Fashion 2.0 Meetup

I don't live in New York... but meetings like this always bring back that impending dread that I'm missing out by not being there. Thank goodness for the internet, though. This month Fashion 2.0 had a Fashion Design 2.0 Meetup in New York that included a guest panel of some really influential women in fashion and technology including: Kathlin Argior, Fashion Designer; Jen Groover, CEO of Jen Groover Productions, Trish Ginter, Co-Founder SmashingDarling.com; Karen Giberson, President, The Accessories Council; and moderator Yuli Ziv, Co-Founder of MyITThings.com (one of my favorite sites).

The discussion , as seen in the video below, gave insight to fashion and it's necessary evolution into Web 2.0. Some of my favorite points included the discussion of the impossibility of validating your business without a website, which would be like networking without a business card. However, the most intriguing point of the conversation was the discussion on web design. All the women agreed that having flashy websites can hurt sales more than help them and that "template like pages" make bigger sales.

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Career Bags For Fall

Last week, while browsing my list of StyleTwins I ran across a fellow StyleFeeder, bagguru, who had the most fabulous collection of career bags (laptop, organizers, gadget holders, etc.) that I had ever seen in one place. Of course, being the tech geek fashionista that I am, I dove right in and tracked down the link to the website that was feeding her StyleFeeder the awesome bags….the site with all the goodies was CareerBags.com.

Needless to say, it was a match made in heaven! Straight off, the site stated that it was “created by a working woman for other working women who refuse to settle for anything less than fabulous business cases, laptop bags, handbags and travel accessories”. To make a long story short, I contacted the working woman who owned Career Bags and Ellen Hart, aka bagguru, is the one of the most enthusiastic lovers of fashion and technology I’ve had the pleasure to meet. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, she is president of CareerBags.com, the leading online e-tailer for laptop bags, luggage and handbags for women. With a personal goal to help every woman bring out her personal style in her business life, no wonder CareerBags Fall 2008 selection is just what I needed…here are my favorite pieces:

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My So Called Dress Collection

Being geek is chic, and being a tech geek fashionista myself, I'm so glad this trend became hot. That's why I was very excited to stumble upon miss bruno's My So Called Dress Collection! According to Shirley Bruno, a co-designer of the brand, "The collection was inspired by our Island/City Girl complex, crazy graphic patterns on vintage fabrics, and fractals. Each piece, along with our so-called scarves are limited and handcut by us. No two pieces are exactly alike, they are each one-of-a-kind. And we don’t keep stock, everything is made to order and can be customized." How exciting is that? Below are a few of my favorite pieces:

The Chou Chou Set

RaRa Dress

Mary One-Piece

Tulip Dress

Visit the collection online and let me know what you think :)

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Get Your Dollars Worth From Your Gadgets: Pt 2 iPod Touch

I've heard it before (even though for the life of me I don't see why) "I don't want an iPhone". So you want to keep your handy phone and get an iPod Touch instead? Getting the most out of your iPod Touch is just as easy! In this 2nd part of Get Your Dollars Worth From Your Gadgets, I am going to focus on how any fashionista can get the most out of your iPod Touch. If you missed part 1 mobile phones check it out here.

Show off your portfolio
Are you a designer, photographer, or an artist that is looking for a great way to make their portfolio mobile without carrying around your laptop? Try Orb, a program that can turn your home computer into a media center by beaming any content to your mobile device, your laptop, your gaming equipment.. and your iPod. All you gotta do is download the program to your computer from Orb and then go to Safari on your iPod and log in to Orb from there... and bingo... instant connection for a small fee. Let's talk about a few gliches... first your home machine has to be turned on, secondly the quality of your images for your portfolio won't be as good as your originals, and thirdly your computer has be the best to really broadcast video... but your folders are still accessible on your iPod. Who wouldn't want that? Check it out at : http://corp.orb.com/en

Store all your important document
The best thing about an iPod Touch is your ability to store all your music and videos, and word documents... wait, you can't store word documents on an iPod touch, or images, or presentations, or excel data, or.. okay you get the picture. But where there is a will there is a way. For $6.99 you can download DataCase (<----this link will open iTunes on your computer) app for your iPod touch or iPhone that will allow you transfer other doc types to your iPhod allowing you to transfer them wirelesly form computer to computer. So now your iPod is an external memory drive to! (Source: TOUCHTIP)

Watch your figure

Stop staring at the menus on your lunch date with the girls! Don't worry about trying figure out how many calories your have left for the day, let Calorie Minder on your iPod Touch worry about it! This little app is full of features:

• You can get complete nutrition reports, including calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, saturated fat, sodium, water and all vitamins and minerals.
• Identify which foods are supplying the most fat, calories, carbs etc. in your diet.
• Set goals for your weight and track all your food and exercise. Count calories burned while running, swimming, bicycling or playing golf.
• Keep track of everything you eat or drink, even when traveling. Even on an airplane.
• Works on your iTouch even when temporarily outside of WIFI range.
• Calculate and graph every calorie, every nutrient, and every gram of fat, protein or carbohydrate in your diet.
• Calorie Minder is custom made for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and intensely user tested.
• Keyboard use is minimized. You can enter each meal in seconds.

Link: http://calorieminder.com/

Stay tuned for part 3 laptops later this week.

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Haute Mimi

Haute Mimi is an online publication for the international habitue and fashion devotee! Cool new site with a great staff of hip fashionistas and fashionistos and a talented Editor in Chief Millissa Mathai! Check them out... and while you're there check out my 411 on the first adjustable-height high heel shoe!

www.hautemimi.com

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My lastest at The Tastemaker Diaries...

Stand out in the iPhone crowd

I had to have the iPhone. I stood in line and talked with other customers abut Apple conspiracy theories, and waited, and admired my vintage Manolo heels I haggled for online at Ebay, and waited, and chewed gum, and waited, and text messaged, and waited until I finally got inside. But when I walked out of Cingular (cough) I mean AT&T with my iPhone, I didn’t feel special.

You see, usually when I buy ridiculously high priced gadgets, the guilt quickly leaves when I hit the office, a family function, or a party and someone says “OMG, where’d you get that?” or “That must have cost a fortune”. But this time everyone had a phone like mine… my nightmare had come true… everyone had an iPhone! As the resident Gadget Hound at The Tastemaker Diares, and in life, my number one fashion rule is to stand out with my gadgets. I’m not a trend fanatic, I’m more of a classic, like Jackie O meets couture. My gadgets, however, are usually over the top, Kimora Lee Simmons, f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s.

So how do you stand out from the crowd? You pimp out your iPhone! Here are ways to stand out with yours.

Add Some Color

At ColorWare you can customize your iPhone the way you want it. Change the iPhone, the rim of the iPhone, the SIM card holder, the earphones, and the docking station to make a fashion statement all your own. To customize all of the above you’ll probably spend about about $250. Basic customizations range from $20 to $150.

Read More @ The Tastemaker Diaries of course!

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Get Your Dollars Worth From Your Gadgets: Pt 1 Mobile Phones

You get home and tear open your new mobile phone box, you are so excited! For 300 or so odd bucks you got a cell phone that can do everything you every thought a phone could do. You think to yourself… why do I need a laptop or a desktop… and promptly take your two week vacation from work leaving your laptop behind. For a total of two gadget heaven days you and your new best friend snap pictures at the park, jam on the beach to Rihanna, and take bubble baths searching Google for native hotspots.... Ahhh.

And then the unthinkable happens, a ringing sound comes from your phone… is it talking back to you? As you look more closely you realize that it’s your boss and he wants that report emailed in pdf to him, immediately. With your laptop in California while you’re in Paris you look at your new mobile phone disgusted. Discouraged you hail a cab and head to the nearest library as you call the local hottie to say the private site seeing tour is off.

It didn’t have to be like that if you had took the time out to researched your gadget and realized that it can do more than you thought it could. Did you know that non technology experts use only use 1/3 of the technology they own? In this three part series, I’m going to give you tips on how to use your mobile phone, laptop, and iPod more effectively and hopefully leave your more to shop.

Mobile Phones

Tip 1: Skype is awesome… I know I love it, but it’s not just for your PC. You can make free voice calls from your PC and your smart phone… if it’s a Windows Mobile 6.1 device. To download just select the Cab file, store it in your mobile device, and launch it locally. But from experience, don’t try this at home unless you have at least 12MB of device memory space or 6 MB of external memory card space depending on where you install Skype; otherwise you’ll be forced to delete those summer picks of your best bikini shots (the ones you starved yourself for 2 weeks to fit into). And for all you fashionistas that don’t keep up with the latest gadgets, it’s also compatible with all the old Windows Mobile device. So call your sister and California and tell her to email you that report at no cost. To download Skype to your windows mobile device visit http://www.skype.com/mobile and to learn more about making calls from your cell phone visit http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/togo.

Tip 2: You really don’t need a computer to create and send documents in different file formats. All-Format Writer a freeware Java J2ME-based application that allows you to create and send out simple documents on the mobile phone in a number formats including OpenDocument Format (ODT), Microsoft’s Office Open XML (DOCX), China’s national electronic document format Unified Office Format (UOF) and Portable Document Format (PDF). It is available for immediate download at http://teavuihuang.com/allformatwriter. It is free for personal use and supports phones with J2ME & JSR 75 (FileConnection). e.g. Nokia 6120c, Sony Ericsson W810i etc. For more info visit http://teavuihuang.com/allformatwriter.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Laptops…. As always feel free to comment below for more tips or to give me your own! Also vote for this post and many of my others at MyITThings.

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The Office Master Contest

Our friends at The Office Master: Techniques for Cubicle Survival have a neat competition coming up that I think you guys would be interested in:

How TO Enter:

• Write a post on your blog about something related to the cubicle experience (whether it be weird gadgets, funny stories, helpful tips, or outrageous pranks…it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s either useful and/or entertaining). ** Bonus points if you link back to The Office Master!

• Post a link to your blog in The Office Master comment section to notify them of your entry.

The winner will be chosen by The Office Master and will receive one of the brand new Jawbone 2 Bluetooth Headsets!!

The contest begins Tuesday, August 5th 2008, and will end at 12:00 AM on Tuesday, August 26th, which means you have three weeks to enter.

Eligible entries will be judged based on:

• Creativity/Originality
• Usefulness/Entertainment Value
• Relevancy To Cubicle Life
• Overall Quality of Writing

So get into your cubicles and get to writing!

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Gadgetize Identity Theft

With the Department of Justice recently announcing it had charged 11 people in connection with hacking identities from credit card customers of nine major U.S. retailers, I couldn't find a more perfect time for the Ziszor! to come in the mail for me to test out. Ziszor! is the first premium, hand-held paper shredder to balance security with ease of use and portability.

Just 10 inches long and under 1 1/2 lbs, it can easily fit into your office drawer at home or right by the mail pile. And don't worry about the mess, Ziszor! quickly shreds paper wherever in a disposable plastic catch-bag. It's the perfect accessory for any tech geek fashionista with a sleek, glossy-silver and red look.

Pictures below show me testing out the Ziszor in my office and I was impressed by the quality and durability of the product. It comes with a letter opener, 3 disposble bags, and AA baterries all for an introductory retail price of $39.50. The replacement catch bags are a great deal too because when you run out you can get 30 for $3.29.

The Ziszor! is marketed and distributed by Ziszor! llc, a Chicago based company. Ziszor! can be purchased exclusively from the website, visit: www.ziszor.com Like This? Love This? Let me know!