The Era of iTunes Three-Tiered Pricing Begins

More options and consumer-ready packaging for songs, video and more are on the docket for Apple iTunes users. The new three-tier pricing launched this week will feature a 69¢, 99¢ and $1.29 option, with the lowest price reserved for songs and albums that are released 18 months or sooner.

Part of the issue is the steady decline of CD sales at the sword tip of increasing digital sales... 14 percent lower in 2008 to be exact.  The new options may allow some wiggle room on album prices via iTunes, though the numbers and speculations are premature at this point.

From Plastic-Efficient to Boxed Water Bottles

I remember when Ozarka redesigned their water bottles to the more ergonomic and slender version to reduce plastic use. I was stoked! I loved the curvy, more feminine design. Shortly after, Nestle followed suit as has Pepsico’s Aquafina last week.

Some companies have taken the revamp of bottled water to another level. Now how’s this for innovation? A startup called Boxed Water is Better creates boxed containers for water. Their claim is that 90% of their containers are made of renewable resources, trees, and can be recycled more easily than plastic.

We’re very familiar with boxed milk. This gets me wondering, now why didn’t I think of boxed water? Visit Boxed Water Is Better for more information.

Common Sense Media Looking for Parents, Educators, and Teens for New Research

Common Sense Media recently announced that is looking for 200 parents, educators, and teens to participate in 2009 Focus Dialogues, a new research project focused on the ethical issues facing young people in their digital lives.

In partnership with Global Kids and Harvard Project Zero's Good Play Project, the project aims to promote understanding of how young people are changing as a result of this new digital age so that both adults and teens can get the most out of the digital world, while learning to deal effectively with the parts of it that can be difficult.

Are you:
- A parent trying to figure out more about your teen's online life?

- An educator trying to get students to think about the choices they make online?

- A teen trying to get your parents to understand why Facebook is important?

If so, Common Sense Media wants five minutes out of your day for three weeks in April!

Visit Commone Sense Media for more information on how you can participate.

Environmental Cleanup Finds Funding Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Conservationists have to be happy at all the hustle and bustle going on at the Department of Energy. Energy Secretary Chu just announced that $6 billion will be set aside for environmental cleanup projects across numerous states, with the funding coming directly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The funding will create cleanup projects across 12 states that are estimated to produce thousands of jobs in the process, though the data is premature at this point. The official DOE release charts each state's funding and subsequent projects that are on the docket.

Details:
Energy Secretary Chu Announces $6 Billion in Recovery Act Funding for Environmental Cleanup

Saving 101: Shopping for Used Cars Like a Pro

So it goes without saying that the prospect of car buying is a daunting task under the current economic conditions. It bares repeating: buying a car is equally exciting and frightening. For those of us in the market for a used vehicle, it's a process that involves some heavy lifting in the research realm. Problem is there's tons of resources out there to price used vehicles and trade-ins, but very little information on which resources to trust and which information is most important when buying a car. Frankly, the large majority of car shoppers are not car experts.

I stumbled upon a great article detailing 24 sites devoted to helping used car buyers find all the information that affects their bottom line, a.k.a your pocket book, when shopping for a used auto. Don't just take my word for it though, take a gander at Find the right used car for you: 24 sites from Webware and CNET.

Can Energy be Stored?

I always thought of energy as a commodity that was generated and immediately dispersed to consumers. But today I found out it can actually be stored to be used at a later date. In fact, it's a good way for companies to have a more reliable power grid.

How do you store energy you ask? Well there are a few ways including storing unused air in an unused salt mine. When energy is needed the air is release and combined with natural gas to spin a turbine.

Read Store Power in Super Batteries to learn more about how cities can store energy.

Photos from Earth Hour 2009

So Earth Hour 2009 took place over the weekend, in which cities from all over the world participated in turning the lights off to raise awareness about energy conservation. Over 1000 cities jumped into this event, where the lights of homes, businesses and even world famous landmarks were shut off for an hour on Saturday, March 28th at 8:30 pm local time.

If you were curious how this looked all over the globe, Boston.com has posted a series of breathtaking pictures from major cities like Beijing, Hong Kong, Athens and Paris, just to name a few. The coolest part? When you click on the pictures, the lights fade from "on" to "off" in stunning before/after style. Really great to see all these people buying into the idea of Earth Hour.

To see the pictures, visit Boston.com. So, how many of you took part in Earth Hour?

Inefficient HDTVs Could get the California Ban-Hammer

I love my HDTV like crazy. It's maybe one of the best purchases that I've ever made. Since I bought it though, I've watched prices fall to ridiculously low levels, and more and more people are starting to turn up with these works of beauty. With everyone getting their hands on these television sets, it makes you wonder how much energy they consume...

The California Energy Commission has proposed that all energy inefficient HDTVs should be banned from being sold in stores starting in 2011, citing a lack of proper regulation for current HDTV models. While many TV manufacturers do adhere to Energy Star standards, the CEC argues that those are not as rigorous as they should be, and allow a fairly generous watt usage.

Currently, the only real restrictions on these TVs is when they are in standby mode, which is only about 3.0 watts. Unfortunately, "energy used in standby mode only represents about 5 percent of all TV energy consumption." Right now there are many energy-hogging HDTVs in the market, specifically plasma TVs, which use quite a bit more power than LCD's do.

Hopefully this proposal leads to more "green" TVs being produced in all different formats. As the growth of HDTV continues, it becomes more crucial to lower the energy consumption from each unit. To read more, check out the article at Wired.

Disney Joining Hulu?

Apparently the gentle giant that is the Walt Disney Company is in preliminary talks with online video site Hulu to offer ABC programming. Of course the nuts and bolts involve Disney having equity stake in Hulu, which makes sense considering how protective Disney is over it's brand and product.

No details yet regarding the breadth of content that will be available, but according to CNET it's possible that the list may include ESPN.

For the full background on the pending deal, check out PaidContent

Saving 101: Cutting Out the Non-Essentials

The key to a healthy monthly budget is cutting out the relatively inane and nonessential items that claw away at your bank account. Now of course defining nonessential may mean something quite different to you, your wife, your friends, your weird neighbors and so on, but suffice to say it's determining similar trends in your spending habits that fall under the category of luxuries or wants versus needs. So here's a little experiment you can undertake to see how much you're truly spending on a day-to-day basis, and how much is actually spent on necessity.

• Take a notepad and pen with you for two weeks. For every purchase you make, jot it down on the notepad.
• Keep all receipts as a backup.
• Don't pick and choose what you track, literally write down every purchase, even if it's a stop at the vending machine to grab a late afternoon snack.
• Crunch the numbers at the end of the two weeks and compare to your monthly budget for bills.

Now, If you're like me, you'll probably throw up in your mouth a little bit when you realize that you're blowing more than $100 each month on eating out in addition to the grocery bill. Food for thought?