A successor to the popular Philips Hue Smart Button had already been announced, and it is now officially available. The new model of the small switch has been listed in the Philips Hue online store since this morning, for €21.99 or very high $32.99. While nothing has changed in terms of functionality, the Hue Smart Button has been given a new, modern design.
Philips Hue released another update for its official app on Thursday. However, I can keep this brief: there are no major new features. “Various bug fixes and stability improvements,” says the update description for version 5.44. Every now and then, new features do creep in, but so far I haven’t noticed anything.
Back in March, Philips Hue held a flash sale where you could save 25 percent with the right coupon code. Unfortunately, shortly after it started, the promotion was reduced to 15 percent in Germany. Now the promotion is back, and you can save 25 percent when you buy at least two products from the Philips Hue online shop.
If you are interested in the technical background and cloud connectivity of Philips Hue, then this blog post from Google will certainly be of interest to you. In it, the Philips Hue manufacturer, together with Google, explains some of the background to cloud connectivity. Since 2015, Philips Hue has been using the cloud container infrastructure Kubernetes, an open-source system from Google.
Sorry, I don’t have any new hardware for you today, but at least there are two small software updates. Don’t get your hopes up too high, though, because these are just minor bug fixes. One of them is for Hue Secure Cameras, where software version 1.2.32.976160 has been released. “We have fixed a bug that prevented events from your camera from being displayed,” says the development team.
For most of us, the holiday means a relaxed start to the new week. Tonight, I’ll be covering the big WWDC keynote for our Apple blog, but I can’t resist taking a detour into the world of Hue. I have two pieces of news from Signify for you. Several years ago, the company announced its intention to eliminate plastic from its packaging.
I would like to use the weekend to thank you all once again. Of course, for stopping by here regularly. But even more so for always keeping a watchful eye and sending me tips and information. In the last few months alone, I have been able to publish two exciting reports thanks to the community.
At the beginning of the week, I was able to share the first information about the upcoming Philips Hue Play Wall Washer with you—the first product details were published early on the British Amazon website. However, marketing images are always somewhat different from impressions from everyday life—and this is where a lucky coincidence comes into play.
Since I didn’t make any progress on my wall washer story today, I used the time to click through the Hueblog community a little. Among other things, I noticed a question about the wall switch module that I would like to answer in detail – maybe some of you are facing a similar challenge.
Philips Hue has once again not been very careful about keeping its products secret. A successor to the Philips Hue Play Lightbar has appeared on amazon.co.uk: Significantly better, but also more expensive than before. I have gathered the first information for you. The new Philips Hue Play Smart Wall Washer is 15.7 centimeters high, 9.1 centimeters wide, and 7.6 centimeters deep.
Fabian