Radlicht has designed a unique way to keep bikers visible at night with an eye-catching LED light design. Based in Boston and Germany, the company had already exceeded their intended goal with 17 days left to go in their Kickstarter campaign.

When the glittering Times Square New Year's Eve Ball descends to mark the beginning of 2014, the "1" and "4" will be illuminated for the first time in ever- changing colors using 207 of the revolutionary and programmable hue bulbs from Philips. A global TV audience of over one billion viewers will see the LED bulbs, with more than 16 million color options each, colorfully ring in the new year as people tune in for the iconic celebration.

Belvedere Vodka announces the launch of its first ever laser cut bottle with LED technology, the Belvedere Silver Saber. Just in time for New Year’s Eve festivities, the Silver Saber will feature a special lighting element that will completely illuminate the Belvedere bottle. It will be showcased during a New Years Eve party with musician Robin Thicke at the SLS Hotel South Beach and at selected top nightlife venues in NYC and LA with a nationwide rollout planned for key nightlife venues in 2014.

As well as thrusting the “100 Thousand Solar Lanterns Project” to donate a total of 100 thousand solar lanterns to the regions without electricity by 2018, the company’s centennial, Panasonic Corporation has launched “Cut Out the Darkness,” a project to deliver solar lanterns and shades based on designs contributed by participants to homes and schools in the non-electrified regions. The company seeks to involve people around the world in the project and to make those participants aware of issues in the regions without electricity.

New Year’s Eve in Times Square has become a worldwide phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Times Square and happily waiting in the cold for hours for the famed street party and legendary Ball-lowering ceremony.

Haven’t decided where to welcome a shining new year? Come to Taitung seashore park in the evening of Dec. 31st, 2013, where a colorful LED lights-centered New Year party promises to give you an unforgettable experience.

The team at Technical Direction Company (TDC) delivered spectacular projections at multiple iconic locations during December 2013 including; St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Melbourne Town Hall and the Old Post Office, Newcastle. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to transform and bring these beautiful buildings to life to celebrate the festive season”, says Kain Jones, TDC’s Special Projects Manager. “TDC are the video projection experts who work behind the VIVID festival so are familiar with lighting up and transforming...

Not content with boring black boxes that light up, tech-savvy airfy announces a new way to access WiFi easily, securely and stylishly with the airfy router, the world's first smart WiFi hotspot. The trendsetting company has just launched an Indiegogo campaign with a goal of 20,000 dollars to bring the device to market by September 2014. While other routers sit in the corner to do their jobs, the airfy takes center stage with its modern and fresh design complete with LED lights that can be configured for a variety of notifications.

Like with many things in life, you can never ride the same Santa sleigh twice. Every holiday season the elves roaming labs and corridors at GE Global Research (GRC) trick out Santa’s ride with their latest technology. The need for their skills has never been more urgent than this December, with the planet’s human population above 7 billion and rocketing higher. How Santa pleaded with the elves to make him fly faster, smoother and increase his range!

Urban Matter Inc. has just completed installing noise interactive LED lights on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway pedestrian pathway. The lights are lit up by the New York City Department of Transportation and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership switched on the lights, a new public art installation located underneath the expressway, according to an Inhabitant report.

In order to reduce its carbon footprint, the historical Hotel Adlon Kempinski chose GE Lighting's retrofit LED lamps to replace its current inefficient halogen lighting in its 382 suites and guest rooms.

With the start of the Illuminade walking route, Amsterdam Light Festival 2013/2014 is now complete. Enjoy the many light artworks along this special walking route in the historic Plantagebuurt.

Acuity Brands, Inc. introduces technologically advanced Mongoose® LED Roadway and Area Lighting luminaires from Holophane® . The new LED luminaires significantly reduce energy and maintenance costs while providing a bright white light for improved visibility. The fixtures, named a 2013 IES Progress Report Selection, reduce energy expenses and CO2 emissions by up to 60 percent, and maintenance costs by more than 50 percent for new and retrofit applications.

Barcelona-based window display designer Lisardo Mendo, who has been designing windows for 30 years offers retailers advice on making great window display lightings in a recent GE Lighting Europe blog entry. Mendo has created window displays for prestigious brands including Levi’s, Dockers, Tommy Hilfger, Nike, Montblanc and others. Below is the full GE Lighting Europe blog entry:

The GER MOOD SWEATER  interprets emotions and displays mood instantly as an interactive light display.

Supertex, manufacturer in high voltage analog and mixed signal integrated circuits (ICs),  introduced PS30, a constant frequency (67kHz), constant duty cycle LED driver optimized for dimmable off-line LED bulb/tube applications, providing high power factor correction (PFC). PS30 is intended to drive a single switch, single inductor power converter (flyback for isolated version and buck-boost for non-isolated version) directly from AC line, 110V or 220V, for power levels up to 20W. PS30DB1 demo board provides a 6.3W design solution, achieving 93% PFC and greater than 81% efficiency with +/-4% current accuracy. It can be modified for other power levels up to 20W.

Diodes Incorporated, global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, today introduced the AP1694, an AC-DC controller providing a universal high-performance driver solution for a variety of mains-dimmable LED lamp designs. Suitable for both 120V and 230V AC inputs, while supporting non-isolated buck, buck-boost and isolated flyback topologies, this part enables between 10% and 50% reductions in total BOM costs.

The SmartCharge light bulb is the first of its kind. The bulb does not rely on grid power to light up, allow it to remain lit even during a power outage. With the use of the patent pending Grid & Switch Sensor technology, the bulb can be controlled through wall and lamp switches like a normal light bulb but can be turned on even without power.

German car manufacturer BMW gives an in depth video introduction on its latest LED laser lights in its concept car BMW i8. The car maker claims the new laser LED headlights high beam lights are capable of emitting lights at longer range of 600 meters compared to normal LED high beam’s 300 meters. The new technology is yet to proliferate, according to a article by CarScoop.

For its 100th birthday, Entergy Corporation and Entergy Arkansas, together donated $2M to illuminate three bridges in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a new LED lighting solution from Philips Color Kinetics.

Landmarks around the world were bathed in the South African colors last week to mourn the passing of Nelson Mandela. Countries lit up major buildings to pay tribute to this inspirational figure.

The innovative lamp series “Orbit” from Philips Co. has recently won the Bronze Award of Design for Asia Award (DFA) 2013. Designed with the oriental idea of the sky being circular, the endless round shape of the Orbit Series was created through use of new LED technology. When installed, the lamps look like luminous rings which provide pure lighting impressions by soft, bright light and dimmable luminance.

Can light travel at the speed of ambition? “Instantly!” is the answer at Mercedes-Benz of Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, where Collection Auto Group, with help from GE, is realizing its dream of the ultimate automotive dealership—an all-LED lighting facility inside and out that drives the client experience beyond expectations.

Philips Lighting blogger Monique Cousineau publishes an interesting Christmas lights trivia article on the lighting giant’s website. How many questions can you get right? Below is the full blog entry:

For Walking Dead series fans, Larson Electronics lists down ten products that can help boost your chances of survival in case of a zombie apocalypse. 

Osram’s study proves positive effects of lighting on cognitive performance of students ZNL TransferZentrum für Neurowissenschaften und Lernen (Transfer Centre for Neuroscience and Learning) have conducted an investigation with lighting manufacturer Osram on students’ performances under different lighting conditions at two schools in Ulm, Germany between November 2011 and Feburary 2012. The aim of this investigation was to figure out whether lighting that simulates daylight could increase students’ concentration and cognitive performances. This anticipation has been positively proven. Students who had taken courses and tests in biologically optimised lighting classrooms performed better than students who were in ordinary lighting classrooms.

LED fixtures at Rio de Janeiro site will save half a million dollars in energy costs compared to fluorescent technology The modular headquarters of the Organizing Committee for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic and Paralympic Games is the first commercial building in Brazil to adopt GE Lighting’s Lumination™ ET Series Recessed LED Troffer, an ultra-thin fixture as thin as the width of a finger that brings modern styling to traditionally uninspired commercial ceiling spaces.

For those who want to make an original Christmas ornament this year, blogger craftycounterpart on Instructables website has unveiled the steps in making an awesome LED Death Star from Star Wars.

Xicato announced that it has expanded its Vibrant Series offerings to include both a 1300 lumen and 2000 lumen option alongside its 3000 lumen module. Introduced in July, the Vibrant Series has been quickly adopted by designers, merchandisers and brand managers to support their efforts to differentiate and create compelling experiences for customers.

Ledzworld announced a new LED lamp that makes traditional ceramic metal halide (CMH) bulbs a thing of the past. The perfect choice to replace outdated and inefficient CMH bulbs, Ledzworld’s Platinum LED PAR38 lamp is the industry’s first 2000 lumen, single source LED lamp without active cooling.