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.
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.
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.
In December 2022, Philips Hue launched its first automatically running scene: Natural Light. This scene uses different shades of warm to cool white light that are automatically adjusted throughout the day. “Start with bright, cool shades to energize you in the morning and end the day with a warmer, golden hue to help you relax in the evening,” Philips Hue writes about the Natural Light scene.
I’m not really familiar with the Android world, but I could imagine that something like this has existed there for some time. With iOS 18, Apple has expanded Dark Mode and now also offers darkening on the home screen. To be more precise, app icons can be darkened. However, this still requires the help of the app developers in some cases, including Philips Hue.
Philips Hue has been offering another firmware update for its Bridge since last week. With software version 1966117030, the long-lost “Do not disturb my scene” function, which was previously part of the now discontinued Hue Labs, is also set to return. At the moment, I assume that this function will be rolled out slowly.
Yesterday evening, Philips Hue released an update for its application. After the announcement at the beginning of September, we are waiting for some exciting features, but unfortunately I have to disappoint you here. It’s only a small update – but I don’t want to leave it unmentioned for the sake of completeness.
At the beginning of September, Philips Hue not only presented several new products at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin, but also numerous new software features. For example, the multi-bridge support was explained in detail and an impressive augmented reality function was shown. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually think to enquire about the possible backup function, which I reported on earlier this year.
One question has been asked again and again over the past few days, perhaps because of the announcement of the new Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K: When is the Hue Sync app finally coming to other TVs? A year and a half after its launch, the €129 application is still only available on Samsung televisions.
Exactly 20 years ago, the first Philips TV with integrated Ambilight was presented at IFA 2004. Since then, 35 million TVs have been sold and 80 percent of buyers do not want to do without the backlight on their next TV. I feel the same way, so today I would like to take a look back and ahead.
Fabian