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Any barbecue kit worth its salt (or sauce) is going to have a few essentials in it. Topping the list might be a spatula or a food turner of some sort. Additional useful items might include tongs as well as a grill brush to clean the grates before use. And, of course, a light of some kind so as to keep grilling after the sun goes down. Preferably one with magnets.

Not only does the Man Law MAN-F378BBQ Twist Flashlight come with a tripod mount that sticks to the grill magnetically, it also stands by ready for action without the … Read more

With previous product launches, Barnes & Noble has made a habit of underpromising and overdelivering, so it's no surprise that it's shipping its new e-reader, the $139 Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, a couple of weeks earlier than it previously said it would.

The company says that, "Beginning this week, ahead of schedule, Barnes & Noble will begin shipping units to customers who preordered the device" and that preorders will "ship throughout the month."

We have no way to know what Barnes & Noble's expectations for preorders were, but the company says it'… Read more

LEDs, or "light-emitting diodes," have come a long way since they were introduced as red, green, and blue computer indicator lights.

These days, LEDs are available in endless shapes and sizes, a wide variety of colors and neutrals, and offer many benefits over traditional incandescent lights.

For starters, LEDs can potentially cut energy usage by 25% in the U.S. How? Here's the science, made simple: incandescent bulbs convert most electricity to heat, whereas LED lights convert most of the energy into light. That's why LEDs don't give off heat the way traditional … Read more

Oscar Lhermitte wants to give city dwellers back their stars.

With his project "Urban Stargazing," the London-based product designer and graduate of the Royal College of Art has craftily used LEDs, fiber optics, nylon line, and giant slingshots to beat back light pollution and reconnect people with the aeons-old mysteries of the night sky. His "triangulated structures" stand in for the constellations that have fired human imagination for so long but that are now so often drowned out in metropolitan areas.… Read more

Philips on Sunday will start selling an LED bulb that sets a new bar for performance -- and price.

The company will release the Philips L Prize LED on Earth Day for $50, which includes an "automatic incentive" from the company. The general-lighting bulb came out of the Department of Energy's L Prize competition to develop long-lasting, efficient, and less expensive LED lamps.

Philips claims its L Prize LED is the most efficient 60-watt LED equivalent and improves on features from Philips own existing LEDs.

It gives off 940 lumens, consumes 9.7 watts, and has a … Read more

Sometimes we need to see to believe. I remember understanding on an intellectual level, from a young age, that smoking was bad, but I didn't really get it on a visceral level until I saw a smoker's blackened lungs. The effect was so profound that, to this day, I go so far as to hold my breath when walking past people smoking.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to peer inside our own bodies and check out the health of our lungs. It's also difficult to see the effects sun exposure is having on our skin, especially when … Read more

Many of the newer Android phones on the market are missing a notification light. This isn't a huge deal if you check your phone every 5 minutes, but what if you're in a meeting or listening to something when the alert goes off? For these situations and others, here's a selection of three awesome notification apps that help you notice every message or missed call.

NoLED will allow you to set custom notifications, like icons or dots that appear on a black screen. The whole screen is considered "on," but only the icon is … Read more

What's the No. 1 requested feature people want in an e-ink e-reader?

According to Barnes & Noble, it's an integrated light, which is why the company spent the last two years developing the new $139 Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, available today for preorder and shipping in early May.

I had a chance to play around with the new Nook at a launch event in New York and, as you can see from the pictures, except for the gray border around the edge, it looks identical to the standard $99 Nook Simple Touch, which remains on the market. … Read more

A year ago, hedge fund manager Philip Falcone's LightSquared offered the Federal Communications Commission a huge opportunity to satisfy some of its most lofty wireless broadband goals. Today, the company is facing possible bankruptcy and only the slimmest chance of actually building its network, leaving policy makers in Washington focusing on alternatives.

Earlier this week, Falcone, whose hedge fund Harbinger Capital is the largest stakeholder in LightSquared, told Reuters that bankruptcy protection is one of several options he is considering as he tries to keep the company alive. LightSquared, which has been battling the GPS industry over claims that … Read more