An extra (Tiffany & Co.) sparkle to your iPhone

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

It inspired a novel by Truman Capote, a film starring Audrey Hepburn and a really bad song in the 90s, and now Tiffany & Co. has developed its very own iPhone app marketing engagement rings.

Users don’t need to be in the market for a ring to enjoy the application, but after spending just a few moments skimming through the application’s clean-cut and simplistic layout, it seems challenging for anyone with a hand and a finger to not wish they were.

The Tiffany app markets dozens of engagement rings and allows users to organize them by shapes, settings, metals and designs. Upon touching any ring, the brief description and price is pulled up, and the user is able to view the ring by assigning it different carat sizes or bands. It also allows users to share their selections via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter and to save their favorite styles for later reference.

Perhaps the app’s niftiest feature: It allows the user to place a ring on an illustration (see picture below) and use a slider to determine the needed ring size. It also gives users a way to contact a Tiffany representative to further discuss the ring selection.

The only feature that could be added to spice up the app would be including a way to comment on designs you like and ‘add friends’ to the app to discuss the selection and also have those friends virtually recommend a specific design to you. (Similar to the chat system set up in the Words With Friends Free app)

As cheesy as this sounds, Tiffany’s app feels like the future of shopping. It seems as if it will be only a matter of time before retailers across the board enable shoppers to interact with their products and view them through their phones.

And what’s the best part of the Tiffany app, you may ask? Unlike the $40,000 prize tag on many of the featured rings, downloading it is elegantly free.

-- Zohreen Adamjee