are they the future?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/technology/28led.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

no but oleds are

I don't know about lighting fixtures, but I think they're best option for a lot of signalling lights. There are already some pretty crazy LEDs being used for most of these types of applications these days.

I could have swore those go around 5-6 dollars around here. It must be production costs. Too bad the ones I've used have some bluish-tint that becomes quite noticeable, but I assume they fixed that.

Yeah, the tints are gone.

The futures is in my pants.

Empty your bank accounts, spend all you have, and go crazy, because the future isnt very long people.

I weep for our future for it dim and short indeed.

Edit: beaten

Gallium Nitride Semiconductor Diodes are OLDNEWZZZZZ

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

Correction: the tints were added.

A standard light bulb puts out a warm yellowish light as opposed to a pure white light. LEDs and fluorescent bulbs put out a near-pure white, making everything look much more "bluish" than you'd be accustomed to. It's not a major issue, however, to just tint the coating to achieve a certain hue.

I like those daylight bulbs >_> They have some sort of tint to them thats really nice

No. OLEDs are useless beyond display technology.

LEDs are great but they aren't the best lighting technology. Plasma lamps are on the horizon. They are little glass bulbs filled with a gaseous mixture that glows brilliantly when hit with the proper EM field. The bulbs don't even plug in. You just put them near the EM source. They glow about as bright as arc lamps for the fraction of the energy of an incandescent.

LEDs will no doubt find their niche, they excel at things like accent lighting, especially because of their wide color selection and high degree of control to create fading and other effects. And of course, as spotlights and flashlights and such, they are really tough to beat.

Edit: Though I suppose having "EM fields" around from "plasma" lamps will get people going "HURR CANCER?" :downs:

I'd be more worried about it frying electronics >.>

I imagine it is a narrow, local field. You could also just through a thin wire mesh cage over the bulb (faraday cage) to block the field.

Heh, I remember seeing this one "PhD" talking about how we're going to see an "epidemic of cancers" due to cell phones, microwaves and other devices. He held a gaussmeter up to a microwave and was like, "OH LOOK, 0.15 GAUSS THATS TERRIBLE!"

The Earth's magnetic field is 1 gauss, jackass.

THAT MAKES 1.15 GAUSS COMING AT YOU
oh noes!