![]() Installing the Hue Bridge requires a power connection and an Ethernet connection to your router - it lacks Wi-Fi. I settled on our two living room floor lamps and a bedroom light. The most difficult part is deciding where to install them. Installing the Hue bulbs is literally as simple as screwing in a lightbulb. Setting Up Hue - The color starter kit contains three Hue bulbs, a Hue Bridge, an Ethernet cable, and a power adapter. Unfortunately, before you can don your robe and wizard hat, you must first set up the Hue lights, and accomplishing that can sound like the punch line to a light bulb joke. It makes me feel like a wizard, and isn’t that what technology should do? With a voice command or a tap on my iPhone’s screen, I can completely change how the inside of my house looks. I can turn on the bedroom lamp before going to bed, and I can set it to a night mode that won’t wake up my wife.īut more importantly, Hue lights are fun, and they make me feel powerful. If our living room lamps are reflecting off the TV, I put them into “Movie Mode,” which dims them and turns them a calming shade of blue. For instance, if our toddler falls asleep on my wife, she can dim the lights without disturbing him. These capabilities may sound gimmicky, and they can be, but I’ve found that the Hue lights have real value in my everyday life. Sync your living room lights with what’s on TV so the color of the room matches the dominant colors on the TV, with a third-party app like Hue TV. Sync the lights with your music to turn your living room into a dance floor, via a third-party app like Light DJ. ![]() Turn the lights on before you enter a dark room, so you don’t stumble all over the place.Īctivate a colored scene to add ambiance to a room.Turn your lights on or off, or dim them from your iPhone, without having to get off the couch.So what can you do with Hue lights? Here are a few possibilities: Of course, you could also buy the Hue Bridge on its own, for about $60, and then buy bulbs individually, but the starter kits are a much better deal. In fact, if you want more color bulbs later, it makes since to buy the color kit at a discount, and set the additional bridge aside as a backup (or sell it to someone stuck with a first-generation Hue Bridge that doesn’t support HomeKit). You can often find deals on the color kit (I got mine for $150), so if you’re just starting out, I recommend it. For $200, you get $180 worth of bulbs, making the Hue Bridge $20, while the $80 kit gives you $30 worth of bulbs, making the Hue Bridge $50. If you do the math, the color kit makes a lot more sense. Additional colored bulbs cost about $60, while white bulbs run about $15. There are two starter kits, both of which include the Hue Bridge: a $200 kit with three colored bulbs and an $80 kit that has two white bulbs. The only thing I dislike about Hue is the high startup costs. Since the second version of the Hue Bridge, the Hue system has been compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, so you can control the lights with Siri. They’re controlled by a Wi-Fi bridge that connects to your home network viaĮthernet. Philips also offers different bulb shapes, including the standalone Hue Bloom and the Hue Lightstrip Plus. They come in two basic variants: the rather pricey Hue White and Color Ambiance and the cheaper Hue White bulbs. What Are Hue Lights? - Hue lights are wireless, software-controlled LED light bulbs. The Hue universe can be overwhelming, so I’ll focus on setting up a starter kit with the official Hue app and just touch on some of the other possibilities. They’re useful, fun, and in the worst-case scenario, they will still work as regular LED bulbs. The obvious choice for my first step was a set of Philips’s highly regarded Hue light bulbs. However, with Apple’s impending iOS and tvOS releases, both of which greatly enhance home automation, I decided that I couldn’t ignore the field any longer. Bringing the bugs and security exploits of computers to my door locks, lights, and thermostat wasn’t an enticing prospect. It seemed like a gimmick that would cause more problems than it would solve. I’ve long been a skeptic of home automation. 1654: Urgent OS security updates, upgrading to macOS 13 Ventura, using smart speakers while temporarily blind.#1655: 33 years of TidBITS, Twitter train wreck, tvOS 16.4.1, Apple Card Savings, Steve Jobs ebook.#1656: Passcode thieves lock iCloud accounts, the apps Adam uses, iPhoto and Aperture library conversion in Ventura.#1657: A deep dive into the innovative Arc Web browser.#1658: Rapid Security Responses, NYPD and industry standard AirTag news, Apple's Q2 2023 financials.
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