FabianApple users will appreciate that Philips Hue has been working with HomeKit for several years. This makes interaction between the smart lights and other smart home devices that are also compatible with HomeKit a breeze.
It is also practical that the Philips Hue switches can also be configured in HomeKit. So you can not only switch your Hue lamps on and off with the touch of a button, but also control joint scenes with products from other manufacturers. For example, the awesome Nanoleaf Light Panels then switch on as well.
The most popular Philips Hue switch is certainly the dimmer switch, and it is precisely here that I see two problems when interacting with HomeKit: The buttons are firmly labelled and it is not particularly intuitive to put a specific HomeKit scene on the dim buttons. A general problem with Hue switches in HomeKit: Each button can only be assigned with a simple button press.
Control more HomeKit scenes than with the Hue dimmer switch
And that's where Belkin's new Wemo Stage Scene Controller comes in. With a magnetic mount, it follows a similar idea to the dimmer switch. There are three buttons, each of which can be assigned two actions in HomeKit: A short or a long button press. Thus, the switch offers six actions in HomeKit, while the Hue dimmer switch only has four.
I can imagine that this small remote control is also interesting for some Hue users if they are based in the Apple cosmos. However, I have two pieces of bad news: The Wemo Stage Scene Controller is only available in the USA for the time being and at 49.99 US dollars it's not exactly cheap either.
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