In my last published list of the five oldest Hue products that are still being sold, the Hue Smart Button did not appear. The small switch was released on October 21, 2019 – so it’s already five years old. While the Hue Dimmer Switch and Hue Tap have received updates in the meantime, the Hue Smart Button shown in the cover image above has so far been left empty-handed.
This text could be quite short in principle, but I’ll try to expand a little anyway. It’s about the new USB-C cable for powering the Hue Secure Camera, which the manufacturer has been offering for €19.99 in its own online store for a few weeks now. With this USB-C cable, you can retire the supplied power cable, which is also three meters long and has a permanently connected transformer.
Philips Hue was one of the first partners to offer official Matter integration. Since November 2022, it has been possible to connect the Hue Bridge to the Matter smart home standard, at that time still as a beta. The official launch followed in September 2023. Now it seems that something is happening again with Philips Hue and Matter.
There is yet another new update for iConnectHue, probably the most comprehensive app for configuring the Philips Hue system. With version 5.9, German developer Stefan Göhler delivers a new switch editor that makes the selection of available actions for a button press even clearer. “Our switch editor has been given a glow-up,” the developer tells us.
This issue is not entirely new and has been with us for several years. However, as the gardening season gets underway, I would like to draw your attention to the issue once again – and maybe the manufacturer will do something about it at some point. What exactly is it about?
I’ll make this short and sweet at this late hour: an update for the Philips Hue app is available to download from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. However, version 5.40.0 does not bring any new functions or significant changes. The update description simply states: “Various bug fixes and stability improvements.”
Today I have a little tip for you from the Apple App Store, because you can currently get the Hue Party for Philips Hue app for free. To be more precise, the download itself is free anyway, but you can currently unlock the full version within the app for free. Why and why?
Not a day goes by without questions in my inbox or in the small Hueblog community. With this e-mail from Philip, I would like to draw your attention to a topic that I am sure many of you are interested in: The backup function, which has been in development for quite some time, but has never been officially announced until now.
Philips Hue has now been on the market for more than ten years and the first-generation lamps are still working. Since then, some products have disappeared from the market or have been replaced by newer versions, such as the Hue Tap switch. However, there are still some “dusty” products that are still being sold.
The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K has now been on the market for around six months and is particularly pleasing to console fans, who can now finally use 120 hertz at a 4K resolution. I don’t use a Hue Sync Box myself, but in recent weeks I have repeatedly read on social media about problems with it suddenly switching off.
Fabian