High Powered LED Floor Lamps light your home, and save the environment!
Found this over on Metaefficient. Nice looking lamps, a little doctor’s office, sterile looking for me, but I assume this keeps manufacturing costs down. Great lamps and look like they spread a lot of light around too. Great for reading lamps, I swear LED lamps are the best to read by instead of halogen.
Here’s the article.
Koncept has released a new series of their I-Tower LED floor lamps. It’s good LED floor lamps becoming widely available. These lamps use the latest generation of high-power LEDs, which means they are brighter than the older I-Tower lamps, but they actually uses less power (8.8 watts). There are two models: a daylight version (~5500 Kelvin) and a warm-white version (~3500 Kelvin). The lamps have a built-in 4 step dimmer. Koncept says the lifespan of these lamps is “at least 40,000 operating hours”. They are available from Amazon for $154.
Mathmos releases cool LED Poplights. Delivering Colorful light, behind glass!
Found this one over on Technabob.. It’s cool that companies are doing this and releasing some nice styled lights, but what I would rather see is someone come out with something that is functional, not stylish. I would love to replace all the medium-base bulbs in my house with fully LED functional lights, but, at the current price points and longevity, it doesn’t make financial sense. If i went to brand names (phillips) etc, then I could replace everything, with longevity, but I’d be looking at like 1000$ to do the whole house with 12 lights. Granted, they’d last 35 years, but still. Bring that down to 500$ and I might take a gander.
Anyway, check out the fancy new lights.
The Poplight is the latest LED lighting fixture to come from Mathmos, the same guys responsible for the original Lava Lamp back in the 1960s.
Each Poplight is made from handblown glass and gradually fades between shades of blue, purple, violet, magenta, red, and back. The fixtures measure just a little more than 6-inches tall, making them perfect for a bookshelf or other small nook. While the LEDs are bright enough for an accent lamp, I wouldn’t try and read a book my the light of one of these.
Inside the glass shade, is an LED-illuminated plastic “bulb” which gleams with a mirrored silver coating when switched off.
If you live here in the States, you can grab the Poplight from Mathmos US for $75 each (about $88 with International shipping). If you happen to be fortunate enough to reside in Mathmos’ native UK, order from Mathmos UK for just £28 a pop.
Elude the cops and others with handy Security Camera Defeating LED Glasses
Found this over on Gizmodo today. It looks like an enterprising young individual has created a video tutorial on how to build your own home made LED sunglasses. Big whoop you say? Not so fast, these sun glasses are powered with some infrared LED’s and a little battery.
What does this do you ask? Simple, remember a few years ago when Laser pointers were all the rage, and we figured out that you could point them at security cameras and “blank” or “white” the screen in the security office? Well, these sunglasses do the same thing except they are for your face. Perfect if you’re of average body size, height and weight. Rob anywhere and be anonymized!
So, because of this cool video, you can now go down and spend about 5$ at the local electronics store to get all the parts you need to build your very own set of security evading glasses. Looks like it’ll take about 20 minutes to build them with very little knowledge of electronics required. Very simple these are.
Check out the video:
Anti-Paparazzi Sunglasses – video powered by Metacafe
Become Part of History – Download Firefox 3
We downloaded ours, have you?
Today you’ll make history with Firefox
Are you ready to make history? Are you ready to set a World Record? Today is Download Day. To become part of the official Guinness World Record you must download Firefox 3 by 17:00 UTC on June 18, 2008, or roughly 24 hours from now.
New Portable LED work Light – the Tri-L
Found this over on MetaEfficient..
I’ve been testing the Tri-L LED light by Altus Lumen. I have to admit that this light has become one of my favorite gadgets. The design of the Tri-L shows great attention to detail. The metal housing is made out of 85% recycled magnesium which is lighter than aluminum, so the Tri-L feels solid yet light in your hand. When folded up, the light acts as a flashlight, and measures just 110×60×20mm, so it fits nicely in a pocket. When unfolded, the light becomes its own 360 degree tripod stand, and can be used as a serious worklight or booklight.
The Tri-L’s hinges are also impressive – they are made with fraction joins instead of screws. The light can be fixed precisely in any orientation you set.
The Tri-L has a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which can be recharged using the provided USB charger, or via mini-USB cable attached to a computer. The runtime is around 1.8 hours for the flashlight, and around 8 hours for worklight once the battery is fully charged. The runtime can be extended with an optional extended battery pack.
The LEDs are latest high-intensity models and they are very bright. The worklight lit up my entire garage, and the flashlight is certainly bright enough for my needs.
The Tri-L will also warn you when it’s about to run out of power. It flashes for 30 seconds when its about to shut off — you have 30 seconds before the spotlight turns off, or 10 minutes before the flashlight runs out.
The manufacturer, Altus Lumen, state that 75% of the Tri-L is recyclable, and is built for easy disassembly. It is made with non-toxic components, and is LOHAS compliant. It is packaged in an eco-friendly carboard container.
The Tri-L sells for $99 and is available from Altus Lumen.
The world finally lights up to LED Lighting.. well, at least the New York Times has..
Found this today on Digg, regarding LED technology. I mean, it’s only been what, 3 years since we started this blog, and at least 5 since we started getting interested in the technology, and we thought we were 10 years late to the game.. sheesh, guess this is a good indication of what it takes for the mainstream media to care about things like this, bad economy, bad energy, bad everything, so they run stories like this about conservation. It’s a great thing, but it’s just too bad we dont’ see stories like this on more major networks and news outlets.
Here’s the story from the NYT..
If you’re looking for the latest advancements in incandescent light bulb technology, one place you don’t want to go is to a lighting trade show. I learned that in about five minutes last week, while touring the aisles of Lightfair, the lighting industry’s big convention, held this year in Las Vegas.
In case you didn’t know it, Thomas Edison’s invention, in use for more than 100 years to illuminate virtually everything, is quickly heading for the exits. What will eventually take its place is the light-emitting diode (L.E.D.) bulb, made up of tiny light sources the size of a head of a pin that use a fraction of a regular light bulb’s electricity, produce little heat, and last for tens of thousands of hours of use.
L.E.D.This is not some comic book dream. The exhibits at Lightfair were filled with new L.E.D. products, many shipping now: standard-type room lights, under-counter lights, commercial spotlights, garden lights and huge L.E.D. displays designed to light the Empire State Building.
I saw L.E.D.’s controlled by a cell phone. Forgot to turn on your porch light? Just dial in a command.
L.E.D.’s are not widely used today because of their high cost: An L.E.D. bulb can run as high as $90. Even if they would save money in the long run, few people are willing to spend that much up front.
But costs will come down, and when they do, expect to see the end of what is in essence an interim technology: the compact fluorescent bulb. Fluorescents, while using much less power than incandescent light bulbs, are sometimes too bulky, often can’t be dimmed and produce light that is less pleasing than incandescents.
L.E.D.’s, on the other hand, can produce literally millions of colors, which you will be able to witness yourself at the end of this year, when Philips, the Dutch electronics giant, introduces its $199 Living Colors product into the U.S. market.
Living Colors is Philips’ L.E.D. Trojan horse, an electronic lava lamp that uses L.E.D.’s to project a palette of 16 million colors against a wall. Operated with a remote control, you change the projected color by touching a point on the iPod-like color wheel, then push other buttons to decrease the brightness or alter the color’s saturation.
The company has already sold 250,000 Living Color products in Europe; in the U.S., it will offer the regular model plus a $79 mini version that offers a limited palette and no remote.
I’ve been playing with one for several weeks, and after some initial resistance to its corniness, I’ve taken a liking to it. Every night, I set the color of one wall of our bedroom to a different hue, hopefully matching our moods. It’s a nice change from standard yellow light and gives some added dimension to the space.
Philips points out that you can set up a chain of Living Color units around a room and control them all with a single remote. For me, that’s just a bit over the top. I don’t fancy turning my house into a Las Vegas facade.
New LED Glasses Promise to Banish Jet Lag
Found this over on Vagabondish..
A new gadget promises to make jet lag a thing of the past. The Re-Time Jet Lag Glasses look like any other pair of glasses, but are fitted with LED lights that help reduce the effects of an altered body clock.
Developed by a sleep researcher, Re-Time uses no ultra violet radiation, and relies on the blue-green colors emitted by the LEDs to affect changes in the body clock or circadian rhythm, which causes jet lag. They’re portable, inexpensive and battery operated with a single 9-volt battery good for up to 20 hours of use.
It’s not just frequent fliers who can benefit from Re-Time. Those who work on night shifts or are battling winter blues can also use these to set their internal clock straight.
Plus, they look awesome. That is, if you’re into the “Tom Cruise in Minority Report” look or you like trying to convince fellow passengers on the red-eye that you’re from the future.