We hate to break it to you, but those
LED light bulbs that are shaped like traditional light bulbs? It's all a lie. LEDs are naturally pretty small things, and while there might be dozens scattered about inside a bulb there's still plenty of empty space in there meant only to make the things about the same size as a good ol' incandescent.
Lite-On, however, has found something to make use of that space: batteries. The company's Mobile Lamp bulb can stay on for up to two hours even after the power is turned off, effectively turning it into a flashlight. To switch the bulb on or off you simply touch the copper part while something conductive makes contact with the metal part on the bottom, which could be a lamp socket or just a finger, as shown in the brief video after the break. The bulbs are due to be out sometime next year and should be hugely popular in areas with unreliable power -- or with an abnormally high rate of magicians per-capita.
posted June 10th 2010 2:29AM
Sounds like a great idea. To bad my power never goes out hahahah.
@gschier
More LED is good, like dual LED flash in EVO compared to single LED flash in iPhone. But where is the iPhone vs EVO article?
@TechAndOnlyTech Apparently they removed it because they didn't know enough about the iPhone to make a detailed comparison
@TechAndOnlyTech Check it out the article here http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/09/iphone-or-evo-which-one-should-you-get/
@gschier
Current stats on the CNET poll, iPhone 4 vs Evo 4G:
iPhone 4: 38%, 4,665 votes
Evo 4G: 58%, 7,121 votes
Neither: 3%, 380 votes
Which means the Evo 4G is ahead 2,456 votes and is in the lead.
Poll here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20007000-233.html
@Technologeee
oops that 3% is supposed to be 4%, I tried looking for that EDIT button but it always seems to disappear when I come to Engadget..
@Technologeee I love how under iPhone i says "3G Where Available" and then under Evo "4G Where Available". Just goes to show how much coverage the AT&T 3G network doesn't have.
@TechAndOnlyTech
Smooth. +1
@Indie
That is why I love living in Canada. We are never limited to just one specific carrier for Apple, we have 3 choices :D, Im signing with Rogers because my family always had terrible service with all others besides Rogers, and I actually witnessed this, it isnt just talk and gossip
@derX
The iPhone 4 has features and specs that it should've had a year ago, in six months Windows 7 phones will be out and dual core powered android phones with gingerbread will be out. The iPhone will be outdated in weeks....wait isn't it already outdated?
@JonnyB
You're kidding, right? This update was actually an update and not just a "refresh" (3G to 3GS was as marginal a change as the name change). I think they've finally successfully made the iPhone's hardware modern. Now, it's up to them next year to add a LTE antenna so as not to radio catch up again.
But this article is about LED lightbulbs with a battery built in that enables it to be something like a flashlight or something like that. So, in the interest of relevance, I'm gonna go ahead and say I sometime use my phone's screen as a flashlight. But it's a LCD. But it's close enough.
@TechAndOnlyTech - I knew this was really an iPhone post :-P
Seriously, there is such a huge difference in high brightness LEDs, that you don't know what you're getting until you know the lumens. A phone that comes out a month or two later might easily match two-LED brightness with one new state-of-the art LED.
Meh, they had these in 1977 and they floated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaE-7JYnyjY
Love the 3 second demo video though. I wish ads were like that - no dressing up, just TV shows ends and car, washing powder, insurance, beer, just 12 seconds and we're back to the TV show.
@Technologeee
What has this post to do with anything?
Not jaw dropping, 2hrs whopdy doo
@creezy8188
And how long do YOUR lightbulbs stay on after a power outage?
LED bulbs are expensive enough without batteries.
@Nitesh
Yeah but buy a good one and you should never need to replace it!
Uncle Fester!
That is one short demonstration!
@Marko
its a light bulb.... lol..
it's sorcery!!!! .... ho no.... it's just batteries
Looks like the miniaturized arc reactor in Tony Stark's chest.
@joshky
Hahaha, they just think if they don't say anything then everything will be OK...
@joshky
and all the evo fanboys think that if they just keep spamming every thread the engadget team will actually do something
i really android and all but its annoying having to scroll through spam, just wait till tomorrow and spam the podcast you know they will be reading then
@acexl
You're complaining about EVO fanboys. Really?
Wait. Your profile says you've been a commenter since May 20th, 2010. It all makes sense now.
I thought lite-on made optical drives. What are they doing making lites that stay on? Crazy Chinese.
At least they are making LED light bulbs. Or I shouldn't use the word bulb anymore. LED light sources. It uses a hell of a lot less energy then what I have plugged in now. Even if it is halogen energy saving and all.
light switches are so overrated.
@derX
Buddy i would greatly appreciate it if you dont try to start anything. I dont have a problem with the other readers; its their opinion and if you dont like it then ignore it.
Engadget on the other hand is a big website with a large reader base. I would expect them to be less bias. Their previous fanboy shenanigans were bearable but censorship is going too far.
@joshky
I'm not starting anything. I'm sure I wasn't the only person surprised to read that comment.
As far as the existence of an Engadget bias or not I will not comment, but, at the very least, there should've been some mention of why the article that attracted so much attention was removed. Engadget itself mentioned how much more traffic the site received unveiling day which really speaks to how it's established as a go-to site on the iPhone 4. Removing the article so abruptly and silently seems odd and I understand why it's attracting speculation.
i just wonder who would need just bulb. Maybe somewhere with problems with often eletricity down, but for normal country this is absolutely useless, so you pay for something what you do not need, with bad ecology etc.
@derX
apologies for that. i guess my annoyance is getting the better of me.
'Action Power Ball' LED bulb = FAIL
Try Retinal LED Bulb
I needed this a few weeks ago after some idiot drove his car into the community green power transformer and took out the electricity for everyone. All the businesses had to close down...registers wouldn't open and they were fearing thefts. Schools were forced to close early too. It really screwed up life for a lot of people for five or six hours.
WTF? how is that useful???
a cool thing would be to turn the light on when you press the switch and there is no electricity...
@shpe That is how it is supposed to work from what I understand.
The electricity goes out, but the light switch on the wall still powers the bulb.
The finger was just option #2.
@shpe
Well its considerably more useful than not having any light during a blackout... And a lot less effort than rewiring a house so the switch will work
Nice really nice. But it will cost some dough, like in the hundreds maybe.
Wow, that was a brief video.
Cost on these are high, but you give thought to the power one will save over the years, it will pay for it's self rather quickly.
Also like most fresh technology; the more they make the cheaper it gets.
Eww, can you imagine a lightbulb that only directs light downwards, rather than in all directions (allowing for ceiling reflection/dispersion)? Dank.
The touch-the-contacts-together-to-light-up-on-battery idea is neat. It means that not only can you unscrew it and use as a torch (cool, but not that likely) but also when the power goes out the normal wall switch will still operate the lamp! In areas of flaky power you presumably wouldn't notice the power was out and would get continous lighting. Neat concept.
So now we need two switches to operate in order to light a bulb, please tell us there's something clever like when we switch on/off twice within 2"-3" the bulb actually switches off.
Still not ideal to have to "double switch" your lights but better than actually having to use a ladder to do so...
Progress...
The LED bulb is one step closer to Doctor Who's -sonic-screwdriver-powered bulb.