Category: Tech

Gather ‘round and let me tell you a story about the dark sky that makes mid-afternoon feel like midnight, and the light source that makes it at all bearable. Once a year, winter appears with a quick chill of the ears and sudden craving for a vat of hot chocolate. It brings all things beautiful: holiday lights, white blankets of snow in the park and thoughtful gifts. But it also invites in the cold and heaping amounts of darkness. I came of age in upstate New York, where sunlight is gone by half past four in the afternoon the entirety of December and January. That’s to say this isn’t a new phenomenon for me, but that hasn’t made it any less painful. In fact, it has caused a feeling of dread that starts popping up come late September.

But when I moved to Scotland, 4:30PM became nearly 3PM and the sun didn’t fully rise until well after I’d woken up. Even in London where I’m now based, it’s easily dark by 4PM on the shortest days. Like most people, the darkness leaves me exhausted while taking a serious toll on my mental health.

Now to the hero of this story: my SAD lamp. SAD stands for seasonal affective disorder, a depressive disorder triggered by the change of seasons (usually the darker days, though some people experience it in the summer). You by no means need to receive a SAD diagnosis to use a SAD lamp, bright light therapy lamp or wake-up lamp — all names for the same thing.

I bought Lumie’s Vitamin L bright light therapy lamp a few years ago ahead of my first Scottish winter and have used it every year since. The Vitamin L lamp is a slim rectangle that provides 5,000 lux at a foot away or 2,500 lux at about an arm’s length. The latter is the recommended distance for use and more or less how far it sits from me. It’s just shy of eight inches wide with a length of 11 inches and a depth of just over three inches. It can stand in portrait or landscape orientation, too, though I find it doesn’t balance very well in the latter. The light makes up the entire front panel and has a simple power button on the back.

The lamp lives on the floor next to my kitchen table, where I’ll prop it up nearly every morning while having breakfast or starting work. As a big fan of sleeping in, I rarely use it on the weekends unless I’m getting up early to run somewhere and I typically forget or get busy in the morning at least one workday. But when I do have it on, I’ll keep it shining at me from an angle for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time I have.

Sarah Fielding / Engadget

This light is far from an extra table lamp to add a little glow. It’s a very — I repeat for good measure — very bright light. And yet, despite it practically being imitation sunlight, there’s no UV rays to worry about. It really does wake me up just from how bright it is and the daily routine adds a nice structure to busy, cold mornings.

I’ve never received a SAD diagnosis but I do have a panic disorder that causes anxiety and bouts of depression, the latter of which is more prominent during these cold, dark days. I don’t know how much of it is the lamp and how much is a placebo, but it really does help keep my negative feelings at bay and makes the dark days — a bit — more bearable.

Overall, if you dread the darkness of the winter months as much as I do, I highly recommend trying this Lumie lamp or exploring one of the other options on the market. Just the habit of turning it on most days makes me feel like I’m doing something to combat the dreariness. Plus, it really is hard to be tired when there’s a bright light shining near you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/this-sad-lamp-makes-the-winter-almost-bearable-130037310.html?src=rss

Gather ‘round and let me tell you a story about the dark sky that makes mid-afternoon feel like midnight, and the light source that makes it at all bearable. Once a year, winter appears with a quick chill of the ears and sudden craving for a vat of hot chocolate. It brings all things beautiful: holiday lights, white blankets of snow in the park and thoughtful gifts. But it also invites in the cold and heaping amounts of darkness. I came of age in upstate New York, where sunlight is gone by half past four in the afternoon the entirety of December and January. That’s to say this isn’t a new phenomenon for me, but that hasn’t made it any less painful. In fact, it has caused a feeling of dread that starts popping up come late September.

But when I moved to Scotland, 4:30PM became nearly 3PM and the sun didn’t fully rise until well after I’d woken up. Even in London where I’m now based, it’s easily dark by 4PM on the shortest days. Like most people, the darkness leaves me exhausted while taking a serious toll on my mental health.

Now to the hero of this story: my SAD lamp. SAD stands for seasonal affective disorder, a depressive disorder triggered by the change of seasons (usually the darker days, though some people experience it in the summer). You by no means need to receive a SAD diagnosis to use a SAD lamp, bright light therapy lamp or wake-up lamp — all names for the same thing.

I bought Lumie’s Vitamin L bright light therapy lamp a few years ago ahead of my first Scottish winter and have used it every year since. The Vitamin L lamp is a slim rectangle that provides 5,000 lux at a foot away or 2,500 lux at about an arm’s length. The latter is the recommended distance for use and more or less how far it sits from me. It’s just shy of eight inches wide with a length of 11 inches and a depth of just over three inches. It can stand in portrait or landscape orientation, too, though I find it doesn’t balance very well in the latter. The light makes up the entire front panel and has a simple power button on the back.

The lamp lives on the floor next to my kitchen table, where I’ll prop it up nearly every morning while having breakfast or starting work. As a big fan of sleeping in, I rarely use it on the weekends unless I’m getting up early to run somewhere and I typically forget or get busy in the morning at least one workday. But when I do have it on, I’ll keep it shining at me from an angle for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time I have.

Sarah Fielding / Engadget

This light is far from an extra table lamp to add a little glow. It’s a very — I repeat for good measure — very bright light. And yet, despite it practically being imitation sunlight, there’s no UV rays to worry about. It really does wake me up just from how bright it is and the daily routine adds a nice structure to busy, cold mornings.

I’ve never received a SAD diagnosis but I do have a panic disorder that causes anxiety and bouts of depression, the latter of which is more prominent during these cold, dark days. I don’t know how much of it is the lamp and how much is a placebo, but it really does help keep my negative feelings at bay and makes the dark days — a bit — more bearable.

Overall, if you dread the darkness of the winter months as much as I do, I highly recommend trying this Lumie lamp or exploring one of the other options on the market. Just the habit of turning it on most days makes me feel like I’m doing something to combat the dreariness. Plus, it really is hard to be tired when there’s a bright light shining near you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/this-sad-lamp-makes-the-winter-almost-bearable-130037310.html?src=rss

It’s that quiet, end-of-December period for tech news. Still, alongside our usual retrospectives on tech in 2024, the Russian government is cracking down crypto, and final seasons of hit Netflix phenomena are on their way.

First, according to reports by the state-owned news agency Tass, the Russian government banned crypto mining in ten regions for six years. Russia has cited the industry’s high power consumption rates as the primary reason behind the ban. Crypto mining operations already account for nearly 2.5 percent of US energy use. The Russian ban takes effect on January 1 and lasts until March 15, 2031. The currency has only been fully legal in Russia since November.

— Mat Smith

Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

The biggest tech stories you missed

• How to spend your $100 gift card after Christmas

• Engadget’s Balatro of the year 2024

• ‘Doctor Who: Joy to the World’ review

Squid Game will have a third (and final) season in 2025

Netflix released the second season yesterday.

No, I don’t know what cliffhanger shenanigans wrapped up season 2 (it just came out!), but you won’t have to wait too long to see how it all concludes. The Netflix-owned blog Tudum announced that the South Korean drama will return for its third and final season next year.

Continue reading.

Engadget’s Games of the Year 2024

From Animal Well to Vendetta Forever.

Engadget

After a bumper year in 2023, the last 12 months still offered plenty of amazing new releases. Whether you love a good indie or a big-budget production, there was something for you. And don’t worry: we shifted our Balatro essays into their own dedicated story.

Continue reading.

LG found a new job for your standing lamp

The “indoor gardening appliance” is a mood lighting and grow light all in one.

LG

The latest high-tech lamp from LG pulls double-duty as a plant pot. LG says the lamp with a circular lampshade shines LEDs in five different intensities on whichever plants you want to grow. Then, at night, the lights fire upwards to create cozy mood lighting. The taller, standing lamp can hold up to 20 plants at a time and you don’t need to worry about watering. There’s a 1.5-gallon tank built into the base of the lamp.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121507411.html?src=rss