According to market research firm iSuppli,due to their low power consumption, thin form factor, light weight and environmental friendliness, LEDs are set to take the notebook PC display backlighting market by storm during the next few years, with nine out of 10 large-sized mobile PC LCD panels expected to use the technology by 2012.

LED lighting supplier Cree has launched LED University to promote and accelerate the adoption of LEDs by showcasing their use at universities. North Carolina State University, the first to sign up with the initiative, has installed recessed LED lighting in a dorm and chancellor's office and is putting in LED lighting in parking garages. The university reports LED lighting in the dorm has cut energy use by 66 percent so far.

Recently, the American government says that if every American home replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, we could save enough energy to prevent greenhouse gases equal to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. Certainly great news, yet recycling burned-out CFL light bulbs poses a quandary for homeowners.

The MacBook Air has become the best advertisement for why companies should use LED (light-emitting diode) backlights in notebook screens, and is driving adoption, according to market researcher DisplaySearch. LED backlights in display screens are an improvement over old CCFL (cold-cathode florescent lamps) technology for several reasons, including a stunning picture due to more vibrant contrasts, better power savings, and they're easier on the environment because they contain no mercury and last longer.

On April 8, 2008 Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed Senate Bill 713 authorizing the use of certain auxiliary lighting on motorcycles.Effective June 1, 2008, Maryland motorcyclists can legally ride with light emitting diode (LED) pods and strips on their motorcycle, provided they do not blink, oscillate, or flash and are not red or blue, as these colors are reserved for law enforcement and emergency vehicles. That leaves amber, green, hot pink, jade, orange, purple, and white.

The World's Largest LED Free-Hanging Chandelier was illuminated for the first time by Meyda Lighting on April 2nd, at the Stanley Center for the Arts in Utica, New York. Meyda Lighting, a Meyda Tiffany company and nation's leading manufacturer of decorative lighting, recently installed the chandelier after one year of planning and production in its manufacturing facilities.

Lightscape Technologies, a provider of large scale LED screens and installations, LED lighting design solutions, and advanced lighting products, announced that its joint venture has completed the installation of its first mega-sized LED outdoor advertising display in Beijing, China, with another to follow by early May.

Chelsea FC is to install 250 metres of LED-based banners displays at its Stamford Bridge stadium. Philips will supply the LED panels and application system. It also supplied two 40m sq. LED video screens that were installed in 1999."Chelsea FC is a world recognised football club and Stamford Bridge is our platform to the sports world. Our ongoing partnership with Philips is helping us to achieve this," said Chris Gleeson, facilities manager at Football Club.

Lightscape Technologies Inc., a provider of large scale LED screens and installations, LED lighting design solutions, and advanced lighting products, today announced that its joint venture has completed the installation of its first mega-sized LED outdoor advertising display in Beijing, China, with another to follow by early May.

The displays were introduced as part of an ad campaign by iShares. After one month, the displays will be opened up to other advertisers.Cemusa, the out-of-home media company that holds the street furniture contract for the New York City Department of Transportation, announced Tuesday it has introduced light emitting diode (LED) display panels on 20 bus shelters. The ad displays provide current time and temperature and are capable of scrolling text.

Bocce ball is the new hip underground sport slowly becoming more mainstream as bars are including bocce courts, and its becoming a staple of any gathering. Now when the lights go low, the bocce won't have to stop when you have these LED bocce balls. Included in the set are nine colored balls in white, yellow, red, green and blue that all have embedded LEDs.

The lights are a little whiter and a little brighter in part of St. Paul as part of an experiment with LED streetlights. The city's environmental policy director, Anne Hunt, says it is experimenting with the new lights because they are greener, last longer and cheaper to operate. Paul is following Austin, Texas; Anchorage, Alaska and Ann Arbor, Michigan, in installing the lights. A few smaller Minnesota cities have also tried them.

STMicroelectronics , a world leader in power applications, has introduced three monolithic step-up converters for LED backlights and lighting, providing 30mA or 85mA current sources for six rows of up to 10 white LEDs. The LED7706, LED7707 and mobile-optimized PM6600 include on-chip MOSFETs to reduce part count, and operate up to 1MHz to minimize filter components.

LED-backlit LCD TVs, enabled by Dolby Laboratories' High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, produce stunning pictures. Unclear, though, is how much consumers will have to pay for that kind of picture quality. "These products have been screaming to get out to a mass market," said Eric Haruki, research director for TV markets and technologies at IDC. But he cautioned that unless LED manufacturers can achieve the economies of scale and cut the cost of LEDs, "this could still remain a great white hope for awhile."

Marumi's little ring-light uses LEDs instead of a flash tube, which has a couple of advantages. You can preview the light's effect on the image, and batteries will last a lot longer. Digital photography means that the color of light doesn't matter nearly as much as it did with film, but mixed lighting can still cause problems. The LEDs on the Marumi are daylight balanced.

It's reported that St. Paul is trying to take on a whole new light. A block of St. Paul's Iowa Avenue, between Chatsworth and Milton Streets, is lit with light-emitting diode, or LED, streetlights. The lights are brighter and save on energy costs, but some worry about the lighting levels. The city is testing them to see whether they can cut energy use and maintenance costs.

Seekway has put together this spectacular 3D LED display, which is capable of displaying images in full 3D (duh) at an amazing, 30 fps. The prototype consists of a 16 x 16 x 16 grid of interconnected colour LEDs and if our mathematics doesn't fail us, that's 4096 individual diodes.

Carmanah Technologies Corporation has received an order to supply solar-powered portable airfield lights for Bariven S.A. in Venezuela, a subsidiary of PDVSA. The order, valued at over $800,000 USD, will provide the tools to equip Venezuela's Carupano Airport with a stand-alone system of solar-powered LED (light emitting diode) aviation lights.

Ann Arbor is installing its new energy-efficient LED streetlights one block at a time in its downtown district. Tree Town is also testing new ways to save more energy in the way it provides public light. One block at a time. That's how quickly Ann Arbor is changing its downtown street lights to more energy-efficient LED lights this year.The city's energy department recently started relamping the street lights and so far has three blocks (on Washington Street between 5th and Ashley streets) of new LEDs in place.

The World's Largest LED and Free-Hanging Chandelier will be illuminated by Meyda Lighting on Wednesday, April 2nd, at 6 PM, at the Stanley Center for the Arts in Utica, New York. Meyda Lighting, a Meyda Tiffany company and nation’s leading manufacturer of decorative lighting, recently installed the chandelier after nearly one year of planning and production in its manufacturing facilities.

Cree, Inc., a market leader in LED solid-state lighting, announces that the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) franchise in Northern Virginia, owned and operated by Wilhelm Restaurant Group, Inc., has adopted Cree LED lighting products as the preferred lighting for all existing and future restaurants. Since testing began in January, 2008: - More than 100 retrofit LR6 six-inch LED downlights have been   installed in two locations,- Six additional locations have retrofit plans in progress, and

Event and Entertainment Lighting solutions provider MattLX is inviting industry professionals to the MattLX Meet, Greet and Scenic LED event to be held on the 24th & 25th April 2008 at Unit F, Imber Court Trading Estate, Orchard Lane, East Molesey. Surrey KT8 0BY.

At-large Councilman Ronnie Steine has introduced a bill that will prohibit Light Emitting Diode (LED) signs in residential zoning districts.The bill is in response to the bogged-down piece of legislation fellow At-large Councilman Charlie Tygard had sponsored. Tygard's initial bill would have allowed LED signs such as the ones often seen at pharmacies to be used by religious institutions and schools in residential areas.

Functionality improvements to the LED Refrigerated Display Lighting System, an ecomagination product from Lumination, LLC, GE Consumer & Industrial's LED business, enable further energy savings for retailers in new and retrofit applications. Based on customer needs, Lumination technologists and engineers have redesigned the LED Refrigerated Display Case System to incorporate full dimming control and motion sensing.

Kansas City Power & Light Co. has installed energy-efficient LED lights to wash the bridge in color at night.Spring pastels can become red, white and blue for Independence Day and other colors for special events.In all, there are 1,224 LEDs clustered in 52 spotlights.It is the second such lighting installation the utility has done. The first was the Wornall Road Bridge on the Country Club Plaza.

Troy-based ilumisys Inc. will begin work with the State of Michigan to provide light-emitting diode (LED) replacement lighting for fluorescent tubes and collect research data in the state's Escanaba office building.Over a 4-year period beginning this month, ilumisys plans to install three successive generations of LED lighting, each to replace 200 4-foot-long fluorescent tubes -- about 25% of those in the two-story, 31,000-square-foot building.

Various lighting products are offered by Lightech Australia under categories like fibre optic lighting, LED lighting and lighting control. The products included in fibre optic lighting are fibre optic fundamentals, fibre optic control, fibre optic cables, fibre optic cable specs and fibre optic light sources.LED lighting has LED lighting fundamentals, LED control, LED strips and LED fixtures. Products under lighting control are Dynalite and system integration.

Design LED Products Ltd has moved into new offices within the Alba Innovation Centre in Livingston. The move gives Design LED the capacity to expand its design, sales and product marketing teams in the coming months.

The U.S. Air Force wants to shed new light on landing sites used for rapid response and expeditionary missions - and RTP-based Cyberlux is delivering a soluion based on light-emitting diode technology.The United States Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) carried out field testing of a new LED product, created by Cyberlux  (OTC Bulletin Board: CYBL)  this week at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.The new BrightEye 4M Tower Portable Illumination System meets specs outlined by AMC for both standard white lighting and covert night-vision lighting modes.

Avery Weigh-Tronix is launching its XR Series of easy to read LED remote displays. Available with a choice of 5, 11 or 17 cm digits the high intensity, red LED characters can be seen from up to 325 feet and with a filtered lens are clearly visible both indoors and outside. These easy to read displays mean that operators do not need to walk around a site checking readouts. When integrated to a weighbridge, for example, there is no reason for a driver to leave the safety of his or her cab.