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Philips Hue introduced the new Tento series last year and all variants are now available in stores. However, sales have so far been limited to mainland Europe; the ceiling panel is not yet available in the UK or the USA. In Germany, Philips Hue is limiting sales of the Tento series to a few selected DIY stores, where prices have been very stable so far.
A few days ago, I made my first assumptions about a Philips Hue doorbell. The fact that we have now received confirmation so quickly is thanks to an attentive Hueblog reader and a less attentive development team at Philips Hue. Let me introduce you today: The Philips Hue Secure doorbell. With the latest update, Philips Hue has introduced a new QR scan for lamps, lights and devices.
If you’ve been thinking about buying a Philips Hue Secure camera, now seems to be a good time. Philips Hue has launched the Smart Home Security Deals in its own store virtually all over the world and is offering all camera models at reduced prices. In this article, I will focus on the prices in Germany, but the cameras are also available at reduced prices in the USA, the UK and the Netherlands.
In September 2023, Philips Hue presented its smart home cameras, and the launch was accompanied by a contact sensor. Apart from price reductions and software updates, not much has changed since then and the Hue Secure portfolio has remained unchanged for almost two years. This could change this year. I can well imagine that Philips Hue will add further components to the Hue Secure system in the fall.
It’s always a bit unfortunate when announcements are not kept. When Philips Hue announced the Hue Sync TV app for LG televisions at the beginning of January, all televisions with webOS 24 as the operating system were still to be supported, including TVs from 2022 and 2023. Unfortunately, Philips Hue has not kept to exactly this point in the announcement.
In the coming weeks, a number of Philips Hue products familiar from Europe will be making their debut in the USA. The first of these is the Impress outdoor light, which can now be ordered in three different versions in the United States. I would like to introduce you to my favorite, which is already in use in my garden at home.
There is one thing that always bothers me about Philips Hue, and that is the really thick power supply units. This may not be a problem when used alone on a wall socket, but with power strips at the latest, the space problems really start. Especially if you want to place several Lightstrips or table lamps such as the Hue Play Lightbar or Hue Gradient Signe in a corner of the room.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance is not only responsible for the Matter smart home standard, but also takes care of the Zigbee protocol. This technology is used by numerous smart home devices to communicate with each other, including the Philips Hue Bridge and the numerous Philips Hue lamps. A new Zigbee function has now been officially announced: Ambient Sensing.
Philips Hue Secure was launched over a year ago with several camera models and contact sensors. Since then, we have been waiting for an essential function, as the system always had to be activated or deactivated manually. This has now changed – there is now a schedule function. This had already been announced in the past few days, as the update to version 5.33 of the Philips Hue app has already integrated the corresponding menu items into the official application.
In September, Philips Hue launched the second generation of its Sync Box. The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K costs over 300 euros and, unlike most other Hue products, I have not yet tested it myself. Not only do I lack a suitable TV, but also a suitable HDMI device to really get to grips with the new Sync Box.
Fabian