From June 11 to July 19, it’s that time of year again: the World Cup is just around the corner. Due to the time difference—the tournament is taking place in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as you know—most matches will be held late at night for us in Europe. The perfect opportunity to pair the sporting event of the year with Philips Hue smart lighting.
It’s time to save again with Philips Hue. The Bright Days Sale runs from April 23 to May 10. Hopefully, there will be plenty of exciting deals available in the Philips Hue online store around the globe. The sale is certainly worth checking out, as it also features several new products.
The new SpatialAware feature has been available in the Hue app since Tuesday. When used with the Hue Bridge Pro, lights in a room can be scanned to determine their positions, thereby optimizing the display of scenes. And in practice, this actually seems to achieve the desired effect, at least according to your initial experiences.
Philips Hue has just released version 5.66.0 of its official app, introducing the SpatialAware feature—announced in January—for the Hue Bridge Pro. The update also includes improvements for the Hue Secure video doorbell. The update is now available in the Google Play Store for Android devices and in the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad.
In early January, Philips Hue announced a new feature: SpatialAware. This feature uses a smartphone to scan the lights in a room, recording their exact positions. Based on this data, selected lighting scenes can be perfectly tailored to the room. Above all, this ensures that ceiling lights no longer emit a hodgepodge of colors but instead focus on the white spectrum.
Things are picking up again at Philips Hue this week. Before the Bright Days kick off in two days—hopefully with some great deals—there’s another updated product. As announced a few weeks ago, the Hue Lucca outdoor lights have been equipped with a new bulb. In Europe, the Hue Lucca—available as a wall light, floor lamp, and path light—was previously only available with a standard Hue White bulb, whereas in North America it came with a colored bulb.
Philips Hue continues to work on its products. While I unfortunately still have no information about what the new software version 1.145.2 entails for an increasing number of lights, the manufacturer is releasing another update for the Hue Secure cameras. Software version 1.3.1.1294140 is being rolled out starting today. The update notes state: “Fixed an issue that could cause onboarding to fail for some users.”
Just one week after the last update, a new version of the Philips Hue app is available for download. The update to version 5.65.0 is already available on the Google Play Store, and it should arrive on the Apple App Store today or in the coming days. And once again, Philips Hue isn’t revealing all the details in the official update description.
For several weeks now, the Matter integration between Philips Hue and Apple Home has been causing major issues. Following updates to the respective Apple platforms—such as the Apple TV or HomePod, which act as Matter border routers—all Hue devices become inaccessible. This primarily affects the Hue Bridge Pro, which simply isn’t designed for a traditional HomeKit connection.
After a short Easter break, Philips Hue released its next update this week. Version 5.64.2 of the in-house app has been available for download on the Google Play Store since yesterday and on the Apple App Store since today. Aside from the usual under-the-hood improvements, the only new feature is a small function that allows you to remix the colors in previously saved scenes.
Fabian