back to article Philips eyes trendy homemakers for app-controlled e-lights

Apple fans eager “to start experiencing light in a completely new way” - yes, that’s exactly what it says here - will soon be able to to do so courtesy of Philips. Heralding what the Dutch electronics firm is calling “a new era in home lighting”, Apple Stores in the UK will this week begin selling the networkable LED …

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  1. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Everything funky is ES

    But thankfully you can buy BC-ES adaptors.

    Still waiting for LED 100W+ replacements (there's precisely one on the market and it's about 60 quid)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yawn, been using Z-Wave to do this sort of thing for ages. It tends to have better support than Zigbee which is more for workplaces and offices.

    I even made my own Z-Wave doorbell out of a transformer, door window sensor and a traditional AC door chime. The advantage being I can get my system to do things on the doorbell event (send a push notification, take a phone with the security camera, turn on lights etc).

  3. wowfood

    Hmm

    So effectively this is a dimmer switch handled via the itnernet / WAN right? I think I'll pass, especially at the price per bulb.

    Unless of course somebody can tell me it's worth that price per bulb in theoretical energy savings, which I doubt considering the bulbs are 50w compared to the 12w I currently have plugged in.

    1. Fuzz

      Re: Hmm

      "Unless of course somebody can tell me it's worth that price per bulb in theoretical energy savings, which I doubt considering the bulbs are 50w compared to the 12w I currently have plugged in."

      50W equivalent as in same light output as 50W tungsten bulb. These are LED lights though so much less power usage than your 12W CFLs

      1. wowfood

        Re: Hmm

        I need to learn to read.

        Either way I'd still like a rough idea as to the bulbs potential lifespan / cost per hour in comparison.

      2. wowfood

        Re: Hmm

        I swear I replied to this already, if the original reply suddenly appears my apologies.

        That'll teach me to read things properly before commenting >.>. Although the point stands, I'd still like to see a compairson of lifespan / power used against the existing bulbs.

  4. ElNumbre
    Meh

    Lightwave RF

    I'm looking at Lightwave RF for my house - socket control switches are circa £25 per module, and the advantage is that you can more or less use standard bulbs after that.

    And there is a kickstarter project called LiFX to bring this type of controllable RGB LED bulb to market using wifi. Thats even more expensive at the moment than the plippy one, but once it reaches mass market, I reckon it should have a more optimal cost.

    And this being iOS only? How very 2010 of them.

    1. It'sa Mea... Mario

      Re: Lightwave RF

      I came here to mention the Kickstarter project too - which, as the price is in dollars, is actually cheaper even with international shipping than the phillips - the problem is they have sold out ages ago..

      They have got more than 13 x their desired funding though so should be able to keep going after the project has ended

  5. Velv
    Boffin

    The "trendies" who will want these things by their furniture from Habitat or Ikea, both of which tend to use ES fittings anyway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Habitat? Trendy? - Not since they were bought by Argos!

  6. Richard Cartledge

    dx.com has more interesting and cheaper LED/SMD lights than this, and what's more you don't need a smartphone as they come with their own dinky remote or can be programmed with a spare button off your existing TV/video recorder remotes.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sure this will be very popular with the Apple crowd.

    I, however, shall continue to regard it as an unnecessary and quite possibly pretentious waste of money.

  8. This Side Up
    WTF?

    50W-equivalent?

    What's important is the amount of light it emits and that's measured in lumens, not the power consumption of some obsolete and inefficient bit of technology that produces mostly heat. In any case 50W was not a commonly used rating for GLS lamps. It might be useful to know how much power the system is actually consuming when in use and on standby.

  9. IHateWearingATie
    WTF?

    Is it just me...

    ... or did others have to check I hadn't fallen asleep and woke up at the beginning of April when I read this article.

    £50 for a networked lightbulb - really??

  10. Bad Beaver
    FAIL

    Yes, you need an APP for that. Don't have an iPhone? Well, fuck off, will you?

    So I need an iPhone now in order to turn on the lights, yes?

    So Philips, certainly not a company I associate with incompetent product design per se, cannot come out with a networked lightbulb that can be operated via a simple web interface – maybe in addition to a few apps for a FEW phones.

    No, it has to be an iPhone and maybe, maybe later Android.

    Sweet fancy Moses, whatever happened to open standards.

    I've said it before and I will say it again: DO NOT tell your potential customers that you do not care to cater to them because they did not buy the phone you think to be the hot shit. It - is - a - bad - marketing - move. People also tend to remember companies who tell them to fuck off. And not in a good way. Is this really so hard to understand?

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