He said he was no longer selling them last year.

Fyi for anyone reading the thread, Peter White does sell B&M's battery powered competitor to the previous Phillips light -
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m.asp

Ixon IQ Premium without batteries and charger, 80 lux, Part # B&M1922QM, Price: $ 106.00
(The Saferide was also 80 lux, but cost more around $200 originally)
5 hours of battery life (with AA's)
Make sure you're looking at the "premium" version - the previous non-premium version puts out less less.

There's a 3x more expensive version with slightly more light output on that page to called the "IQ Speed Premium".

I suspect that the fact that the B&M version came out at half the price, at almost exactly the same time the Phillips was discontinued is not a coincidence.

Well that sucks. I own a Saferide and I really like it a lot. Why didn't they just simply sell the rights to someone else to make instead of just throwing the whole thing down the drain!

The tail light situation...I never saw the Lumiring in action since it's sold mostly in Europe and intended to be put on rear racks instead of seat posts or saddle bags like American sold tail lights are designed to do, so I can't say how bright it is, but I can say that Light And Motion Vis 180 (not the Micro) is extremely bright and it's easiest the brightest tail light I've seen where I live. I doubt the Lumiring is as bright as the Vis 180.

I use the Lumiring and its plenty bright.
I havnt heard about the Vis180 but if my Lumiring keeps going like it has done, I'll not need to.
You are correct in that the model of Lumiring I use attaches to a rack but I understand there is an adapter for seatposts.
Is the Vis 180 a dynamo tail light or strictly battery?

The Vis 180 (not the Vis 180 Micro) is strictly a rechargeable battery. That light is so bright it can be readily seen from over a mile away in broad daylight! At night it casts a red plume of light on the road and on passing buildings. I looked for quite awhile before settling on this light and it makes my Planet Bike Turbo look dim! I still use the Planet Bike Turbo though, it now takes the position on the rear of my helmet. I keep most of my tail lights when I upgrade and just move the older lights to a different position, my first LED tail light, a Cateye LD600 is fasten to my seat post, the Light & Motion Vis 180 attaches to my seat bag, and I have set of Soma Road Flares in the handlebar ends, so I have 5 tail lights (counting the Soma's as 2).

I also read studies done in Europe that flashing lights, either front or rear were illegal because flashing lights hindered motorists ability to accurately ascertain the distance to the cyclist so I put my Vis 180 on steady mode; but Canadian and US studies showed that flashing lights attracted the attention of motorists faster, so I put all my other lights on flash mode. I have NO CLUE if what I'm doing is any safer, I've never been hit from behind even going way back to the mid 70's when tail lights were all but useless! But I figure I would cover both spectrums of the study and figured it can't hurt.

The Planet Bike Turbo *IS* dim.

I run two lights at night, one steady, one flashing. Typically I'll run the Magicshine on steady on the rack, and the Cygolite Hotshot on my helmet on flash.

Running two rear lights is just sensible because you won't know if one of the lights goes out. Sure, I can see my lights reflected on street signs 1/2 mile back, but that only works reliably at night and on my route sometimes I go a mile between street signs. Also I have to remember to look and sometimes I'm busier dodging potholes than looking in my mirror looking to see if I can see the reflection from my taillights.

Oddly this happened to me just the other night. My Moon Shield went out during a cold winter ride. Not sure if the cold got to it or if it really was that low on charge. Cygolite Hotshot on the helmet kept me from not having a rear light. Indeed, never hurts to have two lights going. My AA powered wheel lights went out on my next ride ( *sigh* ) but been a while since I charged those so I didn't find that surprising. Nevertheless, things using small batteries don't like the cold...X2 if they're using NiMH.