Deluxe automaker Audi is now the top luxury-car brand in India, reports the AutoBlog.com, according to a story from Automotive News.

Audi edged out both BMW and Mercedes-Benz, selling 9,350 cars versus BMW’s 8.686 vehicles and MBZ’s 7,015. The jockeying for market share is significant in India, as the nation is projected to be the third largest luxury market by 2020, with more than 120,000 units projected to be sold.

Audi differentiated itself from BMW and MBZ by offering new SUVS, while they sold hatchbacks in India, according to Automotive News.  

When a luxury property is referred to with a formal name instead of a physical address, it is usually super expensive.  This listing supports that assertion without qualm.

 The Copper Beech Farm located in Greenwich, Connecticut, is being cited by various sources as the most expensive house ever listed on the U.S. market with an asking price of $190 million. The estate, which sets on 50 acres of land, hit the market last Friday, according to the StamfordAdvocate.com.

While 76% of the residences listed for sale in Greenwich are priced at more than $1 million, this is the mother lode. It dwarfs the most expensive sale on record for the area by $145 million. If it sells, it will be the first residential listing to hit to sell for nine digits.

[It has] 4,000 feet of waterfront, a couple of islands and 12 bedrooms (two of which are oval-shaped), and the ticket price climbs pretty quickly -- all the way to a record-shattering $190 million for the property on Indian Field Road, near Greenwich's Bruce Park

What will be next, vendors selling fine wine and caviar?

The growing popularity of the America’s Cup race has competition pushing the envelope to win the most heralded regatta of the yacht-racing season. 

Steven Barclay, the CEO of the America’s Cup Event Authority told Bloomberg that the America’s Cup race the is Super Bowl of the sailing world. He also referred to its precursor, the Louis Vuitton Cup, as the playoffs.

The race is now a world event and not just a gathering of the wealthy folks. This has prompted changes in the race to make it more TV-friendly. Racing teams now use catamarans, which are easier to set sailing in limited-wind conditions. The race is no longer held 10 miles offshore to enable easier viewing of the race. 

The answer to these issues was to use a catamaran instead of the monohull boats we’ve traditionally used in the Cup. Catamarans are very fast, can sail in very light or strong winds, and get so close to the shore that fans can hear the sailors talking. But sailing can be dangerous. 

Perhaps most excellent would not be a fitting description for actor Keanu Reeves, as he exited from a yacht and entered the fray of the Cannes Film Festival, the Huffington Press reports.

The report is that Reeves floated in to promote his new film, Man of Tai Chi, which he directed and starred in. The film, which is a Chinese co-production is about a former stuntman who is manipulated into the world of underground fighting by the character portrayed by Reeves. 

The 48-year-old - most famous for his roles in 'Speed' and 'The Matrix' trilogy - was playing it casual in a linen blazer and loose fitting V-neck, with his five-o'clock shadow and his shaggy hair making him look almost unrecognizable. 

Some like it haute!

 If you would like to learn everything about the world of high fashion short of actually designing clothes, the new Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design has a curriculum that may be a perfect fit.

The principal of the nascent education institution, Susie Forbes, who is also a veteran editor of Condé Nast, told the New York Timesthat the only thing not being taught to students is design itself.

Topics taught include the fashion calendar, the history of fashion, important designers, fashion journalism, retail, business, marketing, and public relations.

“In Britain we’ve got design covered. London has some of the world’s best designers and the world’s best design schools. Why would we compete with that?” Ms. Forbes said in an interview at the college, which is in a newly refurbished SoHo building that once belonged to Central Saint Martins and is a short walk from the head office at Vogue House. 

While the FAA reports a decline of 3.7% in flights for 2012, the private-charter sector of the industry remained strong in 2012, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Charter flights on midsize aircraft declined by only1%, and super midsize and heavy jets charters remained the same as in a year-over-year analysis compared to 2011’s figures. Charters on light jets were down 8% in 2012.  Light jets made up 41% of all charter flights in 2012.  The data was provided by New Flight Charters and based on stats from more than 1,100 flights.

Midsize jets made up 20% of all flights, and executive turboprops were used for 29% of private charters.

The report lists the top three aircraft for each category.

While Angelina Jolie is an accomplished actress with demonstrable track record of accomplishments, she also has appeared in numerous advertising campaigns as well.  

JustLuxe uncovered 10 photo shoots in which the winner of three Golden Globe awards, two SAG awards and an Oscar has also been dazzling. If every picture is worth a 1,000 words, then these photographs are priceless.  

 So it comes as no surprise that brands everywhere try to get their hands on Jolie. Here are some of the most stunning campaigns that Angelina Jolie has ever starred in.

With approximately two-thirds of the population in the U.S. classified as obese, many folks are looking to lose weight and to get in better shape. People are turning to their smartphones for assistance to eat better and to exercise effectively.

There are apps that track food intake, count calories, and calculate how many calories various exercises burn. Additionally, there are apps that offer workout programs and allow users to work out at their own pace as well.

This piece from PC Magazine presents 15 fitness apps, which are classified as the best available. While the one that best does the job for an individual is a matter of preference and personal taste, it is good to know the options that are available.

Some of the apps highlighted here are posed as tracking tools, in which you log your workouts or calories eaten, while others automate the tracking for you while you're working out. Some are coaching apps that march you through a fitness routine, and others are a combination of all these things. 

While Google Glass is a neophyte in the marketplace, it already has most of the popular apps on the market, NBC News reports.  

Apps for Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN are now available, joining the existing New York Times and Path apps. Timothy Jordan, a senior development advocate for Google, showed the new apps this week at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco.  

Owners of Google Glass can activate the new apps at google.com/myglass.

The Facebook app is fairly limited, mainly allowing you to share photos directly from Glass to Facebook, along with captions. If you accidentally share an item, the app allows you to quickly remove it right away through Glass.

Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle was the highest paid chief exec with a salary of $94.6 million, according to a report by the Hay Group for The Wall Street Journal/Hay Group CEO Compensation Study.

The time frame of the report is between May 1, 2012 and April 30, 2013. Three of the top five compensated CEO are from the entertainment industry. Les Moonves, CBS ($58.8 million), Robert A. Iger Disney ($36.3 million), and Phillippe P. Dauman, Viacom ($33.1 million) were second, third, and fifth, respectively. Nike’s Mark G. Parker ($33.9) was fourth on the list.

Irene Rosenfield, CEO of Mondelez International, was the highest paid female chief exec at $21.6 million. Carol Meyrowitz, CEO of TJX Companies, received the biggest pay hike, getting a 227.8 percent increase on salary of $18.6 million. 

This is news … not an editorial.

Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, has purchased a house for his wife and former Playboy Playmate, Crystal Harris, the Redfin Blog reports.

The 6,000-square-foot house was formerly owned and custom-built byvideo game producer and Internet entrepreneur Jason Rubin. It has four bedrooms and five bathrooms and sets on more than one-half acre of land in West Hollywood. The residence was built in 2011. 

Hef sure looks happy in that photo, doesn't he?

The 87-year-old Playboy founder married Harris, a nude model, in December 2012. According to US Magazine, Harris will not be in his existing will, but apparently she’s not missing out. 

A 28-percent increase in the price of Microsoft’s stock has made its cofounder, Bill Gates, the richest man in the world again, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, reports the L.A. Times.

The retired CEO of Microsoft has been putting his energy intophilanthropic activities through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2008.  

Gates relinquished the number-one position to Warren Buffet, the top shareholder, chairman, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, in 2007. The spike in Microsoft’s stock added $10 billion to Gates’ wealth.

At the same time, Mexico's Carlos Slim has seen his fortune's fall as a result of a bill passed by Mexico's Congress that loosened the stranglehold his company, America Movil SAB, had on the Mexican telecommunications market, according to Bloomberg. Slim's fortune fell by $2 billion to $72.1 billion. 

Is this a "my bank account is bigger than yours" thing?  Are Jennifer Lopez and her ex-hubby, Marc Anthony, having a duel to show off which one is richer?Maybe, or it could just be an intriguing coincidence.

However, just one day after Anthony purchased his new digs, a $2.5-million house in Los Angeles, Lopez bought a grandiose estate in the Hamptons. Lopez’s house has 8,500 square feet of living space, while Anthony’s new L.A. haven has 6,000 square feet. 

 A source tells the New York Post that the 43-year-old songstress; her much-younger beau, 24-year-old choreographer Casper Smart; and her 5-year-old twins, Max and Emme, visited the mega-property several times recently, and Lopez has finally decided to take the plunge and buy the property, which is located in Bridgehampton, New York, near Mecox Bay. 

While overall sales of automobiles sales are down in India, the luxury car market is growing annually in double-digits, Automotive World reports.

Sales of luxury cars, which are classified as automobiles priced at more than $32,000, are expected to reach 325,000 cars sold by 2020, according to industry insiders. By 2020, the number of high-net-worth individuals is expected to increase to 1.5 million from 205,000 in 2012. That is an increase of more than 700 percent. China and the U.S. will be the top markets for premium automobiles.

 The makers of luxury vehicles increasingly keep an eye on another characteristic of this market: the growing demand from Tier Two and Tier Three cities, which house 33% of the country’s HNI population. OEMs have started holding road shows in these cities, in an attempt to reach the target consumers here, typically wealthy landowners.

Italian-born actress Gina Lollobrigida, a highly acclaimed movie star of the 1950s and 1960s, was the star of an auction held by Sotheby’s that took in $78 million this week in Geneva.

Ms. Lollobrigida, 85, sold a 23-piece collection of her jewelry to raise money to support stem cell research, reports the AP and OMG from Yahoo!. 

 The gem of the event was a 74.53-carat fancy yellow diamond owned by the actress that sold for $2.985,750. That same diamond was once owned by Ahmad Shah Qajar, the shah of Persia from 1909 to 1925.

Its sale for $2,985,750 set both an auction record and a record price per carat — an eye-popping $40,061 per carat — for a fancy yellow diamond, according to a statement Sotheby's issued at the conclusion of the auction.

Two giants of their respective industries are teaming to display their latest technological innovation in San Francisco this week at the Google I/O developers conference. 

Google and Mercedes-Benz are introducing the Digital DriveStyle app, which can be used in conjunction with luxury automaker’s Drive Kit Plus system. The system enables the car’s infotainment system to be operated via a smartphone. The system also can be controlled through MBZ’s patented Command system with voice controls.

While it is currently a concept, the Digital DriveStyle app is expected to rollout sometime in the first half of this year, reports Fox News and Motor Authority.

Google and Mercedes-Benz are also showing off a new concept with a Digital DriveStyle display at Google I/O. This new concept is showing off the capabilities of Google's Places API with new features, such as faster search, the ability to preview destinations on the go, knowing the hottest spots in town, and getting live traffic conditions from Google Traffic.

The mega yachts spotted sailing in the Caribbean are now heading toward the Mediterranean for the summer. The annual event transforms St. George into an unofficial boat show, as many of these luxury-laden vessels have been in the area this week.

The yachts, the Lazy Z and the Ingot showed up at the East End last weekend and stayed a few days, while the Norwegian Breakaway is expected to make its way to the Heritage Wharf. There are so many yachts sailing in that it would be hard to keep track without a catalog.

The Dawn, which has had to tender her passengers in from Grassy Bay while renovation work to Heritage Wharf continues, is expected to come alongside at Heritage for the duration of her next trip.

Seven years ago, Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, said that he only wants cool and popular kids wearing the A&F label. Thanks to the Internet, some stories never die.

The “cool” Mr. Jeffries also stated that he only hires attractive people and that he doesn’t want fat and ugly people buying Abercrombie & Fitch either. That is why his label does not make an extra large size for females as well.  

The audacity of the CEO prompted filmmaker Greg Karber to help A&F find another niche market—the homeless of L.A.  Mr. Karber went to some thrift stores in Los Angeles and gathered up some pre-owned A&F apparel. He then went to Skid Row and handed out the clothes to homeless people.  (Well played, Greg.)

Watch the video from Tastefully Offensive. Thanks to A&F and its condescending CEO, the homeless have upped their standards. Up yours, Mr. Jeffries! 

What a difference a year makes.

The bad news is the crumbling of an automaker that appeared to have a bright future. The good news is for folks that are interested in buying a pre-owned Karma. 

NBC News reports that the luxury electric cars being auctioned on eBay are not selling at even one-half of the original value. Auctions are ending with maximum bids of less than $50,000. 

Just ask Bill Michlin, a dealer with the Fields Auto Group in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe. He just wrapped up an eBay auction for a 2012 EcoChic version of the Karma with a top bid of $45,100. "I had 2,000 look at that car on eBay," he said. "We didn't sell it because it didn't meet the minimum reserve bid, but it will eventually."

A portrait of the first president of U.S., George Washington, sold for $662,500 at an auction last week in Dallas, Texas. reports the Dallas News. 

Heritage Auctions, the world’s third largest auction house, obtained the 36-inch by 29-inch portrait of President Washington by Rembrandt Peale from an unidentified family in Dallas.

The portrait was part of the family’s private collection of fine art.