Spotlight on Brando

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Ok nothing quite says “We Are the Borg”™ like this little item. Perfect for raves, conferences or just sitting on your desktop, you’ll be sure to draw attention with this mini plasma plate. It has a clip to attach to your belt or you can just stand it up on its own. It takes two AAA batteries and just a hint to those who purchase this, the back plate SLIDES off, you don’t need to pry the little tabs to open it. With only Japanese instructions on the box, I had to pretty much figure it out myself, thankfully, there’s only the back to slide off, the batteries to insert and a single on/off switch. I have it sitting on my desk right now, it’s maybe a little heavy to clip to your belt, and perhaps just a little geeky to do so any place other than a Star Trek convention.

Oh and did I mention it’s touch sensitive? When you run your finger along the lighted surface, the electrical arcs jump to your position and radiate from there! Definitely a conversation piece and just one of those cool things to put on your desk at work.

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When this little box arrived, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. It’s a lightbulb..with a remote control. Only after I placed it in a lamp did I see the true beauty of this! Here are the specs first, then I’ll tell you more about it.

• 16-color Light changes
• 4 light styles, FLASH, STROBE, FADE and SMOOTH
• Tune the LED light brightness
• ON/OFF control
• A remote control can handle MORE THAN ONE Home LED Lamp
• Input Voltage 100-240 Voltage

Frankly those specs don’t do it justice. I was a little skeptical that 5 watts would do anything more than light the corner of my office, however I was surprised that it’s more than just for mood lighting. First of all, the 16 colours includes: dark red, bright red, orange, bright yellow, pale yellow, dark green, light green, light teal, medium teal, dark teal, dark royal blue, medium royal blue, dark purple, medium purple and light purple, oh and white of course! Secondly, there are features you can apply as well, flash, strobe (faster flash) fade and smooth. Along with those bells and whistles are the basic on/off as well as dim and brighten. All in one bulb, all in one very slim remote. The box mentions that these would most likely be used commercially for signs, spots in ceilings, stage lights and stores, however it does mention using it over a fish tank, which would be awesome! Talk about messing with your fish!

I intend to use this light in one of two ways, a floor lamp in my office as shown in the video, or even possible, in the ceiling pot light above my tub. I can have my own colour therapy baths! I somewhat wish however, that there were higher watt versions, but the 5 watts does fine for highlighting or accent lighting, you cannot however, use it to light an entire room. For that, you may need quite a few more! The only other surprise, and this time not a good one, was the remote control requires line of site to the bulb. Thankfully though the sensor is at the exposed end of the light, and I was able to bounce the signal off the ceiling quite effectively, so while I understand why this method was chosen (cost) it will limit what type of receptacle I place this bulb into.

Overall, this is rather neat, the only thing holding me back from getting a few more is the $48 price tag. Granted this bulb is going to last virtually forever (10,000 hr spec) I’m not about to replace all my household bulbs, as cool as that would be. So choose wisely where you place your LED lamp, and enjoy cycling those colours or playing with the strobe! I know I will!

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This was one of the items, sadly, that came equipped for a 220 outlet, not a North American 100, and so I used the handy adapter Brando so graciously sent me.

My first thought before plugging this in, was “how loud is this going to be?” and I have to say, I put my ear right up to it and it was silent (and yes it was working, the luminous blue lights were on!) Whew! Finally an air purifier I can live with! The specifications are as follows:

Features
• Patented Piezo Electric Technology
• Patented Ionic Emission Technology
• Dense Ion Output with low ozone output
• Compact size with the plasma shape (plasma has a shape?)
• Quiet operation and noise-free
• Long lasting LED night lights, colours optional(blue appears to be the only option)
• Energy saving, 1 watt per hour
• Cordless plug types for different countries*
• No filter need and zero maintenance required
• Additional dust collector plates for cleaning
• Easy to use, plug and play
• Ideal for the area of 15-20 meter square

*Note, this device came as a European plug, I did not see any instruction or means to change that option. I haven’t broken the back off yet for obvious reasons, so if I’m missing something here, perhaps the good people at Brando can give me a suggestion. The instruction manual also does not refer to how to change it, just that you can.

Now I must admit, while this is a large unit, because it is grounded it sits securely in the outlet (even with the Euro-US adapter in place) I quite like the look of both the unit itself and the LED night lights included. One feature I thought was quite smart is that if you remove the filter while the unit is plugged in, the lights go out, letting you know when you reinsert it, that it is only fully in place when the LED lights come back on! Smart!

The Electronic Dust Collector easily slides out and can just be wiped clean with a soft clean cloth. There is also a small brush included to clean out the slats in the unit, however this brush is completely separate from the unit and will most likely be lost by me rather quickly. I would liked to have seen a small storage space for this brush similar to a storage slot for a stylus in handheld items. Perhaps in the next version this will be considered. Now I’m not a smoker, and my house doesn’t actually smell of anything so I’m not sure how to test this unit short term. I’ll leave it running 24/7 for the next week and let you know if there’s any build up on the dust collector in that time frame.

One week later, actually 8 days, and let’s see how it’s doing. Now I do burn candles on occasion and this office did always seem a little mustier than other parts of my place, but since I have been running this unit for a week straight (it’s still silent as ever!) I have noticed that it’s a little less musty in here. Could be partially psychological, knowing I have a purifier in the room now, but once I unplugged the unit and cleaned the black film off of the collector, I am now convinced it’s doing something. Even if all it is doing is trapping dust and smoke, that’s more than enough for me. I’m thrilled with this little unit, and if I can figure out the mystery of the outlet type, I’ll be even more excited. This carries a $38US price tag and in my opinion, it’s worth it. If you work or live in a small space like I do, have pets, smokers, odours or even a cubicle situation this is definitely worth it, and I have already put this item on my ‘presents to buy’ list.