Some very very dear friends of mine recently lost everything in an apartment fire so I've been looking for good smoke alarms. This cool-looking one from Jacob Jensen is an optical alarm so it will detect any type of visible smoke. Also, it contains a micro processor that self-checks every day to make sure that it's functioning correctly. It checks not only for battery life but for cleanliness and technical readiness.

The snapalarm optical smoke alarm installs onto the cord of a wall-hanging lamp. It's kind of ridiculously oviform so it looks like it's given birth to a chandelier.

I didn't know this before, but fire departments usually recommend that a combination of optical and ionisations alarms be used in homes for maximum protection. Ionisation models will pick up on fire that's rapidly spreading even before producing much visible smoke.

Both are avaiable from my favorite new store, pid.