Revamp Your Bathroom In One Day
By Michael Peterson
The minute the sun peeps out and warms up, we think of spring cleaning. Even untidy people can often look forward to flinging open the windows to the crisp spring sunshine and dumping out some junk prior to decorating!

Color schemes have changed drastically in the year and many homes look 'dated'. If you tackle the bathroom first, you will have a chance to see if you like the 'new trendy look'.

If you are planning a garage sale, this is a great way to prepare for the sale. We all know that excess 'stuff' inevitably gets hoarded in the back of cupboards, but it can be daunting to think of sorting out the whole home all at once. Tackling the bathroom can 'break you in' to that messy business of decorating again!

This is a small room and to some extent it is impersonal. Many of the toiletries that you stashed can be bought again at any pharmacy. This makes a bathroom easier to clean out than a bedroom - it can take ages deliberating over every piece of clothing you ever owned.

Look around for every bottle and container you can find, including emptying out all the drawers, medicine cabinet and cupboards. Put everything into a box, and put the box outside the bathroom door. Leave the box for

BUSTED! iPhone.com now owned by Apple, Inc.

There was a point recently, where the ads appearing on iPhone.com, began to cross the line of someone simply looking to run a business, and someone who was clearly deriving profit from Apple, Inc's joint trademark with Cisco.  The whole descent into ad-monger was detailed in a previous article, and is experted below.  Apparently, Apple has finally caught up with them, and however it has been worked out, the domain name now uses Apple's nameservers, and redirects to Apple's iPhone website joining iPhone.org is Apple's iPhone domain name portfolio.  It seems like this was only a matter of time, and could possibly have already been in progress when the ads began to show up last week. 

The details are beginning to crystallize on the availability of the iPhone on June 29th, 2007. For some, this will be the day that lived in infamy, for others it will be their short-lived moment in the sun, the envy of throngs of others.  Apparently, the 29th is being considered something of a "soft launch" for the iPhone.  AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook confirmed that the phone will only be available through the company's stores (roughly 1800), and those of Apple itself (around 170). The following represents additional tips and info.

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Proving how crucial its June timing was, it appears that the Bluetooth headset announced in January at the MacWorld convention alongside the iPhone, has finally received FCC approval. Much the same as its parent product, the FCC has granted Apple a period of time before which detailed product photos and information would not be disseminated to the public.  The device will carry the model number A1221 and the FCC ID BCGA1221.

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"Get Ready for iPhone", are the words written in an e-mail sent out to those signed up to be notified about the device being launched by Apple and at&t late this June.  "iPhone arrives June 29th" according to the e-mails that began going out on Tuesday according to the partners.  Aside from reiterating its numerous features, the e-mail goes on to detail numerous points regarding what customers might do to prepare themselves to start using their new iPhones.  Contacts, Calendar, Email, Photos, Music/

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According to a recent article in the Financial Times, Apple is in advanced talks with Hollywood's largest movie studios to enable iTunes users to play rented movies on their computers, as well as one additional device, like their iPhone.  The service, set to be released in the fall of 2007, would have consumers pay $2.99 for a 30-day rental.

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Amongst the storm of commercials for the Apple iPhone created by its growing fan-base, comes this gem from director Ryan Landels.  A spec ad done as a collaboration with producer Christina Ferguson and visual effects artist Phil Broste, "the Future is Calling" borrows from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, cutting together a shortened version of an existing sequence.  The Monolith, from the film, was the perfect stand-in for what would be images of the iPhone rendered in 3D and composited into the scenes. 

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Forbes has run a story informing readers that this year, the FCC is set to auction off another block of the wireless spectrum. According to the publication, if a band of "technology veterans" and "wireless entrepreneurs" have their way, the FCC will reserve part of that spectrum as a "sandbox" for innovative companies. This notion is not at all something put out by starry-eyed idealists either, and has taken the form of an open letter to the FCC on Thursday...

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The Economist has released an article entitled "Lessons from Apple", that details some important aspects to this innovative company that many often overlook.  They go on to list four specific lessons that have helped Apple in its road to success.  Among these are: "Innovation can come from without as well as within" acknowledging that not all good ideas start at home, "the importance of designing new products around the needs of the user", "Smart companies should sometimes ignore what the market says it wants today" and finally "fail wisely, not stigmatising it, but learning from it".

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Member Cindynjgirl79 from the MacRumors forum, has apparently scored a copy of the AT&T sales training manual for the iPhone.  Describing herself as neither an employee of Apple nor an employee of AT&T, and neither obtaining the guide by theft nor break-in, the MacRumors forum member sent them scans of 15 pages out of a 33 page guide.  Included with the scans were a picture of her holding the guide next to her face.

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Qualcomm, the second largest manufacturer of mobile phone chips will be banned from new mobile phone models sold in the U.S. While Qualcomm seeks an emergency stay of the rulling from the Federal Circuit Court, as well as a presidential veto, the company, along with partners like Verizon Wireless must contemplate how this result will impact their business.

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An article on emsnow starts off by detailing a report by Topology Research, on how global shipments of touch-panels are expected to reach 55 million units this year, and jump to about 95 million units in 2010 thanks to the demonstration of the Apple iPhone.  Some interesting details into the technology side notes that:

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GigaOM interviews Randall Stephenson new CEO of the new AT&T. While it sounds right out of a boilerplate, here's what he had to say about the iPhone and its importance to the company:

The iPhone is a radically innovative new device and it only makes sense that AT&T and Apple would partner to bring it to market. This device is very important to us, it’s important to Apple and it is going to do very well with customers. It also reinforces with consumers that AT&T is the place to turn for the latest in wireless devices and services.

http://gigaom.com/2007/06/05/att-ceo-randall-stephenson-interv

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now. Grab a large garbage bag for expired or empty bottles and put that in the box, too.

Get rid of any dust or cobwebs that may be attached to your soon-to-be painted walls. It will just take a few minutes to go into the corners and over the ceiling to remove cobwebs and dust.

Wash thoroughly all vents and fans, and take down and wash or dry clean all draperies, shower curtains, etc. Scrub the bath, shower and toilet, inside and out.

Launder bathroom rugs and matching towels. Wash out all cabinets, cupboards and drawers, including the medicine cabinet. Wash the swept floor. That took 20 minutes. (HA!)

It is very inexpensive to change the color scheme of your bathroom. To finish up with a bathroom that looks bang up to the minute, you need to clear absolutely everything out of the bathroom, ready to decorate. This means that now you can paint the insides of your bathroom cupboards and drawers so that they will look completely clean and new.

White and neutrals together is the color scheme of the moment. A bathroom with walls newly painted in white will instantly look more spacious and more modern. Defining detail can be picked out with beige or gray, whichever you choose. Turn a fan on in the bathroom, to help the paint dry quickly.

Do not skip painting the ceiling, even if you think it will be okay. If you leave it, it will really look stale compared to the new white paint. Before you paint the walls, scrub everything that is scrubbable. In a bathroom that probably means absolutely everything.

Use sealant cleaner to remove the grubby look of old sealant. If it is really bad, scrape it off and replace it when you will know that you will have 24 hours in which to let it dry.

While the sealant and paintwork is drying, go through everything in your box of bathroom 'stuff' that you emptied from the cabinets. Throw out (or combine) duplicates, trash out of date prescriptions and expired vitamin pills. Do you 'bulk buy' the large sizes of bathroom goods? If you need extra space for large items in your bathroom, hang a shelf high above the bathroom door, on the inside of the bathroom.

The new trend for bathrooms is simplicity of design and color, and for the ambience to suggest that it is a 'haven'. This means that after the functional morning rush, when evening comes, you can add soft music and a candle for the bathroom to be turned into a haven.

Do you have room near the bath tub for a small table on which to rest a magazine or a glass of wine? This can further the haven theme, but keep other clutter to a minimum.

It is tempting with all this whiteness to add a brightly colored bathroom mat, but resist! The trend is for silver gray mats and towels, or a medium beige color scheme. If you really must have a color, then a very pale fresh apple green is acceptable. If your floor is dark you can pick white towels and bath mats.

For maximum cheapest effect, splash out (no pun intended!) on a modern faucet - and enjoy.