Secretly, quietly and silently, Philips Hue has brought its Christmas scenes back to the Philips Hue app. As I have been asked about this several times over the past few weeks, I didn’t want to withhold this little hint from you. As always, the Christmas scenes can be found in the Hue light scenes gallery directly in the Hue app.
There are already a number of ways to control the smart lamps from Philips Hue. Via app, automation, voice control or with smart accessories such as the Hue dimmer switch or the Hue motion sensor. There could soon be a magical new alternative to the motion sensor – and Philips Hue smart lamps will be at the centre of this.
Controlling the Hue lamps directly with the mouse and keyboard is a very pleasant thing, especially when you’re sitting at your desk at home. I’ve already introduced you to a few options, such as We Love Lights, a nifty little app for the Mac. If you don’t want to spend any money, there is now another alternative.
Just a fortnight ago, iConnectHue delivered an update that, among other things, provided initial rudimentary support for the Hue contact sensor. Now developer Stefan Göhler has already released the next update. His premium app iConnectHue is now available in version 5.2 for iPhone and iPad. If you use iConnectHue in combination with music, you can now enjoy an improved strobe light that offers more speed and dynamics.
It’s actually quite simple with Philips Hue, there are three different types of light. Products classified as Hue White only have white LEDs with a fixed colour temperature. White Ambiance uses cool white and warm white LEDs to create different shades of white. With White and Color Ambiance, in addition to the white LEDs, there are also coloured RGB LEDs so that a total of 16 million colours can be mixed.
As I announced last week, Philips Hue is introducing new functions for the Hue dimmer switch and the Hue Smart Button. After a few users have already been able to try out the new options, they are now being officially rolled out with the update to app version 5.5.0. The official update description from Philips Hue states: “You can now customize your dimmer switches and smart buttons with up to 10 different time slots, your choice of up to 10 scenes to cycle through, the Natural light scene, and more for even more control.
The negative reports started piling up back in September, and there are already around 30 comments under one of my articles on the subject – and more are being added all the time. It’s about the link between Philips Hue and Amazon Alexa, which hasn’t been working properly for months.
I expressed this wish to Hue inventor George Yianni quite a while ago, and now my three Christmas fairy lights in the garden have reminded me again: Why does the light actually look the same every evening? This is how Philips Hue currently works: You switch on the light, such as the Hue Festavia in the garden, automatically.
Even though Philips Hue has integrated several new functions into its app in recent months, not all of the possibilities offered by the system are utilised by any means. For extensive installations, especially in combination with switches and sensors, I therefore recommend taking a look at iConnectHue. You can currently get the app for iPhone and iPad for less – and that’s actually relatively rare.
There is one thing that really bothers me about Philips Hue: I have not been able to manage with one Hue Bridge in my house for a long time. The first problems can occur with 50 or more connected lamps, the hard limit is 63 lamps. And with several rooms and the outdoor area, this limit is reached more quickly than you might think.
Fabian