Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Yes, they’re slightly more appropriate for Hallowe’en, but these glowing dismembered body parts lawn ornaments could be used for any holiday throughout the year. Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Bah Mitzvah… Just dress them appropriately and I’m sure the neighbors won’t complain one bit when you’ve hidden a decorated Easter egg behind that foot sticking out of your front lawn. $16.98 from IWOOT for a set of 4.

[ Light-Up Body Parts ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It doesn’t look like it gives off that much light, and those sharp, pixelated edges might not be safe for kids, but Marcus Tremonto’s pixel bulb made from electroluminescent paper is certainly unique. You can’t buy one I’m afraid, but if you happen to find yourself passing by The Apartment at Ledbury Road gallery in London between now and October 5th, you can pop in and see it for yourself.

[ yatzer - New arrivals by Marcus Tremonto ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Andrew Liszewski

At this point even I’m a little sick of the recent flood of LEGO themed electronics and gadgets, but how can anyone resist taking this minifig LED lantern on their next camping trip? The oversized minifig swings from the “easy carry handle” and his white shirt provides 360 degrees of lighting thanks to a set of 4 white LEDs inside. It’s powered by 4 x AA batteries which are included, and is available from Perpetual Kid for just $19.99.

[ LEGO Led Lantern ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Just because you’ve embedded an LED into some random knick-knack doesn’t make it useful, and to be honest I would have thought the same thing about an LED-equipped clothespin. But seeing photos of Sungho Lee’s ‘Lighting Pin’ in action has changed my mind. Being able to clip it anywhere for hands-free lighting is one advantage, but attaching a rolled up piece of paper and creating an impromptu lamp is clever enough to make me want one of my own! It’s just too bad it doesn’t appear to be available for sale.

[ Sungho Lee ] VIA [ designboom ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While this might look suspiciously like the same LED LEGO minifig keychains we brought you last week, I can assure you it’s not. For starters, this one stands over 7-inches tall making it completely incompatible with any LEGO set on the market. And while it does include a set of white LED lights in its right foot allowing it to be used as a flashlight, they’re not powered by disposable batteries. Instead, there’s a dynamo inside that can be used to charge a set of rechargeable batteries by simply cranking the LEGO fig’s left arm. ~$23 from Play.com.

[ LEGO: Dynamo Torch ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’m a gamer, which means I like to pump as much juice as I can out of my computer. Overclocking means more heat, which I combat by using a liquid cooling system. Liquid cooling isn’t all that uncommon in high-end computers, however, it’s practically unheard of for light bulbs. Until now, that is.

This small LED bulb uses liquid-cooling so that it can provide full 360-degree lighting. It consumes only 4 Watts of power, while still giving off the same amount of light as a traditional 25 Watt bulb. Sure, it’s not the brightest in the world, but it would be great for small desk lamps and such. Each bulb will set you back $35 and is rated for up to 35,000 hours. You know you want to get one, just to say you have a liquid-cooled bulb.

[ EternalLEDs ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Evan Ackerman

There are any number of potentially useful and/or incredibly stupid light-up USB accessories that owe their glowyness to various flavorings of LEDs. That’s cool, I’m down with that, I like the futuristic look as much as the next geek. But retro is rapidly becoming the new futuristic, and this USB light fits the bill neatly with a light bulb that is, in fact, a light bulb. You know, the old school vacuum + filament + heat + inefficiency + if it breaks you have to clean up really carefully or you’ll get shards of glass in your feet kind. Numerous disadvantages aside, the one redeeming factor if incandescent bulbs is present in this USB powered version… Namely, the ability to cast a warm and pleasing glow, which (I imagine) provides a nice counterpoint to the inevitably harsh and unyielding photons that are being pumped out by whatever device this little lamp is plugged into.

For about $14, you get the lamp plus two spare bulbs, one of them frosted (if you’re into that kind of thing). Each bulb should last about 300 hours, giving you decades (well, 0.01 decade) of pleasing illumination, and a replacement set of three is only about $6. It all can be yours, from where else but Japan.

[ JTT (Translated) ] VIA [ New Launches ]

By Evan Ackerman

We’ve been waiting for over two years now, but the Alien Abduction lamp is finally almost ready for production. The picture above is the final prototype; the production version of the lamp should be virtually identical, glow in the dark aliens and all.

The UFO itself is very solid and cast in metal with a beautiful black pearl finish (you can’t really see how nice the finish is in this otherwise great photo). The antenna functions as the on off switch, and it also has a third position for pulsing light. And of course it comes complete with glow-in-the-dark aliens, real fake grass and a poor removable bovine abductee!

The biggest difference I see from the original rendering is that the cow is no longer suspended beneath the UFO. I really liked that touch, and thought it added a lot of character. I can see how it might be hard to realize in a production lamp, but maybe it could be rigged up anyway with a bit of fishing line or something.

There’s no release date or price yet, but you can sign up to have the opportunity to purchase one of the first 2000 Abduction Lamps in a special limited edition run at AbductionLamp.com.

[ Abduction Lamp ] VIA [ herrklein ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Have you ever tried to eat dinner at 2:30 in the morning during an eclipse while in the middle of a power outage? Let me tell you, it’s almost impossible to see what you’re eating! Thankfully the forward thinkers at Sylvania have come up with the perfect solution. Through some manner of reverse-engineered alien technology they’ve found a way to embed LED lighting into your standard terrestrial placemat. You’d think that such a breakthrough would have been confiscated by the government, placed in a non-descript wooden crate and buried somewhere inside a giant warehouse, but believe it or not they’re actually available for sale to the public!

On a single set of coin cell batteries the placemats will stay lit for about 20 hours, and they’ve been treated with Scotchgard so they’re also spill-friendly. And they’re available in sets of 2 from the Sylvania online store for $24.99.

[ Sylvania LED Placemat ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]