When Lidl had a power strip with ZigBee on sale for just under 30 euros last December, the interest was really high. Unfortunately, there was a small problem: despite Lidl's promises, the power strip could not be paired with the Philips Hue Bridge. Müller-Licht made another attempt with the Tint power strip, which in my view was an absolute mistake: only two of the four plugs could be controlled via app – and only together.
Actually, it sounds pretty great: you can easily expand the Ambilight of your Philips TV with Philips Hue light sources. You don't even need the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box to do this, instead you just click through the TV menu a bit and you're ready to go. What sounds so simple, however, currently seems to be causing big problems again.
One of the biggest criticisms of the current Philips Hue app for many users is the tile view. What still looks quite pretty with the scenes and is also quite good to use thanks to two rows, is a big cramp with the lamps. Here, only one row is used for the display and on many smartphones there is a lot of unused space, yet you can only see three bulbs without having to scroll horizontally.
FabianLeave a Comment on Hue app still without timer: iConnectHue as an alternative Switch off lamps automatically after a set time auf Deutsch lesen Switch off lamps automatically after a set time
In addition to the criticism around the widgets, one thing can be read again and again in reviews and comments around the new Philips Hue app: users would like to see the timer function back. Shortly after the launch of the new app, already more than one and a half months ago, Philips Hue promised to bring back the functionality with a future update.
The subject of widgets has kept the Hue community very busy in recent weeks. Not without reason, because the widgets, which were popular with many users, have been virtually eliminated without replacement on the iPhone and iPad. Siri shortcuts and the corresponding iOS widgets are to serve as a replacement. A workaround, because only these can perform actions directly from the homescreen without having to open the Hue app.
It should only be about a month and a half until Philips Hue presents its new products. Usually, the International Funkausstellung in Berlin has been the usual time in the past years. This is supported by the fact that Philips Hue will also participate in this year's digital keynote of the Smart Home League, which will take place on 2 September.
On Wednesday evening, Philips Hue released version 4.1 of its app and fine-tuned it again. Today I would like to take a look at one particular change: “Made it easier to select and change the color of a single light in the color picker”. This small innovation means that you can no longer drag several lamps together in the colour selector and then simply move them together to change the colour of several Hue lamps at the same time.
Motion sensors are a really great thing. They can automatically switch on the light depending on the brightness and time of day when you move through the room. In my home, I have activated a motion sensor in the stairwell that activates a night light for 30 seconds at night, for example.
I announced it quite a while ago, now it is finally available in the App Store and also in the Google Play Store. The latest update for the Philips Hue app, which at least fixes a few small things. In the new version of the app, you can finally dim lamps directly in the room view again – to do this, you simply hold your finger down on a switched-on lamp for a long time and can then move your finger up or down to adjust the brightness.
Even though I personally find the foundation that Philips Hue has laid with the new app quite appealing, overall I still find a lot missing in the current version. In particular, I think the tile view and the constant switching from one bridge to another are extremely annoying. Of course, there are some apps that offer multi-bridge functionality, especially iConnectHue or Hue Essentials.