Hasta La Gadget!

Lightbulbs are pretty dull. In fact, the most interesting thing about them is the almost endless number of lightbulb jokes, from which I will spare you right now. The Plumen 001, though, brings some style to your sockets.

It’s another energy-saving bulb, only instead of subscribing to the “hospital-utilitarian” school of design, the Plumen is rather beautiful. Mimicking the sweeps and twisting curves of the filament inside a low-wattage incandescent bulb, the Plumen’s glass-tubes glow with a warm, 2700k light. The output is 680 Lumens, or around that of a regular 60-Watt bulb, but it only uses 11-Watts of power.

The bulb should last you around 8,000 hours, during which time you will not be able to dim it or use it anywhere that doesn’t have a 220-230-volt supply. A U.S-friendly 110-volt model is on the way, though, so you power-wasters can leave all the lights burning in your house, all day long and still salve your consciences. One bulb will cost you £20, or just over $30, but you’ll save that by not having to buy a shade to hide it.

Okay. Just one lightbulb joke: How many policemen does it take to break a lightbulb? None. It just fell down the stairs and broke itself [rimshot].

Plumen 001 [Plumen via OhGizmo]

See Also:

• World's First Liquid-Cooled Lightbulb: What's The Point?
• 'World's Only' Solar-Powered Light-Bulb
• LED Lightbulb Speakers for Wireless Music in Every Room
• Levitating, Wireless Lightbulb

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

San Francisco-based video production company Soviet Montage is making HDR video. By using a beam-splitter and two Canon 5D MkII SLRs, the same scene can be filmed with two different exposures.

Many people claim to hate HDR photographs, but what they really object to is tone-mapping. HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is nothing more than the capture of more exposure information. The iPhone now does this, and it consists of taking several photographs of the same subject, identical but for the exposures, allowing detail to be captured in both highlights and shadows far beyond the range of any sensor or piece of film. These exposures are then combined:

This is where things usually start to go wrong. If the information in the image is used for good, then you see only the extra detail, replacing a washed out sky with a deep-blue one, for example. If it is used for evil, the it is tone-mapped into a candy-colored, Wizard of Oz nightmare that would have even Michael Jackson moonwalking in his grave.

Soviet Montage got around the complexities of capturing the exact same image with different cameras by using a technique older than color photography itself. The light is split into two beams and each recorded by a separate camera. This is how Technicolor works: the incoming light is sent off to three strips of film, all running simultaneously. Each beam is sent through a red, green or blue filter before hitting the back-and-white film. When printed, the resulting strips are dyed with the correct color and then the film strips are combined. Neat, right?

The Soviet Montage folks used computers for their trickery, of course, and the effects are rather enthralling. The oddest is the HDR footage of a human, which ends up looking a lot like the movie 300. The company is currently shooting an unspecified project with their new technique, and says that one of the biggest advantages is that lighting is much less of an issue. If you ever saw a movie or TV show being shot in the street, you’ll be familiar with the crazy lighting rigs that are even used by day. Video HDR could put an end to that.

HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s [Soviet Montage vi Photography Bay]

See Also:

• Hands-On With HDR Photos in the Next iPhone Update
• New Gigapan Shoots HDR Images, Works with Bigger Cameras
• Sony HDR-SR12
• How To: HDR Photography

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Quite appropriately for a camera, all we have in this here leak is the one image above. It shows a purported K-5 DSLR from Pentax, whose body looks almost a carbon copy of the well loved, but now aging, K-7. The biggest (only?) difference we’ve been able to spot between the two is in the jog dial on its top left shoulder, which now looks quite a bit taller. Also making the transition from the K-7 is the 18-55mm Weather Resistant lens, which should make the K-5 another well fortified shooter from Pentax. Now if we could only know what’s inside the shell as well, we’d be as happy as our jaded souls can be.

Pentax K-5 DSLR leaks out, leaves us guessing at the specs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Digg What happens when Apple introduces a square-shaped new iPod and adorns it with an analog watch face for a lock screen? A whole new cottage industry sprouts up, whereby entrepreneurial types dust off old and mostly worthless watch straps, cut out an iPod nano-shaped compartment in them, and charge you $19.99 for the privilege of turning your tiny PMP into a somewhat bulky wristwatch. The saddest part about this is that we’ve got a feeling they might be on to a winner here.

iLoveHandles turns nano iPods into oversized watches originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A clock with a built-in news feed, the Excalibur Wireless News Ticker lets you know the latest sports scores and weather forecasts at a glance.

If you are a news junkie, you need all your info the second you open your eyes. You want your fix before you reach over to turn on your phone, or get in front of the computer.

The black on gray display displays local weather, a calendar, time, and a RSS feed from your favorite sites. The RSS feed scrolls through, updating with new items as they are posted. The wireless device gets the RSS feeds from the PC via a USB dongle.

Currently, the Wireless News Ticker is meant only for Windows, and there is some initial software setup required to program the RSS channels. These channels are fed to the News Ticker wirelessly, so it needs to be placed somewhere within the range of the USB dongle.

The wireless clock uses four AA batteries.

Excalibur has teamed up with Weather Channel and Fox Sports to offer branded versions of the Wirless News Ticker with their particular news highlighted. There is also an Excalibur-branded model. Regardless of the branded version, all models can be programmed to display any RSS feed.

It just went through FCC so there is no official pricing or information on when the devices will be available on store shelves. The holiday season seems like a safe bet.