As if you didn’t already have enough reason to be pumped for this week’s Lightfair trade show in Vegas — GE is talking up its new 27-watt Energy Smart LED bulb that can product enough power (1,600-plus lumens) to replace a standard 100-watt incandescent bulb. The bulb, which joins 13-watt and 9-watt LED bulbs (replacements for 60- and 40-watt incandescents, respectively) offers up 25,000 hours of life, which should give you roughly 22.8 years, assuming you use it about three hours a day. It’ll be hitting the U.S. and Canada in the first half of next year for an undetermined price.

The promise of modern technology is to make everyday tasks easier. Sure, your smartphone can enable you access to information more conveniently than ever before, but can it help you simplify your household chores? Maybe it soon can.

At CES, Samsung announced that basically everything it makes has Wi-Fi. Naturally its notebooks, smartphones, tablets, computers and even smart TVs have wireless internet, but now so do its home appliances. New for CES is – believe it or not – a Wi-Fi-packing washer and dryer (yes, the kind that cleans and fluffs your clothes).

On demo on the show floor is a 5.2 cu. ft. capacity WF457 front-loading washer that has what Samsung calls a Smart Control system, which allows consumers to stay connected to the washer cycle without having to remain close by the machine.  Consumers can, via a smart phone application, monitor cycle selections, remaining time and finishing alerts, as well as remotely start or pause the washer from anywhere in the house.

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