LED's to date have been pretty good, we use them everywhere, laptops, flashlights, washer and dryer, you name it. they're the tiny little glowing lights that last for years and consume very little electricity.

but they've never been very bright. oh sure, a flashlight with a few white LEDs can light up the branch in front of you while camping, but it's no light bulb right?

Until now that is. geeks, start your finger tapping for the release of the next Ostar!

I came across this via devicepedia (link) and I'm pretty sure it's one step in changing ALOT of things in our lives, so bear with me here.

Imagine the power goes off, but instead of yelling at little Timmy to go find the candles, you simply take the battery out of your cellphone, plug it into the wall, and all the lights in your living room come back on.

Crazy and impossible you say? (or possibly shut up Adam, that's not exciting...).

Here's a quote "a 50 Watt A 60-watt light bulb emits 730 lm, while a 50-watt halogen lamp has an output of approximately 900 lm"

The Ostar emits 1000lm, and we all know led's aren't exactly power hungry and while the Ostar does draw more current than a normal led, it's still a huge step, the idea of powering up all the light in your house with nothing more than a laptop battery that you charge once per month perhaps is amazing.

From an eco standpoint these are great for power savings when retrofitted to ac, but also on a waste side. think about it, how much waste do you suppose are in those special power saving tree hugger bulbs a lot of people use these days? ya sure, they use less power and last longer, but the material WASTE of one of those things (the thicker glass, plastic, etc parts) is worse than just using 20 bulbs. seriously, take a look at the material used in both next time you go to buy one. even the packaging, your standard bulb is usually in cardboard, and those eco (we say it's eco and you're dumb enough to listen) things are in plastic + cardboard.

the Ostar though genuinely makes me happy, it uses little electricity, and it's tiny, thus almost no waste. it's a win win and I can't wait to retrofit my apartment in about a year when they're released.