Fueled by the original rechargeable batteries from 2005, Sanyo's consistently strange eneloop (on-a-loop) line keeps on growing: next up is the eneloop Lamp, a vaselike, wirelessly chargeable table lamp that turns into a flashlight when picked up.
The lamp is intended to spend most of its time on a wireless charging stand, which not unlike the Palm's Touchstone or, more precisely, Sanyo's wireless eneloop Wiimote charger. There, it can be switched between the brighter white light mode and a low-draw blue, or "Healing Light," mode. The stand feeds power into the unit's two AA batteries, which power the lamp when it strays from home. Sanyo's press release says it'll switch modes when it's turned horizontal, mentioning that there's some kind of accelerometer, although it seems like a simple activate-on-disconnect system would work just fine.
At first, I had trouble imagining too many uses for a lamp/torch hybrid, but then it hit me: midnight pooping. For that, this lamp is genius. No price or domestic availability info is available yet; Japan will see a launch on September 11th. [Akihabara News]