As much as I'd like to have a separate TV room and a living room, the truth of the matter is I live in a small apartment. So the TV tends to dominate the living room and cut down on conversation time. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to put the TV away when you're not using it?

Well, sure you could buy one of those TV cabinets and keep the doors closed, but that always feels to me like you've got an armoire in the living room. Well, Picture House has got an umm... innovative solution. Hide your TV in a fireplace. Why didn't I think of that?

Picture House offers fireplace enclosures for your LCD or plasma TV. Press a button on your remote control and the TV pops up, press it again and it slides down into the fireplace. The same remote turns the heat on and off, adjusts the heat, and dims the brightness of the fire. The fire generates up to 2kW of heat, and does not harm the TV - assuming it's properly installed. I wouldn't try detaching the TV and throwing it in the fire.

[via Shiny Shiny]

A poll recently commissioned by the Oxygen Network --a channel continuously beaten out by the Hydrogen Network on the Periodic Table of Ratings -- revealed that women these days would much rather have a plasma screen television than a diamond necklace. The poll was meant to show how women are actually becoming more interested in tech gadgets these days. It also revealed that most women would rather have a new digital camera than a new pair of shoes. Apparently they didn't poll homeless women; I'm sure the results would have been different. Anyway, gentlemen, now you know what to get your lady for that next special occasion: a diamond-encrusted plasma television that dispenses shoes with a camera inside of them. That way you've covered all your bases.

I recently acquired all six Star Wars movies on DVD, and over the last several days I watched them in episode order (starting with Phantom Menace and working my way to Return of the Jedi). I rarely care what kind of screen I'm watching something on, but my TV just seemed, I don't know, not quite right for Star Wars viewing. Of course, I have neither the apartment space nor income to get a large plasma TV, especially not one with a 2.6 meter screen. That's what Matsushita (Panasonic's Japanese division) came up with recently. The TV is still in the prototype stage, and beats the current largest plasma screen, developed by LG and Samsung, by one inch.