apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Sewing is something we spend a lot of time doing here at the Unplggd Asylum. We have a number of machines but they are generally what one would call... purpose-built. Ok, let's face the hard truth: most sewing machines are not designed to fit into an earthling's decor... in recent years a vortex of oddness and downright otherworldy ugliness has enveloped the world of home sewing machinery. Well, someone at Singer must have noticed this because they have finally brought something attractive to the sewing table. We decided to put one to work on our kitchen curtains...

Last week our Gregory wrote a piece on our Peter's laptop sleeve. This week, as promised, we are givin' one away. Behold; the FREE Acton Manila Pro. This one is the veg-tan natural color with wool felt lining and business card holder. Simple, light, clean, and leathery. Built to last. Jump for further instructions.

Last time we had finished the desk and were looking forward to built in cupholders and high speed dial up. Perhaps we will get to those later but for this week, we are starting a headphone amp that is more commonly associated with Altoids tins. The Altoids (Chu Moy designed) thing is a cool idea but the intitial "I cant believe they put an amp in that altoids tin" thing wears off eventually so we wanted to consider a longer term, more designed approach.

Nat Kreamer of Sun Run Generation, LLC

I hope the following statement sinks in because it is truly the crux of how the energy revolution begins: You can have solar panels on your house without owning them and pay a FIXED cost for your energy which is highly competitive with what you are paying now. I spoke with Nat Kreamer at the Dwell on Design conference in LA this week about Sun Run's new solar energy service...

This was a product that we were really looking forward to testing. The Numark Fit For Sound with Mixmeister software is a great device for that personal trainer/DJ inside of all of us. When unboxed, it is immediately clear that this thing is all business; No extraneous jingo jango to tango with and everything feels like it has been built to withstand severe levels of creatine-infused fitness enthusiasm. Not just for the Tai Bo instructor, this is probably one of the best ipod docks we have come across...

Giveaway: Eos 100T1RB Wireless Audio System, with three (3) additional satellite speakers (4 total external satellite speakers + base station speaker).
Find it: Buy via Amazon

We have talked a lot about wirelessness here at Unplggd; it's what we do. A couple weeks ago we did a little review of the Eos 100T1RB Wireless Audio System and now...[celebrity drummer Neil Peart drum roll please]...we are giving a set away! Allz youz gotta do is leave a comment that tells us how you will use your Eos to save the world. The contest begins today and ends on Monday, May 26th, at NOON ET. We will choose one winner at random. The rest of the rules are below teh jump...

A lot of us need to have headphones in order to listen to music; either we work in an environment that doesn't support louder music or we just want that in-your-ear closeness for deep focus. With the advent of compressed music and extreme portability, it is unfortunately getting harder and harder to find high fidelity out there. Thanks to the folks at Grado in Brooklyn, NY (They were there before you had to prefix the word "Brooklyn" onto things to make them cool.), we have a nice solution that can fulfill our needs on a very intimate level.

JVC has a great speaker kit for those who want a little more DIY in their lives. Really easy to put together and the price point indicates a decent quality. JVC actually stands for Victor Company of Japan which is connected to the brand RCA Victor... or was until the start of WW2. Seems like just yesterday.

What did we learn last time?
Flat surface + IKEA legs = desk.
This week we finish up the basic table, starting with sanding down the glue...

Now I know what you are thinking: How can I build a desk for my home office if I ain’t got no tools? The answer: “IKEA table legs, and don't use double negatives”. You don’t have to build a tabletop at all if you find the right surface and these IKEA legs are set at a great height for working. What we have done here is a little more advanced, but we will keep coming back to a simple formula: "Flat surface + IKEA legs = desk.”

When we first came across the Wireless Eos 100T1RB system we were not really expecting much because they are... wireless. Oh oh oh, how a little hands on can change perspectives.

Recently we showed you a beeyootiful wooden iphone/ipod holder and now prepare yourselves to be wowed again. Incipio Technologies has created the thinCRADLE for the iPhone. It's a standard dock as far as capabilities but it is machined out of gorgeous aircraft aluminum (al-you-min-ee-um).

The Grass-On lamp is made entirely of recycled materials (not plants... ) so it's not just about the color, people. It can be hung, placed on a floor or table and it also lights up. ITlab is an Italian architecture firm but they dabble in other things, as evidenced by this forward-thinking product.

[via inhabitat]

Related Links:

• Good Questions: New Lighting Without Rewiring
• 8am Minimalist Desk Lamp
• Mini-Z LED Desk Lamp

Unfortunately, they dont actually breathe fire but perhaps we will cover how to do that in a future DIY... if we get enough polite requests. They do, however, breathe beautiful music thanks to their high end Vifa and Peerless componentry. These majestic monsters were designed for that person who needs all things unique to reside in their space.

Oh boy! The OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator is available now for $200 and promises to be a revolution in gaming. Consider it the next Wii type controller (... just imagining a room full of people playing games this way...) Its only a one way device, so don't expect to be controlling anyone's mind with it... yet.

Reader Lourdes asks: "I've chosen a flat screen TV for my 13 x 20 livingroom, but I'm not sure what screen size to get. What do you think would look best with my 77" media cabinet...? 37", 40", 42"?"
Well Lourdes, you have come to the right place...

Wowsers. We are not sure what the long term effects of this are, but it could end up being a major way that info travels around. The skin would be like a USB cable that moves info to/from a computing device that you carry with you. Applications include downloading music, movies and tv shows and transfer of business card-type info... We can just envision the "Hold on, I am still downloading" handshake etiquette that will invariably develop around the use of this product.

Because of the way homes are designed, we often need lighting during the day. This seems completely crazy when the sun is ours for the using. It seems more like we as humans should be in the business of creating shade. Enter Sun-Tek Tube skylights. With a few of these around your house/ apartment, no more will you have to turn on lights during the day.

Our prayers have been answered.

Get it? Heh... So Samsung introduced this little gem presumably to do battle with the Zen Stone MP3 player, but this looks much more like a stone than the Zen. As portable as this is, the pic of them sitting in a bowl has us intrigued...

The picture frame/ speaker concept has popped up every now and again in a low fidelity kind of way, but these guys take it very seriously. A couple weeks ago we showed you their Diablo Subwoofer and now feast your ears on these...

Ugg, well we suppose they cost more, but seriously, Netflix was giving us Blu-Ray and HD-DVD for the same price before, so why increase prices now? Don't answer that. Anyway, we may see a split in the service with there being a "Premium All Access" type thing for those who can afford the extra coupl-ah dollars per month.

If you are looking for a simple, unobtrusive installation piece for your living room to help subdue some unattractive modern architecture, then turn away in fear! This is not for you. This beautiful piece was on display at the Milan Salone del Mobile this past week and is as flamboyant as it is possible to be.

We like to pay homage to Earth Day as much as we can (stretching it on to the next day and beyond) and so we give the stage to the inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen. He has come up with a device that will turn any liquid into drinkable water and despite its huge non-prettiness and using cow dung as fuel, I think we all can appreciate that people will be able to drink who couldn't before (Frankly, most of us are drinking bad water anyway).