In conjunction with the opening of the Disney Innoventions Dream Home, builder Taylor Morrison is sponsoring a contest to win a home complete with a custom home technology package (Life|ware!), home furnishings, and a dream vacation for four to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

Read the full announcement at Taylor Morrison Online Contest Offers a Chance to Win a High-Tech, Disneyland-Inspired Dream Home or if you just want to enter right away, go to http://www.tmdreamhomegiveaway.com/. The contest runs from June 20, 2008 through August 20, 2008, and you can enter up to once a day.

Good luck!

From Trading Markets.com, coverage of Disney’s new Toy Story ride and the Innoventions Dream Home—Disney reaches into its bag of toys and technology

The Washington Independent has some nice comparison photos of the old “home of the future” and the current “dream home” and an interesting editorial about what this says about the evolution of family, though personally I think they’re reading a LEEETLE too much into it. In contrast, Gizmodo says Disney’s Innoventions Dream Home is a Big Ad for Microsoft and HP…But I Still Want It and Shiny Shiny says I SO want to live here.

The DailyBreeze.com notes Disney looks to future with Innoventions Dream Home and walks through the house’s special features in Disney’s Dream Home highlights.

The LA Times’ somewhat snarky Big Spender: Disneyland’s Dream Home nonetheless has some nice video of the house’s features.

Geek.com seems impressed.

And more video:

KTTV Los Angeles (FOX affiliate)

KTVK Phoenix

Take a little break from the Innoventions Dream Home coverage and hop over to Engadget HD for a comparison of the new DLink and Linksys Media Center Extenders with Xbox 360. There’s a gallery, video, quite a few photos, and a table comparing the various features of the three. Their conclusion?

We are glad to see so many new ways to access all of our HD content (including recorded HD cable) on any HDTV in the house, and we’re happy to say that every one of these devices is a great solution. But while gamers will be drawn to the value of the Xbox 360, the noise and sheer size of the box prevent it from being the ultimate solution for others. So as much as we miss the cool animated transitions, the old adage “Jack of all trades, master of none” was never more true, and in the case of Media Center Extenders we really prefer the Linksys DMA2100. It is less expensive, boots up faster, and is so small and quiet it will work in just about any application where the main goal is to access VMC. At the same time, it is a close race, and since an Extender is the kind of device you’re likely to own more than one of, we’d probably choose one of each if we were outfitting our entire house.

Lots more GREAT coverage we’d like to share–so let’s get to it!

Print and Podcasts

Ian Dixon has a great report at The Digital Lifestyle.com about the Innoventions Dream Home. Additionally, he’s interviewing EI’s Jason Leonardelli about the Innoventions Dream Home and Life|ware’s particpation in his podcast The Media Center Show this week (download or play online).

The OC Register has a first peek and a layout of the Innoventions Dream Home.

Home Entertainment magazine says “undeniably cool“.

 Video

Life|ware gets a nice shout-out in the OC Register’s video tour:

 

CNET News.com’s Kara Tsuboi gives you a peek at some of the technology in the home.

Fox News KCPQ TV (Seattle-Tacoma) “Kurt the Cyber Guy” video tour.

eHomeUpgrade has quite a bit of coverage of the Innoventions Dream Home opening day. Here’s a cool demo of some of the features of the Microsoft Surface table in the Disney Innoventions dream home:

And check here for their opening day photo gallery.