Philips has been pushing color-changing lighting for years now, but with Philips hue the concept may finally have come of age. No longer amorphous lamp blobs, the hue bulbs screw easily into your existing light fittings and, on the face of it, do everything a regular bulb might. Reach for your phone or tablet, however, and you can soon be bathing in a near unlimited range of custom colors. So, the dawn of a new age of home automation, or just a dreary DIY disco? Read on for our full review.
Colored LED lighting that could be remotely controlled used to take professional installation and thousands of dollars; now, Philips’ new hue system makes it as easy as screwing in a bulb. On sale on Tuesday – initially exclusively through Apple Stores – the hue bulbs screw into a regular ES fitting and are remotely controlled from iOS or Android apps over a ZigBee connection, either locally around the home or (handy if you’ve left the lights on while you’re on holiday) anywhere with an internet connection. They’re hardly a cheap replacement to a standard incandescent bulb, though, so we spent some time with Philips to find out why hue is special, and how the system could actually make us happier or more productive.
Competition in the LED bulb market seems to be picking up, with more manufacturers announcing their solutions over the past few days. Add the Groove Bulb to the list, said to consume 85% less electricity than incandescent bulbs but with a lifespan of around 30 years. This particular offering seems to be attacking price too: a 9W bulb (equivalent to a traditional 60W bulb) costs £15.95 (~$25.67).
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Switch Lighting is introducing a new line of LED lightbulbs today that offers tweaks to conventional LED bulb design. The design makes use of liquid cooling instead of solely relying on the heatsink at the bottom of the bulb. The company plans to introduce three new bulbs to replace incandescent options, with wattage ranging from 40 to 75. Prices are expected to be between $40 and $50.
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One of the things that is pushed for people who want to go green is a switch from traditional incandescent light bulbs to greener options such as LED light bulbs. The problem with moving to an LED light bulb is that the bulbs cost much, much more than traditional incandescent units. Despite the cost, anyone looking to upgrade to LED lighting in their home now has a new choice that is available from Intematix.
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Perhaps in honor of Earth Day, you can now get one of Philips's incredible, seemingly infinite-lasting light bulbs for less than half of what you would have paid a week ago. The company said that in stores this week, the bulb will be available with a $10 instant rebate, making the price paid at the register $50 instead of $60. And in addition to that, consumers are eligible for another rebate of up to $25.
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This week the automotive group Audi is showing off their Visions OLED lighting concept for ultra-impressive arrays of interactive lights across both their R8 and Q7 model vehicles. The video you're about to see might set your face on fire with how awesome it is, so Pimp My Ride lovers beware. Stephan Berlitz, head of lighting technology and electronics at Audi noted that the homogenous visual effects you're about to see in the video would not have been possible with simple LEDs, "hese are individual points of light that need additional optical devices – reflectors, optical conductors or scatter optics." Have a peek at this masterpiece for yourself, if you dare.
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A lot of folks would like to go green and practice better energy conservation but so far the costs of doing so have been prohibitive. Lemnis Lighting is hoping to ease that transition by offering efficient LED lightbulbs at a price that may get more consumers to make the switch.
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BASF and Philips are working together on a really cool project that uses OLED lighting for the roof of a car. The OLED light can be a light source to illuminate the interior of the car at night. When turned off the light source can also be a transparent solar cell that allows passengers to see out while gathering power. When off the OLEDs are clear so the people inside can see out of the car.
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In the world of Internet-connected appliances, there aren't many out there that are cuter than Violet's Karotz, an adorable little plastic bunny that imparts information through moving its ears and lighting up its tummy. If you haven't checked it out for a while, the WiFi hardware now supports NFC in a big way: you can switch to a new app with a miniature version of the original in a tiny, adorable package.
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Here at CES we are seeing all sorts of exciting and innovative products and this one in particular was so unique that I had to share. This is the Energizer Edge Accent LED Light and it will never burn out, and never go bad. We have a few more photos and a quick video after the break.
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If you live in North America, chances are you've had a good time purchasing, stringing, taking down and ball wrapping, and next year throwing away Christmas Lights - as the video in this post will show, those lights don't always just go in a landfill, they get turned into nothing less strange than a pair of slippers! The video here shows a Chinese recycling factory that sits in the town of Shijiao, near Guangzhou, and they've got a yearly run-through of 20 million pounds of old Christmas lights per year. They chop them down, mush them up, and flip them out!
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