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Obligitory link to the UAE edition Philips bulb that you can't get anywhere else because they don't overdrive it to thermal death and it lasts forever, but between that and being locked out of the whole market there, maybe just turn the current down a smidge for radically longer life.

https://hackaday.com/2021/01/17/leds-from-dubai-the-royal-li...

Ironic, because in pretty much all other respects, Dubai is a solid kick in the knackers to the environment.

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I dunno, working hard to prevent the spread of an environmentally friendly innovation to maintain bragging rights rather than trying to spread it as far and wide as possible sounds like a very Dubai kick in the environmental knackers to me.

It's Philips who doesn't want them sold elsewhere, not Dubai.

That was a few years ago, but now they do have a "high efficiency" version available everywhere that has a similar power density, but uses a more failure-prone traditional SMPS instead of the simpler regulator in the Dubai version.

Oh good. I could have sworn I heard that the timed exclusivity requirement came from the Dubai side, but in any case I am glad to hear that they are more widely available now.

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