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A12 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 4 august 2023
Prepare to flick off your incandescent

bulbs for good under new US rules that

kicked in this week

By David Hamilton
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
Get ready to say goodbye
to the once ubiquitous in-
candescent light bulb, pio-
neered by Thomas Edison
more than a century ago.
You can thank or blame
new federal energy ef-
ficiency regulations that
went into full effect Tues-
day. Quite possibly without
you even noticing.
The Energy Department
rules, which date back to
the Obama administration,
have been whipsawed in Manager Nick Reynoza holds a 100-watt incandescent light
bulb at Royal Lighting in Los Angeles, Jan. 21, 2011.
the political process for (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
years. Some conservatives
and Republican lawmak- rolled around, the critics new efficiency standards
ers long denounced them had gone quiet, possibly for bulbs used in homes
for interfering with consum- because companies and and businesses and bans
er choice and placing un- consumers have already the manufacture and sale
due burdens on business. started voting for better of those that don’t meet
Under former President lighting efficiency with their those requirements. Prac-
Donald Trump, the Energy wallets. tical incandescent bulbs,
Department scrapped Here’s what you need to which trace their origin
them in 2019; the Biden ad- know. to an 1880 Edison patent,
ministration subsequently What changes under the can’t meet those stan-
revived them. new rules? dards. Neither can halo-
Yet by the time Aug. 1 The rules establish strict gen bulbs. q

Vintage computer that helped launch the
Apple empire is being sold at auction

Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — A vintage
Apple computer signed
by company co-founder
Steve Wozniak is being sold
at auction. The Apple-1 set
in motion the company
that in June became the
first publicly traded busi-
ness to close a trading day
with a $3 trillion market val-
ue, according to RR Auc-
This photo provided by RR Auction shows a vintage Apple
computer built in the 1970s and signed by company co-founder tion in Boston. The comput-
Steve Wozniak. It is being sold at auction in Boston. er has been restored to a
(Nikki Brickett/RR Auction via AP) fully operational state and
comes with a custom-built
case with a built-in key-
board, the agency said.
“It’s an incredibly rare
commodity,” said Tim Ba-
jarin, chairman of Creative
Strategies, a technology
research firm with deep
knowledge of the industry.
“You can trace the growth
of the PC industry to the
Apple-1.”q