Less than a year on the market, the Kodak LUMA 400 Portable HD Smart Projector already feels outdated. I cannot recommend it as a home theater option, but that’s not the selling point here. The LUMA 400 is Kodak’s mid-tier option for a portable projector, and to their credit the size and startup of the actual projector is marvelous; you can fit this thing in just about any bag and set it up anywhere with an internet connection or plug it in to just about any HDMI-compatible device without jumping through a bunch of hoops. Unfortunately, the projector’s wow-factor stops there. From poor battery life to a clunky operating system to the perplexing absence of basic compatibility options that should be standard at this point, the LUMA 400 will leave most wishing they spent a little more money to get a better projector or spent less on something that will mostly project the same picture quality. What’s in the box? If you’re anything like me and you love white electronic devices, you’ll love the color of the Kodak LUMA 400 portable HD smart projector. Credit: Riley Eubanks/Mashable
Aesthetically, the actual projector looks great. It’s light, sleek and comes with an eggshell remote to match. You can either charge it with the provided DC cord or by using any USB-C brick. It also has USB and aux cord ports in addition to DC adapters, making the charger compatible with any two- or three-pronged outlets. Kodak also threw in an HDMI cable in the box, though the cord is extremely short. You’re better off using any of the other dozens of HDMI cords at your disposal. I found the provided plastic tripod to be mostly useless unless you need something to get it at the exact right angle or if your only other option is projecting from the ground. If you’re projecting directly in front of you, you’re better off just setting it on a flat surface. Weirdly enough you can actually just hold it and it’ll work just fine which is ideal if you want to watch something on your ceiling while laying in bed. I found the fan to be quite efficient. The projector never got too hot and it stayed mostly quiet even amidst an hours-long session. I charged the projector for about an hour and I was able to use it for about 60 minutes before I needed to plug it in again. It boasts a 230-minute battery life, but that’s only possible on the lowest brightness setting. A natural groove at the base of the Kodak LUMA 400 allows it to rest on the provided tripod, which can be adjusted accordingly so you can project at an angle.Credit: Riley Eubanks/Mashable
Setup is not seamless
After selecting a language and connecting to a WiFi network, the native operating system launches and there’s some pre-loaded apps to try. Unfortunately, any apps pre-installed will have to be updated, which can be done through the Google Play Store or the Aptoide TV app. The Google Play Store also required an update, so for the sake of the time I just used the Aptoide TV app to download and update any apps. One of the first things you’ll notice is how terrible the remote is. The cursors hardly work and aren’t compatible with basic apps like Netflix so you’ll have to use the mouse cursor instead, which moves at infuriatingly slow speed. There’s a Kodak LUMA remote control app for both Apple and Android devices, which sounds good on paper, but in reality the iOS app is broken. The touchpad cursor doesn’t work much better than the actual remote control and the on-screen keyboard hardly works at all, so I immediately deleted the app and just stuck to the provided remote. Somehow, I was able to sign into Hulu on the LUMA’s web browser but I wasn’t able to log into the app I downloaded even after updating it. So, I went and downloaded Netflix instead so I can finally start watching something. Naturally, the first thing I watched was "The Power of the Dog," which would be a terribly frightening movie to watch while camping.Credit: Riley Eubanks/Mashable
Quality leaves something to be desired
I couldn’t get past two key factors with this projector: the video output and sound, both which left a lot to be desired. Natively this thing is locked into 720p, which is fine for smaller, portable devices but not for anything with a large screen. If you’re outdoors and just want to entertain the kids or you don’t really care about the quality of whatever you’re watching, this works just fine. But in this day and age, 720p simply isn’t going to cut it for me on a big screen (this thing can project a video up to 150 inches, which is just going to make that poor picture quality more and more noticeable). I can’t recommend using the built-in speakers of the LUMA 400 to watch anything. I’m used to headphones and soundbars , so these quiet, crackly speakers are just going to ruin the whole experience of watching anything for me. Most smartphones have better speakers than this projector. Thankfully, it is Bluetooth compatible and you can use the audio jack to plug it into most speakers. But that sort of takes away the big selling point of it, right? At $450, you should expect to have a quality viewing experience without using any other devices, but unfortunately you’ll have to screen mirror or plug the projector into something to get past its horrendous operating system and you’ll have to use bluetooth or speakers to have a quality audio experience to match whatever you’re watching. The picture quality improves when plugging it into a device with an HDMI cable. I didn’t notice any unreasonable framerate drops while playing "Horizon Forbidden West," though for gaming it’s still less desirable than using a TV or streaming it to another device.Credit: Riley Eubanks/Mashable
Compatibility with other devices boosts quality
Fortunately, plugging it into a device is a much smoother experience and that’s how you’ll be able to use it at a resolution better than 720p. I first plugged it into my PS5 and launched Hulu and noticed a much better picture quality, though unfortunately it was locked at 1080p despite using a 4K-compatible HDMI cable. Kodak says the LUMA 400 can project a 4K-quality picture, but I’m not really sure if that’s feasible. If you’re using the LUMA 400 outside, plugging it into a laptop is your best bet at projecting the best picture quality. That is unless you have access to an outlet, then you can plug whatever you want into it. I can see a few instances where this would be cool for kids, like if they wanted to play video games outside on a big screen. I didn’t notice any significant frame rate drops when I plugged in my PS5, so you could be the cool uncle and plug a Nintendo Switch into this at a family camp out. Colors translate reasonably well when plugging the Kodak LUMA 400 projector into another device with an HDMI cable. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a decade-old movie, looks alright, but I could see how watching sports on the projector would look really good.Credit: Riley Eubanks/Mashable
Watching sports looks better while the projector is plugged into another device via an HDMI cord.Credit: Riley Eubanks/Mashable
Only after looking into it did I learn that the LUMA 400 projector cannot natively mirror from all Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) devices, a modern standard for most non-iPhone smart devices that allows for compatibility with other smart home and streaming devices. You can natively mirror the screen from a Windows 10 computer or any other device with Android OS, but not having native DLNA compatibility severely limits the devices you can screen share with. There are third party apps you can download to cast from DLNA devices, but it’s not nearly as efficient as having native compatibility. For the sake of future-proofing your portable projector, I recommend paying a little more for one with DLNA compatibility. At $550, the Kodak LUMA 450 Portable HD Smart Projector has DLNA compatibility. That’s worth it for the extra $100 alone, but the LUMA 450 also runs natively at 1080p and has better speakers. You can probably skip this projector
At $450, the the Kodak LUMA 400 Portable HD Smart Projector seems to be at a crux of being cheaper than its nicer, more efficient counterparts but much more expensive than low-end, sub-$100 projectors that’ll likely provide the same picture quality as the LUMA 400’s native 720p resolution. This is probably the cheapest HD projector you can get that has its own operating system and can theoretically run on its own. It even has 4GB of storage and different projection modes. But unless you can find it on sale somewhere, I suggest spending a bit more to get a projector with more bells or whistles that can actually suffice as a home theater alternative or spending less on a portable projector that will do most of what the LUMA 400 will give you.

Kodak's LUMA 400 lacks the qualities needed for a $450 projector

JN
Wed., April 6, 2022timer3 min. read
The human voice, a necessity in virtually any film, is barely existent and wholly secondary in “COW.” We hear only random bits of conversation, muffled and unimportant, from people we don’t know and don’t need to. The only character that counts in Andrea Arnold’s deeply moving documentary about the life cycle of one dairy cow is Luma, the cow. Thanks to her expressive sounds and soulful eyes — which we both see, and see through — we sense what it must feel like to be her, a creature whose only purpose is to provide milk, mate and procreate. In Arnold’s careful, unhurried hands, it is a sobering lesson, though one without a clear agenda. Arnold simply seems interested in telling us Luma’s story. And that is enough. It should be noted that the humans in “COW,” workers on a British dairy farm, hardly seem evil. They are, in fact, amiable and fairly humane as they spend their days milking the cows with mechanized nozzles, guiding them into and out of endless metal cages and contraptions, stapling tags on their ears, making sure they mate, supervising their births. It is the entire enterprise that’s examined here. We all knew it existed. Most of us just hadn’t sat down and watched it play out for 94 minutes. We begin with what would seem, initially, a heartwarming scene: the birth of a calf. The newborn is pulled from Luma in extreme closeup (and total silence), glistening in afterbirth. Gently, Luma licks her baby clean. It’s a thrilling sight — and a deceptive one. The two are almost immediately separated, the calf taken to a different part of the farm. Luma seems later to be looking for her. The baby is fed through a plastic contraption. Mother’s milk? That’s for our coffee. Arnold goes on to depict a life of endless mud and metal and machinery. We watch as one contraption raises the cow in the air sideways so the hooves can be trimmed. We also witness a mating session, which provides Arnold with a chance to inject a note of humor, via pop music — “All night give me mad love,” go the lyrics of “Mad Love” by Mabel — and a shot of fireworks at the conclusion. But short of this, neither humor nor wit plays a role here. Seen from Luma’s perspective, it’s an unending slog of milking and breeding, since dairy cows must always be lactating. A visit from the doctor who checks out her reproductive organs and says she’s “doing pretty well!” seems more sinister in this context. Soon she can mate and give birth again to a calf that will be taken, again. Arnold’s editing choices make for a disorienting experience at times, and surely this is intentional. We imagine Luma must often wonder where she is going and why she is being moved, and so we wonder, too. Of course, narration would also make the viewing experience less disorienting — if we were to learn about various dairy farm methods, for example, or simply hear from people, as in another film that brought us into the inner world of an animal, “My Octopus Teacher.” But this, too, is an intentional choice on Arnold’s part. She teaches not by telling, but by compiling moments of one animal’s experience. “This film is an endeavor to consider cows,” Arnold says in a statement accompanying her film. “To move us closer to them ... not in a romantic way but in a real way. It’s a film about one dairy cow’s reality and acknowledging her great service to us.”
In other words, the film aims less to condemn than to educate, and even more to appreciate. Never is that message more profound than at the film’s stunningly abrupt ending, which we will not describe here. “When I look at Luma, our cow, I see the whole world in her,” Arnold says. Her vision comes through, poignantly, in a simple but sobering film that may stay with you for a long time. However you may feel about that cow’s milk in your coffee. “COW,” an IFC Films release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association of America. Running time: 94 minutes. Three stars out of four. SHARE:

Review: ‘COW’ needs no words to convey one animal’s life

Photo: LUMA Hotel San Francisco
LUMA Hotel San Francisco is set to debut this winter in the rapidly-evolving Mission Bay community, adjacent to Oracle Park and Chase Center, within close proximity to UCSF Medical Center and major technology companies. The property is the first-ever hotel development in the area, setting the standard for Mission Bay's untapped potential for hospitality and serving as the inspiration behind timeless locales welcoming new traditions. Designed by Hornberger + Worstell , LUMA Hotel San Francisco will showcase an innovative design which features a welcoming glass-enclosed community gathering space and podium wrapped with back-lit, laser-cut panels. These distinctive panels, emulating the crystalline structure of salt found historically in the salt ponds of Mission Bay, will be illuminated at night with a changing array of colors. Taking a cue from its name meaning bright light, LUMA will bridge style with efficiency across the hotel's public and guest spaces featuring large-scale art installations by San Francisco-based artists including Jim Campbell. Floor-to-ceiling windows in guest rooms and suites, outfitted with mechanized privacy shades, offer sweeping views of the surrounding city skyline and bay. Upon completion, the hotel will also feature 7,000 square feet of meeting and event space for curated experiences, a spacious penthouse suite, state-of-the-art fitness center with FORME technology, and partnerships with San Francisco's community-driven craft cocktail and specialty coffee scene. Neighborhood adjacent transportation enhancements are also set to roll out over the next year, offering convenient access from LUMA to some of the city's favorite hot spots, including Union Square and Chinatown, courtesy of San Francisco's Central Subway Project.

LUMA Hotel San Francisco Set for March 2022 Debut

Arnold’s film following Luma the Holstein Friesian through four gruelling years in the milking shed is raw, essential viewing
‘Emotional connection’: Luma, the star of Cow. ‘Emotional connection’: Luma, the star of Cow. Sat 15 Jan 2022 10.00 EST
The first documentary from Andrea Arnold deals, like several of her fiction films, with fractured mother-daughter bonds. But the mother in this case is Luma, a Holstein Friesian cow; the daughters – and we meet two of them, born during the course of Arnold’s four-year-production period – are calves who are wrenched from their mother’s side with a haste that, like much in the life of a dairy cow, seems unduly callous. This is certainly not the first film to make the point that industrial farming and animal welfare are uneasy bedfellows. Everything from Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s austere, widescreen tableaux of industrial food production in Our Daily Bread (2005) to Robert Kenner’s Oscar-nominated Food, Inc (2008), which lifts the lid on America’s corporate food production, argues that the costs of intensive farming are high and are borne largely by the livestock. But Arnold’s film encourages an intimacy and emotional connection with its bovine subject that is rarely achieved elsewhere. The closest comparison would be Viktor Kosakovskiy’s Gunda (2020), which traced the daily life of a pig through artfully framed black and white photography. Arnold, however, has no desire to prettify her subject matter. The film is shot with handheld urgency, the lens positioned at udder and eye level. She forces us to confront the grinding cycle of life for a dairy cow, the dull buzz of strip lights and the murky gloom in the milking sheds. Perhaps most heartbreaking is the moment of skittish joy when the cows are released into pastures in spring – tellingly, it’s a good 45 minutes into the film before we even glimpse a blade of grass. It’s not an easy watch, certainly – I cried more or less solidly through the last 30 minutes – but it’s an important one.

Cow review – Andrea Arnold’s deeply moving chronicle of the life of a dairy cow

Beauty Independent
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Blowing out the candles on birthday cakes has fallen out of favor amid the pandemic, but did you know that the pricey Diptyque Baies collection candle shouldn’t be blown out either, albeit for a different reason? True candle connoisseurs use a candle snuffer or wick dipper, not to mention a wick trimmer to snip any splayed or darkened tips off a wick before lighting it. Welcome to the intricate world of candle care. Dedicated candle care tools aren’t a new concept. Candle snuffers, otherwise known as douters, have been around for hundreds of years. However, over the past two years, as candles have become integral components of consumers’ at-home practices, there’s been a heightened focus on how to get the most out of the premium and perfumed objets d’art. Brands have become educators on the art of candle maintenance, and many consumers have discovered their candle hygiene is lacking. Candle maker Luma & Co sells a set of candle care tools for $36.95. What are the fundamentals of candle care? According to Veronique Lee, founder of terpene-infused functional candle brand CandaScent Labs , upon first lighting a candle, consumers should allow the surface of the candle to liquify across the top and burn for up to four hours. She explains, “It’s from this warm pool of wax that the aroma and benefits of the therapeutic grade organic essential oils and pure plant extracts are diffused.” Lee continues that the process enables candles to burn to their fullest potential and avoids tunneling, a sure sign of poor candle upkeep. Tunneling occurs when a lit candle melts through the center and doesn’t melt the surrounding wax. Candle companies universally agree that candles shouldn’t be blown out. Lee emphasizes the common method of extinguishing a candle produces undesirable smoke and soot. “You’re putting soot in the air, and you’re breathing it in. No one wants that,” she warns. For extinguishing a candle, a snuffer or wick dipper, which is a thin piece of metal with a bend, should be employed. The wick dipper briefly submerges the lit wick into the wax to safely put out the flame. Lee prefers the wick-dipping technique and calls the wick dipper her “favorite tool.” She says, “A wick dipper is great because you can dip your wick into the flame and extinguish it, but also you can also use it to recenter your wick [in the middle of the candle to avoid tunneling], so it serves two purposes.” After extinguishing the flame, the wick is supposed to be centered and upright in the melted wax. Wick trimmings that may have fallen into the wax should be removed with a dipper. When the wax has cooled, the lid should be put back on top to help retain the aroma of the candle. Trimming the wick with a wick trimmer, a scissors-like implement, to an eighth of an inch in length before relighting avoids over combustion, facilitates the cleanest burn and prolongs the lifespan of the candle. “I love the wick trimmer because you can trim your wick so that you’re not burning the carbon buildup that’s on the ends of your wick,” says Lee. “The wick is so essential to the way a candle burns. We do a lot of testing, and there’s a whole bunch of factors that go into a really nice, beautiful, clean burn, and one of them is treating your wick in the correct way.” When only a quarter inch of wax remains in the vessel, it’s time to say goodbye. CandaScent sells drop-in wax refills of its five scents for $52 each, and offers consumers ideas for reusing the candle containers, which are made to be upcycled, on its website. Boy Smells co-founder Matthew Herman isn’t surprised candle care has become a hot topic. His profitable brand, known for its collection of fun and stylish candles sold at Nordstrom, Space NK and Standard Dose, has registered a 450% increase in direct-to-consumer sales since 2019. Around 85% of Boy Smells’ sales comes from candles. They retail for $32 to about $80. “People want to take a deeper dive for the ultimate candle experience. Learning to prioritize caring for our own objects and intimate spaces has become a reflection of your own self-value,” says Herman. “Candles have been a part of this shift in how we relate to self-care and home. Taking the proper steps to care for your candles is fundamental to maximizing their lifespan and the quality of their burn.”
Boy Smells sells a black metal Candle Care Tool Set , complete with a wick dipper, trimmer, summer and oval tray, for $58. Standard Dose has picked up the set. “Candles won’t self-care themselves,” says Herman. “To get the most out of your burn, they need a little attention. The enthusiasm for candles and candle care has taken us by surprise—and we are more than happy to feed the need with our sleekly designed tool set.” 
Candle brands believe that candle care as well as how a candle is created can impact health. Boy Smells is one of several candle brands with pages on their websites dedicated to candle care. Others include Luma & Co , Spoken Flame , The Candle Marketplace and CandaScent . Luma & Co sells a tool set , sans tray, for $36.95. Content creator turned entrepreneur Jackie Aina, who launched her candle brand Forvr Mood in August 2020, demonstrates wick dipper, trimmer and snuffer use in an Instagram Reel on her self-care account @lavishlyjackie. “The next time you’re tempted to blow out your candles, remember tools do exist for a reason,” she says. Forvr Mood has a page dedicated to candle care on its site. Skeptics may accuse candle brands of shilling superfluous wares, but they stress good candle and wick care, coupled with quality candle ingredients, leads to better air quality, although the effects of candle burning on the air and human health are debated. “All of our fragrances are formulated clean. Upholding the highest standards of quality is very important to our entire team,” says Herman. “The tools used to maintain them are equally important…The snuffer is the ultimate smoke reducer when extinguishing, and the tray makes the perfect surface protector when burning.”
CandaScent views its candles as not merely candles, but multipurpose “olfactory wellness” products, says Lee. The brand’s botanical-based scents are chosen to elevate mood, reduce stress and improve brain activity. CandaScent’s candles retail for $68, and its candle care tool set with three tools to care for the olfactory wellness product sells for $48. The $10 dipper, $25 trimmer and $25 snuffer can be bought a la carte. CandaScent’s candle care tool kit has s trimmer, dipper and snuffer for $48. The candle business, encompassing associated tools, isn’t going anywhere. Grand View Research forecasts the global candle market will advance at a compound annual growth rate of 8.4% to reach $6.06 billion by 2025. Beauty retailers have certainly taken notice and have stocked up on candles, particularly for gifting. CandaScent is launching at luxury specialty retailer Cos Bar as its first national partner. Cos Bar CEO Oliver Garfield reports that the retailer’s 2021 candle sales were up 37% over 2019. Especially in early 2020, Cos Bar saw a jump in candle sales as clients were purchasing the items for their homes as the pandemic hit the United States. Currently, Cos Bar sells candles from Bastide, Nomad Noe, Nest and Jo Malone, among other brands. He sees CandaScent as more than a luxury home fragrance offering. “We believe the trend of multipurpose products and simplification is going to continue, and perhaps pick up meaningful momentum this year,” says Garfield. “Within candles, we saw Nest’s launch of Wild Mint & Eucalyptus perform very well for us. CandaScent is a brand with a clear dual purpose of wellness and the warming ambiance one would expect from a candle. The packaging is beautiful, and we also like the simplicity of the messaging.” 
Lee describes a candle as akin to “a little fireplace in your home” and believes the ritual of candle care can be part of self-care. “Part of our brand is taking care of what you have and taking care of yourself. When you care for something, it makes it that much more special,” she says. “I feel the same way about candles. When you take care of them, they burn beautifully. They burn optimally, the aroma comes from the pool of wax. That’s the key to it all.”
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The Candle Care Business Heats Up For Candle Brands

Apex Partners

AIESEC

The Creator Economy Explained: How Companies Are Transforming The Self-Monetization Boom

Companies developing tech-enabled products and services that primarily serve babies, children up to approximately 12 years old, and their parents. 

Baby and Kids Tech

Private Equity

Luma sets parents up with tutors to meet their child's specific education needs.

Date	11/8/2019
Round	Private Equity
Amount	$0.49M
Investors	Apax Partners
Valuation
Revenue	0 FY undefined
Sources	4

First funding	11/8/2019
Last Funding	11/8/2019
Investor	Apax Partners
Rounds	1 Private Equity
Board Seats
Type	Private Equity
Location	United Kingdom

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