YESAH, The fashion brand all it girls will wear next year. 

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 3 minutes

2016 will definitely be an interesting year for fashion. After the rise and fall of many iconic brands and designers, there is a true renewal in the fashion landscape. One of the most expected brands next year is YESAH and we can already say that many it girls will be wearing it in 2016 and beyond.
yesah-fashion 
There are more than 80 million people working in the fashion/apparel industry around the world (source: fashionunited.com) that generate around $500Billion worldwide. It is hard to define but there are approximately 2 million fashion/apparel brands and when you are a young fashion designer, why should you start your own label as the market is over saturated? Probably the main reason would be talent. And talent is something that YESAH has to offer.
Behind this indy brand is young fashion designer Linda Hao. This Young artist was born in Shanghai and lives in Singapore. She established her brand in 2002 and draws her inspiration from Music and Film, 2 big passions in her life. These make her fashion energetic, vibrant, colorful and yet very well cut and confortable. It appeals to women who wish to live their life to the fullest.
Linda-Hao-Yesah  Linda-Hao-fashion-artist 
She did her final studies in fashion at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. Aside her fashion passion, she became a DJ and together with a friend she started mixing for fashion brands like Chanel, Steve Madden or Topshop to name just a few.
From this parallel passion came a lot of creativity. YESAH has now 5 distinctive collections from fashion apparel to garments and accessories. In 2013, Linda Hao launched YESTOTES, a line of tote bags that became must haves quite fast. The brand started spreading via its online shop, shipping all items locally as well as worldwide. Every year, YESAH gets new distributors and already started a selected retailer network in Asia Pacific.
yesah-fashion  yesah-fashion-label  yesah-label-fashion 
In 2014, the fashion brand got worldwide visibility thanks to its participation to the Bangkok fashion week. Lots of press clips happened and today this young brand is ready to conquer the world. It is interesting to see that finally Asia is launching new strong talents that will take the lead after the asian wave of the 90’s with Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto or other Rei Kawakubo. If you wish to learn more about this brand, you can check the official website here: http://www.yesah.net 
Asia has a tremendous creative and historic background that will for sure shine in fashion and in arts in general. It is from the deep roots and heritage that we can build the talents of tomorrow. 

LA

yesah-fashion-it-brand 
Info sourced at Yesah website, wikipedia and fashionunited.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

The new HENK Carbon Attaché – Channel Your Inner Secret Agent

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 4 minutes

If you are a super agent from the MI-6, or if you have the adventurous spirit or simply that you wish to carry your precious belongings with style, the new HENK Carbon Attaché is for you. In the past, fashion paid little attention to attaché cases. Nowadays, just like an aesthetic suit, a high-class attaché case is part of a stylish appearance. Whether in everyday office life, on a business trip, or on an airplane – a HENK Carbon Attaché allows an imposing impression of the owner’s personality. Like all HENK products, the HENK Carbon Attaché offers a wide range of personalization and design options among them, the especially robust edges in various colours.

HENK-customization-cases

The new Attaché will allow you to carry your personal precious belongings everywhere you wish. All with style and timeless elegance. Yet, a clever design and high-tech material makes this Attaché as probable the best in the market.

For an authentic agent feeling, the bulletproof model of this unique attaché case is equipped with an interior protection against up to 44 Magnum bullets – an exclusive feature not only secret servants of her majesty appreciate. After all, among its hard shell, the HENK Carbon Attaché has a smart interior with many exclusive design options. Once a mission is completed, the removable humidor allows you to end your journey with a classy cigar – whether your name is Bond or not.

HENK-luggage-new-attache-carbon

With 1,600 – 2,500 g – depending on its equipment – the handcrafted unique case is extremely lightweight, despite its compact dimensions, and offers an incredible amount of space. In fact, the Carbon Attaché provides enough space to simultaneously accommodate a laptop sized up to 15”, an iPad, a removable humidor for up to 20 cigars and many other accessories. Its innovative interior design enables you to create more capacity at any time or hide important documents. The removable interior compartments for passport, ticket, tablet and writing utensils can be customised at your request. The HENK Carbon Attaché is a real smart case of unrivalled quality.

HENK-travel-case-new

Henk-Carbon-case-new-launch

The interior has been designed to allow the tablet and writing implements, for example, to be discreetly stored behind the flexible rear panel. Flight tickets, passports and business cards are easily accessible from the front. Your laptop is stored securely under a false bottom. If desired, you can either remove this false bottom to create more space or simply turn it around and place it on the actual bottom of the briefcase.

  • 1 laptop up to 15″ (e.g. MacBook Pro)
  • 1 tablet (e.g. iPad Air or iPad mini)
  • Two writing implements
  • Flight tickets, passport and business cards
  • Also a file/folder (up to 4 cm in width) or alternatively a newspaper or magazine
  • Up to 2 Glasses cases or necessary power cables or chargers

For extremely security-conscious clients, we also offer the HENK Carbon Attaché as a bulletproof version. For this version, the attaché briefcase cover is fitted with a special 10 mm thick insert that can withstand a 9 mm para to .44 magnum calibre bullet impact from a range of 8 metres. While the high security standard of the HENK Carbon Bulletproof Attaché reduces the storage volume in the case lid slightly, it also increases the security of the content and its owner. The weight is increased by approximately 500 gr.

Henk creates prestigious, high-qualitative and elegant luggage and travel- cases. From its R&D department comes innovative materials, design and customization. The HENK product family offers countless personalization possibilities in terms of both outward appearance as well as interior finish and features. HENK products are also available in luxury department stores in Germany, France, Switzerland, the UK, the Arab Emirates, the USA, China and Australia. For more information or specific request do not hesitate to connect to the brand official website: http://www.henk.com

LA

Info sourced at HENK official communication release. All information is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.  

How to Choose the Best Hair Products for Fine Hair

LuxuryActivist
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0
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Styling and caring for fine hair requires a specific set of considerations, as fine hair has dimensionally thinner follicles than thicker hair, meaning that some hair care and styling products can weigh them down and cause them to break, damaging your hair during the styling process. When choosing products for use on fine hair, ensuring that they will not cause damage to your hair should be the main priority. But with the average drugstore displaying around six hundred different hair care products, how do you know which ones are right for you?

Thickening Shampoo

When looking for everyday hair care products such as shampoo and conditioner, the best ones to choose are those which claim to add thickness or strength to your hair. You are often better off paying a bit more money for these products, or buying a salon endorsed shampoo and conditioner as you know it is more likely to be effective in strengthening and thickening your hair.

Products Specifically for Fine Hair

More and more hair care brands are bringing out products that are specifically designed for use with fine hair. This doesn’t just include shampoos and conditioners, as you can get hair mousse, hairspray and other products which will do just as effective a job as styling your hair but without weighing the follicles down or breaking them. Taking the time to browse for products designed for fine hair could make all the difference to your hair’s health.

Fine-Hair-problems

Use Clarifying Shampoo

If you use a lot of different styling products on your hair regularly, you will get a build-up which over time can weigh down and break the follicles and damage your hair, even if you only use products that are lightweight and designed for use with fine hair. In order to strip your hair follicles of product build-up it’s a good idea to use a good clarifying shampoo around once per week. This will ensure that your hair is easier to style and retains its volume and shine.

Deep Conditioning Treatment

On top of your regular hair conditioner which you apply after shampooing, you should also consider purchasing a deep conditioning treatment to use as well. Using a deep conditioning treatment at least once a week will help to minimize split ends and keep your hair in good condition as split ends contribute to splitting and thinning hair. Choose a deep conditioning treatment which contains the protein keratin as this will help to thicken and plump up any weak and thin strands of hair.

Anti-Humidity Hairspray

Humidity will weigh your hair down, and can contribute to fine hair breaking and splitting. You should purchase an anti-humidity hairspray to mist your hair with in order to protect it from humidity by keeping the air’s moisture away from the hair shafts. Using this each time you go outside on a humid day will help to keep your hair healthier for longer.

Looking to buy some great fine hair care products? Head over to www.beautyplussalon.com to browse their fantastic range!

Carol

Info sourced by the author for LuxuryActivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

Friday Chronicle #19: 2016 Digital Media trends to watch out if you want to outstand in the market

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 6 minutes

Digital-trends-strategy 
If the internet was an amazing evolution of how people would communicate and exchange information, Digital media strategies are the cherish on top of the cake. Digital brought stupendous opportunities to reach people all over the world with your brand message. Not all companies are doing it right though. It is a matter of skills,  courage to adapt and more than others, to have an innovative vision of what is coming ahead. So to open a window on what 2016 is going to be made of, here are a few hints that you should already be taking care of. 

Ad-Blockers, not a dream anymore. It is already a strong reality.

 It’s been already 2 years that everybody is talking about ad-blockers. These small yet efficient pieces of technology allow you to control if you want, or not, to display ad banners while you are browsing the web. So far it was a pretty technical topic, discussed by some IT companies. But this year, when Apple and Mozilla announced they would integrate the ad-blocking technology into their web browsers…. Well, this was a game changer. It became so easy to install an ad-blocker that a lot of people is already using it. According to a study ran by Starcom Media Vest group, 54% of the 18-29 years old and 41% of Millennials are already using an ad-blocker software in their regular activities.
ad-blockers 
 At the same time other studies show that 61% of consumers would be happy to interact with an Ad if this Ad would tell a story that fit their own interest. What does it means? Simply that the “quick-and-dirty” Ad banner is over. Brands need to engage in a more deep and thoughtful way in order to raise the interest of potential and current customers. Media owners have also an important responsability. Some very well known Media can host up to 6 to 10 Ads in one single page of content. Is it an intelligent thing to do? No. Does this annoys the reader? Yes.
What happens if Media owners start having problems with Ad blockers? This means less advertising which means less money to support the editorial and content creation. Some Media like the Washington Post, will not give you access to their website content if you are using Ad-blockers. They think Ads are useful and that you should accept them if you appreciate the editorial line of the newspaper. Definitely a hard position to maintain in a world where the access to the news get easier and easier, cheaper and cheaper. The solution? Brands should pay more attention to the kind of messages they display and publishers should think about their user experience. By the way, some websites look much better with an Ad-blocker and no banners visible. 

Virtual reality, not that virtual anymore

2015 saw an amazing breakthrough in terms of Virtual reality (VR) democratization. From the video game industry to Brands and inclusively the Media owners, everybody tried and used virtual reality. The days of the red and blue 3D paper glasses are over and forgotten. Now it is the era of Oculus Rift and other Google glasses. The New York times developed an interesting experience with their subscribers. By sending to them a Google cardboard to be used with your phone on it, this would allow the users to have a true virtual reality experience.
International-new-york-times-vr 
Companies like Sony, HTC, Disney, Time-Warner or Facebook are already investing millions of dollars into VR companies and technologies. According to certain experts, the content market for VR in 2025 will represent a toral business of $ 5.4 billion. It is probably the biggest evolution in the digital world since the arrival of Social Media. Luxury companies are also testing VR a lot. Jaegger-Lecoultre, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, il already introducing VR into their point of sales. From the Automobile industry to luxury and high-tech, 2016 will definitely represent a shift in the use of VR.
Oculus-Rift 

Social Media is overtaking Search, the power of mobile.

2015 was a shifting year. Two main evolutions that are definitely reshaping the way people interact with brands. The first shift is about Mobile and the second is Social media. The world went from mobility (physically) to mobile (the device). Today there are more internet connnected activity via mobile devices than desktops/laptops. This means that the user experience is pretty different from what they have been used to. And probably some people will know your brand only via mobile. So when it comes to web developing, we do not say anymore “mobile friendly” or “mobile first”. We just develop now a mobile website that can potentially be browsed from a computer. Most of companies now have between 54 to 75% of mobile traffic and this represents a true challenge. Touch screens and smaller screens represent a complete different experience than our larges desktop screens and mouses. Because mobile became crucial in how people interact with content, the rise of Social media was innavoidable.
Social-Media-mobile-device 
Social Media became a true revolution in the online landscape. Today there are 2 billion people connected to the internet around the world. 1.5 billion of these people have (at least) a social media profile. When we know that the next billion will connect within the next 5 years, we know that Social media will take over the rest. Social media will be the main source of content and probably the way people will engage in the online world. It is already a reality. There are more people using social networks to discover content than people using a search engine. Social media overtook Search. Naturally, several social networks developed their platforms on mobile, and even on mobile only. This was the case of Instagram or snapchat. Using the exponential increase of mobile, these social networks became part of people’s daily reference in terms of content discovery and consumption. Now that Facebook started their Instant Articles program, publishers will directly publish their content in the platform, so no need to maintain a website anymore. Just publish it where the people are. In this case you just provide content, not your brand experience. Social media is today the battlefield of user engagement, especially among younger generations. The luxury industry embraced social media quite soon, as they immediately understood that it would be a channel for potential luxury news. 

We could also add other interesting trends such as digital payment at point of sales, the death of Flash and even the overtaking of tablets over computers. The digital universe is changing, evolving and things that were theories are now reality. Sometimes you wonder how could you survive half-day without your mobile phone. This is because you can manage your entire life from the palm of your hand. 

LA

 2016-Digital-Trends 
Info sourced at Starcom Mediavest group, Forbes, Internet Statistics and Mashable. All information is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

Top 3 American Luxury brands to watch out in 2016

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 4 minutes

2015 is almost finished and we can already say it was a great year for American luxury brands. With 4% of growth, while economic crisis is high, the sector has deployed a tremendous amount of inventiveness and kept its investments towards innovation, design and appropriate messages. Concerning the US, American luxury brands have regained popularity and here is a top 3 of the best American luxury brands to watch out in 2016.
American-luxury-market 

USA, the absolute giant in the luxury industry

The US is the biggest market in luxury goods in the world. With $77Billion sales in 2014, it ranks 2.6 times higher than the second luxury market in the world which is Japan (with $30Billion). 2015 turns to be one of the best performing years to the US with an expected GDP of +3.3%. Inflation remains at 1.9%, this means consumption power has increased in the national market. Tourism has also evolved, several wealthy tourists contributed to the growth. Last year Chinese made more than 2 million visits to the US, many of these visits included shopping trips.
As well as being the world biggest luxury goods market, the USA boasts the largest high-income population in the world with 21.3 million people with an annual gross income over US$150,000 in 2014. This is significantly ahead of other top 5 countries with the largest high-income populations (China with 2.9 million; Japan and Germany with 2.5 million each; and France and the United Kingdom with 1.9 million each). 

With such a strong market, many American luxury brands have found the strength to conquer the world and to expand. Here are our top 3 brands to watch in 2016. 

#1- Coach, leather bags are for ever a woman’s best friend

Coach, Inc. is a luxury fashion company based in New York City. The company is known for accessories and gifts for women and men, including handbags, men’s bags, women’s and men’s small leather goods, footwear, outerwear, ready-to-wear, watches, travel accessories, scarves, sunwear, fragrance, jewelry, and other accessories. Coach was founded in 1941, as a family-run workshop in a loft on 34th Street in Manhattan, with six leatherworkers who made wallets and billfolds by hand. There are more than 1,000 Coach stores in North America, with more expected to open. In addition, Coach has built a strong presence in the U.S. through Coach boutiques located within select department stores and specialty retailer locations.
Coach-Inc-bags  
Coach-leather-bags  Coach-luxury-bags 

#2- Lincoln, American luxury heritage to conquer China

In the last motorshow in New York, we could see the revival of Lincoln automobile and the strong sales the American brand is reaching thanks to Asian countries where the American luxury style never went out of fashion. The Lincoln Motor Company is a division of the U.S.-based Ford Motor Company that sells luxury vehicles under the Lincoln brand. While currently sold primarily in North America and the Middle East, Ford has introduced the Lincoln brand to China in April 2014 and had their first dealerships in November. Lincoln vehicles are also officially sold in South Korea and Japan. Founded in 1917 by Henry M. Leland, Lincoln has been a subsidiary of Ford since 1922.

China is the biggest automobile market in the world. Last year, Chinese people bought 19.71 million cars. Sales increased by 221% since 2005. Lincoln will definitely be a strong player in the luxury automobile sector in Asia.
Lincoln-cars  
Lincoln-luxury-cars 

#3- Shinola, watchmaking is not only Swissmade

watches are Swiss. Fine, especially if they are luxury watches. But there is something specifically genuine about Shinola that makes it a very interesting brand to take care. Shinola is an American luxury lifestyle brand which specializes in watches, bicycles, and leather goods among items. Founded in 2011, its name is a nod to the former Shinola shoe polish company that was manufactured in the early- and mid-20th century. The current company is owned and operated by Bedrock Brands, a privately owned Texas investment group, and was launched by Tom Kartsotis, one of the founders of the Fossil Group retail conglomerate.
Shinola-watches-detroit  
Shinola-watches-USA-detroit 

The US luxury market has great years in front of it. With China recession and Europe still living thanks to tourism, the US represents a tremendous market for luxury brands and luxury know how. From fashion to jewelery, leather goods or cars, there are many luxury American brands that new generations of entrepreneurs can take exemple. From Michael Kors, Tiffanies, Coach or Calvin Klein, there are a lot of brands that can be inspirations for the future. Check here our review of American fashion brands. 

LA

 American Fashion brands Info sourced at Forbes, Time and specific brands websites and wikipedia. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

Say Good Bye To Warts With These Best Techniques

LuxuryActivist
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0
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Warts! Aww.. brings that gross feeling. No doubt they are quite uncomfortable and even unbearable skin disease. It’s a skin disease that is often hidden as most of them have fear that someone will make fun of that gross part. And even at times few warts bleed which surely brings that uncomfortable feeling. I am sure if you are suffering from such disease you would be looking for best way to get rid of that permanently. They are caused by a viral infection called Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and is a contagious skin disease. Well, now don’t despair you can get rid of these warts soon.

Explore some of the fastest wart removal methods:

One of the approaches to dispose the warts is through recommended medicines like cantharidin. This is controlled by doctors or health experts on your warts and spreads it with bandage. Cantharidin usually makes the skin under the warts to rankle; when it dries the health experts will uproot the dried dead skin along with the warts. This is powerful to few warts yet should not be utilized to abnormal warts with hair developing in them. Individuals having diabetes and other circulatory issues are not permitted to utilize this pharmaceutical.

Warts-problems-solution

If seen, drugs are additionally recorded as numerous ways to dispose of warts. Salicylic corrosive is a standout amongst the most well-known over the counter drug available in the form of pads, gels, plasters and drops. This is not prescribed for any diabetic patient and even not applicable to any touchy regions of the body like the face and groin. Utilizing salicylic corrosive regular can be compelling to a few individuals yet no affirmation as it’s not one of the permanent approaches to dispose of warts. There are possibilities of warts being grown over years to come.

No matter what you say freezing or Cryotherapy it is a way to freeze the warts with fluid nitrogen. You will have blazing sensation while the doctor solidifies the warts however not very excruciating. Healing doesn’t take long however your skin may get a tad bit lighter in terms of skin color.

Laser Removal is additionally one of the numerous approaches to dispose the warts. The specialists use laser to slaughter the injected virus through warts. This treatment is quite costly and a great many people utilize this treatment if all else fails when different approaches to dispose of warts have fizzled. This treatment may require a second or third treatment to be successful.

There are additionally home cures as the most well-known approaches to dispose of the warts. A portion of the home solutions for warts are utilizing duct tapes, lemon slices absorbed in apple juice and the utilization of banana skin on plantar warts.

Some of those regularly used methods as mentioned above could possibly be successful for few individuals. Some of those approaches to dispose of warts are excruciating and may leave scars on the skin. Individuals experiencing warts are in steady hunt of the most ideal approaches to dispose of warts. Warts if left untreated may grow more and spread to different body regions. In the event that your warts begin spreading more, you have to look for help and locate the most ideal approaches to dispose of warts permanently.

Did you realize that you can dispose of warts naturally? Have you attempted medicinal methods like freezing, smoldering or even surgery with little and no long haul results? Free yourself from costly and insufficient items, their reactions and the monotonous routine of putting unforgiving obscure chemicals on your skin.

Daniel

Author Bio: Daniel is a medical expert and a professional skin specialist in London. With this post, he is sharing few fastest wart removal techniques.

Warts-problems-solution

Info sourced by the author for luxuryactivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

The Best Places to Travel to as a Rugby Fan

LuxuryActivist
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0
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Every sport has its stadiums, its theatres, and fields where dreams are made. Football, cricket, tennis and many other sports all have their various hallowed grounds – and rugby union is no different. We’ve put together a list of the world’s seven top rugby union stadiums that you should visit if you want to really experience rugby at its best.

Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand

New Zealand’s largest stadium with a seating capacity of 50,000, Eden Park can suffer from changeable weather at times – but fans agree it’s a small issue. Right in the centre of the country’s largest city, it was the first stadium in the world to host two Rugby World Cup finals.

Auckland-Eden-Park

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia

Even though it’s built on top of a graveyard, this stadium is the first major Australian venue that actually started out as a rugby league venue. A triple-tiered, European style stadium with stands that creep right up to the pitch, it’s also been known as Suncorp-Metway Stadium and Lang Park.

Newlands Stadium, Cape Town, South Africa

Although a brand new stadium was built in Cape Town for the 2010 football World Cup and there’s also Johannesburg Ellis Park, it’s hard to beat Newlands. It’s South Africa’s oldest rugby stadium, and the backdrop of Table Mountain looming out of the stands is sure to capture your attention even if the action on the pitch doesn’t.

Jose Amalfitani Stadium, Buenos Aries, Argentina

Although rugby games do rotate around the country, this location has been the home of many memorable test matches for Los Pumas – although if you’re French you might want to give a visit to this stadium a miss, as Les Bleus haven’t won at this stadium since the late 1990s. One of the oldest stadiums in the country, the original wooden incarnation predates WWII.

Twickenham, London, England

Over a hundred years old, Twickenham stadium is the largest ground in the world that’s completely devoted to rugby union. Although the atmosphere can go a bit flat when things aren’t going the right way for England, the place can definitely rock, as the Six Nations finale against France proved. If you’re driving to Twickenham stadium, check out Twickenham parking as you’ll need to pre-book to get a space on the day.

London-Twickenham

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales

With a capacity of 74,500, many Welsh fans proclaim that this is the greatest stadium in world rugby. And, it’s hard to disagree with them when a game is in full flow – the noise generated by the fans during a game can be pretty impressive when the roof is closed. Right in the centre of Cardiff’s nightlife, and with a very affordable park and ride facility nearby, it’s a great location for those visiting.

Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

Previously known as the iconic Lansdowne Road, which dated back to 1872, Avivia Stadium has been recently going through a reinvention and redesign. Reinventing an icon is no easy task, but the grounds at Avivia have won awards for architecture and is also a firm favourite with a large number of fans. It’s a popular spot for rugby fans looking for a weekend away as the stadium is close to Dublin city centre.

Which of these stadiums have you visited? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Carol

Info sourced by the author for LuxuryActivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

Microsoft Surface Pro 4, the test by LuxuryActivist.com

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 12 minutes

This month I got the new Surface Pro 4 by Microsoft Switzerland and we could test it for one week. Microsoft has been investing for a longtime into the tablet/laptop technology and today Surface might represent the best alternative of all, far beyond the new iPad Pro that just hit the market in November.

MS-Surface-Pro-4-mood

Surface Pro 4, beautiful and elegant design

In terms of design, the new Surface Pro 4 has a modern and qualitative aspect. With its magnesium case and its 786gr, the new Surface Pro 4 has improved what Surface 3 do perfectly with some more advantages. By far it is one of the best good looking tablet in the market with the iPad Pro. Thinner than the Surface Pro 3, the weight is also very well balanced along the entire surface of the tablet, so the feeling is that it is lighter. The Surface Pro 4 has an interesting equation between size and thickness. It really gives you the feeling of an ultra-light laptop rather than a tablet. The case has magnetized parts that allows you to hook in the Surface Pen.

MS-Surface-Pro-4-sleek

Surface Pro 4, a true connectivity

As a true replacement of your usual laptop (and perhaps even the desktop) the new Surface Pro 4 comes with an interesting connectivity. It features a USB 3.0 port, a micro SD card reader and a mini-display port. This opens the possibilities to many external devices. Until all devices are bluetooth and all files come with your Cloud, the new Surface Pro 4 will definitely help you quit your laptop for good. Last but not least lets highlight as well the mini-display port that will allow you to connect your tablet to any external screen. This will allow you to use a bigger screen for your presentations or even for your office work. I am always wondering how efficient is the SD reader. USB Sticks represent a much wider and flexible storage option with a very low cost as well. SDs can be interesting if your Photo camera works on the same cards.

Surface Pro 4, the Display quality HD multi-usage

The new Surface Pro 4 has a 12.3 inches screen, called Pixel touch display. Apple call it Retina in the iPad and at Microsoft we call it Pixel Touch. Different technology and quite similar quality. The new Surface Pro 4 has an amazing resolution of 2736 x 1824, which makes a 267 dpi which is a little higher than the iPad Pro. I must confess that spending 2,5 hours of intense work in a train with the tablet, my eyes truly appreciate a high-resolution screen that is much more comfortable than a normal screen. Another interesting detail is the fact that the new Surface tablet has a touch screen. I realized that the combination of a keyboard and a touchscreen is definitely an amazing combo. The response rate of the touch screen is very good. The pencil is recognized even before you touch the screen with it and there are some interesting functionalities to raise like the direct usage of One Note just by pressing once on top of the pencil. We feel free on our movements, go directly to the thing we wish to do and keep the efficiency of a good keyboard.

Surface Pro 4, the keyboard is a killer

By far what makes this tablet outstanding is the quality of its keyboard. Each key has a true laptop feeling, it is retro-lighted and has a real true trackpad. Left click and right click, zoom in. zoom out, scroll… basically everything you can do with a true laptop trackpad. If you place the tablet on a table or a solid place, you will be able to have a great experience of typing. An interesting feature with the Surface Pro 4 is that you can re-position the keyboard angle in order to allow you a better comfort and efficiency in use. One little thing we could say about the keyboard is the noise. It sounds more “noisy” than a normal laptop keyboard but it depends alot on what you have placed the tablet on. Users who have purchased the Surface Pro 3, I would definitely recommend to purchase the new keyboard. You will win alot with it, especially if you need to write long reports and emails on the run.

surface-pro-4-keyboard-pen-tracker

Surface Pro 4, the storage capability is outstanding.

Today, Microsoft offers 4 storage options. From 128GB (which frankly might not be enough), to the monster 1TB (that is really alot), users will be happy to choose the right storage limit that correspond to their needs. Naturally the price will jump from “normal tablet” market to “real laptop here” position, so you better choose well. With the micro SD card slot and the USB 3.0 port you can also extend the capacity with external storage. If you were used to work with external drivers, you can keep them. This is definitely a great addition to the tablet market.

Surface Pro 4, two cameras and the face recognition is on!

The new Surface Pro 4 has 2 cameras, a front camera and a rear one. The front camera is a 5.0 megapixel 1080p HD camera. The read one has 8.0 megapixels auto-focus function and a 1080p HD camera as well. Thanks to the camera you can activate the Windows hello functionality. Windows Hello is a part of the Microsoft Passport credentials technology, which encompasses a mixture of biometric authentication techniques – such as facial and iris recognition or fingerprints, and a more traditional PIN sign in method. It works quite well as the password thing is pretty annoying. I have set the face recognition, so it helps a faster and easier access. Nevertheless, security is kept as you need to have your face in front of the camera.

surface-pro-4-details-hardware

The Operating System, Windows 10: the weakness.

As you were able to read here above, the new Surface Pro 4 has an amazing hardware. unfortunately the weakness is the operating system. Microsoft has tried very hard to improve Windows and we can say that after some unfortunate misleading with Windows NT and Windows 2000, Windows 8 and 10 have opened a new era in which all Microsoft devices would be treated under the same rule. No matter if it is a smartphone, a laptop or a tablet, all devices would be delivered with the same OS. This is my experience with Windows 10 on the Surface Pro tablet.

The language choice

First of all, the language choice. Switzerland has always been a challenge for foreign companies proposing products and services in the Swiss soil. Switzerland has 4 official languages: German, French, Italian and Romanche. To these 4 languages we can add more than 700 dialects of Swiss German and even English as there are so many foreigners living in Switzerland. So when you need to set up your device or/and services to Switzerland I agree it is a little “complex”. So with the Surface Pro 4 here is what I did. I set up the tablet in English which is the language that I am the most at ease. Then I realized I had a QWERTZU keyboard which is generally the keyboard type for Germany and Switzerland. So I needed to set up the keyboard as Swiss German and the dominant language English. Then I realized that I also express myself in French, German and Portuguese. Imagine the set up I need to have here. Naturally you need to install manually a new language package. At the end I cannot even see which language I am using or even which one should I use the most? Very complex.

Sharing the connection of my phone – limited.

Yesterday morning I took the train for the first time with the Surface Pro 4. As there is no WIFI connection in the train, I shared the internet connection of my phone. I could easily find the phone in the WIFI settings and connect to it. Unfortunately there was a message saying, connection limited. The tablet was trully connected to the phone but there was no internet connection. This was really very weird as it was the first time since 2007 and my first iPhone that I had such issue. I did not know what it was. I tried to explore the WIFI settings and did not find a way to unlimit this limitation. Last resource: I picked up my phone and checked online for an answer.

MS-Surface-Pro-4-problem

After typing on Google “Surface Pro 4 limited connection problem iphone” I got easily to a Microsoft page from 2012. This page explains that there is a bug in the OS that requires to restart the tablet everytime you connect to a new phone. I restarted the tablet and truly I solved the problem. Seriously? Anyway, at least I found a solution.

Internet Explorer Edge – took Chrome instead 🙂

With the Tablet, we get the new Internet Explorer Edge or Microsoft Edge. Microsoft Edge is a web browser developed by Microsoft and included in the company’s Windows 10 operating systems, replacing Internet Explorer as the default web browser on all device classes. According to developer Microsoft Edge is designed to be a lightweight web browser with a layout engine built around web standards, and Microsoft has committed itself to updating Edge to embrace new and existing standards that it does not yet support. It lacks support for legacy technologies such as ActiveX in favour of integration with other Microsoft services, such as the digital assistant Cortana and online storage serviceOneDrive. It also includes annotation tools and a reading mode. It was initially developed under the codename “Project Spartan”. Cortana is not yet available in Switzerland yet, so I could not test Siri’s cousin. 🙂 Unfortunately Edge has some issues in terms of language recognition. In the video you will see here below, the software was blocking me to type the words I wanted. I was really annoyed. So I installed Google Chrome. Since then, no problem at all. Sometimes less is more. I must confess that initially I tried to install Safari but Apple just did not launched Safari 6 for Windows. IT was still the 5 version, so Chrome was a much better deal.

Microsoft Office 365, easy to install.

One of my urgent needs was the MS Office. Without it I could barely do anything. Last month I got to test the new MS Office 365, so I decided to give it a go and install it in the new Surface Pro 4. I logged in from the tablet to my Microsoft account and I could install the new office in less than 15 minutes. I was on WiFi. You can read my full review here. I believe it was the fastest and easiest installation of MS office I have ever done. Everything works very well and all functionalities, including the Surface Pencil is well integrated.

Surface Pro 4 and my blogger life.

My greatest interest was to test the new Surface Pro 4 as a blogger and see how useful it would be for me. In general this experience has shown that nomadic people definitely need ultra-portability with power and true hardware. The new Surface Pro 4 has definitely a great advantage to most of laptops. Naturally it all depends on what you are trying to do. In order to summarize my experience, here are the Pros and Cons for a blogger life.

Pros

  • Ultra-light, ultra-portable, perfect for a nomadic life
  • Very elegant and edgy, so good to have it in a “representation mode”
  • Full compatible with OneDrive and MS Office 365
  • 9 to 10 hours of autonomy, great for outdoor work
  • Connectivity is perfect. Blogger means loads of USB sticks still
  • A very comfortable keyboard for hours of typing.
  • 8 Megapixel HD camera for in-situe photos and films

Cons

  • Not very easy to type on the keyboard while sitting in a chair with the tablet on my lap.
  • If you are (like me) used to Macbook Pro, you definitely miss power here.
  • The initial moments were pretty frustrating, some would have abandoned.
  • Windows 10 is not yet as good as the hardware.
  • I will loose the pen. The magnetic area is not enough strong for nomadic use

In general, what can we say about the Microsoft Surface Pro 4? In case you might wonder when you will change your laptop for a tablet, well this is it. The ultra-portability of the device and the association with a true non-mobile operating system will definitely make a big advantage. I believe that many companies will change their hardware from Desktops and laptops to Surface. Check the official website here for more information about the new Surface Pro 4: http://www.microsoftstore.com/

You can also read this other very interesting review here about the Surface Pro 4 by Digitaltrends.com:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/microsoft-surface-pro-4-review

It is interesting to see hybrids devices being launched. We started with Phablets, which is an acronysm between phone and tablet. Now with the new Surface Pro 4 we could say it is a Lapblet ? Somewhere between a laptop and a tablet.

LA

MS-Surface-Pro-4-mood

Info sourced at Microsoft official communication release and life test. Many thanks to Monika Staubli for the trust and the sharing. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

Egofacto, you can support French creation to shine – Ulule project

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 3 minutes

When was the last time you did something good to support a great initiative. If last time was a longtime a go, here is one amazing opportunity to support a great project. Egofacto is a French Perfume brand created with passion, perseverance and dedication. The French perfume brand Egofacto is expanding into new international markets. Here is its story.. They have started a crowdsourcing project on Ulule.

http://www.ulule.com/ego-facto/

Behind a great brand there is always a great man. Here, the artist’s name is Pierre Aulas. Pierre has many passions in his life. One of them is Perfumery. While he spend a lot of time helping luxury brands to create and launch amazing fragrances, he decided a little while a go to launch his own brand. Ego Facto is a gallery of portraits. 7 portraits translated into unique and marvelous fragrances.

With a very successful launch in France, and now in several European countries, Egofacto wishes to conquer, not only your hearts, but also the world. For that, the French Perfume brand needs your help. By creating the fund-raising project via Ulule, Pierre Aulas wanted to have a sort of win-win situation. You help supporting the brand commercial development and in exchange you get one or several unique creations. In some options you can even meet the creator.

Proud ambassador of the French know-how, each Egofacto fragrance is developed with the best ingredients and each detail is taken good care. It is not only about luxury, it is about doing the right thing – state of Art. By supporting Egofacto, you support the radiant aura of French savoir-faire that will shine around the world.

Pierre-aulas-egofacto-createur

This is how Pierre talks about himself:

“I was trained in Grasse and have spent 10 years imagining fragrances for some of the biggest names in perfume. Today, I am an independent olfactory creator and brings my creativity to some of France’s most elegant perfume brands. I collaborate on the creation of several widely successful fragrances that have rocketed to international stardom (Alien by Mugler / Angel eau sucrée / Chloé / MiuMiu / Flora Botanica by Balenciaga / Chrome United by Azzaro / Roberto cavalli Paradiso / Shiseido EverBloom…)”

Please check Egofacto page on Ulule and support a great initiative:

http://www.ulule.com/ego-facto

On Ulule you can discover and help make wonderful projects happen. These projects are successfully financed only if they reach (or exceed!) their crowdfunding goal. Wether you are a project creator or a supporter, this page will give you complete details on how Ulule works. Since its launch in October 2010, 10,777 creative, innovative or community-minded projects have been financed thanks to users from 169 countries.

Ulule-platform

LA

Egofacto-ulule

Info sourced at Ulule website and Egofacto project. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purpose only.

Flynn Maria Bergmann – “Outside the story” at Kissthedesign gallery in Lausanne

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 3 minutes

This week, Kissthedesign gallery in Lausanne initiated a new ephemeral exhibition around the Swiss artist Flynn Maria Bergmann. The exhibition is called Outside the story. The exhibition also features the artist daughter with Minikiss: Tennessee Lou MacDougall.

Kissthedesign-flynn-maria-bergmann

Flynn Maria Bergmann is a multi-talented artist as the gallery Kissthedesign love. Both poet and visual artist, he handles the words in all its forms: quotes, references, lettering, aesthetic metamorphoses, fragments or plastic compositions. Adept of the Wagnerian concept of Gesamtkunstwerk but in the alternative sauce, the artist seeks to invest space to offer an original experience to visitors. People are invited to take ownership of the work and of the exhibition itself. It is part of the exhibition that the visitor takes away part of the artist work. It is an ongoing process of collecting and reorganization, initiated by the artist.

kissthedesign-flynn-maria-bergmann-painting

Integral part of the device, the collector carries bits of history and continues the cutting process, collection and reorganization initiated by the artist. Thus, history can always be rewritten, take new paths, escape the framework of the book, linear dramaturgy, narration, of the gallery, to expand into new foreign or potentially rich contexts twists.

From art to prevail, why not? Cultural property pocket-sized, surprising for a poet. Flynn with the intervention of Maria Bergmann, Kissthedesign the gallery moved to operate a new concept unique shop halfway between the museum and the bookseller / store on the corner. Family history to Minikiss where Flynn Maria Bergmann encourages her daughter Lou Tennessee MacDougall to fly with his own wings with this first exhibition.

kissthedesign-new-exhibition-bergmann

The exhibition is until January 23rd 2016. You can buy each item. As mentioned, the artist first collected the different artwork. By exhibiting his art, he allows the visitors to get the ownership of his collection. It is a quite violent yet inspiring act for an artist.

You can visit the gallery website here to learn more about this exhibition, as well as about the shop. <
http://www.kissthedesign.ch

Trained in visual arts in the United States , Flynn Maria Bergmann is the author of a poetic work combining daily logs, coat of arms and erotic graffiti . Strongly influenced by his stay in America , and by writers and artists such as Charles Bukowski and Jean-Michel Basquiat , he presents this work in the form of installations, collages of large formats, poetry collections and artists’ books . He teaches at the School of Art of Valais in Switzerland. He is the author among others of a published artist in art & fiction book in 2007 entitled Ashland Chicago, blue flower published by Editions Navarino in 2008, and FM Fiasco appeared in 2013 in art & fiction.

LA

Kissthedesign-flynn-maria-bergmann-installation

Info sourced at Kissthedesign official communication and vernissage. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

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