In the business world, the BlackBerry is synonymous with smart smartphones.  Millions of knowledge workers worldwide rely on BlackBerry devices for e-mail and texting, not to mention phone calls.  Although it still holds a dominant position in the many parts of the globe, companies are starting to look at alternatives, most notably the Apple iPhone and phones that run on the Google Android operating system.
Indeed, Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, hasn’t had it easy in recent years.   Its first two touchscreen devices, the Storm and the Storm …

Art + Hotel.  That would be my recommended advertising slogan for the St. Regis in San Francisco. The connection between art and hotel has been noted in these pages before (most recently in our reviews of the 21C Museum Hotel and the Four Seasons in Seattle) and the St. Regis is an excellent example of an establishment that’s not only proximate to multiple art museums but one that integrates art into the very fabric of its existence.
Enter the light and airy St. Regis – this is not your father’s dark …

When you step off the bustling Maximilianstraße and enter the Kempinski Vier Jahreszeiten, you enter a time capsule, one that places you inside one of the grand old hotels of Europe.
Once in the salon-style lobby, which features a mosaic glass roof portraying the four seasons (the hotel’s name, Vier Jahreszeiten, means Four Seasons), you could bump into royalty: former guests include Empress Elisabeth of Austria (known to her subjects as “Sissi”), the King of Siam, and Winston Churchill.  Today, the Vier Jahrezeiten is the temporary home for heads of state, …

The Biergarten (literally, beer garden) dates back to Munich in the first half of the nineteenth century and the reign of Ludwig I of Bavaria. Thanks to a royal decree specifying brewing temperature (fermentation had to take place at temperatures between 4° and 8° Celsius), beer was brewed in colder months and breweries would dig beer cellars (Bierkeller) along the banks of the Isar River to keep the beer cool in warmer months.
To keep temperatures down, the banks were covered in gravel and the brewers planted chestnut trees, whose …

It’s always interesting to be among the first guests at a hotel, especially during a “soft” opening.  The last pieces of equipment are being delivered to the fitness center, the shrubs are still being planted, and the staff is getting acquainted with the hotel and with each other.
When you enter the Novotel München Airport hotel, you immediately understand why this is the brand’s flagship property.  Guests are greeted by an ultra modern lobby and reception area, attractive and comfortable Ligne Roset furniture, and an experienced and accommodating staff.
There’s a …

Imagine taking a modern, boutique hotel and dropping it into the middle of your favorite art museum.  That’s the best way to describe the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky;  the city best known for the Kentucky Derby, horse country, and bourbon.  The two dedicated and passionate art collectors who created the 21c Museum Hotel wanted to highlight another aspect of Louisville: its growing arts community.
The 21c Museum Hotel is dedicated to twenty-first century artists (hence the name 21c) and everywhere you look – from the moment you walk …

While the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ may be applicable to some brands, the people at Infiniti chose to throw that logic out the window with their 2011 QX brand where sales were already up 200% in 2010.  Infiniti took their tag line of “inspired performance” to task by focusing updates on several areas – most impressively with their technology – and executed pretty successfully.
I was able to experience this change myself when I test drove the car during a visit to Louisville, Kentucky.  The …

One of the most beautiful parts of Italy, Alto Adige, is actually German speaking.  It’s known to many as the Südtirol, or South Tyrol, and was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918. Today, it is part of the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino.
The borders of the region, comprised of the Austrian province of Tyrol and the Italian provinces of South Tyrol and Trent (Trentino in Italian, Trient in German), are formed by the former former Austrian County of Tyrol (Gefürstete Grafschaft Tirol), which was divided between Austria and Italy after the …

Comprised of an elegant mélange of buildings from the Baroque, neo-Classical, neo-Renaissance, and modern eras replete with traditional Czech design elements including exquisite Bohemian crystal chandeliers and wooden panels, the soothing environment of the Four Seasons Prague was a welcome antidote to my 380-kilometer drive from Munich.
The hotel first opened in February 2001 and had to close after it was damaged in the 2002 floods in Central Europe, which caused billions of euros of damage in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Croatia.  In the Czech …

Pianist Yefim Bronfman is not a household name but his concert at Carnegie Hall this past Monday may go a long way towards changing that.
Bronfman’s program brought together a variety of works and composers that one would not immediately think of grouping together.
Written in 1806, Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations on an Original Theme in C Minor is indeed a major but less performed work.  Based on a theme devised by the composer himself, the piece gave Bronfman the opportunity to display his incredible dexterity and endless energy.  The variations themselves provide …