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Some 15 years after its introduction, the Toyota Prius still defines the hybrid car business. It's an amazing dominance, comparable with the iPod's position in the portable media player market. Prius models outsell all other hybrids combined in the U.S. but that doesn't mean they always will. Enter the Ford C-Max. The name is about as goofy as "Prius," but the mission is serious: to give the Prius some real competition and perhaps push it … Read more

Have you missed the weekly Crave podcast? We sure have. We are, therefore, very happy to tell you it's making a comeback with CNET producer Stephen Beacham! Catch the madness and mayhem below.

- Feeling jumpy? Bounce down a trampoline sidewalk

- Trotify puts Monty Python horse coconuts on your bike

- Chuck Taylors collide in nerdy shoe collection

- Geek out over Legend of Zelda playing cards

- DOE, NASA testing fission reactor for spaceflight

- Interchangeable clothing uses magnets to switch up the style

- $2.4 million air-conditioned limo submarine perfect for 007 … Read more

When it comes to lighting, most of us live in a yellow or white world. iLumi, a new player in the light bulb space, aspires to change that with a few fresh and colorful ideas.

Similar to many other techy lights coming out these days, the iLumi lets for users control the light's color wirelessly through an iOS or Android app -- except this one utilizes low-power Bluetooth 4.0 instead of commonly used Wi-Fi (like LIFX). Bluetooth 4.0 offers more range than previous iterations, meaning you can control the light from up to 100 feet away. … Read more

In Umea, Sweden, the forecast for Thursday is partly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of precipitation and a high of 25 degrees Fahrenheit. As I write this in dark and damp Portland, Ore., Umea doesn't sound so bad.

But the city, located some 400 miles north of the already northern Swedish capital Stockholm, is for most of the day this time of year cloaked in darkness, with the sun rising at almost 9 a.m. and setting just after 2 p.m.

So the local energy company Umea Energi has begun installing phototherapy lamps in 30 bus shelters … Read more

If you want to steal Sparse bicycle lights, you're pretty much going to have to steal the whole bike. The Sparse headlight is called the Spacer Light, so named because it sits beneath the handlebar stem. It features a 3-watt white LED and can be set to on, off, or blink.

The 1-watt Sparse taillight slips onto the seat post. As with the Spacer Light, you would have to start removing parts of the bike in order to steal it. Both lights are made from die-cast aluminum to stand up to the elements and the jostling of biking.… Read more

If you aren't completely sick of the "Gangnam Style" phenomenon, there's a new video entry vying for your affection. This one features a light show that would draw attention and eyeballs even if you plunked it down in the heart of Las Vegas.

The ambitious choreographed LED display comes to us from a Christmas light-obsessed guy named John Storms in Texas. Last year, Storms built a display that danced to the Angry Birds theme.… Read more

Photos taken with Lytro's light field camera (aka living pictures) were already more interactive than a regular snapshot, letting you endlessly refocus the images by clicking on different parts of them. An upcoming software update takes the interactivity up a notch, letting you change the perspective of your shots, too.

The free Lytro Desktop software update, which rolls out December 4, adds this Perspective Shift feature, enabling Lytro users to slightly change the point of view of a living picture by clicking and dragging it in any direction.

For example, click and hold on the picture at the top … Read more

Sometimes, it's nice to just sit back and enjoy yourself as a mind-bending light show and distorted ambient music collide in the name of digital expression.

Throughout October, Belgian artist Romain Tardy displayed a mesmerizing art installation titled "Pagan" on an exterior wall of the Museum of National Antiquities in Toulouse, France.

The light show -- somehow inspired by a bacchanalian head from the third century -- consists of stars, lines, and abstract figures breaking apart and merging back together. Musician Squeaky Lobster provided the eerily calming music for the event, ensuring a total transformation of the senses for most observers. … Read more

Take a walk through the labs of Bridgelux (PDF) in Livermore, Calif., and you see a lot of LED lighting modules being made on a more affordable platform: disused factories that used to make silicon chips. But while you'll see lots of lights, you'll hear mostly about connectivity. Bridgelux CEO Bill Watkins envisions a new array of smart, connected sensors, cameras, and other devices integrated with LED lighting over our heads.

The challenge is formidable: Most lighting consumers, large and small, think of lighting as a cost to be contained, not an opportunity to be maximized. So job … Read more