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.
Get the polished look of an entertainment center without the high cost. We saw Russell's hack over on Ikeahacker: the base is Kaxas CD storage, topped by a Lack bookcase, and Lack shelves to frame the wall-mounted TV.
Two new tricks to help you get to sleep at night and wake up in the morning, courtesy of the February 2008 issue of In Style Magazine. To help fall asleep, turn on a few yellow bulbs, which block out the blue rays that interfere with your body's own production of melatonin. It's not a totally crazy idea, but backed by scientific study and recommendation.
Perhaps switching out your bedroom's overhead light will help in the few hours before you go to sleep, over a few days time, regulate your body's natural rhythm. And it even qualifies as a greener option, because there are yellow CFLs available.
Conversely, to help you wake in the morning, set your bedside light with a timer so that it turns on 5 minutes before your alarm goes off. We've got suggestions after the jump.
Here's some inspiration to get you thinking about how you can improve your home office with color (including paint, decor, and art) and new ways of finding a space to call your own. If you don't have an architecturally-kissed alcove like this one, consider removing the doors on a closet, tucking in a desk--maybe made out of a door, cut to size--and using paint and art to set it apart.
We've got more ideas after the jump!
Like your earbuds? How about earbuds 500 times bigger than the original?? Fred has come out with these 500 XL Earbud Speakers, which will retail for about $40, and are battery, USB, or AC adaptor powered. A bit kitchy, but all fun.
What's your verdict?
MoCo Loco's covering the IMM Cologne Furniture exhibition in Europe where some of the most intriguing and cutting-edge lighting designs come to life. Above are a few from their first round of coverage; we've got close-ups of a few after the jump, including a DIY hack, and a snake light we like (despite our dislike of snakes).
At least we finally know why things suck...DVD sound, wireless speakers, subscription cards--even Wired Magazine uses them, hearing aids and even those clamshell plastic packages. (Which, BTW, did you know that 6,500 people were hospitalized with injuries in 2004 from the latter??)
So we want to know, what home technology sucks that didn't make it on the list??
So would you have to be paid to do this? Or would the novelty alone be enough to get you to do it? It would be easy to ID your house, that's for sure...
Our friends over at GeekSugar are giving away an In Win Allure PC Case, and we can't help but be smitten by its unique, chic-but-not-overly-girly design. Consider entering to win one for your significant other just in time for V-day, with the promise of building a kickin' computer to go inside as well.
And if your significant other can't live without pink, we've got some V-day ideas for you too.
It may be time to tell your laptop, "no smoking in bed!" This is pretty scary if you like to use your laptop in bed until you can't keep your eyelids open any more. Luckily for this laptop owner, he was still awake and able to put the fire out before any more serious damage was caused.
We've heard from you about the worst tech disasters you've experienced, and have shown you options for keeping your lap cool, as well as your laptop, but this serves as just one more reminder to be careful!
When it comes to saving money, buying the latest and greatest often does just the opposite of saving anything...time spent on the new toys, 1st owner "fees" ($200 premium for the iPhone, anyone?), extra bugs, and dents in your savings for other things, like a home, a dream vacation, heck, even paying off your debts. We show you the latest and greatest here, and love doing it, but there's a time and a place for everything when it comes to your own purchases. So we want to know, why wait?
How (and why) do you not buy something right away? What does your home gain or loose by waiting?
A new Flickr trend? Regina over at AT:NY shows us a number of pictures that "reduce the space interruption" and seem to create more space. Do you like it? We think we do.
Here's some home tech inspiration from other AT sites:
If you're lucky enough to have your own washer, it's a good time to take up Danny Seo's advice and run a wash cycle with only a cup of white vinegar to keep the mechanisms clean so that it can keep your clothes clean.
Soap builds up on the coils and mechanisms and make it harder for your machine to clean--put the vinegar in the same place you put the soap. When it's running, check and see if there's suds in the water, and you'll know how clean your machine is--and suds aren't a good sign because it means that they've built up. Check out the details over on Danny's blog, Daily Danny.
Kate's loss of digital pictures and video from her camera was frustrating, and now the card reader she had has failed entirely. We're not sure if they're directly related occurrences, but it seems fishy. She had gone to Radio Shack where they recommended a card reader to her instead of a replacement cord because, they said, it's cheaper, faster and doesn't use camera battery power to transfer. A clerk at the local Ritz Camera store said that the card readers are more reliable than the cords because if the camera's battery runs out while it's transferring photos, you can loose them entirely.
So should Kate get a card reader or buy a proprietary replacement cord for her camera?
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
