In my preparations for the CES show our staff has been swarmed with emails about new products in almost every imaginable field. This is fun and all, until you realize that you now have to check an additional 100-150 emails a day from PR companies from around the world. Sometimes, it seems like they don't even think about what you do– for example I have gotten emails about new LEED building products.
Anyway, I did notice a few products, and the companies were nice enough to send some to us for us to feature in a series of reviews. The first of the products is the Joby Gorillatorch, which has been out for a little bit over a year now.
The idea is simple behind the Gorillatorch. It's a light powered by 3 AA batteries with three legs. The legs are made up of spherical components that are flexible and firm to move. The bottom-most sphere is magnetic (very strong too). This lets you do many things with the Gorillatorch. You can obviously hold it, using it as a flashlight. You can bend it around an object to keep it in place. You can also "stick" it magnetically to some metal objects.
One of the times that I found the Gorillatorch most useful was attaching it to the hood of my car to do late night car work. I stick it on a metal frame and used it as a Kindle reading light. I held it like a flashlight. You really could do almost anything with it as long as you need a light. If you are creative, you can attach it almost anywhere.
The best part about the light is its intensity. It emits 65 lumens, or around 1/12 of a 60 watt incandescent light. This is more than enough for most things. The only thing I wish was different was the light pattern. I have a LED maglight with an adjustable lens that allows it to have a long throw with a narrow focus, or a short throw and a very wide and equally lit pattern. This short throw was best for even lighting for reading. The Gorillatorch only can produce one very bright spot with a dimmer circle surrounding it.
Still, it's got some adjustment with a variable intensity dial allowing you to make it pretty dim to very bright.
Overall, I really enjoyed trying out the Gorillatorch. It will probably become my regular flashlight and will definitely be near my auto tools for any random night-time work I need to do on my cars.
Here's some pictures of the Gorillatorch in interesting situations!
