Few people actually enjoy picking up bugs or squashing them with their bare hands. Most of us employ the help of paper to lure them outdoors or at least create a barrier between our skin and their soon-to-be-crushed bodies. Neither of these options are efficient, simple, or even ideal. A lint roller, on the other hand, is. More »

Lately we’ve seen the rise of e-commerce and online retailer stertups disrupting the relationship between distributors and the consumer. Etsy comes to mind of course. Meanwhile, Made.com in the UK is leading the charge, and lately Llustre (also UK) has hit on a model of re-connecting designers with consumers.

That trend continues today as Urbanara, an online retailer for “high quality home textiles and home wares” supplied direct from the people who make them, secures a significant funding round. TA Venture, together with a group of international investors, including Blumberg Capital and Brain-to-Ventures, has participated in a €3.5 million series A investment round in the startup.

Urbanara cuts out the usual costs such as wholesaler margins and warehousing that traditional retailers add on. Originally launched in Germany and Austria last year, Urbanara has broken out to offices in Shanghai and Berlin and now services the UK.

TA Venture has a $50 million venture capital fund focusing on seed-stage and early-stage Web companies in Ukraine, Russia and other CIS countries (former Soviet states).

Bandits are very simple to understand: they're a rubber band with a hook. This may not seem extremely compelling at first glance, but there's actually a lot you can do with them. They can be used to hang a water bottle on your bike, your sunglasses from your car's rearview mirror, tools on a ladder when you need to set them somewhere, and virtually anything you can think of. More »

Ever found a beautiful bird dead outside your home? Chances are it smashed into your window and never recovered. For every dead bird you find, just imagine how many were snatched up by a cat or pulled into the brush by some other critter. Worldwide, window collisions kill close to a billion(!) birds every year. With spring migration currently underway in the northern hemisphere, now is as good as ever to make your home bird safe. The DIY experts at Stack Exchange tell you how. More »

Reader rustyhalos takes the text-based home screen to new heights with her "Love Letter to Los Angeles" home screen. More »

It doesn't matter how clean you think you are, your stuff is bound to get a little stinky once and a while. That means your clothes, shoes, carpets, couches, and who knows what else. So, what's the best way to handle the stench? Let's take a look. More »

Taking the term home theater in a box to a new level, Ikea made waves a few weeks back when it announced plans to start selling a self-branded HDTV and home theater system with a starting price under $1000. However, the company didn’t out all the tantalizing details at the time. Gigaom managed to get a bit more info on the system including the type of apps included on the rather impressive HDTV.

The Uppleva system, as it’s called in traditional Ikea fashion, allows buyers to customize their whole entertainment system starting with the screen size but also including the type and size of cabinet and so on. The approach takes the focus away from the TV and instead on the owners space. Each Uppleva system will ship with a Blu-ray player, 2.1 audio system with a wireless sub, and some sort of media cabinet.

As detailed in the original announcement, the HDTV isn’t a slouch. The 1080p display has a 400Hz response time and built-in apps. GigaOm learned that the system will launch will at least 15 apps including YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, TuneIn Radio, and a browser (possibly Opera for TV). That puts this Ikea set on the same level as sets from Sony, Samsung and LG.

The original plan is to systemically roll the HDTV system out starting in select European stores this year followed by a broad launch in 2013 that includes the US. If this system lives up to its potential, it could be the most disruptive force in home theater since the advent of buying from Internet vendors. Best Buy better have an answer in place.

You spend quite a bit of time in your home, so you probably want it to look nice and feel like a welcoming environment for guests. Putting together a great space can get expensive, but if you can't spend the cash on upgrades, personal finance blog Wisebread points to a few simple changes you can make to dramatically improve your home. More »

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If you've ever been afraid of painting your walls black, this home office belonging to interior designer Adam Strauss might change your mind. Rather than making the space feel like a camped cave, the monochrome color scheme actually makes the workspace feel even bigger. More »