ for our footage. You also get topersonalise cast and credits for your theme. Once that’sdone, iMovie brings up some ‘Animated Drop Zones’which prompt you to add certain scenes, such asAction Shot or Group Shot. You can leave the restup to the software, which will take the requiredamount of footage from each scene youuse, and create a Holly-

wood-style trailer. Apple even throws in original sound-tracks by the London Symphony Orchestra that have beenrecorded at Abbey Road Studios.

An additional control that we found particularly usefulwas the ‘people finder’ tool, which tracks people in yourvideos and narrows them by a single person, two people, ora group, so that makes finding your required footage mucheasier.

Another feature we found really easy to control was thesound in our different clips, because iMovie shows youcolour coded waveforms, which you can adjust simply byselecting and dragging. This helped us regulate volumebetween different scenes.

For professional movie-like effects, we were able toselect a particular scene and apply a special effect, such asSlow Motion, Fast Forward, Instant Replay and Rewind.

And of course, once we made our clip, it was easy toupload it from iMovie itself to Facebook, YouTube andMobileMe.

GarageBandGarageBand can turn an amateur recording into a studiofinished product, without you having to do all the work.This is combined with Flex Time. What this does is basi-cally display your recording as a wave form, which lets youelongate or shorten specific notes. This worked especiallywell for guitar riffs.

For more detailed control, we tried Groove Match-ing. This comes in handy if you’re doing a bandrecording – and working with guitar, bass, key-boards, and drums. If your tracks are out of rhythm,you can select a particular track - for example theguitar riff – as the Groove Track, and GarageBandautomatically adjusts any other track you selectto match it, so you have a uniform result.

GarageBand continues to teach you how toplay music – including Blues, RockGuitar, Classical, Pop and Jazz Piano.Apple has added 22 new lessons tobring it to a total of 40. If you wantto know how you played a par-ticular track, you can recordyourself, and GarageBandwill highlight your perform-ance with coloured notes anda progress bar.

Rs 2,800

‘Life’ lessons from Apple

7 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

COMING soon

France won five of the nought-ies Championships. Can one ofthe home nations’ cauliflower-eared squads reign supreme in2011? Ireland, England andWales all have a chance. Theaction kicks off February 4.

Rugby Six Nations Championship

Johnny Depp voices this off-beat animation about a chame-leon who becomes a reluctanthero in a spaghetti western-style plot. Yes, that old chest-nut. An animated Hunter S.Thompson makes a cameo ap-pearance when it debuts onMarch 4.

Rango

Bio terror and espionage, 20leagues under the sea. Thisplot-heavy thirdperson shooterboasts stunning set-pieces andintelligent gameplay and looksset to be an aquatic Metal GearSolid. It’s out early in 2011.

Deep Black

Destined for production inearly 2011, Intel’s first foray in-to the mobile market will be alightweight variation of theAtom processor that gracesmost netbooks. Can it dentQualcomm and ARM’s marketshare?

Intel smartphone processors

3months

6months

The overwhelming success of2009’s stag do comedy didn’t gounnoticed by the Hollywood ex-ecs and the inevitable sequel isscheduled for release on May 26,2011. All of the original cast havesigned up for another heavynight.

The Hangover 2

Warhammer’s elite super sol-diers are marching out ofGames Workshop and into theworld of online gaming. The re-sult is tipped to be one of thebiggest MMORPGs aroundwhen it launches in spring 2011.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

When Steve Jobs walks out onstage at Apple’s June 2011 an-nouncement, he will be clutch-ing the sequel to the iPad. Theaddition of a webcam for videocalling looks like a near certain-ty, but what else will Apple add?

iPad 2

The 65th Festival du Canneswill take place from May 11-22and, as usual, it will be theChampagne-swilling, celeb-crowded testing ground formany of 2011’s best films, frombig screen blockbusters to low-budget arthouse flicks.

Cannes film festival

9months

The final region to flick theswitch on analogue TV will beLondon. From the end of 2011everyone in the UK will need adigital TV or set-top box to viewthe latest episode of Eastenders.Make sure you warn your aunt…

London’s digital switchover

The adaptation of the novel WarHorse is currently enjoyinghuge success as a West Endshow, complete with a massivewooden horse. Now the equi-nethemed war story is gettingthe big-screen Spielberg treat-ment. Out August 2011.

War Horse

Rage

Originally due to launch in2009, this ultra-violent blend ofpost-apocalyptic first-personfragging and dune buggy racinghas been given a new releasedate of September 15 2011.Available on PC, Xbox 360, PS3and iPhone.

Wii 2

Nintendo executive SatoruIwata recently revealed thathe’s hard at work “studying anddeveloping the next console toWii.” The tech inside is said tobe “surprising”. Will it followthe Nintendo 3DS’s lead and en-ter the third dimension?

This material is translated or reproduced from T3 magazine and is the copyright of or licensed to Future Publishing Limited, a Future plc group company, UK 2010. Used under license. All rights reserved.

8 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

AUTO focus

Photos: S. Muralidhar

S.Muralidhar

The Skoda Yeti is as rare a species as the mythicalcreature it is named after.

In terms of design it is a soft-roader, a met-rosexual’s testosterone fix. It is neither an over-

sized hatch nor is it a true-blue sports utility vehicle. So, ifyou were to buy the Yeti, you’ll not get the road presence ofan SUV, but you’ll also not be the target of Jairam Ra-mesh’s ire!

There are other crossovers that have already beenlaunched in the Indian market in the same price segment.And yet, the Yeti is likely to stand out and prove itself to beas unique as its namesake. Unusual in design, and unusualoff-roading capabilities for a soft roader, the Yeti will seekto create an altogether new sub-segment in the car market.

I spent some quality time with the Yeti a fortnight ago,had a few not-so-abominable experiences and here are mydriving impressions.

DesignThe Yeti’s design is a bit like the furry, cuddly stuffed toyversion of the mysterious, gigantic snowman that is ru-moured to live in the Himalayas. Its design is pretty imagi-native though and there is enough versatility in the designto allow the Yeti to be fairly capable on rough, uneventerrain.

The Yeti is more compact than it seems in these photos.Its overall length is only 4,223 mm, just about 10 per centmore than the average B+ segment hatch. But, thanks to itsshort overhangs and smart design, it manages to pack inconsiderable space inside the passenger cabin.

At the front, the Yeti sports classic Skoda design traits. It

shares the Laura’s underpinnings and of course, a lot of thelatter’s lines too. The classic bonnet ridge engine with thecompany logo at the centre of the grille, the vertical slattedbonnet grille, the ‘squared-off’ wheel arches are all designelements that come from the Skoda gene-pool. Lending itthe ambitious off-roader looks at the front are the head-lamps and the uniquely designed and integrated circularfog lamps. The fog lamps are offered with the corneringfunction, where they light up gradually to illuminate theblind spot at the corner every time the vehicle is negotiat-ing a turn.

In addition to the fog lamps, the over-sized front bum-per also features a large airdam. With a dual-tone (bodycoloured and unpainted black plastic) finish, the frontbumper also integrates within its design an underbodyprotector, further enhancing the Yeti’s off-roader looks.

From the side, the Yeti seems to have been endowedwith a unique floating roof. With a blacked-out A-pillar

and a blacked-out C-pillar at the rear, the roof seems to beonly supported by the B-pillar. In fact, the rather invisibleC-pillar gives the impression of a wrap around the rearglass too.

While still standing beside the Yeti, the other featuresthat catch the eye are the large door mirrors with in-tegrated LED turn indicators and grab type door handles –like the Laura’s. Though I am not sure how rugged oruseful they will be, the elegantly designed roof rails makethe Yeti look more SUV-like. 16-inch alloys don’t fill outthe wheel arches, but are probably the more practicalchoice in Indian conditions.

The Yeti’s rear features a vertically opening hatch doorand since the design features a very gradual rise upwardsat the rear and the rear overhang is shorter, the departureangle also seems to be larger than the approach angle, avery helpful design element if you happen to take the caroff-roading.

InteriorThe passenger cabin of the Yeti looked very familiar. Theoverall layout of the dashboard and a number of otherinterior design elements have been carried forward fromthe Laura. The Yeti’s interior sports leather seats, a dual-tone colour theme, wood trim inserts, dual-zone automat-ic climate control with separate vents for the rear bench,steering wheel mounted controls and an integrated multi-media system with touch screen, which also doubles up asthe display for the ‘Parktronic’ warning system. The dis-play can also potentially deliver traffic information.

With a large glass area on all four sides, the Yeti’sinterior is airy and well-lit. A wheelbase of 2,578 mm

For the ‘Adorable Showman’

9 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

(same as the Laura’s) and an overall width of 1,793 mm,also ensure that there is ample shoulder room and legroominside the Yeti. Predictably, the interior also has oodles ofheadroom – will come in very handy if the Great Khalidecides to ask you for a lift.

The uniqueness of the Yeti’s interior lies in what Skodacalls the VarioFlex Space Management system. The Yeti isnormally a five-seater, but thanks to the system, you canmove the rear seats on rails or just remove them all-together. So the Yeti can be converted into a four-seater, athree-seater or even a two seater, if more space at the rearis needed to accommodate large objects. Storage capacitycan go up from 416 litres in the luggage area to 1,665 litreswith all the three rear seats removed. However, yankingand lifting the seats off the car is quite a heavy duty task.

Engine and performanceThe engine in the Yeti is the same two-litre power unitthat is available in the Laura. The 2.0 TDI CR/ 103 kWdiesel engine is the re-rated version of the 1,968cc unit thatwas originally offered with a lower (110 bhp) peak powerin the Laura. Sporting a turbocharger with self-aligningblades, this 16-valve unit is now rated at a higher 140 bhpof peak power that gets delivered at 4,200 rpm. Peaktorque of 320 Nm is generated from as low as 1,750 rpmand is available all the way up to 2,500 rpm.

The engine seems to be a good choice for the Yeti interms of performance, though for Skoda, sharing it withLaura also makes commercial sense. With 140 horsesavailable under the hood, the Yeti can be pretty fast onnormal tarmac and easily manages to cross 170 kmphduring my test drive. Straight-line stability is really good

and there was no sense of trepidation that I was driving afairly tall crossover. Rated top-speed is said to be 185kmph.

The engine is mated to a six-speed manual transmissionthat is pretty closely set. Crank the engine, slip the Yetiinto gear and press the throttle, and the engine turbo-charger takes just short of a second to spool up. Once it ison the boil, there is a lot of power on tap in every gear.With easy, clear slotting, the shift stick in the Yeti is also apleasure to use and there was no feeling of this being ahulking crossover even during very tight overtaking ma-noeuvres.

To truly boost its off-roading prowess, the Yeti getspermanent four-wheel drive with automatic torque distri-bution. The Yeti’s 4X4 system gets an advanced Haldexclutch, which in coordination with the braking systemsdistributes torque to individual wheels based on slippageand terrain-based requirements. As much as 90 per cent ofthe engine power can be directed to the rear wheels,including up to 85 per cent to just one wheel to preventslippage, enabled by the electronic differential lock.

On sandy, slippery terrain the Yeti held its head up,managing to pull out of the challenges that it faced onsome of the ‘kutcha’ tracks surrounding the Yamuna nearDelhi, where I had tested it. Some of the electronic aidsthat help the Yeti deal with rugged terrain come in theform of the Off-Road Assistant package, which includesHill Descent Control, Drive-Off Assistant and the Off-Road Traction Control.

BottomlineThe Yeti has other safety features including ABS with

EBD, six airbags, active front head restraints, Parktronicand automatic rain-sensing wipers. The Yeti offers consid-erable personalisation options such as a steering that canbe adjusted for rake and reach, the driver’s and frontpassenger seats can be adjusted for height, better lumbarsupport and legroom,. But all of these are manually ad-justable only.

The Yeti is a classic Skoda in its build quality and overallfit and finish. But it is targeting a small niche of buyers andthere is a good chance that some of them may have consid-ered the Laura too, before being swayed by the Yeti’scharms.

For some buyers in this segment, the Yeti might also falla bit short in terms of overall refinement levels. There wasa slightly elevated level of wind noise and road rushintruding into the passenger cabin during my drive. Andthough the manual transmission can be fun if the Yeti isowner-driven, it might be a bit ‘lurchy’ if it is chauffeur-driven.

The suspension of the Yeti is very European in its set upand is ideal for off-roading and high-speed travel. But,during low speeds on bad quality tarmac, the ride can get abit uncomfortable. The Yeti is offered with two variants –Ambiente and Elegance and has been priced at Rs 15.40lakh and Rs 16.62 lakh (both ex-showroom, Delhi).

The Yeti will fill out the ultra-niche that it is prettymuch creating. Apparently, there are already over 1,000takers for the Yeti.

Unlike its mythical namesake, the Skoda Yeti may not beas rarely sighted on the roads, after all.

Send feedback to muraliswami@thehindu.co.in

10 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

From top (clockwise): Interior of the Yeti, very Laura -like, but plush and comfortable for long drives

Engine too, shared with the Laura. Packed neatly into the bonnet, this 2-litre unit feels like an ideal choice for this soft-roader

The six-speed manual gearbox can squeeze the best out of the diesel mill in every slot. But an automatic option would have been welcome

Shot at night for effect, this picture of the door mirror with LED turn indicator is just one of the many premium features that the Yeti offers

11 December 1, 2010Smartbuy

luxury redefinedMELANGE

If Bohemian chic is yourpersonal style, thenPavers England’s latestAW10 collection ofhandbags and belts for‘her’ and socks and beltsfor ‘him’ adds a dollop offun glamour. Availableat its exclusive franchiseoutlets and selectlifestyle stores.Rs 699 to Rs 5,999(entire range)

Fashion fundas

Not around theknee, but your curvyself as you donFrench Connection’sexclusive bandagedresses. Take yourpick from the DaniCrepe dress or theRibbon Knit dress atits stores.Rs 4,299 to Rs 4,499

Wrap the bandage!

Passion fruit, flashing star, sugar & spice, lazydaisy and first kiss – Chambor goes charmingand colourful with its two-colour combo packof DUOH!2 nail enamel. Head to select lifestylestores and pocket free nail art tattoos thatcome with the pack.Rs 295

Delightful combos

Forever youngGetting you a tad bitcloser to your dreamof embracing youthforever, L’Occitane’sImmortelle Divinecollection does its bitwith its newest rangeof youth serum, anti-aging day cream andeye cream. Availableat its stores in NewDelhi. Rs 3,400 to Rs5,900

Ode to the waters

ST Dupont’s tribute to the calming blue waters takes the form of this deepblue Chinese placed lacquer Neptune limited edition pen, named after the

God of Water and the Sea. Available at William Penn outlets to order.Price on request

● Wall-mounted games and soft boards will keep yourfive-year-old happy. A dedicated scribble area will alsosave the walls. Instead of a black board, you could opt for aback-lit acrylic sheet that can work as a light box and ascribble pad. Wardrobe shutters fitted with blackboardsor acrylic sheets will also work beautifully.

● Bunk beds are no longer a novelty, but they cannot bematched for their space-saving property.

● Kids in this age bracket will have plenty of toys andbooks so make sure you have enough space to stow awaytheir playthings. This will also ensure a neat, clutter-freeroom. Dual function furniture – such as a toy chest thatdoubles up as a bench – will fit in quite nicely.

● Thematic furniture pieces can be used to weave in asense of fantasy or playfulness that is very important tothis age group.

● The fantasy element can also be incorporatedthrough wall art, designer wallpapers or bed linen.

● The colour schemes could be red, indigo, yellow,orange, bright pink and rust. These colours are better usedas accents, where you paint one wall in a vibrant shade andleave the rest neutral or white. This allows for greaterdecor flexibility.

● Make sure you don’t use chandeliers or other types ofsuspended lighting, especially above the bed. Wall-mounted and ceiling lights are recommended.

● As far as possible, lighting should be kept natural. ● Avoid hard flooring materials such as ceramic tiles

and stone. Vinyl, rubber laminate or wooden floors will bemore comfortable under tiny feet.

● If using area rugs, make sure they have a non-slipbacking.

PREMIUM interiors

Children’s rooms maybe fun to design but need to keep evolving in colours, materials and themes as the years go by to accommodate their changing tastes. Here are

some interesting havens for kids of different age groups

0-6 years

“I’m game for room arrest!”

● Music and technology play a big part in a teenager’slife, so you must consciously work towards bringing anentertainment/tech aspect into the space.

● Your children are now young adults, so do not forgetplenty of space for clothing, personal care products andmagazines.

● Posters can be mounted in a funky metal framewithout glass, which is backed with foam core. This makesit easy for the child to change the poster whenever hewants.

● Teen rooms also tend to sport a lot of graphicelements.

● Wardrobe shutters lend themselves well as a canvasfor graphic elements. There is an explosion of laminates inpsychedelic colours and striking patterns.

● Try and use neutral creams and browns. Then acces-sorise with colourful sheets and throw pillows, rugs andcurtains. For a shy teen, think of a brighter palette, withhues of maroon, purple and pink. For someone who ishyperactive, soothing shades such as white, blue, aqua andsea green are recommended.

● A teenager is sure to enjoy mood lighting. LEDs thatare funky and functional, rope lights in false ceilings,multicoloured motion lights and quirky shapes can helpchange the look of the room.

● Support the above-mentioned unusual lights withtask lighting in the study area.

● The room is a lounge for your child and his friends. Afloor- or low-height bed works the best.

● Since the focus is on a lounge-like ambience, bring inbeanbags, loungers and floor cushions instead of conven-tional sofas and chairs.

● Use wall panelling in coloured stripes or fabric,particularly in a girl’s room. Paisleys or retro patterns canbe an alternate to stripes.

● A wall-mounted dart board, or for the more intrepid,a black and white chess pattern on the floor, can cater tothe child’s indoor play needs.

● The colour schemes have to suit your child’s person-ality and temperament. Lilac and pale shades of blue andgreen can be offset by white.

● A sturdy, comfortable chair and a work table withadequate lighting are a must.

● Storage for games and books is very important. Toaccommodate your child’s hoard, create a shelf abovedoor-height running along the perimeter of the room.

● Create a loft bed that allows space below to house astudy area or a wardrobe. An alternative to a loft bed, is atrundle bed that will come in handy during those numer-ous sleepovers.

● Placing baskets to store odds and ends will provide amore organized look.

● Usually considered novelty lighting, children’s roomlighting is fun, with theme features like hot air balloons,air planes, sports cars, clowns, etc. Make sure there is agood mix of light. There should be one main light in theroom and ambient lighting in the form of lamps orwall-lights.

● Wood flooring works best for this age group as it iswarm and suitable for lounging around.

7-13 years

14-18 years

Better Interiors

The first thing that strikes as you glance at theChristophe Colomb is the sapphire glass dome that

bulges out from the dial and caseback. This ‘excrescent’covers a unique gryroscopic system made of 166 compo-

nents, 10 conical-geared wheels (with six spherical wheels) andsix ball bearings, and ensures perfect horizontal positioning of theregulating organ. Going a few notches ahead of the precisionseeking tourbillon, Zenith aims for exactness by minimising rate

variations due to the position of the watch on the wearer’s wrist.The best position for an escapement is the horizontal position whichensures the best amplitude for the balance and on which gravity isperpendicular to the components and does not disturb their rotation.Based on the design of a marine chronometer – the Christopher Columbus –Zenith’s latest ensures the stable horizontal position of the exclusive timepiecedespite the wearer’s movement and makes it an inviting buy for absoluteprecision seeking watch lovers who indulge in sporting activities.

BEYOND the hour

Anushya Mamtora

2010 has been an interesting yearfor watches. Doing away with hair-spring for a mechanical movement,eliminating the slightest error in

timekeeping by including rare complica-tions and letting you check the time ofeight time zones in one dial. These are but afew.

Technology and horology have had araging love affair since Louis Audemarsinvented the stem winding and settingmechanism in 1838 and continued throughthe invention of quartz, perpetual calen-dar, minute repeater and a host of otherfeatures and complications over the years.Even as we glance at our humble wristwatches, there is a one-second error that isbeing eliminated or the sunrise time duringwinter solstice that’s being accommodat-ed along with efforts to make the watchthe slimmest or the lightest.

For watch connoisseurs who are on thelook out for collectibles and for watch lov-ers who want to be clued in to the mostinnovative minds in the world of horology,here’s what the best brands had to offerthis year.

Ideas.Inspiration.Innovation.

The invention of the perpetual calendar was in itself acommendable feat. Automatically adjusting the watch’scalendar to accommodate for months with differentlengths and leap years was a complication that found it tothe feature list of exclusive watches. But Chopard hasgone a step ahead, a few rather, to feature a major compli-cation – Equation of Time- which shows the differencebetween true solar time (that of nature) and mean solartime (or civilian time). The period of time between twopassages of the sun is 24 hours just four times in a year(April 15, June 14, September 1, December 24) and the restof the year, the elapsed time is sometimes shorter orlonger. This difference between true solar and meansolar time varies from minus 16 minutes and 23seconds (on Nov 4) to 14 minutes and 22 seconds(Feb 11) and is called the equation of time –and is featured on the lower dial of thenew L.U.C. Highly complicated forsure, but a marvel, it is.

Chopard L.U.C 150 ‘all in one’

Ever since the hairspring was invented by Christiaan Huy-gens in 1675, it has served as the regulating organ of allmechanical watches. However, it came with its own de-sign limitations like sensitivity to gravity and thermalexpansion. Tag Heuer’s Pendulum Concept is the world’sfirst oscillator in a mechanical movement without hair-spring, replacing it instead with an invisible or virtualspring derived from magnets. It works at 43,200 beats anhour (6 Hertz). It eliminates the problem posed by theeffect of gravity due to mass, there is no loss of amplitudeand the movement’s frequency can be modulated on a verylarge spectrum of frequency without overburdening pow-

er supply. The result? Spectacular increase inprecision and performance. Patents

have been filed and are pending butthe world is waiting for it to be

unleashed in the com-mercial market.

Tag Heuer Grand CarreraPendulum Concept

Zenith Christophe Colomb

Have you ever played a puzzle on your wrist? TimePlayer lets you play a game of its own with its finger-operated timekeeping. Hamilton’s latest watch boasts afuturistic design where a totally flat 48mm by 42mmtitanium case is split into nine squares, eight filled withmovable counters and one left empty like a sliding puzzle.“These counters, separated by lines symbolising those oflatitude and longitude, enable the wearer to set and mea-sure time in the current location, plus three others.” Thebrand logo marks the current time and those of Dubai,Tokyo and New York are identified by colour coded print-ed names to match the colours of the individual watchdials. To set the time in a desired time zone the wearermoves the corresponding miniature watch to the centralsquare and adjusts with the crown. The remaining squarescan be moved around for some fun!

Hamilton Time Player

For globetrotters who shuttle between continents on busi-ness trips, the dual time zone feature in watches came as ablessing. Dior takes it to another level with the new Chris-tal 8, which displays the direct day-night reading in eighttime zones simultaneously – London, Paris, New York,Los Angeles, Dubai, Mumbai, Tokyo and Hawai. Sowhether you want to take a peek at the time in Paris beforeyou call your client or wrap it around your wrist as you hopin and out of charter jets, Dior Christal 8 fulfils yourtimekeeping needs. The timepiece dazzles in sapphirecrystals and mother-of-pearl dial in hues of grey, whiteand gold. The back of the dial completes a full tour in 12h,the disc which indicates the 8 time zones in 24h.

Dior Christal 8 Mother of Pearl

Seiko E-Ink: The world’s first EPD watch with an activematrix system, the E-Ink uses Electrophoretic Displaywith electronic ink technology but now with an activematrix display. This means strikingly clear display, richerrange of imagery and a four-shade grey scale for richgraphical expression with perspective. Piaget Altiplano: Piaget has set the record of craftingthe thinnest self-winding movement in the market at2.35mm. Moreover, the movement is cased in the Altiplanowatch which is 5.25mm thick, setting another record ofbeing the slimmest in its category. Harry Winston Opus X: Moving away from the tradi-tional fixed dial and watch hands, this watch uses a displayof rotating indicators mounted on a revolving frame. Itfurther strengthens the challenge by ensuring that thedials of each indicator turn in the opposite direction as theframe completes a full rotation, to ensure that the orien-tation remains constant. Vacheron Constantin Metiers d’Art Chagallwatch: Artistic brilliance rather than a technical one,Metiers d’Art’s dial features a ‘faithful’ replica of the ceil-ing of Garnier Opera House by Chagall, using the Genevatechnique of ‘grand feu’ enamelled miniature painting. Breguet Tradition Fusee Tourbillon: This Breguetin platinum gets a silicon balance spring with the brand’siconic terminal curve.

Other innovativetimepieces that made

it to the wrists