Today, Philips announced that their Philips Ambient LED 12.5 watt light bulb — which gives off as much light as incandescent 60 watt bulbs, using less energy — attained Energy Star qualifications. It’s the first LED light bulb of this type to gain approval in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sponsored program. Energy Star sanctioned products are usually eligible for utility rebate programs that can lower the cost of a product for consumers, while allowing a company to keep their margins strong.
According to Philips, its bulb lasts 25 times longer and uses 80 percent less energy than the 60 watt incandescent bulb it was designed to replace. A company press statement reported that in order to obtain the Energy Star label, its LED bulb had to demonstrate a minimum light output of 800 lumens, a color temperature of 2700K (for soft white light), color rendering index (CRI) of 80 and a minimum three-year warranty; it actually offers 806 lumens, 2700K, a CRI of 80 and a six-year warranty. The bulbs are currently selling at Home Depot for $39.97.
A Philips company representative told TechCrunch the bulbs are also recyclable. The lighting corporation wasn’t issuing predictions about how much the Energy Star qualification would drive sales of its Ambient 12.5 watt bulbs. More macroscopically, however, Philips predicts LEDs will take 50 percent of the residential lighting market by 2015. → Read More
Despite conservatives’ misgivings about Whitehouse moves to retire old, incandescent light bulb technology (and its energy inefficiency) the market for light emitting diodes and efficient lighting systems continues to gather steam.
In the latest spate of milestones: LED-chip-makers Bridgelux scored another $21 million investment; and Digital Lumens attained certifications that will help it export its energy-efficient lighting systems to Mexico and Canada. → Read More
Previously, if you wanted to use an OLED display, you had to use a power adapter. The problem was that OLEDs required low voltage to light up, instead of the standard (in Europe) 230v system. Now, scientists at Philips have announced that they have been able to design an OLED system that doesn’t require a step down transformer in order to work. This means that a device that uses an OLED lighting system won’t require the additional hardware components to change the voltage from whatever comes out of the wall to the low voltage previously needed. Of course, this development in lighting technology will take a while to come to market, but the future does look bright indeed. → Read More
Intertrust Technologies Corporation, a company that develops and and licenses technologies and intellectual property for digital rights management (DRM), has moved to acquire the assets of media search service Seeqpod.
Intertrust, which holds over 150 patents and has offices in Silicon Valley, London and Beijing, announced this morning that it has purchased all software and patents developed by Seeqpod via Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding. Intertrust – former by Sony and Philips in partnership with Stephens Bank – has however not acquired the domain names used by the company. → Read More
Don’t count Songbird out yet. The open source media player that’s increasingly positioning itself as an alternative to Apple’s iTunes has forged a deal with global electronics maker Philips. Under the agreement, which will be announced later today at CES, Songbird’s software will come bundled with the Philips line of GoGear portable music players, available worldwide. We first reported a partnership between Philips and Songbird back in September, but details were vague at that point.
Songbird will be releasing a Philips-branded version of its software with a few key differences, most important of which will be the application’s native support for each GoGear device. While Songbird offers support for some portable music devices (they recently upgraded their support last week), the experience for users isn’t always as seamless as they typically get from the ubiquitous iPod/iTunes combo. → Read More
The consolidation process in the TV business continues and now even becomes international. Just last month, Sharp inked a “historical” joint venture deal with former rival Sony, agreeing to supply LED backlights to Sony for their LCD TVs (which happened this month). → Read More
E-ink is cool, sure, but it’s still largely a black-and-white technology. Philips Research has moved into the color realm with what they’re calling e-skin. “The first applications using the technology could be e-skins for small devices such as MP3 players or cell phones. However, the technology is highly scalable,” says Kars-Michiel Lenssen, Principal Scientist at Philips Research. The vision from Philips is an e-skin on your portable device that can be changed to match your outfit or your mood with the press of a button. → Read More
For those of you about to rock, I encourage you to pick out a nice pair of headphones. I tested four models at around $100. They are:
Which one did I love the most? While they were all special in their own way, there were two that really stood out in the round-up… but I won’t ruin the surprise! Watch the video to find out. → Read More
There’s not too many gadgets out there that I’d spend money on. There’s the Zune HD, which, while totally unreadable in direct sunlight, is still otherwise a fine portable media player. So that’s one. Another one would be that Philips Wake-up Light (though that will have to wait till next month; stupid Zune HD was expensive!) I bring this up only, and I do mean only, to segue into a brief discussion of this here video of the Philips Lumiblade OLED, um, thing. Get it, Philips, lights, OLED, etc. Very high-concept. → Read More
The thing that got the biggest titters at IFA were Philips improved “sensual massagers,” the his and hers HF8400. Interestingly, Philips is straight up saying this is a sex toy and it was on display next to a bed in the Philips booth. Good on them. I haven’t tried it but this young lady sincerely enjoyed modeling it. → Read More
It may be that we’re entering an era of lozenge-shaped phones with little to distinguish them from one another, but that doesn’t mean phone makers shouldn’t even try. Honestly, if your phone looks and acts like every other phone and its specs are for the most part the same, why did you put it out?
Philips’ V808 is their first Android-based smartphone, so I guess you can’t blame them for sticking to the basics. → Read More
Oh the things engineers do when they’re bored and forced to look busy. Philips will debut, at a conference in Salt Lake City (of all places), a jacket with built-in vibration motors. The point is to study how people physically react to watching movies. Suggested first movie: Caligula. → Read More
There’s an episode of Seinfeld (“The Slicer”) where George and Jerry discuss the merits of skin care and the skin care industry. Neither of them think very highly of either—at one point, George tells Jerry that all you need to do to take care of your skin is “wash it, dry it, move on!” That’s how I’ve always felt about remote controls: there’s no need to complicate the celebrated procession of turning on and off the TV and DirecTV receiver, of opening and closing the DVD or Blu-ray player; there’s sure as hell no need to shell out hundreds of dollars merely to lower the volume of your sound system with a shinier piece of plastic than the one that came in the box. So I’ve always believed, at least; and to an extent, still do. But you know what, gosh darn it, after using the Philips Prestigo SRT 9320, I’ve come this close to reconsidering my anti-fancy remote position. (I know for a fact that, broadly speaking, I have a problem with “luxury,” wether it be fancy remotes or fancy restaurants; it’s the peasant in me.) If I had never heard of the remote my life wouldn’t be all that different; but, I don’t know, as a piece of consumer electronics, as example of what can be engineered, well done to the crazy Dutchies at Philips. → Read More
Panasonic, Philips and Sony today announced they joint forces to consolidate the Blu-ray licensing business. The aim is to offer a single license that not only covers patents for Blu-rays but also DVDs and CDs. If things go well, we as consumers could get cheaper movies, music or games in the process.
Full press release after the jump. → Read More
Philips is working on some fancy new drug deliver technologies that utilize microbubbles in a new way. Traditionally, microbubbles are used to enhance the resolution of ultrasound images, but Philips’ research provide a one-two punch for imaging and targeted drug delivery. → Read More
Talk about a case of the Mondays. Sprint and Philips are the latest to announce layoffs with Sprint cutting 8,000 and Philips 6,000 employees. You know the drone. It’s cause we can’t borrow against our overinflated home’s equity to buy these companies latest crap anymore. We’re too busy dumping all of our cash into organic foodstuff now. The Sprint layoffs are expected to be completed by March 31st and Philips’ are on top of the recently announced 3,000 cuts. Alright, back to work before you get cut reading this in your cube. Unless you wanna collect unemployment, in which case, onto the next post, buddy boy. → Read More
Quick Version: In a world chock full of streaming music devices, the Philips Streamium NP1100 blends into the crowd as a straightforward, easy-to-use network device. → Read More
Philips is ready to turn the the nuke codes over to Funai as the company tries to reorganize in this pirate-infested world. Earlier in the year, the company turned over the rights to televisions and now is doing the same with DVD, Blu-ray, and home theater products. From here on out, the Philips name will still be present but Funai will be the brains behind the operation with the rights to develop, manufacture, and market the brand here in the States. As the prices of these products fall, so follows the profit margin which is presisly why Philips is leaving the ring. → Read More
