apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It's Super Tuesday, and the comparisons are flying; this time it's the websites of Clinton and Obama, which the NYT likens to PC vs. Mac. Check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think. What we're speculating on this afternoon is whether or not the vote will fall like PC vs. Mac owners--not necessarily in numbers, but in fervor?

Want more election fun? Hop over to AT:LA and vote for your favorite house from a selection of 5 top candidates personal homes.

And above all, don't forget to vote if you are in the Super Tuesday state!

No, it isn't a UFO...it's an idea we got from Natural Home Magazine and used at our last dinner party to create great, "greener" ambiance. We took our depression-ware parfaits glasses, placed a rechargeable battery-powered LED "puck" inside it and topped with clear pebbles that we had bought for a different project but never used. We placed it on the windowsill where the reflection in the glass added to the illusion, backed by the city's night skyline, as seen on the right.

After the jump, there's a well-lit picture of the finished product and materials.

Whether or not you agree with the politics behind the budget, a new milestone was marked today with the President delivering the United States' 2009 budget via electronic document on a notebook computer. The goal is to save some money (about $1M), some paper (about 20 tons), and therefore some trees (about 500).

It got us thinking, though, about how we keep our own budgets. We're working on switching over to all electronic, but sometimes, parts of it will still get written on paper, mostly when we're planning for the future and trying to save X amount.

They've previewed the Macbook Air, now get the others in the set: Macbook Earth is made of recyclable clay, Macbook Water makes computing flow, and if the Macbook Fire gets too hot, use the included asbestos gloves to protect your hands...and get a tan at the same time!

See the full descriptions at DVICE for the full effect.

As promised, here are the winners of the Green Gadgets 2008 Conference, held this past Friday in New York City. The design competition was sponsored by Inhabitat and Core77.

The top prize went to EnerJar, a DIY Power Meter Design. Check out more on the 1st place winner, as well as the 2nd, 3rd, and special 4th place prize after the jump.

We've been delayed a bit in updating regarding the move because we got the flu during the move, and we didn't have a memory card reader for our digital camera. We solved the digital camera card reader issue, and we've been getting settled.

I have something I need your help with, because it's a problem I don't understand, except to commiserate with Dooce and fans who also confessed to the same issue when we featured Dooce's Behind the Blog....she wrote:

I share this workspace with my very tall, lumbering husband, and he has this mysterious disease that causes a cloud of cables and random phone chargers to hover around him at all times. But the office is big enough that only occasionally does one of those cables wander over and wrap itself around my ankle.

Product: Skullcandy Smoking Buds Ink'd Earbuds - Red
Price: $15
Recommendation: Strong Recommend

We saw the Skull Candy booth at CES but didn't really stop while we were out there. However, just after CES, I needed a new of in-ear headphones because the ear tips/gels of my Philips pair kept getting lost, so I stopped at my local Target to see what else they had. I only needed pair to use at my desk at work, and on the bus ride to and from work.

Looking for in-ear buds, I came across the Skull Candy line, and at only $15, I thought I'd give them a try.

Although there are other green conferences, we're encouraged and excited to see a dedicated green gadgets conference that specifically seeks to address the un-green nature of many of our electronics and promote greener choices.

"Topics to be addressed include: design for sustainability, product life cycle management, take-back and recycling programs, energy efficiency, greener materials, and green lifestyle and product marketing. An attached gallery space will feature a green prototype office display and technology exhibits from companies on the cutting edge of green tech."

We, unfortunately, didn't hear about this conference until this morning on CNN's American Morning, but we can watch live streaming on the web, and we'll bring you updates on results from the conference, including the winners of the design contest.

According to the National Association of Broadcasters, 79% of the general population is aware of the upcoming transition to DTV. However, on the flip side, Consumer Reports highlights that 59% of people aware think that all TVs will require converter boxes. We want to know what you know:

Besides reducing margins, using smaller font and just plain not printing, we've got a new, free option for saving ink, trees, and also money: GreenPrint is a download (PC only) that helps you to easily print less--no more orphan pages with only a footer because the website page you're trying to print ran over just a bit. GreenPrint also gives you 1-click PDF printing. Oh, and the program keeps track of how much paper and money you've saved as well.

Technophobes, rejoice! And even if you're not scared of programming your own remote, the TVcompass Universal Remote will take care of the programming for you via its Wi-Fi function. Although it might not look like this--or bear the TVcompass name in resale--it's embedded browser will assist in looking up codes. It will also back-up those codes to on on-line server, and that means that you shouldn't have to re-program it unless you get a new piece of equipment.

That's right, over 2.4 million HDTVs will be bought because of the Superbowl, according to Digital Home. It's a $2.2 billion revenue stream for stores, and it doesn't stop there: more people are also staying near their computer and cell phones at the same time to multi-task related to the game. More on that after the jump...

Are you planning on buying a new TV for the big game? Let us know in the comments what you're looking at and what pushed you from considering to buying at this point.

Need to know what questions to ask when buying a TV? We've got a list of our "How Tos" after the jump.

Barak Obama made an appearance on David Letterman to do the Top Ten, and our favorite was his campaign promise #4:

"I won't let Apple release the new and improved iPod the day after you bought the previous model."

Check out the whole segment after the jump.

Fighting to get a bottle of wine open can be frustrating, leaving friends waiting at a dinner party or making you even more frazzled at the end of a long day. Although we haven't tried this ourselves, the reviews for it are raving: the Oster Inspire Rechargeable/Cordless Wine Bottle Opener is worth it. Reviewers also said that it was a great gift; very impressive for it's small, $20 price tag.