Philips Hue App Updated With Redesign, New Sidebar Interface

EveryHue Forums for help

Hey everybody! Updates from Philips are exciting, but as you can see from these messages, usually accompanied by plenty of problems. If you already have a Hue setup (or are looking to buy one and have questions) you might want to check out the EveryHue forums: http://www.everyhue.com/?page_id=38#/discussions

There are plenty of app developers and users there to help you through various install issues and give tips on how to maximize your setup. Philips tech support isn't that good, but we're all in this together and the forums are helpful and fun.

(Lightbow is an app for Philips Hue and Belkin WeMo, but has no affiliation with Philips, Belkin or EveryHue. I just hang out there a lot.)

-Peter
http://www.lightbow.net

XboxMySocks said:

Would highly recommend it. Thought $200 was steep but I've gotten that much money back just in entertainment & practicality use, minus the savings.

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They definitely cost. The only reason I haven't purchased is my apartment. As soon as I purchase a house where these will be more useful I will definitely budget for them as well as the light strips.

BrentD said:

Even with the 9 minute fade (or ANY length fade), have you noticed how bright the "lowest" setting still is? When I get ready for bed at night I have my nightstand lights turn to a deep blue for a few minutes and fade out slowly. The lowest setting on the blue isn't bad. But I have my lights set to fade in for 3 minutes when I wake up, and the lowest setting on any of the different whites is way too bright still. Ridiculous.

I'm also with you on the photo gimmick. That's the most ridiculous way to set a light scene. Just a color wheel is all I need. Even RGBW sliders would work, since that's what it's using for color anyway.

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There seems to be a physical limitation that prevents the lights from showing a very dim white, which is too bad but probably unavoidable. However, they should be helping us overcome this limitation in software- ie. when you tell white lights to fade off there should be an option to fade to the lowest possible white and then fade to the dimmest red and then go off one by one. Then do the reverse to fade back on. Without using this trick, you can't use the Hue as a natural wakeup light because even the dimmest white will wake you up abruptly when it comes on. Philips should help us make this work, not stand around talking about how open they are.

I wish i knew how to write programs for iOS7 as there are tons of ideas in my head for this.

I use the Hue Disco to control my lights in my kitchen cabinets. It is the only one I have found that adjusts the lights within seconds of having the lights turned on. It's problem is that it uses the microphone (even though I have disabled the ambient noise affecting color), and when the iPad is used for something else, it will kick off the app from being active.

I just wish there was a way to put in specific values for RGB, say hexadecimal values. I tried to make a "scene" of a rectangular picture consisting of only one color, but if it's a bit off, then fixing it is a pain.

I would also like to know how to group lights to be controlled by a single value. I have read it on line that the functionality exists, but I cannot make it happen.

thevofl said:

I would also like to know how to group lights to be controlled by a single value. I have read it on line that the functionality exists, but I cannot make it happen.

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it's much easier in the new app -- in the color view screen just drag a light's dropper icon onto another light's dropper icon. they turn into a double-dropper icon, now you control them as one when setting values.

thevofl said:

It is the only one I have found that adjusts the lights within seconds of having the lights turned on.

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Can you explain what you mean by this? Are you referring to the complexity of apps in general, or are you seeing a lag time between when a light is turned on and when the color can be changed?

Lightbow said:

Can you explain what you mean by this? Are you referring to the complexity of apps in general, or are you seeing a lag time between when a light is turned on and when the color can be changed?

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The Hue Disco is always connected to the base (when running in the background on the iPad). I have it set to update the color every 5 seconds, from a very narrow array of color (pale blue-green-cyan). When I use the switch to turn them on, they come on white, and within 5 seconds they are within the spectrum I selected.

AluminumQ45 said:

OK. First off, I love these lights. They are awesome. The IFTTT integration, the party apps, etc. Awesome. I've got 15 lights across 6 rooms. LOVE EM.

The Philips application is a JOKE. It has big promises. Sync, Scenes, etc. I set up my app with one page of scenes per room. highlight colors, all the philips whitelight modes, etc. Every time the app updates, i have to re-do pages and pages of scenes. Re-login to the site? Yup. It tries to sync. It brings back test scenes from a year ago. It deletes scenes that i use daily. I get it sync is hard. I have 5 iOS devices connecting. It is complex to sync them in race conditions. But I upgraded one device and re-logged in to scene sharing, and it drops a nuke on my setup. Every. Single. Time. Whoever wrote the sync code should be taken and forced to read about how to resolve shared resource conflicts. Or held underwater. I'm not sure which would be better.

I am sure I own every single app in the app store for Hue bulbs and none of them do exactly what I want.

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All good points. I have been through allot of the apps too. This one isn't flawless, but the developer has really pushed the app into all the areas Philips has enabled with the API. (There are still some huge ones they are holding on to, like connecting when not at home, or geo fencing)

Over all though, the app looks really clean, is quite quick. Also I find the developer very open to feedback and suggestions which is a big bonus. Have a glance and let me know your thoughts.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/hue-remote/id620567810?mt=8

So can I now delete a broken bulb from the list?

Kids trashed one. Would be nice to get rid of bulbs that do not exist anymore without going thru a full reset..... Did anyone check if this feature was added?

alexmack said:

This one isn't flawless, but the developer has really pushed the app into all the areas Philips has enabled with the API. (There are still some huge ones they are holding on to, like connecting when not at home, or geo fencing)

Over all though, the app looks really clean, is quite quick. Also I find the developer very open to feedback and suggestions which is a big bonus. Have a glance and let me know your thoughts.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/hue-remote/id620567810?mt=8

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maybe i am not smart enough, but this thing feels like a UI disaster. if i want to set a scene in a room (which is a group of bulbs), i feel like i am swiping the konami code. i'll play with it a bit more though. thanks for the recomendation.

charlituna said:

You don't need internet unless you want remote access. I had no issue running my lights when TWC borked my internet for five days. Just kept my airport up as an adhoc with no problems.

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Ah great news! I'll give it a shot.

Now none of my devices loads the updated app.

Not my iPod Touch 4 Gen on iOS 6
Nor my iPhone 5S on iOS7
Nor my iPad Air on iOS7
Nor my iPad Mini on iOS7

Reset network, deleted and reinstalled, rebooted, it just... hangs. Can't get past the opening screen. Closing and reopening the app causing it to continue searching. Reinstalling and loading prompts to reconnect to hub, after which, same issue.

Any one else? I've searched forums and a lot of people are having this issue, completely negates the entire system.

UPDATE: Following forums and threads, the only solution at this time is to reset the hub and reconfigure the lights and all associated devices. It took me about an hour.

Hue Lights

thevofl said:

I just wish there was a way to put in specific values for RGB, say hexadecimal values. I tried to make a "scene" of a rectangular picture consisting of only one color, but if it's a bit off, then fixing it is a pain.

I would also like to know how to group lights to be controlled by a single value. I have read it on line that the functionality exists, but I cannot make it happen.

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Please take a look at "Hue Lights" on the App Store. You can enter in specific Hue, Saturation, Mired, X, Y, and Brightness values for individual bulbs in a scene or set these for the "All Lights" system group.

You can also create a Category for each of your rooms and then define several Scenes per category/room.

There are a growing number of third-party apps that work well with the Hue system. Good luck.

proline said:

Just give me a color wheel and let me save the colors I pick.

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BrentD said:

Just a color wheel is all I need. Even RGBW sliders would work, since that's what it's using for color anyway.

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When you create a new scene, select Philips and one of the images is a "rainbow" with all colors and saturations.

BrentD said:

have you noticed how bright the "lowest" setting still is?

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That is intentional to preserve the quality of the colors at low light levels. Philips doesn't want the colors to change as they get dimmer.

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Sky Blue said:

I like the look of these, but they certainly ain't cheap!

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LEDs will pay for themselves in 3 to 5 years and then live on for another 10. You save money by buying them.

PNutts said:

When you create a new scene, select Philips and one of the images is a "rainbow" with all colors and saturations.



That is intentional to preserve the quality of the colors at low light levels. Philips doesn't want the colors to change as they get dimmer.

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LEDs will pay for themselves in 3 to 5 years and then live on for another 10. You save money by buying them.

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Yeah, I see that they have made it a little easier to choose your own colors, however that functionality is still tucked away out of sight of new users, and having the photos on the home screen wastes a bunch of screen real estate for people who are using the rainbow for all their scenes.

The Hue bulbs last 15,000 hours, which is not long enough for them to be cost-effective with cheaper energy efficient alternatives such as compact fluorescent. Obviously the Hue bulbs are far superior in other ways, which is why I love them, but it would not be correct to tell someone they save money.

zosobao5150 said:

Thanks Philips...now please lower the price and make the lights a bit more powerful and I will purchase.

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A bit more powerful? Do you mean brightness? I'm curious, does anyone know what is the max lumens on these Hue bulbs?

solomani said:

a bit more powerful? Do you mean brightness? I'm curious, does anyone know what is the max lumens on these hue bulbs?

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600

proline said:

but it would not be correct to tell someone they save money.

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Of course it is, it's basic math. Nobody mentioned CFLs. Hue's 8.5 W vs. 60 W at 11 cents per kWh is $.50 / year vs. $7.50 / year. For the Hue's life that is $7.50 vs. $112.50 in energy costs (plus the cost of 15 incandescent bulbs).

Hue saves money. There are other ways to save more.

PNutts said:

Of course it is, it's basic math. Nobody mentioned CFLs. Hue's 8.5 W vs. 60 W at 11 cents per kWh is $.50 / year vs. $7.50 / year. For the Hue's life that is $7.50 vs. $112.50 in energy costs (plus the cost of 15 incandescent bulbs).

Hue saves money. There are other ways to save more.

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Yeah, give people you care about bogus comparisons if you wish, but the fact is it isn't Hue vs. incandescent it's Hue vs. everything and there are lots of cheaper alternatives including CFL, LEDs, etc.

proline said:

Yeah, give people you care about bogus comparisons if you wish, but the fact is it isn't Hue vs. incandescent it's Hue vs. everything and there are lots of cheaper alternatives including CFL, LEDs, etc.

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You seem to be taking this personally. Here's a link to some online calculators if you want to verify my numbers.

https://www.google.com/#q=led+cost+savings+calculator

Really, this information has been around for awhile and is why everyone is going to LED.

There are cheaper bulbs that don't do anything but throw white light. Yesterday I looked at a 60 W equiv. at Home Depot for $9.99. But to your point, tell me again which one of those alternate CFLs and LEDs you've lumped together with Hue are wifi controlled via a ZigBee mesh network using JSON commands with OEM Android / iOS apps and an integrated website for remote control?

So buy a Hue and save hundreds of dollars in energy costs. Or buy the Home Depot bulb and save the same hundreds of dollars in energy costs *and* a Grant on top of it. Except the Home Depot uses about 11 watts (instead of Hue's 8.5) so it will use a little more electricity and your savings will be less.

Does anyone know if I log in to the app on my phone and my bro logs I. On his can we both still control the hue lights? Or do we each have to buy our own hue set of lights?

I would like to get two lights for my room without buying the whole package to save some money. Bit wanted to check if we can log in the same time or make two accounts with one home port.

K1ngkev1n1 said:

Does anyone know if I log in to the app on my phone and my bro logs I. On his can we both still control the hue lights? Or do we each have to buy our own hue set of lights?

I would like to get two lights for my room without buying the whole package to save some money. Bit wanted to check if we can log in the same time or make two accounts with one home port.

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I use the official Hue app on both my iPhone and iPad. I also use Colors for Hue on all of my macs. If you want to partition control for different sets of bulbs, you'll need separate bridges. If you don't mind that your bro can control your bulbs, 1 bridge is all you need.

with regards to the colour selection keep in mind that the Hue lights are unable to replicate the entire colour spectrum

scorce--> http://developers.meethue.com/coreconcepts.html

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as you can see it excludes allot in the blue-green area of the spectrum
so hue sliders and little spectrum circle-dealies would be harder for the bridge to handle because the bulbs can't handle those hues

No Green or Cyan on Hue

KooraDesTora said:

with regards to the colour selection keep in mind that the Hue lights are unable to replicate the entire colour spectrum

as you can see it excludes allot in the blue-green area of the spectrum
so hue sliders and little spectrum circle-dealies would be harder for the bridge to handle because the bulbs can't handle those hues

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See, this answer has helped me waaaay more than Philips "support" has in the few weeks.

Didn't know that much about the fact that they can't produce green and cyan. Thought there was a problem with just my bulbs. Philips support implied that something could be done but they needed to "test" them first. After research, I heard that you'll be lucky to get your bulbs back within a month, so I just returned my bulbs to amazon for another pack. Same problem.

But the "Friends of Hue" light strips does amazing deep green and cyan and aqua.

Will the A19 bulbs ever be able to show green like the strips do? Or do they already and I just have a bad starter pack? I can't see spending ridiculous money like that on a bulb and doesn't even display a huge chunk of color (16 million is a joke). Moreover, I can't believe more people aren't upset about it (which, again, leads me to believe that maybe I just have a bad pack).

People on this forum are MUCH better and more knowledgeable than the entire Philips Support team, I might add.