The Pebble smart watch blew up Kickstarter when it was introduced. It raised millions of dollars and had tech gurus raving.

We have one of our own and love it – it might be our favorite smartphone accessory. While it has plenty of utility on its own, alerting you to incoming calls, emails, and texts, we loved the customizability of the watch faces.

Developers are only limited by their imaginations, and as you'll see, they've had no trouble coming up with some interesting and peculiar ones.

Tetris, anyone?

Maybe you'd prefer Mario to tell you the time.

This face has the hour orbiting the minute.

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"Iron Man 3" is upon us and it's time to catch up on the franchise. We care because you care, and because Robert Downey Jr.'s past Iron Man movies have grossed $1.3 billion, between "Iron Man,""Iron Man 2," and "Marvel's The Avengers."

Expect that number to get a lot higher with "Iron Man 3," which opens in the U.S. Friday, May 5 after debuting overseas to a massive $195 million haul. 

The Disney film already has awesome reviews. Get excited. 

However, as hot as the series is, many people still don't know the story of billionaire playboy Tony Stark and his adventures as Iron Man. We're here to help out with that. 

Time to get caught up on "Iron Man" and get psyched for "Iron Man 3."

Meet Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.): a narcissistic, billionaire playboy in charge of his father's weapons and defense technology company, "Stark Industries."

He travels the world demonstrating defense technology to interested buyers.

During a missile demo in Afghanistan for the army ...

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Thank God for Friday—the gateway to a new adventure. Celebrated in movies and songs, the weekend looms large in the imagination.

It seduces us with the heady possibilities of recreation, relaxation, and romance.

See the easy weekend getaways >

It’s our eagerly anticipated escape valve, a release from the daily grind.

For some city dwellers, the siren call of a nearby beach or a house in the country is irresistible. Yet over time, even that can become routine. Every so often, we need to get away from the usual, without making it seem like work. That’s where Travel + Leisure comes in. We sent intrepid reporters across North America to scout out easy weekend getaways, and their discoveries range from an affordable nine-room New England inn in tiny North Haven, ME, to renovated bungalows in the hills of Santa Barbara, CA.

For gastronomy-gone-wild, let us introduce a chef with molecular juju in New Orleans, a smorgasbord of Asian cuisines in a suburb of Vancouver, and all-you-can-eat itineraries in emerging foodie locales such as Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood and the vineyard-covered Willamette Valley. Just south of Portland and, seemingly, a world away from posh Napa, it’s the place to tell your wine-loving friends back home about over a glass of Oregon Pinot Noir from the Bethel Heights Vineyard.

If the workweek has you feeling adventurous, the 5.4-mile-long Angels Landing Trail in Zion Canyon, UT, or sea kayaking around Washington’s San Juan Island will get your adrenaline pumping. Or by all means, just let yourself chill out, because maybe the best weekend of all is a day or two at the beach, especially if you stay at a Patricia Urquiola–designed hotel on the red-hot Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Whatever you do, take a tip from legendary smarty-pants magazine columnist Marilyn vos Savant: “Be in the habit of getting up bright and early on the weekends. Why waste such precious time in bed?”

Good advice. After all, the next great weekend trip may just be next weekend. Start planning yours by taking a tour of our slideshow.

See the easy weekend getaways >

More from Travel and Leisure:

• Weekend Getaways
• Best Beaches On Earth
• America's Strangest Taxes
• Best Mexican Restaurants In The US
• Best Caribbean Islands For Foodies

Vancouver

Snowcapped mountains and expansive bays form the backdrop for the Northwest’s greatest boomtown—a city of diverse neighborhoods that embraces both outdoorsy culture and innovation.

The 2010 Olympics sparked a major development frenzy, and along with new restaurants and boutiques came renovations of several landmark hotels. Make your base downtown’s 1927 Rosewood Hotel Georgia($$$), with revamped Art Deco–inspired rooms and a slick, dark-wood-and-gold paneled restaurant run by star chef David Hawksworth.

From there, it’s a leisurely stroll to Stanley Park, where you can hike along the 14-mile Seawall Trail. Or head to the Victorian Gastown neighborhood to see Native American art galleries such as the three-story Hill’s Native Art, which showcases ceremonial masks and totem poles, limited-edition prints, and bentwood boxes.

The Skytrain at nearby Water Station will take you to suburban Richmond, home to Vancouver’s Asian culinary scene: dim sum temples; noodle huts; Korean barbecue joints—you’ll find them all here. Don’t miss the standout mushroom dumplings and clay-pot chicken at local favorite Jade Seafood($$).

For the city’s best shopping, the indie district around King Edward Avenue is full of one-off gems. Look for vintage leather clutches and bags at Front & Company and contemporary crafts at Walrus.—David A. Keeps

North Haven, Maine

Sometimes a single hotel can put a relatively unknown destination on the map—and so it was with the cheerful Nebo Lodge($) and the three-mile-wide Penobscot Bay island of North Haven, an hour’s ferry ride from Rockland.

The nine-room property has all the trappings you’d expect from a classic New England island escape—gray wainscoting, shady porches, cast-iron beds, and claw-foot tubs—but the imaginative food of chef Amanda Hallowell is reason in itself to visit.

Summertime North Haven regulars such as novelist Susan Minot and artist Eric Hopkins have come to sample her hyper-local dishes—a peppered-mackerel Caesar salad and a pickle plate of sweet beets, celery, and fennel, to name two. What to do when you’re not eating?

Live the pine-shaded, salty Maine fantasy, of course: bike the island’s 30 miles of roads, climb to the top of Ames Knob, laze on the beaches of Mullen’s Head Park, and explore pint-size Main Street. Find Ping-Pong and evening concerts at Waterman’s Community Center; made-in-Maine ceramics at North Haven Gift Shop(207/867-4444); and farther south, the new Fox I Printworks, which stocks quirky T-shirts silk-screened with lighthouses and tractors.

Don’t leave town without a stop at the North Island Museum, where you’ll learn about the area’s evolution from a Native American territory to the lobster-fishing hamlet it is today. —Kate Sekules

Springdale, Utah

It’s just a 2 1/2-hour drive from Las Vegas to this small town on the Virgin River, but the desert gets empty and wild surprisingly fast.

Springdale is the anti-Vegas: serious canyoneers mingle with fine-art photographers at weekly gallery openings, the Springdale Fruit Company sells organic fruit smoothies, and plein-air painters head to workshops at the Zion Canyon Field Institute.

The biggest draw, however, is nearby Zion Canyon, a narrow funnel of 2,000-foot-high sandstone walls glossy with a crimson patina and top-heavy buttes that appear to shoot straight up from earth to sky.

By far the best place to stay is the understated Desert Pearl Inn($). Like the rest of Springdale, it’s authentic without trying too hard: reclaimed old-growth Douglas fir floors and a tawny palette of neutrals provide a soothing retreat from the blazing red rock outside.

During late spring and summer, crowds are a fact of life here, but the guides at Zion Adventure Company can steer you through the lesser-known hikes. If you absolutely must trek the popular, precipitous, and occasionally terrifying 5.4-mile-long Angels Landing Trail, do as the locals do and set out at dawn when it’s cooler and quieter.

You’ll be back in time for slow-cooked-pork burritos at Oscar’s Café($$), a swim in the hotel pool, and a well-earned siesta on your private terrace. Springdale comes alive in the evenings when residents gather for sweet-potato tamales and fresh tilapia at the Bit & Spur($$) and Saturday-night music festivals at the O. C. Tanner Amphitheater.

Before heading back to Vegas, swing by the Red Mountain Resort(treatments from $60) adventure spa—there’s no better way to end the trip than with a regionally inspired hot-stone massage. —Katie Arnold

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Apple is about to hit another signification milestone with its App Store.

It's closing in on 50 billion apps downloaded. Just last year it was at 25 billion apps downloaded.

To celebrate, it listed the top 25 all-time paid apps. These lists are always fun to flip through.

One thing that stands out: How many early apps are on the list. There aren't a lot of recent applications on here.

Our theory on why that's the case: The new model for making money in the App Store is to give away the app, then charge in the app for upgrades.

#25 The Sims 3

The Sims franchise has had an incredibly long life. The iPhone app is just the latest version of the game.

Price:$6.99

#24 Color Splash

This photo editing app lets you convert parts of a photo to black and white while keeping other parts in color.

Price:$0.99

#23 Minecraft

It's a game that revolves around building and exploring a block-based world.

Price: $6.99

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This is part of our series, "50 Women Who Are Changing The World." Amy Cuddy ranked #37.

Everyone talks about the importance of "body language," but few people understand how much of an impact it actually has--not just in the way others perceive us, but in terms of how we actually perform.

Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy gave a great presentation at TED last summer about this.

Certain "power poses" don't just change how others perceive you, Professor Cuddy says. They immediately change your body chemistry.

And these changes affect the way you do your job and interact with other people.

Professor Cuddy concluded her talk with a startling revelation about herself, one that led her to choke up momentarily. Then the talk ended in a standing ovation.

The full video (21 minutes) is available here and at the end of the slides.

I've pulled together Professor Cuddy's key points below.

Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist and professor at Harvard Business School.

Professor Cuddy studies "body language"--the non-verbal communication that can tell us almost everything about what is going on in a given situation.

Small gestures reveal glimpses of character and shape perceptions about how people are perceived. Here, President Obama shakes the hand of a British policeman while entering the Prime Minister's house on Downing Street.

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Chobani Yogurt has been one of the most explosive food start-ups to ever hit the market.

The company's now infamous Greek yogurt is netting more than $1 billion in annual sales — and it only went to market five years ago.

But Chobani's CEO and founder, Hamdi Ulukaya said the company's instant success wasn't all about the product.

"Chobani is not a yogurt story," he said. "It’s a manufacturing story."

Ulukaya gave a presentation earlier this week to a packed audience at New York University's Stern School of Business, sponsored by the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. In it, he outlined the story of the company's rapid growth.

Ulukaya scraped together funding to buy an old yogurt plant in upstate New York in 2005, with help from a Small Business Administration Loan. He didn't have any concrete plans, and the place wasn't in good shape — with water dripping from the ceiling and paint peeling for the walls. But when he got the idea to start making Greek yogurt in the U.S., the company fixed the factory up and ran with it, and Ulukaya said he practially lived in the plant for five years to get Chobani off the ground.

"I knew that something could be done with yogurt because growing up in Turkey, we knew what to expect from yogurt," he said at NYU.

Chobani was an instant success when it hit shelves in 2007, with orders consistently increasing. Ulukaya soon had big yogurt companies, like Dannon, knocking at his door, asking him to sell. He also could have turned to private equity companies for funding. Those strategies are typically the most appealing to food start-ups, Ulukaya said, because if they don't, the larger companies imitate it and use their large manufacturing bases to get it to the masses.

But he decided not to sell, and that's when Chobani's focus turned to expansion — and fast.

"No start-up has done it any other way, so I wanted to do it in another way," Ulukaya said. "I bet on these guys being lazy, that they’re not going to wake up that fast, and I said, 'I'm going to be fast.'"

And fast it was. Ulukaya didn't outsource anything — keeping control of the yogurt from its production in the factories to the time it hit shelves. The company built a big warehouse across the street from the plant in two months, and soon after built another huge plant in Idaho, which went up in just a year.

He also bet on the product being successful and priced it based on what it would cost in the future if sales increased, instead of factoring in the high input costs that the company had to face at the onset. (The yogurt goes for about $1 per cup.)

"This was not going to be about selling," Ulukaya said. "This was going to be about making."

The strategy worked. The company now produces 2.2 million cases of yogurt a week, Ulukaya said, and has passed $1 billion in sales. When they started, Greek yogurt made up 0.2% of the yogurt market in the U.S. Now it makes up 50%, and Chobani has at least half of that market share, he said.

It's been a huge shock to the yogurt sector, which had been dominated by two or three big companies for decades prior and mostly pumped out products that were high in sugar, coloring and preservatives, Ulukaya said. And the majority of the money to fund Chobani's new plants, employees and warehouses was internally generated.

Ulukaya also prides the company's success on its small-town roots and dedicated employees, who he said didn't have a holiday off for the first five years.

"Never has a food aisle been challenged like this and changed so quickly by a startup ever," Chobani said. "Some say we’re the fastest growing startup ever, including technology."

SEE ALSO: How Chobani Became A $750 Million Business In Only Five Years

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Join the conversation about this story »

The NBA Playoffs have been plagued by injury and sickness.

Last night Bulls player Nate Robinson played 42 minutes with the flu while vomiting on the bench, and Warriors player David Lee came back from a torn hip flexor after just 12 days.

Some of the most iconic moments in sports history involve hobbled athletes fighting through pain to compete for a title.

We picked out 10 of the most striking examples of this type of toughness.

Ronnie Lott played in a 1985 playoff game with a crushed finger that eventually had to be amputated

Source: SI

Curt Schilling won Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS on a bloody ankle. Before the game, he had a crude surgery where a tendon in his ankle was sutured to his ankle tissue

Source: MLB.com

Shun Fujimoto helped Japan win the team gymnastics gold medal at the 1976 Olympics after breaking his kneecap. He competed on the rings with the injury, and ended up dislocating it when he landed

Source: The Guardian

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Everyone attending the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting gets a welcome package when they reach Omaha, and part of that package is a list of local places to eat, drink etc.

Naturally, Buffett's favorite steakhouse, Gorat's, is on the list, and every year he takes the whole place over for one day of the shareholder extravaganza.

This year shareholders are invited to make reservations and party down at Gorat's on Sunday from 1-9 pm.

The restaurant has been around since 1944, and it's definitely got a classic steakhouse feel. When Omaha isn't being invaded by Berkshire shareholders, Buffett likes to take college students to have lunch or dinner there 3-4 times a month.

Of course, he also takes powerful people there as well. It's no secret that if you want Buffett's advice you go see him in Omaha, and if you see him in Omaha you may very well have dinner with him at Gorat's. GE's Jeff Immelt has been there, as has former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Martha Stewart, and of course Bill Gates.

To prepare for this weekend's onslaught of thousands of shareholders, Gorat's staff will cut thousands of pounds of steak.

From ABC Omaha:

"Mr. Buffett's T-bone is the favorite steak, so we've been doing an awful lot of T-bones," said Branecki. "It's fun. It's crazy. We get a lot of people."

Branecki said the restaurant will serve nearly 2,000 people by Sunday night.

"I would say it's about a month's worth of business in four days," he said.

Call it the Buffett bump.

Reviewers on Yelp are mixed about the place in general, but they do agree the onion rings and hash browns alone are worth a mention.

So check out Gorat's.

Welcome to Gorat's, a tradition in Omaha for 69 years.

It's a big space, with 2 dining rooms, a bar, and space for live music. It seats 235 people.

The restaurant was started by Louis and Nellie Gorat, and is now run by their son, Louis Jr. aka "Pal."

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"Star Trek Into Darkness" cast members Zoe Saldana, Chris Pine, Alice Eve and Zachary Quinto reunited on the white carpet Thursday night for the U.K. premiere at The Empire Cinema in London.

J.J. Abrams arrived with his wife as writer/producer Damon Lindelof signed autographs and gave interviews.

But even more eye catching than the film's good-looking cast were the space-age props set against a historic London backdrop.

"Star Trek Into Darkness" opens in theaters May 17.

The UK Premiere of "Star Trek Into Darkness" took place at The Empire Cinema. The modern federation symbol stood out against the historic London buildings.

The carpet quickly filled with cast members Chris Pine, Alice Eve, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Zoe Saldana, who plays Nyota Uhura, commanded the photographers' attention.

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Tom Heagy, the former CFO of LeSalle Bank, and his wife Linda (who also worked there), are selling their historic Chicago mansion for $4.9 million, the WSJ reports.

The 10 bedroom, 8 bathroom home once belonged to Sears and Roebuck VP and philanthropist Max Adler. He helped to build the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, Adler Planetarium.

Another plus about this house is that it's in President Obama's old neighborhood.

Combine all that with the fact that the Heagys invested $3 million into renovating the 11,546 square foot house and you've basically got yourself a deal with the $5 million price tag.

Jan Smith of @properties has the listing.

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The North American International Auto Show in January inspired the Inquisitive Guest to gaze back to the graceful vehicles of yesteryear.

Bugattis. Duesenbergs. Hispano-Suizas (a favorite of this reporter). To fantasize about owning an elegantly restored classic with a glossy mirror paint job doesn’t cost a dime. But to purchase one and to have the engine purr on demand requires deep pockets indeed.

And if you don’t happen to be gifted with a socket wrench—which, by the way, many A-listers aren’t—you must also hire a trusted mechanic for vigilant maintenance. So for most of us, and supermodel Karolina Kurkova and Her Royal Highness Princess Firyal of Jordan, when it comes to vintage, there really is no DIY.

To find out what classic beauties stir the imaginations of actors, designers, and models, we attended heady events across the country, including the Golden Globes, the Art of Elysium Heaven Gala, the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars, and a Dom Pérignon luncheon for the Board of the Princess Grace Foundation. Gentlefolk, start your celebrity engines.

More from Architectural Digest:

• Tour the Los Angeles Home of Adam Levine

Ben Affleck

With a touch of gray in his beard, Ben Affleck, attending the National Board of Review awards gala in New York (where he picked up a special-achievement award), had the ’70s on his mind. “I’m not Jay Leno by any means,” the director of Argo said.

“Rather than buy the cars, I get obsessed with them on eBay. And I go through them all the time—I look at the Chevelles, all those great old ’70 muscle cars. I used to have a convertible Malibu. And when we first moved to California, my brother and I bought a ’72 Cadillac Sedan De Ville, which, for sentimental reasons, I still have, in storage. I love those cars, I love that era. That was really my time. Odd, because I really don’t remember any of it. ”

Cadillac De Ville photo courtesy of GM

Michael Kors

On his way to be honored by God’s Love We Deliver at their annual fund-raiser, Michael Kors, who donated $5 million to the cause that night, explained, “I’m not a car guy, but maybe if I were a teenager on Long Island again—a Trans-Am with a big bow on the window.”

Pontiac Trans Am photo courtesy of GM

Sarah Jessica Parker

At Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars I saw actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who had on a colorful ribbon-striped dress by designer L’Wren Scott, whom she was honoring with an award that night. “My son [James Wilkie Broderick] is very, very into muscle cars from the ’70s,” said Parker. “But I’m a fan of Karmann Ghias."

Karmann Ghia photo courtesy of Volkswagen

Check Out: Photos Of Legendary Hollywood Stars At Home >

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The Kentucky Derby is around the corner, and fans are prepping for the big day.

But for true equestrian fanatics, a day at the races is not enough.

Our friends at Estately helped us find some magnificent equestrian estates that are currently for sale around the U.S.

These homes and stables are fit for a triple crown winner.

This 50-acre, Wellington, Florida horse farm is owned by Tommy Lee Jones and is listed for $26.7 million.

Click here to see the farm on Estately.

This farm in The Plains, Virginia has a magnificent 12-stall stable and is listed for $4.5 million.

Click here to see the farm on Estately.

This $4.25 million farm in Murrieta, California offers all the amenities of a horse farm plus a beautiful 4,000-square-foot home. It used to be owned by Ronald Reagan.

Click here to see the farm on Estately.

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Kevin Garnett might be the most hated player in the NBA.

He talks trash, berates teammates, and illegally moves on roughly 80% of his screens.

But the intensity that rubs people the wrong way is also the reason he has been one of the best, most hard-working players in the league for more than a decade.

He made teammate Glen Davis cry by yelling at him during a game.

Source: Yahoo!

He talks trash like crazy. An opponent once accused KG of calling him a "cancer patient."

Source: ESPN

He deleted Ray Allen's number from his phone when he joined the Heat.

Source: Boston.com

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The Republic of the Maldives is a major tourist destination known for its clear waters, white sandy beaches, and 5-star resorts. The island nation is made up of 1,190 islands spread over 35,000 square miles in the Indian Ocean, off the western coast of Sri Lanka.

But the Maldives are in danger of disappearing due to climate change and rising sea levels. The islands themselves only have an average ground level of 1.5 meters, meaning within the next century, they could sink below the ocean's surface for good.

And as if you needed more of a reason to go now, the government recently reversed a ban on the sale of spa treatments, alcohol, and pork, meaning your time on the islands will be a lot more fun. 

If you've been wanting to visit the Maldives, now's your chance.

Only 250 of the Maldives Islands are inhabited, which means you can take a day trip to your own private island and explore it.

Source: Visit Maldives

Each of the islands offers a completely different experience: There are business-, romance-, relaxation- and family-oriented destinations.

Source: Condé Nast Traveler

The Maldives are considered a premiere diving destination, due to the white sand, turquoise water, and major reefs with over 187 species of coral.

Source: Maldives Dive Travel

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If you're in your 40s, you could be considered either a "late baby boomer" or member of "Generation X." Either way, you're at a time in your life when you're putting youth aside and should be doing some financial planning for your future and your family's future.

A dilemma faced by people in their 40s is that they typically need to be saving for college tuition for their kids and putting money into a retirement account while simultaneously buying a house or saving for a down payment. Financial experts can help you sort out where your savings should be going in your 40s.

"Not having a financial plan is actually just having a really bad plan," says Alexa von Tobel, founder and CEO of LearnVest.com in New York. "Every financial plan is specific to the individual, but you should look at your income and set priorities for paying off debt and saving for different needs."

These financial planning tips are meant to help 40-somethings find balance in their hectic lives of spending and debt.

1. Build up your reserves

Roy Laux, president of Synergy Financial Services in McKeesport, Pa., says the first step in any financial planning is to establish an emergency fund.

"You should have three to six months' of your normal income in an account that's safe and liquid," Laux says. "You should also have in that account savings for planned expenses. For instance, if you know you need to replace your furnace in a few years, you should be setting aside money for that in your savings account."

Ronya Corey, a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Washington, D.C., says that two-income households may be safe enough with three months' of expenses saved, while a single person might need six months' of reserves.

"There's no right or wrong answer about how much cash to have, but you need to be prepared in case your roof needs replacing or if you lose your job," Corey says.

2. Reduce your debt

If you have credit card debt, student loan debt or medical bills, your next priority should be to reduce and eventually eliminate that debt so that your income can be channeled into saving and investing for the future.

"If you have credit card debt, you need to work on paying that down as quickly as you can," Corey says. "If you have student loan debt, then you should first look to see if it's tax-deductible based on your tax bracket. If not, then you should pay that off as soon as possible, too."

In addition to financial planning, Corey says you should check the interest rates on your credit cards and student loans to see if you can find lower rates.

"If you have a lot of debt, you should be using all available funds to pay it off," Corey says. "If you have a little bit of debt and you have, for example, $2,000 per month for savings, you should use one-third to pay down your debt, and then use the rest for retirement savings."

3. Max out your employee benefits

"In your 40s, you should at least be saving as much in your 401(k) as your employer matches," Laux says. "Even if you weren't making any profit on that investment, your money doubles just because of the employer match."

Corey says since every employer has a different retirement plan, you should find out how much you can contribute, and maximize your contributions up to that limit.

"Find out how your pretax contribution will impact your cash flow because you may be able to contribute more than you think," Corey says.

People in their 40s can contribute up to $17,500 in a tax-deferred 401(k).

"Hopefully, the employer-sponsored retirement plan has someone who can explain the investment options within the plan," Laux says. "In particular, people need to understand why it may be better to be a little more aggressive with their investments at 42 than at 62."

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Microsoft Excel just might be the greatest piece of software ever developed.

Massive swathes of the economy rely on the program, and becoming skilled at Excel has become a license to print money in business. 

So while there are a lot of basic tricks that you have to know, there are also a few tricks that will set you head and shoulders above the competition. 

If you want to dazzle your bosses and beat your rivals, know these eleven excel tricks. 

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Cinco de Mayo is this Sunday, which gives us all an excuse to down some tequila shots and margaritas before it's even 2 PM.

So in anticipation of the May 5th celebration, we took an office poll and made a list of 12 of our favorite margaritas around NYC.

Some of these are fruity, some are crazy strong, and still others are classically delicious with fresh lime juice and the very best Tequila.

Did we miss a great one? Sound off in the comments below. 

The best classic margs are at Empellón Cocina in the East Village.

105 1st Ave.

If you're looking for a tasty, strong, and classic margarita, Empellón Cocina has you covered.

Enjoy your House Classic $12 margarita with their fresh guacamole and pickled jalapenos.

The fruitiest margs are at Dos Caminos locations around the city.

Multiple locations, including 675 Hudson St.

There are a lot of delicious, fruity margaritas in NYC, but Dos Caminos always serves them strong and not-too-sweet.

A few must-try versions include the prickly pear for $11, and the blood orange, lychee, and passion fruit for $12.

The strongest margs are at Pianos on the Lower East Side.

158 Ludlow St.

Just having one of Pianos margaritas will have you feeling buzzed.

We recommend stopping at your second $3 drink, though — things can get hazy from there on out.

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When the horses break from the gates on Saturday for the 139th Kentucky Derby, Goldencents will draw more interest than usual from casual sports fans, thanks to the name of one of his owners: Rick Pitino.

It has been a heck of a few months for Pitino. After coaching Louisville to the men's basketball national championship, learning that he will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and celebrating his son's new job as head coach at Minnesota, Pitino now has his sights set on winning horse racing's most famous race.

But Pitino isn't the only interesting aspect of Goldencents. From his pedigree, to his jockey and his quirky trainer, there is plenty to like about the thoroughbred.

Goldencents was purchased at auction for just $62,000. He has already earned $1.25 million in race purses.

Goldencents has won four of his six career races, including two of three this year.

One of those wins was the Santa Anita Derby earlier this year. The win punched Goldencents' ticket for the Kentucky Derby (horse no. 5)

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The State Department has released its listing of gifts the White House received from foreign dignitaries in 2011, and it includes a pretty eclectic mix of strange and spectacular presents. 

The President doesn't get to hang on to gifts valued over $350, but he won't reject them either — as the report notes "non-acceptance would cause embarrassment to [the] donor and U.S. government — so they'll head to a growing collection at the National Archives.

Quite notably, it was not the government of France that were the biggest gift givers, although they appeared on the list 16 times. Instead, that honor went to the tiny African nation of Gabon— which gave a mask sculpture with an estimated value of more than $52,000.

The Governor of Rio de Janeiro gave him an expensive digital print from artist Vik Muniz.

The print from the "Pictures of Trash" collection, measures 51" x 40" and is titled "Marat (Sebastiao)."

Inspired from 18th-century artist David's "Death of Marat" painting, Muniz recreated the old painting using trash from a Brazilian landfill. He gave back most of the money he made from sales of the work to "pickers" searching for recyclable materials. 

He also gave five different personalized soccer jerseys from Brazilian teams, along with other Rio souvenirs.

Estimated value: $40,000

Germany gave a very interesting minimalist chess set.

The German government gave a very expensive Bauhaus chess set designed by Josef Hartwig.

The set came in a carrying box with sliding top and featured a lightly-covered wood board and pieces carved into the shape they could move on the board.

Estimated value: $554

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also gave Obama some gear for the golf course.

The President received a high-end Kramski putter set, starting with a 35" HPP 340 putter and two head covers.

Merkel also threw in some items to help Obama get better on the putting green, including a "teal HPT 40 training console, HPS 30 Aim Aid set, book title: “The Kramski Putt Philosophy.”

Estimated value: $1,400

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One of the biggest trends we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show this year was every day devices that could connect to the Internet. 

There was a fork that alerted when you were eating to much. A refrigerator with Evernote integration. A washing machine that sends a notification to your phone when the cycle is complete. And so on.

The trend is called the "Internet of things," which is just geek-speak for connecting stuff to the Web and controlling it all from your smartphone or computer. SmartThings is one of the companies exploring the space, and it got a lot of buzz last year when it raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter, blowing past its $250,000 goal.

So, practically, what does it do?

SmartThings isn't just one product, but an open platform software developers and gizmo makers can build into. Developers can create apps and devices that feed into the system to do stuff as simple as switching your lights on from your phone or as nuanced as starting your coffee maker when a motion detector sees you're out of bed after 7:00 a.m. SmartThings has about 3,000 people signed up to develop for the system.

The startup does sell its own hardware kits for the basic stuff though, and it's all controlled with a hub device that you plug into your Wi-Fi router. That hub can automatically talk to other devices in the SmartThings ecosystem.

Pricing varies. You can spend thousands of dollars to completely automate everything in your house Jetsons-style, or a few hundred to handle the basic stuff and build from there. SmartThings is currently sold out of starter kits at the moment, but you can reserve one here.

But it's better to just show you how it works, rather than prattle on. Check out the gallery below to see some of the things SmartThings can do.

You can control everything using the SmartThings smartphone app. The app suggests a few packages (for lighting, security, etc.) to get you started. Eventually, you'll be able to order stuff directly from the app.

The SmartThings hub (right) connects to your Wi-Fi router (left). From there, it can automatically control all the connected stuff in your home.

One of the kits comes with this magnetic sensor that can be used to tell when a door or window is open.

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