This mobile phone offers the perfect combination of Scandinavian design and build quality together with Far Eastern electronics and delivers superb sound quality as well as multimedia and multi-connectivity functions essential to mobile phone users today.
Bring together any two other icons of the world of design and you are unlikely to produce a piece as beautifully crafted and functional as this. Whilst it feels a little awkward on first use, its interface is ultimately intuitive. Sound quality provided by the built-in speaker is outstanding, but if you prefer not to reveal to the world your fondness for the back-catalogue of classic ABBA tracks you can switch to the bundled feather-weight Bang & Olufsen EarSet 3 earpieces.
Oh. And it’s a great phone as well. With 3.5G, SMS, MMS, email and Bluetooth capability together with a 2.26” color LCD screen.
In the unlikely event that the Serenata is not a gorgeous enough unit for you as it stands, Louis Vuitton have crafted a separately available cowhide holster for it.
KD 500
Available from Bang & Olufsen, Al Fanar,
or bang-olufsen.com
Apple TV
Basically an ipod for all the movies and movie files you never got around to organizing. This smart little (20cm x 20cm) device allows you to store up to 200 hours of video material – DVD’s, home movies, YouTube content – to replay on your computer or directly through your TV. Mac and PC compatible, with wireless connectivity, and deliciously desirable, Apple TV does however come with one specific and somewhat curious caveat – that is that it cannot be used at heights above 3,000 metres. So, no in-flight use (no problem) and neither can we use it on the top of a mountain either. Can’t see that being a major drawback either. It’s a delight and another typically well designed Apple product.
Available at Digits stores at Marina World and Galleria 2000 in Salmiya, and Al-Kout in Fahaheel.
Dyson ‘Animal’
This little machine with have you hunting out dust and fluff just for a chance to be able to use it. Lightweight (1.5kg), perfectly balanced and with the suction power of a black hole the Dyson DC16 utilizes the company’s patented Root Cyclone technology to great effect giving twice the suction power of most other handheld cleaners. Great for in-car use (but not while driving). The motorized brushbar loosens trapped dirt, dust, and hairs.
Best to not use it directly on your pet cat unless the desired effect is direct excoriation.
US$200 at dyson.ae
Moleskine
We are loving the revived range of diaries and notebooks from Moleskine. If for the past two centuries their predecessors have been good enough for the likes of Van Gogh, Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and travel-writer Bruce Chatwin, they are good enough for us.
Today this little notebook, with its typical rounded corners, elastic closure, and expandable inner pocket has become an international symbol of nomadism.
Having ceased production in the 1980’s when the original manufacturer, a family business in Tours, France, closed its doors forever, the tradition of the notebooks was revived in 1998 by a publishing house in Milan, Italy.
We use our Moleskines to capture reality on the move and to preserve details and inspire us in a way that no electronic device will ever be able to do.
Pocket notebooks from around US$10. Larger sizes also available. See the full range of notebooks, city notebooks, diaries and cahiers at moleskine.com
Iomega eGo 250Gb USB Portable Hard Drive
This compact portable hard drive offers a stylish edge over others with its genuine leather cover and chrome end caps. Neat and slim enough to fit easily into a briefcase pocket. High capacity storage and a strong style statement all in one.
US$150 at iomega.com
First published in Men's Passion issue #6 September 2008
