Like his fellow members before him, Harry Styles took time to brush back his famous hair and get real, as part of the band's continued effort to become unofficial family to each and every fan worldwide. Not usually a man of many words, Harry spoke briefly about life before 1D and X Factor, back when he was was fronting a hastily formed band called White Eskimo and had never seen the sights of London. While X Factor was huge in helping him know whether was was "any good," launched him to teen heartthrob status and made him the latest piece of eye candy for older women to fantasy about, it also brought him to his one true love. "The fans call me and Louis 'Larry Stylinson,' because we get on really well," Harry said of fellow member Louis Tomlinson.
Ask any Directioner, and they'll likely have loads to say about the unspeakable bond that exists between Harry and Louis—check out the comment section of any 1D YouTube video for a start—whether its backed by those gentle stares or Louis' tendency to consistently boost Harry's ego or defend his minor case of kleptomania. It's all typical roommate behavior, of course, right next to the finger in the cup of warm water/underwear in the freezer bits. When they're not on tour here in the States and beyond, Harry and Louis continue the fun at home, sharing a flat together in London. Such a union of interior design styles and bedtime rituals has been a longtime coming. "Since we started in the X Factor house, me and Louis have always said that we wanted to move in together and that was pretty much it. It just kinda happened." When you were least expecting it to, right? Watch below.
(The new) Kindle eReader
The Irish Times August 14, 2010 | TOM KELLY Go Gadgets: Ah, the smell of competition! The launch of Apple's iPad, with its powerful ebooks app, has prompted a swift reaction from Amazon, with the imminent release of a new Kindle, its own popular electronic book reader. in our site bobble water bottle
In case you missed the arrival of the Kindle's predecessors and its e-cousins, this is a hand-held device that lets you read digital versions of books downloaded from Amazon. It's one of several similar non-paper readers which, while not delivering the tactile pleasure of turning the printed page, do allow you tote around a virtual bookshelf with hundreds of publications as easily as you would a well-thumbed paperback.
In the case of this new, third generation Kindle, that's a veritable Dr Johnson-esque library of 3,500 books, double its previous page count. Moreover, it bookends these into a smaller, lighter body reflecting that hoary old cheese puff about the electronics business that was so successful, they'd had to move to smaller premises.
The body has had a once-over too, with a new buffed, graphite finish and a claimed longer battery life. This Kindle still mimics the printed word with its black and white e-ink rather than iPad's full colour offering. This certainly gives the Kindle the edge when holiday reading in sweltering sunlight, but that may not be enough to make it an iPad ekiller.
Of course, they do get another bite of the ebook cherry as their own app for the iPad lets punters eread Amazon downloads there too. And they are obviously not ones to worry about killing off their babies, with this simply being called a Kindle, with no sequel- suggestive numerals or a Ludlum-esque Kindle Librarium, for example.
As admirable as all their technical nips and tucks are, it's at the pricing end where Amazon has sharpened up, with the WiFi-only Kindle just $139 (Irish customers are still being sent to the US site to buy).
Cost WiFi model $139 ([euro]106), WiFi 3G $189 ([euro]144), amazon.com Pod a Porter Neckband Perhaps the only inelegant note struck by this otherwise beautifully executed piece of product design is the pretension of its rather puntastic name. Almost as pompous as that opening line. Anyway, this is a very cool accessory, even jewellery, for an iPod Shuffle - the stamp-sized MP3 player from Apple. It's an ultralight neckband to hold your Shuffle and neatly channel the headphones around so they don't get twisted and tangled up in your clothes. These are crucial, because the player's extreme buttonism means the headphone cables have the Shuffle's controls built-in to them. Bust them and it's not so much Shuffle as muffle. in our site bobble water bottle
At the same time, the PaP holds the Shuffle itself of course, for when you're togged down to your exquisite basics for the beach or poolside. You can hardly tuck it in your thong after all: two wrongs won't make a right.
Designer Michiel Cornelissen has one more twist: each Pod a Porter is individually produced by a 3D printer in polyamide when you order online. In black, white and a range of iPodista colours.
Cost [euro]25, shapeways.com Water Bobble Not a typo, but a smart, eco-positive solution to getting filtered water on the move. So the travelling middle classes everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief. See, the good-looking Bobble Water Bottle has an active carbon filter that's good for 300 dechlorinated, decontaminated fill-ups. So it helps neutralise the environmental WMD that is bottled water. Plus, the Bobble itself is BPA-free, 100 per cent recycled and recyclable, for an all-round feelgood factor. Of course, there is the small matter of shipping it over here.
Cost $10 ([euro]7.50), filters $7 ([euro]5.50), waterbobble.com.betweenideas@gmail.com and betweenideas.blogspot.com TOM KELLY
