There’s no need to convince–when I wax on about Target, I’m usually preaching to the choir. It takes restraint to avoid this big box, but when a publicist pitched something, I was reminded of some fab deals at Target and another budget retailer. The pioneer of designer fashions for the masses, Target has long since built upon the fashion deals with some beauty alliances. Here are a few picks from their latest additions. All are under $25 and all are multitasking products. Quite frankly I think a makeup and toiletry purging is in order, so here’s your justification for a budget beauty binge.

Aussie makeup guru and Los Angeles resident Napolean Perdis makes a dreamy shimmer powder called Mosaic that I’m already obsessed with. Instead of a plain base powder, this offers a bit of light reflecting that is very flattering. Now, NP’s Target offerings include some adorable eye shadow palettes, such as the one above, that is only $9.99. These are the types of items to keep around the house for holiday gift grabs or random events where you need a gift for a host. This color palette is dubbed Smoke Signals but another option is the neutrals palette, which has warm earth tones. NP’s offerings also include small sets with blush, such as the Party Set, or the Sweater Set palette, with more neutrals for every day.

Jemma Kidd, another amazing makeup artist, has a slew of products, with many available at Target. Kidd’s lines tend to be more neutrals, but are somehow a bit dramatic. Still many of her products are great staples for the no-makeup look, including the Mannequin Skin Perfector Kit featured above. The perfect product to keep in your purse, car or desk, the four colors offer concealing for undereye circles, green to neutralize red, and a shimmer that will multitask. Another great go-to is JK’s Signature Makeup Kit, with primer, lip liner, a neutral lip gloss, and mascara.

Finally, another foreign favorite is Petra Strand, who created Pixi with her sisters. Her items come in a great range of colors and some of the products available at Target are sets that are great last minute gifts. The Must Have Beauty Collection includes a neutral lip gloss, a cheek and many eye shadow options. The Winter Eyes palettes are only $9.99 and the Number 2 palette is an excellent group of neutrals. The entire Winter Wakeup Kit complete with face, lip and eye colors is just $34. Meanwhile, the above featured Lip and Line ($18) products are a combo liner and lip color that are great for the day. The lipstick is packed with shea butter and grape seed oil and the whole product is free of preservatives, mineral oil, and parabens.

Another budget retailer, Payless, has joined the beauty business with the addition of two beauty brands. From a business perspective, beauty products placed near the front of the store result in impulse buys. The two brands at Payless include the Unforgettable Moments collection and a collection from Zac & Zoe, which is free of parabens, SLS, and Phthalates. Almost all of the products are less than $10.

The Unforgettable Moments line includes makeup and two fragrances, with cosmetics ranging from nail polishes to lip palettes. The Zac & Zoe line offers shower gels, body and hand creams, a body mist, hand sanitizers, and select cosmetics.

The UM lip offerings range from sheer natural glosses, to glosses with deeper hues, to eye shadow palettes with gel eyeliners. The two fragrances come in the standard perfume bottles and rollerballs. Dubbed Promise and Charmed, the former fuses the “scent of rain,” pear blossoms, and white musk, while Charmed is a blend of mandarin, freesia, a hint of amber, and a touch of cotton candy.

The shower gel, body lotions, and mists from the Zac & Zoe line come in two scents: Blackberry Honey and Bamboo White Tea. The former is a blend of berries, florals, and honey with a hint of a woody musk, while the Bamboo White Tea scent blends citrus notes and bamboo.

At Trendcetera, we admit to being beauty junkies but we also advocate smart shopping and regular saving. Do not buy just for the sake of it. If you are shopping for something specific, it is wise to choose more reasonable options. These two brands, alongside the great offerings at Target, are excellent ways to satisfy your beauty fix and keep to your budget.

If you don’t have a budget, check out Learnvest.com. The woman-owned and run startup is all about budgets and all their tools are free. From saving for a house, wedding, or baby, to planning for the future, this site has all the tools you need to become more fiscally responsible. Set up your account today for free and you can create your own budget with a tool that automates tax deductions and offers slots to account for school loans, mortgages, car loans, rent, credit card payments, and more. Shopping is fun, but saving is too.

Will Flash and a secure Enterprise-friendly operating system be enough to lure luxury market consumers and business executives to purchase the Playbook from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion? To the consumer, Flash is a big deal and the promise of a touch screen tablet with the capability to run Flash and Java might be enough to spur sales. But, competition is steep with Apple’s iPad and tablets from Dell, HP and Samsung.

The PlayBook, which according to The Street might be released in March 2011, will be 7″ wide and about half an inch thick. Boasting a 1 Ghz dual-core processor and dual HD cameras for video conferencing, the tablet is geared at executives seeking a secure, souped up tablet. But, it’s not the only one offering such options, such as WiFi and Bluetooth. Branding remains king but future 3G and 4G models might help it maintain standing among the competition. While IT professionals know certain browsers, brands and software options are mostly all sex appeal with little true value, the average consumer, executive or not, is often blinded by the light.

There’s no word pricing but competitors’ products have retailed for about $300-$600, before connection plan fees from cell phone carriers. According to a RIM release, the PlayBook will be out in the U.S. in “early 2011″ and will be released in international markets in the second quarter of 2011.

Click here for the article from The Street

Is it possible New Yorkers are so much busier than everyone else in the world that prepaid lattes are necessary? This is a theory Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks is testing out, with a new service available in NYC and Long Island. Available at 300 locations to start, the Starbucks Card Mobile App is available on BlackBerry, iPhone, and iPod touch products and will allow customers to pay for drinks through their mobile phones.

The App then eliminates the step of payment at the register as the user will have already paid for their products. But, if the customer still has to wait in line and hold their mobile device up to the scanner to show proof of payment, than does it really save them time? Maybe it creates the illusion of time saved. Plus, Starbucks expects more users will stop carrying plastic Starbucks cards and start using their mobile application to pay. Cutting plastic consumption is always a lauded move.

Click here for more information.

BlackBerry users are loyal because we sleep with the smartphone and have grown accustomed to the keyboard, which enables typing at standard work speed. When AT&T launched the Torch , CrackBerry users were hoping it would quell the desire to one day switch to the iPhone. That didn’t happen because the pressure to move the new smartphone to market led to an unfinished product.

How does a major cell maker release a product with a physical QWERTY and a touch screen that does not have a touch escape button? To clarify, when using the Torch, to get out of a certain screen, one needs to use a physical button, meaning that the touch is not sufficient on its own.

But, now Apple has announced its latest iPod and iTouch versions, along with its Ping social networking site (Pandora meets Twitter?), and a happy medium seems possible. It may not be all-in-one, but CrackBerry addicts searching for an iPod upgrade and a decent camera (hello RIM?!) might consider saving for the new iTouch.

The new touch comes in 8GB ($229), 32GB ($299), and 64GB ($399) models and has WiFi, a camera, the ability to shoot HD video and video calling, among other features. This allows BlackBerry users to tap the vast array of iPhone applications and access the high quality camera and video functionality, which is lacking on most RIM products, without having to switch to AT&T’s overloaded, sub-par network. Perfection, no. Satisfaction, maybe.  Pop the top for the complete list of features.

Disclaimer: The author is an Apple shareholder.

For as long as I’ve been a BlackBerry addict and as long as the iPhone existed, I’ve longed for a smartphone with a full physical QWERTY keyboard and touch capabilities. It has arrived and I hate the name. I have yet to test this gadget in person but AT&T folks can buy it starting August 12.

It blows that this is another AT&T exclusive for two reasons: 1) AT&T calls drop all the time and 2) new AT&T users are not privy to unlimited data plans. This means counting texts, emails and Internet usage, but more important, transmission of photos and videos. Still, for those of us drooling, we’ll likely wait it out because history shows a Verizon version will likely come in a few quarters.

Still there is one problem: the name. Usually the Canadian company behind BlackBerry, Research in Motion, uses strong yet vague descriptive words to brand its products, like Curve and Bold, but this time, the choice of Torch just reminds me of Stephen King’s Carrie.

But getting back to the product, the new BlackBerry offers a touch screen with the “pinch to zoom” capability and is the first smartphone from the company to run the new operating system, BlackBerry 6. The new OS boasts a new layout, various social media applications and better management of messaging tools. It also offers a universal search, meaning that while the current search usually only mines one data type, such as all emails or all text messages, the universal search will search through email, messages, contacts and rich media, as well as reaching the Internet or applications from BlackBerry App World.

Another new feature is the Location option, which sounds like a feature on many car GPS functions, where users can search for landmarks but also send their location to people via messenger services. The Carrie Torch also offers visual voicemail, a 3.2″ touch screen, 4GB of internal memory expandable to 32GB via microSD, WiFi and get ready for this–a 5-megapixel camera with flash. I just climaxed.

The Torch is a tri-band world phone that runs on HSDPA (3G) and EDGE. It offers almost six hours of talk time. A two-year contract pricing is $199.99, with these data plan options: $15 for 200MB or $25 for 2GB. Clearly it’s a no brainer–pay for the 2GB unless you want to chance it and be sure you have enough text messages or this will be like the first iPhone bills. Need I remind you we are in a recession. Unless you upload no pictures or videos to the Web it seems like a good idea to pony up for the big plan, or risk a fat bill. Happy pinching.

Click here for the official Torch website.

Apple is a cult and as such, can often apply the laws of magical realism to average products (iPad) but in the case of the iPhone, credit is due. So when Bloomberg News posted an article on Tuesday that the beloved touchscreen phone may really be coming to Verizon Wireless, I did a little dance. So did millions of others in this country. But, there is no official word from Verizon or Apple, which announced that it beat analyst expectations and unloaded a whopping 1.7 million iPhone 4 units in the first three days it was on sale. The company also revealed that the white version of the latest iPhone is harder to make than expected and will not be available until the second half of July.

iPhone 4

Bloomberg News reported that AT&T will lose iPhone exclusivity and Verizon Wireless will supposedly get the iPhone, according to two unnamed sources. Verizon is reportedly in the process of building a new high-speed 4G network and will reveal a number of new products that will run on it at CES in January.

Sprint EVO by HTC

If this happens, one has to speculate what will happen to AT&T, which has received complaints for its less than stellar service, including dropped calls. If nothing else, this happening would mean all four carriers would be offering 4G phones by 2011, one of which is the new 4G Sprint phone, the Evo, an HTC phone that has already sold more than any other Sprint phone. Look out for our coverage of the new Samsung Android phones, launching this year on all carriers.

Disclosure: I own shares of Apple and AT&T. For the record, HTC is a Taiwanese company listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Streaming TV for the BlackBerry is like all those things you never knew you needed that could change your life–a hot yet work appropriate polyester dress masquerading as silk, the bad-on-paper mate, the not-so-gentle-buzz… Each has a small impact on your life and however fleeting, adds value. Such is the case of BitBop, a media subscription service from Fox Mobile.


You may ask: why streaming TV for BlackBerry? Well, why a gold solitaire amid a platinum princess-cut crazed market? Because new trends have created a market for what was once a commodity. The creation of the Apple app store has left a void in BlackBerry market and believe it or not, we BlackBerry users remain loyal and aware, waiting for the sexification of Research in Motion. We may not have the apps they do, but we can walk Gotham streets, head up, while blind typing on our physical Qwerty. So hah!

So, what’s the deal with BitBop? They currently offer a $9.95 all you can watch TV plan, with current shows available about a day after broadcasting. Download shows or watch them streaming, but note that you are subject to your carrier’s charges too. Movies are coming later but for now, you can watch most network and basic cable shows. It’s not utopia but a sweeter reality. After all, perfection is so boring.

Pop the link for more info

Michigan-based HoMedicas Powermat North America may have given us the answer to poor electrical systems, thanks to their multi-tasking charger. The Powermat is a system that enables gadget addicts to charge three handhelds and entertainment devices at once, while using just one plug. Once you buy the pad and plug it in, you have to buy the appropriate receiver for whatever gadget you are using. Be it an iPhone, a BlackBerry or a Nintendo DS, you need a specific receiver, which makes for a great revenue model.

Still, we are coveting one because the fear of an electrical fire seems as if it’d be dramatically cut by using a Powermat. Plug in the mat ($99.99) and then attach the receivers to the back of the handheld(s) and drop them on the pad. No tangled wires, no mess, and no long wait. Plus, each mat comes with a Powercube and an Energy Star Level 5 power supply.

Powermat products are sold at Best Buy, Target and Amazon.com Click here for more details on Powermat, available receivers and other retailers near you.

This holiday season, let’s call Google the WiFi gods. From now until January 15, Google is footing the bill for WiFi at 47 select U.S. airports. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again—In Google We Trust. Of course this is spoken by a BlackBerry-carrying MacBook using Firefox fan. But, G1, Android and Chrome aside, we cannot even begin to measure the impact Google has had on daily life.  

Google is also using the opportunity to encourage users to donate to three organizations: Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation or the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Google will match donations made across all networks up to $250,000. In addition, the airport network that generates the highest amount per passenger by January 1 will get $15,000 to donate to the local nonprofit of their choice.

Click here for more details per the official Google press release.  

Click here for more on the three causes.

Click here for the list of participating airports.

Usability and features are to hardware what taste and service are to dining—the necessary components that make or break an item. The smartphone sector is primarily made up of Apple iPhone and BlackBerry devotees as divided as the similar Microsoft Windows and Apple OS fans. But, while users understand the tradeoffs and compromises, manufacturers understand that competition means they must produce new versions constantly. For BlackBerry, the next change involves navigation.

The existing T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8520 is different because it has a trackpad, not a ball. People were finding that the nav balls would wear over time and we personally had them pop out more times than one. While apprehensive about the responsiveness of the pad, a test revealed it is not too sensitive but just responsive enough.

An external publicist confirmed that all future BlackBerry products will have the trackpad and the new Curve 8520 will be available on other carriers in the future. In addition, some of the updated BlackBerry items will come with cameras that eliminate shaking, to reveal a more clear picture. Waterloo, you’ve come a long way…