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Apple pledges $2.5 billion to address California's housing crisis
Apple is joining Facebook, Google and Microsoft in acknowledging that tech companies are contributing to housing problems. It's pledging a total of $2.5 billion toward more available (and importantly, more accessible) housing in California. Most of this will go directly toward lowering costs. It's launching a $1 billion affordable housing investment fund, and another $1 billion fund for first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance. The company is also committing $300 million to make some of its San Jose land available for affordable housing, creating a $150 million fund for San Francisco Bay Area housing and donating $50 million to Destination: Home in order to foster "systemic change" that reduces homelessness across Silicon Valley.
Airbnb Luxe offers castles, villas and islands for $1,000 per night
If you've ever wanted to stay in a castle in France or book an entire island in the Pacific, you might appreciate Airbnb's new luxury travel offering, Airbnb Luxe. The company launched the long-rumored service today with more than 2,000 hand-picked listings, including award-winning homes in New Zealand and South Africa, historic villas in Tuscany and the Jamaican beachfront property where Ian Fleming wrote his iconic spy novels. But a stay in these high-end, Instagramable homes will cost you. Airbnb Luxe is designed for travelers looking to spend at least $1,000 per night.
The UK wants every new home to come with an EV charger
The UK has big plans to eliminate sales of new gasoline- and diesel-powered cars by 2040. Electric vehicles (EVs) are the key to making that work, but the required chargers are few and far between. Today, the government is unveiling a proposal requiring new homes, street light posts and businesses to have charging points. It will reportedly boost that with a £400 million ($530 million) fund for companies that produce and install EV chargers.
7 tiny solar-powered homes
By Cat DiStasio Want to see the state of the art in solar-powered architecture? Then head to the Solar Decathlon in Southern California where the US Department of Energy challenges students from around the world to create the most efficient solar-powered house. These tiny, high-tech homes are designed to be affordable and attractive while utilizing solar energy for all the amenities of comfortable indoor living, including temperature control, hot water and household appliances. In all, each home is expected to produce at least as much energy as it consumes, which is also known as "net zero" energy status. Read on for a look at some of the most incredible houses from this year's competition.
The 'world's biggest' 3D printer will build emergency houses
The design team at WASP (World's Advanced Saving Project) will unveil what is being billed as the world's largest 3D printer on Friday in Rieti, Italy. Dubbed the "Big Delta," this enormous device stands roughly 40 feet tall with a 20 foot diameter. But despite its size, the Big Delta is extremely efficient and uses only 100 watts of power. Its oversized design allows the Big Delta to quickly and easily print low-cost disaster-relief housing. What's more, it can do so using locally-sourced materials (read: dirt and mud) which also acts to minimize construction costs. The WASP team also foresees employing this printer for non-disaster-related home building. According to a company release, the Big Delta help accommodate the estimated 4 billion people worldwide that will lack adequate housing by 2030.
Shroud of the Avatar makes progress on homes and cloth armor
Hey gals and guys, you know what we've been wondering? We've been wondering how Shroud of the Avatar's been doing. Should we check in with Richard Garriott's upcoming title to see how it's cooking? Oh, let's! Two updates this month have highlighted several projects that the team's been tackling. First up are the four home models that will go in the game, including ones for founders, benefactors, and those who shell out $50 for a giant Viking home. Floorplans, exterior shots, and interior views are all included. The second update is a hodge-podge of smaller topics, including motion capture videos, the revamp of the male avatar, and cloth armor concept art. Cloth armor: when you positively, absolutely must be bludgeoned with bare minimum protection while still looking fabulous.
The Daily Grind: Should player homes decay?
One of the issues plaguing player housing in MMOs is what to do with those houses after the player-owners have left the game or stopped paying for their subscriptions. In Ultima Online, the granddaddy of all MMO housing, your home drops to the ground if you haven't paid your sub in 90 days (and your shardmates can loot all your stuff in a grand free-for-all!). In Star Wars Galaxies, your house stayed standing until it ran out of pre-paid maintenance money, which worked pretty well to help the active players reclaim city space until maintenance was turned off for a few years in consideration for hurricane victims. Even games with instanced housing feel the space crunch. In Lord of the Rings Online, failure to pay your maintenance fees in-game leads to the eventual return of your lot to the public pool and your having to buy back all your loot from an escrow NPC. MMO developers are torn between the desire to lure back former players with the promise that their houses are still intact and the desire to keep the world, instanced or not, clear and open for paying or active players. So what do you guys think -- what should be the more dominant goal? If you step away from a game, should your character's home decay? And if it did, would you ever return to the game? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Honda test house features Smart Home System for controlling energy usage
The term "smart home" seems to turn up in tech circles every so often, only to fade into the background again without much sign of ultra-connected dwellings becoming a reality. Honda's at least putting one foot forward, with a just-unveiled test house in Saitama, Japan featuring a system for controlling and monitoring energy usage. The Honda Smart Home System (HSHS) consists of thin-film solar cell panels, a rechargeable home battery unit, gas and hot water supply systems and the Smart e Mix Manager. The latter is the central part of the energy-control system, and it keeps track of all the other components in addition to monitoring the home's use of power supplied by the grid. In emergency situations, it can also provide electricity via the home battery unit. On the day-to-day level, however, the system is there to let home owners know what sources of power they can kill. Honda also integrates its Japan-only Internavi system for controlling home appliances remotely. The car maker hopes to use the house for extensive demo testing, with an ultimate goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 50 percent. No word on how many decades till we actually call this sort of place home, though. Click on past the break for a look (in Japanese) at the test home's features.
Google fanboys egg the homes of those who opt out of being shown on Street View
You might have heard by now that some German folks didn't much fancy having their homes displayed on Google's Street View service and consequently opted to have their domiciles blurred out. Only trouble with their plan, it seems, was that they didn't account for some Google-loving zealots over in Essen, who were so outraged by the action that they ended up bombarding the offensively blurry homes with eggs and some eloquent signs. What did those placards have to say? "Google's cool." Pithy. A spokesperson from Mountain View has been quick to distance Google from the silly behavior, while also noting that it has been an isolated incident... so far, anyway. [Thanks, Milind]
Wasted heat from Metro stations to heat apartment building in Paris
Close to the Centre Georges Pompidou on the Rue Beauborg, Paris Habitats renovating a residential building in an environmentally friendly manner, and it's including some pretty out of the ordinary heating methods in it. The old building has a staircase which connects to the Metro station beneath it, thus making it cost effective to build the system, which will produce heat from the bodies of the people and trains moving below, and will be used in conjunction with a traditional heating system. It is thought that it will be able to cut carbon dioxide emissions by one third when the building is completed. The project is set to get underway next year.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Fun with housing
I've briefly mentioned housing in previous articles, but I haven't done any in-depth looks into it. Plus, with the addition of new house contracts, the housekeeper system, and some creative ideas I've discovered, I thought it was about time to give housing some exposure. For the uninitiated, Runes of Magic's housing is a feature that lets you have an instanced area for yourself to store items, earn bonuses, and decorate to your heart's content. I've seen some players refer to RoM's housing as Everquest II lite. Apart from a handful of boss furniture-recipes, you don't craft the majority of furniture. You can buy furniture from NPCs or select from a wide range of choices in the cash shop. Once inside your house, you'll have access to the housing interface. Your items of choice can be moved into the furniture slots and then placed anywhere you want. You can get a more detailed how-to guide on housing from the Runes of Magic Wiki. In this article, I want to take a look at some creative things you can do with furniture and housing.
Electronic House sifts through, selects 25 greatest DIY home theaters
Electronic House recently published their 2010 Home of the Year award winners, but one thing those medal swingers were lacking was a tried-and-true DIY touch. Sure, there's no doubt that cold, hard cheddar can buy a fairly swank home cinema, but it's another chore entirely to piece one together with your own two hands, using your own vacation time and fending off screams from spouses, children and fellow constituents. Now, the aforementioned site has crawled through AVS Forum in search of the top 25 DIY home theaters, and after what can only be described as a Herculean search, the proverbial cream has risen. From a Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired lair to one of the tightest attic-squeezed setups we've ever seen, it's (just about) all there in the source link. Have a gander to get your own creative juices flowing, and feel free to drop images of your own layout in comments below if you somehow got slighted here.
Nielsen stats find 33% of U.S. households with at least one HDTV
A good six months after the Leichtman Research group published figures pushing HDTV penetration over one third of the U.S., Nielsen's February survey has produced similar numbers, indicating a rise from the 23% it found prior to the holiday season. Whatever the cause for the jump and the discrepancy, there's plenty of numbers to digest, for those into that. Want to know how many televisions (including SD) the average HDTV owner has? 3. There's still a gap between those who have an HDTV, and the 28% actually able watch HDTV broadcasts, assumed to exist not only because of a lack of consumer education, but also that people are unwilling to add to their cable/satellite bill on a monthly basis to tune in to HD. Punch the read link for the full breakdown, we're sure there's an interesting factoid or trend buried in there somewhere.
Nielsen reports: 23% of US households have an HDTV
Ruh roh, we've got some conflicting evidence to deal with. Just last month, the Leichtman Research Group reported that some 34% of American households were HDTV-equipped, and now the highly respected Nielsen has stepped forward with a figure much, much lower. In fact, its latest numbers show that just 23.3% of all US homes have an HDTV, noting that it has more than doubled since a 10% penetration rating was found in July 2007. As for specific regions, the nation's capital was found to be most aware, with 31.1% of homes having a high-def set. Following DC were Boston and New York at 30.5% and 30.2%, respectively, while Detroit had the lowest percentage for a major market at 20.9%. Hmm... who to believe?[Via AdWeek]
HD programming to reach 44 million homes worldwide by year's end
Just in case you haven't been schooled enough by HD research articles of late, here comes another to toss around inside that skull of yours. Based on a forecast by Informa Telecoms & Media, around 4-percent of worldwide households (read: not just homes with HDTVs) will "actively watch HD programming" before 2009 dawns. Just to put that into perspective, only 2-percent of homes globally were tuning into HDTV at the end of 2007. According to Simon Murray, principal media analyst at the company, a "major contributing factor is that set and set-top box prices have fallen substantially in the last two years," and it should come as no surprise that HD adoption has been highest in North America. Per usual, an HD study couldn't conclude without some reference to 2012, and sure enough, Informa is expecting around 179 million worldwide abodes (16-percent, give or take) to have HD programming in less than four years.[Image courtesy of AT&T]
Poll: How long have you been subscribed to pay-HDTV service?
Given that "only half" of US HDTV owners currently subscribe to any sort of pay-HDTV package, yet forecasts are suggesting that 100 million homes will be ponying up for said programming in just four short years, we're curious to know how long you HD junkies in the crowd have been hooked. Relatively speaking, HD content has exploded in just the past couple of years, but early adopters are apt to recall a time when just fetching a feed HD feeds was enough to make one's month year. Pretty simply -- how long have you been paying for HD content, and if you're more the OTA type, how long has your antenna been pulling in 720p / 1080i signals?[Image courtesy of AT&T] %Poll-11906%
Only half of US HDTV owners subscribe to HD programming
We'll be honest -- we US-based HDTV owners are taking advantage of our set entirely more so than those in Europe, but considering the (relative) smorgasbord of high-def options that we have here in the States, the latest data from ABI Research is quite disheartening. Reportedly, some 41-percent of American TV owners possess an HDTV, but out of those, just 56-percent subscribe to a HD programming package. Of course, we're well aware that OTA consumption is on the rise, but still, that figure is simply abysmal (though not at all shocking). The report goes on to mention that while 45-percent of respondents admitted to using pay-per-view, most did so just one time per month. Additionally, 46-percent asserted that they were "unsatisfied" with their carrier, with the primary gripes being high prices and lame customer service. Still, we're glad to see that HD recognition is on the rise here in the US, but we have a seriously long way to go before 100 million homes are signed on to high-def programming services.[Image courtesy of AT&T]
Format war's end to propel Blu-ray into 29 million homes this year
There's no doubt that many movie lovers were waiting until the format war came to some sort of conclusion before choosing a side, and now that Blu-ray has emerged victorious, it seems as if some analysts are fairly bullish on adoption rates. According to new research from Strategy Analytics, the end of the war will "propel [BD] into 29.4 million homes worldwide by the end of 2008." Also of note, it reckons that Sony's PS3 will "drive the Blu-ray market until 2009, after which standalone players will become the dominant segment." Of course, a study couldn't come out without some mention of 2012, so you can reportedly look forward to seeing 132 million BD-equipped homes in just four years. Now, the only question is when will BD players overtake DVD?
Worldwide IPTV subscriptions to hit 65 million in 2012
At the end of 2007, just 13 million households worldwide were subscribed to an IPTV service. Reportedly, that number will inflate to 65 million in the year -- wait for it -- 2012. According to new data from IMS Research, IPTV consumption is expected to grow 52-percent annually from now until 2012, which should also drive shipments of IPTV set-top-boxes from 4.7 million in '06 to 21 million in '12. Interestingly enough, the research also notes that hybrid IP STBs, which "combine internet protocol features with traditional TV delivery," will also shoot up substantially, making Intel and its latest partners look awfully smart.
Indiana's Harrison Square condominiums to come pre-wired with FiOS
Nary a week after finding that a forthcoming University of Houston residence hall was being erected with U-verse built-in, along comes word that 62 luxury condominiums in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana will be constructed with FiOS pre-installed. Dubbed The Harrison, the aforementioned units are a vital part of the downtown revitalization efforts, and each one promises dedicated underground parking, near-10-foot ceilings and access to an indoor / outdoor roof deck overlooking the nearby ballpark. Units start at around $150,000, and while over 100-percent have already been claimed, folks are still encouraged to place deposits in case anything falls through.
