David Hockney's iPaintings

You still have time to see “David Hockney: Fleurs Fraîches,” an exhibit of images (flowers, places and people) created by the British artist on his iPhone and iPad.  It's at the Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent in Paris until Jan 30th. With “Brushes” and other apps, Hockney used his thumbs and fingers to create full-color images directly on the device’s screen, modifying the hues and

Can You Ear Me Now?

Now you can dress up your cell phone and all your other electronic devices with reproductions of classic paintings such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night. (And none too soon, I might add.) Van Gogh painted Starry Night (and close to 150 other oils) while hospitalized in St. Remy in 1889, following the cutting-off-of-the-ear incident in nearby Arles. (By the way, two German art historians recently said

Using Your US Cell Phone in Europe

Something I'm asked almost as often as "where should we eat in Provence?" is "what should we do about a cell phone on our upcoming trip?" Obviously there's no simple answer but BudgetTravel.com has taken up the topic so you might be interested in what they have to say. Click here for the first story and comments; here for the follow up.


Photo by Andy Hebden via Flickr. To see more of his work,

Feel Like You're Being Watched?

A cloud-free southern Europe was photographed from space in early March, with Spain (lower left), France (center), Switzerland (upper right) and Italy (lower right) all visible. Four mountain chains are clearly distinguishable: the Alps, Jura, Pyrenees and Massif Central. The western portion of the Alps is visible (bottom right) on the border of France and Italy. The Jura Mountains, north-west of

Google Scores on Super Bowl Sunday

Google broke with its longstanding tradition of not advertising its search engine on national television when it ran this attention-grabbing and yet understated 60-second spot during the Super Bowl on Sunday Feb 7th. The Super Bowl is the most-watched TV event of the year (stats for this year put the number at 106.5 million viewers) with 30-second commercials selling for upwards of $3 million.

Give a Laptop. Get a Laptop. Change the World...

Here’s a great holiday gift that will not only delight someone you love but also change the life of a needy child. One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is launching its second Give OneGet One (G1G1) program today. Here’s how it works. You buy a specially designed XO laptop for roughly $400 and OLPC will send two: one to you and one to an underprivileged child. Or, you can send one for just $200.

The

FREDERIC CLOT, MY HERO!!

I returned to St. Remy last week to find that my Internet modem was kaput. So I called Frederic Clot, who was recommended to me by friends. He arrived when he said he would and speaks lovely English. He quickly diagnosed the problem and put in a work order for me at AOL and France Telecom. They said it would take four days and it did. When Frederic returned to make sure it was all sorted out, he

LOST IN TRANSLATION?

I just happened on a wonderful new program called MeGlobe. (Register free at MeGlobe.com and choose a username and password.) It's basically a real time translator for instant messaging, which allows you to "chat" with people all over the world, in their own language. As you type, you'll see your original message as well as the translation of it, into the language of your choice. (There are many,