For convenience, my wardrobe is almost entirely black and I mix things up with a collection of shoes acquired over years and continents in a rainbow of colors.

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Though Surface's look and feel is now final, the team's design room remains papered in blown-up photos, a mix of renderings and inspirational objects -- things like a slim Moleskine notebook.

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For those who've yet to give it a whirl, Babbel uses a mix of repetition, visual cues, spelling exercises and voice recognition, and it does a pretty stellar job of segmenting things into digestible lessons for those who only have five or ten minutes at a time to spare.

ENGADGET

Phil and his team work their tails off but mix things up with a healthy dose of humor and humility.

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Gasoline is a mix of naphtha, toluene and xylene, among other things.

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To further mix things up, each grouping includes a wide number of wine options, and it is not unusual for the sommelier to offer two different people at the same table having the same dish two different wines.

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