Singer M.I.A. is not happy with her treatment in a New York Times profile by longtime contributor Lynn Hirschberg. In a move sure to send a shudder to all reporters, the disgruntled singer took to Twitter.

In "Four Play," Christina Ricci's latest cinematic effort, the actress plays four sides of the same woman in downtown Manhattan. Her co-star: Donna Karan's Spring 2010 Eldridge bag, which has convertible straps so it can be carried in four different ways.

Released to blogs and to YouTube in December, the two-minute film has been viewed more than 100,000 times; it's now viewable only at the Donna Karan Web site. "You need all these different avenues to get your message out there," says Patti Cohen, Donna Karan's global communications executive.

A new iPhone app aims to displace best friends and sales clerks when it comes to fashion advice.

"Ask a Stylist," which was released today, doles out style tips in real time. Not sure whether that bright-red jacket is appropriate for work? Snap a photo of it, submit your question and a professional stylist tell you whether it's a go or no.

Vogue magazine's new iPhone app is primarily a shopping application, enabling users to scroll through every Vogue ad, click to buy and getting styling advice on the season's trends, Elva Ramirez reports.

Fashion brands like Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, and Ralph Lauren have released new iPhone apps that allow users to browse collections, watch runway footage and in the case of Gucci, mix their own music. Elva Ramirez reports.

By Vanessa O'Connell and Elva Ramirez

A self-described iPhone freak, designer Norma Kamali spends each morning reading the day's headlines on her gadget's current-events application. To unwind, she plays Scrabble on a game app. When her miniature dachshund Zeke acts up, Ms. Kamali looks up her iPhone's encyclopedia on canine ailments.

Last month, Ms. Kamali entered the iPhone app business herself, launching a free application to sell looks from her three collections. From their phones, users can purchase 15 new looks from Ms. Kamali's lines at eBay and Wal-Mart as well as her high-end designer line. "In the fashion business, you see the runway collection, and then it's a few months later that you actually get it, in stores," Ms. Kamali says. "But we know that everybody is taking pictures during the shows and downloading them on YouTube--and what's the big secret?" She adds: " 'We want it now!' That's the kind of attitude we're at."

New York fashion week officially kicks off this Friday and Twittering fashionistas have already started sending out updates with #NYFW tags. Among the fashionable set, scoring a runway invitation imparts cachet because shows are invite-only and often, the invitations are non-transferable. On Monday, the New York Times' blog The Moment told its 9,753 Twitter followers that it was offering up tickets to Project Runway winner Christian Siriano's Feb. 19th show.

When One Laptop Per Child's little green laptop starts up, its Linux-based Sugar user interface plays a four-note ditty, composed by the band U2, that stands for the letters O, L, P, and C. This is one indication of how important music is to the computer's mission.

The navigation market continues to expand past merely providing directions — even if drivers are getting too reliant on their GPS devices.

INRIX’s traffic mapping

MapQuest, the online mapping site, announced a new partnership which allows them to offer real-time satellite traffic information. The data is powered by INRIX, Inc., a company that also provides traffic information to Clear Channel, BMW, TomTom and Garmin.

This marks the first time that INRIX’s data has been offered for free. Google, Yahoo and LiveSearch also offer traffic data on their mapping sites but according to INRIX, the company has a wider national reach (they cover 110 cities and over 55,000 miles of road).

Maserati's high-resolution graphics. What It Is: The online car configurator might be the latest in guilty office-hours pleasures. Moving beyond the typical online pricing tools, nearly all auto makers host online configurators where potential customers can customize the new car of their dreams. It's also very easy to print or email your dream car specs to a dealer and see how much it would cost to make that car a reality in your driveway. (In fact, that's the whole point.) Some auto makers have created car-building programs that mimic the visuals (and some of the fun) of videogames.

Improvements in online video and the growing prevalence of broadband access are encouraging luxury brands to create glossy new Web sites that better reflect their elite appeal on a medium that can make things look equal.

"Go look at some shoes from Marc Jacobs and then some shoes from Target," says Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at the NPD Group. "Shoes from Marc Jacobs are $499. The shoes from Target are $14.99. They look almost the same online."

Miu Miu relaunched its site earlier this month, replacing a relatively simple design with one that includes stylized videos and "behind the scenes" access to photo shoots.

Cover, "Alter Egos" In 2003, photographer Robbie Cooper and writer Tracy Spaight set off across the globe to document virtual worlds, their avatars and the real people behind these fantasy characters. Interviewing dozens of subjects from the U.S., Europe and Asia -- as varied as a transgendered South Korean pop star and a Dutch butcher -- the pair has published "Alter Ego" (released in June).

The Wall Street Journal Online's Elva Ramirez spoke to Mr. Cooper and Mr. Spaight on the nuances of identity play, the cultural differences among global gaming communities, and why players who have the freedom to be anything often prefer to play themselves.

WSJ.com's Elva Ramirez tours a self-parking garage in New York to see the technology behind the new convenience.

(See related stories: High-Tech Garages Save Space, Services Take Some Pain Out of Parking)

Common across Europe and Asia, fully-automated parking garages are beginning to appear in U.S. cities. These garages require less space than conventional garages, and are proving alluring to developers who must balance high real-estate costs with dense parking needs.

At a fully-automated garage, drivers don't have to search for a spot. Instead, a driver deposits a car into a cabin, then a mechanical system similar to those used in the shipping and manufacturing industries lifts the vehicle and places it into a parking space. These systems stack vehicles in berths and remove the need for space-hogging ramps, driving lanes and access stairs and elevators for drivers. Motion-detection systems ensure there are no passengers in the car before it is parked.

Locating a parking spot in a big city ranks among drivers' most nagging frustrations and new services aim to direct drivers to open spots.

Taking advantage of the Web and new generation vehicle navigation systems, these offerings give drivers more information to help them find the closest - and sometimes cheapest - available spot.

ParkingSearch.com is a "virtual exchange" that lists open parking spaces within ZIP codes, said the company's founder Stephen Sinclair.

While the majority of the roughly 6,000 spaces currently listed on ParkingSearch.com are from commercial lots, there are a small number of residential spots for sale, rent or sublet. The availability may range from a six-month sublet to a space that is only available during the weekend. The number of parking spaces listed fluctuates seasonally as well as regionally, Mr. Sinclair said.

Buying a $10 paperback from Amazon or a 99-cent new release from iTunes is now commonplace. But has online shopping matured to the point where people don't blink at dropping a $20,000 half-carat diamond into an online shopping basket and proceeding to checkout?

De Beers Diamond Jewellers, Inc. is banking that the answer is yes. And given the success of online-only jeweler Blue Nile, they might be right.

Since Blogger.com debuted in August 1999, the site, which offers Web-based publishing software, has launched millions of blogs.

In May more than 125 million unique visitors viewed Blogger.com-hosted sites, landing Blogger at No. 1 on comScore World Metrix's list of top blogs, which includes competitors like Windows Live Spaces, Six Apart sites, and WordPress.
Now available in over 35 languages, Blogger, which Google bought in 2003, recently introduced a development blog (draft.blogger.com) where users can test out new features, such as the ability to upload videos.
In an interview with WSJ.com's Elva Ramirez, Eric Case, Blogger.com's new product manager, and Jason Shellen, a new business development manager, discuss the evolution of blogging, just how many (or how few) people are reading blogs these days and the difficult balance bloggers must strike when it comes to their privacy.

Customers searching for the Web site of a company with a generic business name are likely to cast a net too wide to find what they're after. In many cases, there may be no telling who -- or what -- will rise to the surface. For entrepreneurs seeking to improve their search results, the experience is often a crash course in the nuts-and-bolts of search algorithms.

Public relations professionals have always wrestled with protecting and managing their clients' image. But blogs are forcing publicists to rethink their tactics for mitigating bad word-of-mouth.

John Bell, managing director of 360 Degree Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, answered some questions about how public relations experts can manage, and in some ways, prevent trash-talking by bloggers.
As social media become more sophisticated, public relations firms debate not only about how best to tap into the wisdom of the masses, but they also seek to grasp the protean nature of the public sphere.