Apple Will Sell App-Enabled, Color-Changing Light Bulbs

When you think of Apple, you think of iPhones or iPods, or perhaps a MacBook, but you probably don’t think about home automation. That may change starting Tuesday, when Philips starts selling its Hue light bulbs exclusively in Apple stores across the country, bringing personal wireless lighting into the home.

Philips calls Hue the world’s smartest light bulb. It’s actually a web-enabled LED home lighting system that, when used with the free mobile app, lets consumers control and play with the lights in their home.

Home automation has, until recently, been out of the price range of the average consumer, but companies like Belkin, with its WeMo, Logitech and more recently, Nest with its Learning Thermostat, are changing that.

I had the opportunity to try the Hue system and app for a few days, and can tell you that it was a lot of fun. I was able to change the colors of the light bulbs in different rooms, adjust the brightness level, or turn the lights off and on with one touch from my iPad.

Filip Jan Depauw, Philip’s senior director for the project, told Mashable that consumers should be able to select the lighting they want, whether it’s soothing or relaxing. “We won’t tell you what to do,” he said, “You create your own mood.”

The way it works is pretty simple. I had a starter kit, which consists of three bulbs and one wireless bridge. The bridge gets plugged into your home router, while the bulbs replace existing bulbs in your lamps. They are retro-fitted to work with most standard lamps.

Once they’re in place, I pressed a button on the bridge which immediately identifies all three lights. Using the app on my iPad, I was able to rename the lights, calling them: Living Room, Family Room and Office. I had fun sliding the bar from left to right, which changes the intensity of the bulb’s color; it was like having a dimmer switch built into my mobile device.

Once I was done playing with the lights, I headed to the scene screen, where there are 12 preset options, including sunset, deep sea, beach and hammock (those do sound mood-inspiring, don’t they?). When you choose your preferred option, the three lights take on colors from the scene. For instance, after clicking on the beach scene, my office lamp turned a deep pink, the living room turned orange and the family room turned a vibrant peach (eliciting yelps from football-watching members of my family).

If you don’t like those colors, simply choose another color palette, which are numbered on the app; the bulb will then take on that color. You can increase or decrease the color’s brightness by sliding the bar at the bottom of the app from left to right.

If you find a scene you really like, go to the settings, and assign it an “on” or “off” time. For instance, you can switch a particular scene on at 6 p.m., when you’re walking in the door from work. Or, set a nice, low light in the upstairs bathroom to turn on first thing in the morning. You can also group and ungroup clusters of lights at once.

Jan Depauw mentions creating moods for certain occasions, and I immediately think about how my husband goes around the house, turning on certain lights when we’re expecting company. They’re soft lights that create intimacy and warmth in the living room. With Hue, it’s easy to create a group and a scene called “Company” that we can tap whenever we’re ready to entertain.

Hue also lets you set a timer to control when your home’s lights go on and off. For example, you can set up an “on” and “off” schedule for your lights, so your family never has to come home to a dark house. Also, if you forget to turn off the lights before leaving for a trip, simply log into the online portal to turn them off.

The router and your mobile device must be running on the same Wi-Fi network, but the bulbs themselves work using ZigBee, which consumes less power, and more importantly, acts as a bridge that transmits the signal from bulb to bulb. ZigBee is also open standard, so Philips is hoping more companies will develop applications for it, as well.

Hue also offers reverse signalling, which means you can ask it to notify you if something hasn’t happened. For instance, Jan Depauw gives an example of someone being notified if an elderly person’s lights haven’t been switched on by a certain time in the morning. Innovations such as this one demonstrates how home automation is starting to watch over us, similar to how the Nest thermostat is learning our habits and setting itself based on our patterns.

The starter kit costs $199, and you can buy additional bulbs for $59 each. That’s a lot of money, but I’m told the bulbs last 15 years or 15,000 burning hours, and consume one-fifth of the energy that standard bulbs would use.

For now, the bulbs fit into standard lamps, but Philips says they’re working on different types of lightbulbs, such as spots and downlights.

It will be interesting to see how this does in the Apple store, though the Nest is also sold there (and sells quite well). Apple seems to be moving slowly and carefully into home automation tech, partnering with a select few companies that make products that can be controlled using iPhones.

To see Hue in action, watch the video below; then, let us know in the comments whether you’d like the option to adjust light colors in your home.