

While we were in Vegas earlier this month covering CES, we got a sneak peek at the New American Home, a posh house on town outskirts that Microsoft and a few other select tech companies were involved in designing. Built on the same block where Wayne Newton lives, the half-acre home has tons of whole-house electronics, including 10 Toshiba HDTVs, a 16-zone Nuvo distributed-audio system, and Anthem A/V processors — all controlled by Lifeware software that lets you access it from anywhere. You can start your bathtub (Kohler, of course), pick what music you want to listen to, and fire up the towel warmer… all from your phone.
The most amazing thing about the home is the power bill: $0. Thanks to extensive solar paneling (and the desert sun), the house is completely self-powered. But our favorite feature is the spectacularly chic pool (seen in the gallery below), whose surface is at the same level as the surrounding edge, separated only by a barely noticeable inch-thin drain.
In the market? The house isn't as pricey as you'd think: Tyler Jones of Blue Heron, who built the house, told us it costs somewhere north of $5 million. Though the place we saw is going to stay a show home for a while, it'll be part of a community called Marquis Vegas, which plans to have about 14 of these babies. We'll take three.
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By Big Dog at 2:25 PM ON 01/20/09
microsoft home with pictures
By euh at 4:59 PM ON 01/20/09
You really have to do something about the picture on dvice.com because refreshing the page for each picture is painfully slow and unpleasant
By Mihos at 5:00 PM ON 01/20/09
2 out of those 5 Xbox 360s will have the red ring of death in the next 2 years....
By asdffdsa at 7:15 PM ON 01/20/09
that is a sweet house, and i do like the pool.. however, if an earthquake ever hit vegas, you'd be the only family in the city with flood damage.
By elkidogz at 7:39 PM ON 01/20/09
I agree with EUH and ASDFFDSA and MIHOS
Where is the surface windows device? Also, it's not expensive to use a photo gallery that actually works... and MS houses do have PS3's (mine does) and WII's...
Also, I wasn't to sure about the light pollution that house is putting off with the outside lighting everywhere... the batteries on that thing must be... well intense.
really I think they could have come up with a bit better solution.
By Hotch at 9:16 PM ON 01/20/09
The Xbox's are most likely there for media extenders. Being much more cost efficient.
By ALEX F at 2:29 AM ON 01/21/09
Very interesting although curious how this might resonate with the average person particularly in the economic climate we live in today.
Seems to me a more resonate pitch might be how tech can actually help safe money, increase efficiency and/or learn/apply new skills.
By kschroppe at 8:08 AM ON 01/21/09
I agree with EUH about the photos I almost never look because of the time it takes just show all photos full size after the jump so we do not have to open each one.
By ravtoy at 9:39 AM ON 01/22/09
Agreed, picture refreshing is why I almost never look at the them, please correct this.
By WongoWoman at 11:47 AM ON 01/22/09
Dear Microsoft, most Americans can't afford the solar panels, let alone the land and mortgage needed for this pretentious palace. What's built in Vegas stays in Vegas.
By Ramero at 1:51 PM ON 01/22/09
Wow!, I'm impressed with the electronics used in this house, but I'm more impressed with the people that had the balls to put 5 potential RROD's in a multimillion dollar home.
By eldraco at 2:58 PM ON 01/29/09
surprise surprise, no ps3s in the entertainment center
By Mz B at 5:37 PM ON 02/03/09
Where's the kitchen?
Mz B:
Where's the kitchen?...More »