These 10 inch melamine plates are adorned with colorful illustrated work by designer Marco Cibola. Each plate has a name in this set of four: Doug, Janet, Claire & Perry, all members of The Middletons. Clever. The full colored melamine plates are dishwasher safe, though beware of the microwave.

Check them out at Poketo!

California artist Junkyard Sam's art style is incomparable. It was hard to choose one print from his eclectic collection, but we settled on the Pellets of Mass Destruction since it combined painted pencil drawing and it was colored by digital ink. The end result is a rough colorful look that pleases our eyes. The 8 inch x 10 inch print can be had at Etsy for a mere $35.00.

The Roku Netflix Player is a genius idea. In this day and age with media coming out your nose, it is easy to see how something like the Roku could come in handy. The Roku is simple device that allows streaming of movies and TV shows available through the Netflix instant watch service. With a valid unlimited viewing account of $8.95 a month or higher, you are granted access to a big library of content. For those of us on our computers the whole day or for those of us that can't stand watching movies on our PC screens, the concept is great.

IN THE BOX
The Roku includes a built-in ethernet port and 802.11g Wi-Fi networking options. It works with virtually all TVs with inputs like HDMI, component, composite, or S video. If you are an optical type of person it offers an optical audio port as well.

THE HARDWARE
The box is tiny and built very well with some nice design touches. The remote has a home button, rewind and fast forward along with a select button. Simple, but then again so is the Roku. There are no buttons on the box itself.

THE SET UP
When you initially plug in the Roku, it gives you an activation code which you must enter at your PC on the Netflix web site. A few seconds later a prompt pops up on your screen telling you the Roku has been activated and you are off. Very easy! After setting up our streaming queue on Netflix, we turned this bad boy on and started watching. Unfortunately, the Roku does not provide you the option to add movies to your queue from the device, so we had to go back to our computers to do so. That was disappointing.

THE INTERFACE
The menu is simple, but it works. It shows your movie queue, allows you to read a brief summary of the film/TV show, as well as ratings from other viewers. Once you are done watching, you can then rate the movie from your Roku or even delete it from the queue.

THE EXPERIENCE
Although the idea was great, the experience was not. After having reviewed players like the Vudu we can't say that the Roku matches it with the quality of service. When viewing the movies we never got above two out of four quality stars in our feed. This resulted in a video quality which felt only slightly better than YouTube quality on our TV screens. With a faster connection things get better (downloads over 3Mbs), but in average home speeds, the Roku disappointed. While we were watching a movie, one of our reviewers downloaded some specs from the web. The simultaneous download caused our movie to stop midway. It stopped playing because it ran out of data and had to wait for more of the movie to be downloaded (or streamed) into the device. This happened with our 3Mbs test various times. The Roku did not go above 1 quality star in our 1.5Mbs tests, the standard connection on most DSL lines. The video at 1 star quality was unwatchable on the 40inch television.

Another disappointment was the selection of movies titles. There are many older movies, but don't expect to see a new release on this device any time soon. The TV show selection was also geared towards older titles, with a few notable exceptions like season 2 of Heroes.

One thing we did like about the Roku is that it has upgradeable firmware, so new features can be introduced in the future without the need to purchase another device. The upgrade can also allow for bug fixes, although we didn't encounter any.

Overall the Roku Netflix Player was a disappointment. The lack of newer titles, might be a turn off for most people, but could be something that Netflix fixes along the way. The device does have an attractive price tag ($99 as of this writing), but unless you have an ultra fast internet connection (above 3Mbs), we simply can't recommend the Roku.


SPECIFICATIONS
- Currently over 12,000 movies and TV episodes available
- No change in monthly Netflix costs and you continue to get your DVDs by mail
- Easily connects directly to your TV
- Pause, rewind or play anytime - just like a DVD
- Lots of connectivity options for your TV

In the Box
- Netflix Player set-top box
- Infrared remote control
- Two AAA batteries
- A/V cables (composite video, stereo audio)
- Power adapter
- Getting Started Guide

THE GOOD
- Great price in comparison to similar devices
- Ease of use
- Simple setup

THE BAD
- Poor video quality at 3 Mbps Downstream
- Horrible video quality at 1.5 Mbps Downstream
- Not many new titles to choose from
- Unable to select movies from player without first having to go online and selecting title
- No hard drive (limited movie buffering)

WHERE TO BUY
Roku
Netflix

iPhone watch out! The G1 is here. HTC, Google, and T-Mobile have partnered up to bring you the G1 powered by the new Android operating system. With it's full qwerty keyboard, 3 mega pixel camera, touch screen, and integrated Google maps with street view, it's going to make some noise. Although the phone is a bit bigger than it's competition, the iPhone, there will be lots of hype for the G1.

The thing that makes the G1 special is the Android operating system. Android is based on the Linux operating system, so anyone will be able to develop applications for the phone using Google-developed Java libraries. Now those without a Mac, have a phone they can develop for.

The G1 has a plethora of connectivity options including: GSM/EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

If that wasn't enough to entice you then maybe this will: IT IS CHEAPER THAN THE iPHONE.

Beginning October 22nd, the device will be available at select T-Mobile retail stores at a price of $179.99 with a two-year voice and data agreement. There will finally be some competition. We can't wait to see what happens...

By the way the Android OS will be available on other phones in the future, so we the technology should get better with time.

We've all grown accustomed to generic white garage doors that are common place in new construction in the past few years. Because of this, we met up with Amaury Almaguer at the 2008 Miami Home Design and Remodeling Show to check out his custom painted garage doors. Amaury Almaguer uses car paint since it is intended to be durable in extreme outdoor conditions in all of his garage door designs. Accessories that add detail to each door are made out of recycled materials like aluminum cans. When you look at the decorative touches up close, they look as if they were the real deal.

A typical garage door can be made over for about $2,000 over the course of two days.

If you ever painted before you know that there is an unmistakable odor that oozes out of walls after a new coat of paint. Your intuition probably told you that the smell isn't good for you. Your intuition would be right. Enter Mythic Non-Toxic Paint, a paint designed to contain NO toxins or VOCs for healthier painting. And just because it is non-toxic, does not mean it suffers from usability. With the availability of all common sheen -- flat, semi-gloss, high gloss, that sorta' thing -- you will be free to paint anywhere and on almost anything. Also as you would expect, there are thousands of colors to get your creative juices going.

You won't find these at your local Home Depot (we asked), but there are small local retailers that carry the brand throughout the United States.

Outdoor Misting Systems are a hit and miss for us. Most of the traditional systems spray a water-heavy mist and then has huge, clunky fans pushing the mist around the air. The result is a soggy experience that during humid days, can make the heat seem more unbearable. The Jetstream IJ Series Outdoor Comfort System (the name could use some work) changes that. Instead of obtrusive fans, the Jetstream system uses a high velocity, high pressure system that pushes water out of a ceramic nozzle at 1000psi, then the JetStream's DNA JetPorts take over and direct the cool air to the desired location at high speeds. The result is a 10-20 degree differential. At the show we noticed a comfortable cool breeze, which got cooler and cooler the longer we stood in the location. The Jetports can be rotated an entire 360 degrees so you can change where the cool breeze goes depending on the requirements for that day. Top that off with an energy star rating and the system feels even cooler (pardon the pun).

The average patio can be outfitted with the Jetstream system for about $4,500 USD.

The three-person operation, Nature on The Rocks, is the perfect example of family-run business. The company creates Italian terra cotta pots that are either hung or placed on a select-grade cypress wood stand. The result is a product that looks natural in any place they are shown, even at a crowded show like the 2008 Miami Home Design and Remodeling Show. Each pot is designed by Yanice, while Guy works his craftsmanship.

New homes come standard with carpeted stairs with rarely any character. That does not mean that your stairs need to suffer that fate. Substituting the carpeted steps with hardwood steps automatically changes things. Add a metal as the balusters, like a high-density wire for example, and you begin to get a knock-out contemporary look. This is what we saw from Paolini's Stairs at the Miami Home Design and Remodeling Show and a reason we fell in love with stair re-design.

The Brazilian designer Joao Bianchi is known for using stones in interesting ways. We've all seen Onyx lit countertops, but this was our first time seeing someone taking that concept and making something simple and affordable out of it: a $75 dollar translucent Onyx decorative lamp.

Both modern in design and beautiful in its simplicity, the Joao Bianchi's translucent Onyx Lamp, literally lit up the show.

Check them out at Biarts Decorative Arts.