The worst thing about Todd is that he’s an excellent source of ideas for gadgets to waste money on. After mentioning I bought a couple extra Google Home Minis while they were on sale, he said he’d had a good experience with his Phillips Hue system that integrates with the Google Home’s Assistant AI. I mulled over a listing for the starter kit and successfully told myself I didn’t want it for approximately 8 hours. Fast forward three days and the light fixture in my kitchen is now regularly a combination of both jade green and orchid purple.
Backpedaling a little bit, the Phillips Hue system is a set of LED light bulbs that have wireless capabilities. This means you’re able to control all aspects of individuals bulb without ever having to touch a light switch. The most basic way to do this is via a phone app, but as I mentioned earlier, this can also be done via smart device assistants (Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, etc). Once you have everything in place, you can change the color and brightness of each bulb, tie different color combinations to timers or specific times of day, and, assuming you’re connected to wifi, control everything from anywhere in your house.
But what do I, a humble IT professional and prospective amateur wingsuit enthusiast, think of this product, you may ask? Well, sir/madam, if you’re willing to pay to play, I can safely say that I recommend it. We currently only have the bulbs in two out of the roughly seven rooms in our apartment. At this point, they feel more like a novelty than a must-have item. Having colorized light in one room that is flanked by three rooms with incandescents feels pointless with all of the light bleed. It’s also a bit irksome to turn some lights on/off via switch and some via the app/smart home. Based on early use though, I can see the potential after adding a more to the higher traffic areas of the house. I’ve been concerned for years about avoiding blue light at specific times of day for maintaining circadian rhythms, and this seems like a great tool to do it. I’m also excited to get a couple in our bedroom to use for an artificial sunrise early in the morning.
In conclusion, if you’re going to talk to Todd, be prepared to purchase new toys you never knew you wanted. Also be prepared to drop $400+ to get the full experience of the Hue system. Partial coverage is fun initially and you’ll mess around with the room colors occasionally regardless, but the novelty wears off quickly if you aren’t fully invested in using the system.
(For Phillips reps: please contact me at will@127.0.0.1 to obtain the address where my check should be sent)