If you miss those incandescent filaments....

I've seen LED "filament" bulbs around for about a year, but for reasons that aren't clear to me, they aren't really catching on, despite full bulbs reportedly beating the efficacy of more conventional lamps, the filament aesthetics, and their novel cooling.

They don't really emit in all directions. They're standard, if small, LED chips, arranged in a linear package, and layered with the phosphor material. As such, they have the directionality of a typical LED die (roughly hemispherical), balanced out by using multiple filaments.

Some of the posters here have some really close-up photos of the filaments, including a broken one:
http://electronics.stackexchange.co...rk-looking-very-similar-to-incandescent-bulbs

Funny, I was waiting to be seated at a new restaurant that struck me as very energy efficient. I found myself picking out the energy saving features and then looking for a LEED plaque. Then I noticed what appeared to be Edison filament bulbs in a decorative fixture near the front door. These bulbs seemed very out of place but I'm wondering now if they were the LED versions. Going to have to visit again just to see -- might as well get some great shitake pizza and beer while I'm there.
Yes, energy "nerd" also.