It is probably the absolute worst case that especially users with a large installation fear: A total failure of the bridge. Unfortunately, Philips Hue still does not offer any backup function, even almost ten years after its launch. This means that if the bridge fails and cannot be restarted, there is a lot of work to do.
Next week it’s finally that time again: Philips Hue will present new products. And what we already know from various leaks is more than promising: brighter bulbs, some gradient products, filament lamps with White Ambiance technology or E14 bases and, in all likelihood, a batch of new ceiling lights. Conversely, this also means that some Hue installations will grow in the coming weeks.
A lot has happened at Philips Hue in the past weeks and months. For users, this was primarily visible through the much-discussed update of the Philips Hue app, but a lot has also happened in the background. Philips Hue has comprehensively revised the API, the interface for requests and responses to the Hue Bridge.
Don’t you store the Hue Bridge somewhere deep in the cupboard or hide it somewhere else? If you are still looking for the perfect place for your control centre, I might have the perfect solution for you. On the 3D printer platform Thingiverse a user presented an interesting mount for the Hue Bridge.
Fabian13 Comments on Alexa with second bridge: Hue inventor offers simple solution Handling with several bridges should be improved auf Deutsch lesen Handling with several bridges should be improved
Although there are still some workarounds if you want to control several Hue Bridges with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, it is often not really fun. Now my YouTube colleague Justin_Tech learned some interesting details in a video interview with Hue inventor George Yianni, which I would like to share with you.
Several times a week I receive letters from users who have reached the capacity limit of the Philips Hue Bridge. 50 lamps are recommended by the manufacturer, up to 63 are theoretically possible. But in many cases that is no longer sufficient. Every year, Signify launches dozens of new lamps on the market, and as the clear number one in the market, it always proves again and again that once you start with a few lamps, you quickly want more.
Yesterday I showed you an unboxing of the first generation Philips Hue Starter Set – and today there is a little note about the first generation Hue Bridge.
Have you already equipped your Bridge with the firmware version 19370450000? Then it is worth taking another look at the update section of the Hue app. There is also new software for many White Ambiance and White and Color Ambiance fixtures – Signify points this out in the release notes on the US website.
So is this good news or bad news? Check Point’s security experts have discovered a vulnerability in the Hue system that allows you to access even computers that are shared on the network with the Hue Bridge. The vulnerability has now been resolved by Signify – at least partly. Signify, the manufacturer of Philips Hue, was already informed about the gap in the system in November 2019.
When Philips Hue was launched in 2012, nobody would have expected such a success. In the field of Smart Lighting, the Eindhoven-based system is by far the number one. This is unlikely to change in the near future. The last update for the Hue Bridge was in autumn 2015 when HomeKit was introduced as a major new feature.
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