There's some actual research on the matter over at Deltoid - http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/06/gore_decrease_his_energy_usage.php

Which includes these points:
"...In fact, over the past year the Gores' utility bills have dropped 40 percent, thanks largely to the house's spanking new geothermal heating and cooling system, which has reduced the Gores' natural gas bill by 90 percent in the past year. ...

Kreider pointed out that the renovations weren't complete until November, so it's a bit early to be attempting before-and-after comparisons...."

EV-DO sucks folks. Coverage is poor outside of large urban areas (and even in many large urban areas) so this must fall back to an older CDMA standard or it will just be a book for the NYC crew. And what about the rest of the planet? Don't we want to read? What DRM is being used and how hard will it be to move between\upgrade devices?

Also please tell me it's a lot less fugly in the flesh. Who designed this - Homer Simpson?