Philips Lighting blogger Monique Cousineau publishes an interesting Christmas lights trivia article on the lighting giant’s website. How many questions can you get right? Below is the full blog entry:

For Walking Dead series fans, Larson Electronics lists down ten products that can help boost your chances of survival in case of a zombie apocalypse. 

Rigid Industries LED Lighting® announced Thursday they hit an all-time record on the D-Series (Dually and D2 led lights) production line. With Rigid Industries’ new manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona, and the increase in demand for the brightest most compact LED light on the market, they pushed it to the limit and beat the old record set a few months back.

LED package manufacturer Everlight announced on December 10th that the company revenue increased slightly during the traditionally slack season in 4Q, with November revenue reaching NT $2.26 billion (US $76 million).

Refond announced the establishment of a new holding subsidiary in Changzhou on December 10th, 2013 through joint investments with Li Yanpeng and Pan Hongme to strengthen the company’s competitiveness in the LED industry.

You might not know what "lattice-matched heterojunctions" are, but if you stopped at a new stoplight, played a DVD or used a laser pointer, you've made use of technology pioneered by Jerry Woodall, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Davis. Woodall's work, begun in the 1960s at IBM Research, is the basis for cheap, energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, and lasers.

Recently, China’s Urban Street Lighting Design Standard drafting group launched its first conference in Beijing. At the conference, 21 members included representatives from Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai’s Urban Lighting Management Centers, Shenzhen Lighting Environment Management Center, Philips, GE Lighting, Kingsun and others.

For those who want to make an original Christmas ornament this year, blogger craftycounterpart on Instructables website has unveiled the steps in making an awesome LED Death Star from Star Wars.

Guoqing Tang, China President of LED BU, Samsung, who is also Chairman of SEMI China LED Committee, gives an in depth analysis of the LED industry developments and categorization in this article. 

The maturation of LED technology and lighting applications have allowed flip-chips to become the star of 2013. Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) has been producing flip chip products for over three years. In 2013, the company expanded into the new field of flip chip packaging and its development direction has been technological vertical integration. Elimination of wire bonding during the manufacturing process can effectively reduce LEDs damage risks. GPI plans to continue introducing flip chips into special application markets for street lights, tunnel lighting, and factory lighting, which require products with high reliability.

The incandescent bulb's days are numbered; by Jan.1, 2014, most will have been phased out. And a typical 60-watt bulb costs more than three times as much per year to run as a similar LED bulb. The preliminary findings of Consumer Reports latest tests show that the newest and least expensive LEDs are shining bright.   

Market rumors surrounding Apple’s interest in OLED technology have resurfaced this week. The company has applied for an OLED patent with integrated thermal sensors, according to an article by Apple Patently. Although, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been repeatedly quoted as showing no interest in OLED technology in February during the Goldman Sachs Conference, the company just cannot ignore the advantages OLED technology presents in wearable electronic devices, such as the iWatch.

Xicato, a developer of LED modules, announced that Joe Li has joined the company as the Regional Sales Manager Greater China and will lead the company’s continued growth in a region where the market is maturing and increasingly seeking solutions that provide higher quality light and improved efficiency.

At the DOE Solid-State Lighting Market Introduction Workshop in November, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized non-profit organization Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) with Special Recognition as an LED Lighting Facts® program partner. They highlighted NEEP for its dedication to advance and promote the LED lighting industry through its project, the DesignLights Consortium® (DLC).

Xeleum Lighting announced the availability of its Cobalt Series high efficiency LED light fixtures. These fixtures provide more evenly distributed light and years of maintenance-free operation at less than half the energy cost of the fluorescent fixtures they are designed to replace. As with all Xeleum troffers, they meet the performance requirements the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) and are now included on the DLC Qualified Products List (QPL).

RAB Lighting announces the availability of LPANEL, its new line of LED panel fixtures. Designed with high performance and affordability in mind, the new LPANEL products deliver ultra smooth edge-to-edge light in a modern design. LPANEL breaks new ground in efficiency delivering up to 106 lm/W.

Sapphire substrate concept stocks have soared lately on China’s A-Shares market, but major international sapphire substrate suppliers stock prices have plunged, according to a China Securities Journal article. Out of the major sapphire substrate manufacturers, U.S. company GT Advanced Technology (GTAT) stock prices were down 10 percent over the last three days, another U.S. company Rubicon also fell 7 percent during the same period, while Korean Sapphire Technology Company has dropped 8 percent over the last five days.

LED manufacturers have consecutively released their November financial reports.Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar revenue has been driven by increased shipment demands for  AlInGaP and backlight products and LED chip manufacturer Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) also showed good revenue performance in November benefiting from flip chip products.

Roshow Technology has released an abnormal stock price announcement after experiencing three days of inflation on stock prices surpassing 25 percent. The listed company does not manufacturer sapphire substrate. It expressed that rumors on the Internet claiming the company has invested a total of RMB 1.1 billion (US$?) to produce 4 million LED sapphire substrate pcs annually is false.

As part of cutting energy waste and doubling energy productivity by 2030, the Energy Department today announced nearly $10 million to support research, development, and manufacturing of solid-state lighting (SSL) technologies across the country. This funding will help accelerate the development of high-quality light-emitting diode (LED) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) products with the potential to reduce lighting energy use for American families and businesses by one half and enhance U.S. global competitiveness.

America will conclude its three-year farewell to inefficient general-purpose incandescent light bulbs on December 31, 2013, the National Lighting Bureau advises.

Merck and LG Display have entered into discussion regarding the possibilty to jointly develop a printing method for the production of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, according The Korean Times.

Eight city corporations in Bangladesh will be replacing fluorescent and sodium street lights to energy saving LED lights, according to local newspaper The Daily Star. The replacement to LED is estimated to save the province 10 megawatts (MWs) of electricity per day. In other words, additional 5,000 households can be powered every day as the lights consume less than 30 to 40 percent energy than existing lights.

Continuing with its focus on providing the best of innovation and technology, India’s leading electrical solutions manufacturer – Anchor Electricals Pvt. Ltd (A Panasonic Group Company), today opened its first state-of-the-art LED lighting showroom in Mumbai. This showroom gives consumers a ‘see, touch and feel’ experience of a diverse range of world-class home decorative lighting concepts and functions. The company will focus on residential lighting.

An ideal gift for skateboarders this Christmas might be additional LED light equipment from Third Kind. The lights come in a package with all the hardware into a kit that can be mounted in minutes, according to a Gizmag article. The package comes with a rechargeable battery pack mounts via the truck hardware, indicating skateboarders will not have to modify the board or worry about the pack from falling off. The skateboard light strips comes in a size of 51 cm (20-inches) and is stuck on the board like a sticker.

Taiwan LED secondary optical lens manufacturer LedLink consolidated revenue for November reached NT $108 million (US $3.7 million), monthly growth of 12.62 from October and up 34.14 percent from November last year. December revenue is expected to decline due to effects from stock checking.

With 4Q coming to a close, this week has seen a substantial number of companies releasing their financial reports. Financial firms, such as UBS, have also released market forecasts for 2014.

Taiwanese LED package manufacturer Edison Opto consolidated revenue for November reached NT $213 million (US $7.2 million), a monthly decrease of 2.23 percent but yearly growth of 32.2 percent. With the year drawing to a close, clients are observing the market before ordering. December revenue is forecasted to remain level.

Taiwan LED package manufacturer Unity Opto Technology (Uni) November consolidated revenue reached NT $530 million (US $18 million), a 27.93 percent slide from last November. However, revenue for November remained consistent with last month showing unusually good performance for a typically slack season. 

Taiwanese LED manufacturer Lextar’s November revenue reached NT $1.17 (US $39 million), growth of 10.1 percent from October and 49.5 percent from November last year. The company’s accumulated revenue from Jan.-Nov. was NT $12.64 billion.