The Hue Secure cameras were launched just over a year ago. A lot has happened since then, there have been numerous updates and Philips Hue has also lowered the prices of the various cameras. Until now, however, the Hue Secure cameras were trapped in the Hue app – this is now changing with the latest update to the application.
Late yesterday afternoon, Philips Hue released another update for its app. Version 5.32 is now available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The update includes numerous new features, only one of which is not really new. In the update description, Philips Hue once again announces multi-bridge support – but this has been available since version 5.31.
It’s a question that keeps coming back to me in various ways. It’s about ceiling lighting that still has a dimmer on the switch. What is a great thing for classic halogen or LED lamps and increases convenience is absolute poison for Philips Hue. One of the letters comes from Hueblog reader Frank.
Black Friday is only just over and the next offers are already starting. The festive sale has started today in the Philips Hue online store, here you can go directly to the promotion page in your country. The rules of the promotion are quickly explained: you can choose from almost 70 products and must add at least two of them to your shopping cart to receive a 15% discount at the checkout.
The software development of Philips Hue continues to progress. A new firmware for the Hue Bridge is currently being rolled out, software version 1968096020 has been on its way to you since Thursday. In addition to the usual bug fixes, the new version also delivers some real improvements. For example, the brightness for sleep automations is said to have been improved.
If you’re not satisfied with the options offered by the official Hue app, I’d like to introduce you to another candidate today: Hue Essentials. The application can be found in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. What’s particularly exciting is that Hue Essentials not only runs on iPhone and iPad, but also on Mac.
Philips Hue always offers seasonal scenes in the Hue light scene gallery that are only available for a limited period of time. Currently, for example, there are ten Christmas scenes from the “Winter holidays” category. You can simply select the scenes and save them in a room of your choice. If you have missed this and the Christmas scenes have already disappeared from the Hue light scene gallery (or not yet back), you can now download them from me: Snow sparkle (Download-Link) Under the tree (Download-Link) Nutcracker (Download-Link) Jolly (Download-Link) Golden star (Download-Link) Silent night (Download-Link) Color Burst (Download-Link) Crystalline (Download-Link) Rosy sparkle (Download-Link) Festive fun (Download-Link) Simply click on the desired download link using a smartphone or tablet on which you have installed the Hue app.
When it comes to configuring the Hue system, there has been no way around iConnectHue (App Store link) in recent years. And even if the official Philips Hue app keeps adding new features, iConnectHue remains my first choice for most settings. Now there’s some news about the app again, as iConnectHue version 5.8 is now available to download.
We’ve been waiting a long time for this, but this week it finally became possible: several Hue Bridges can be combined into one home. Multi-Bridge support finally makes it possible to control all lights directly in the app without having to constantly switch between different views. However, not all the functions that the Hue community would like to see are integrated.
Since this week, several Bridges can be “connected” to each other in the Philips Hue app – multi-bridge support is finally here. Although lamps and accessories cannot yet communicate with each other across bridges, at least you don’t have to switch between the different bridges every time you want to control the lamps.
Fabian