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CES 2023: GE Lighting to Release Cync Accessories With Matter/HomeKit Support

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GE Lighting today announced that it will release its first Cync smart home accessories with support for Matter throughout 2023, starting with the Cync Full Color Direct Connect Smart Bulb and the Cync Indoor Smart Plug.

Cync-GE-Lighting.jpeg

Unfortunately, GE Lighting said there are no plans for previously produced Cync products to receive retroactive Matter support at this time.

Matter is a connectivity standard that enables smart home accessories to work together seamlessly across multiple platforms, including Apple's HomeKit, Amazon's Alexa, Google's Home, and others. Apple added support for Matter on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV with iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16, and tvOS 16.1 last year, with a HomePod or Apple TV required to control Matter accessories in the Home app or with Siri.

As part of CES 2023 this week, GE Lighting introduced several new Cync products, including the Cync Dynamic Effects Smart Hexagon Panels, Cync Dynamic Effects Smart Neon-Shape Lights, and Cync Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs. Pricing and availability information is outlined below, with additional details available in GE Lighting's press release.
Cync Dynamic Effects Indoor and Outdoor light strips are available today at Best Buy and Lowe's stores, and bestbuy.com and lowes.com, starting at $89.99. Extensions are also available for purchase. The roll out of the four new Cync Dynamic Effects products will begin March 2023 and prices range from $19.99-199.99.
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Cync was previously known as C by GE. The rebrand occurred after GE Lighting was acquired by Savant Systems in 2020.

Article Link: CES 2023: GE Lighting to Release Cync Accessories With Matter/HomeKit Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/03/ces-2023-ge-lighting-cync-matter/
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I have had endless battles with the cync app. Anyway to their credit they support real tech support (i.e. humans that call you) and really do help.

I don't know what it is about homekit 'home', and the endless parade of similar home apps with their scenes, schedules, routines, triggers, blah blah etc. that end up with goofy UIs trying to be simple but end up making things worse.

-d
 
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Just looking at that high-mounted tv over the fire place gives me neck pains.

Unfortunately, GE Lighting said there are no plans for previously produced Cync products to receive retroactive Matter support at this time.
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Would be surprised if older Cync products got updated to receive Matter support as doing so would mean less current Cync product owners buying/upgrading to the new Cync products.
 
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2023 and we still need to see pictures of TV's mounted above fireplaces? Like glass tile on your backsplash, this 'trend' needs to be killed quickly once and for all. Backlighting your display is up there too - stupid, moronic douchebaggery.

And is this guy 4 feet tall or is the mantle/TV comically high in the air? He's staring at the mantle.
 
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steve09090 said:
Whatever happened to the idea that previous capable tech was going to have access through Matter? Money Grab
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You answered your own question. Money Grab

sw1tcher said:
Just looking at that high-mounted tv over the fire place gives me neck pains.
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Yup, we did this at our house 11 years ago and our necks that are now 11 years older are pissed.
 
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I too think it succcs that existing models are not moving over, but at least new items are moving in the right direction.
 
Victor Mortimer said:
Ugh. Not updating existing products is not a good sign for me ever buying these lights. Customer hostility and forced obsolescence of things that they're currently selling is horrible corporate behavior.
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GE has such a massive product catalog, they can get away with this because most consumers don't notice.

Just goes to show you the difference with companies like Apple that do support older products for years.
 
Victor Mortimer said:
Ugh. Not updating existing products is not a good sign for me ever buying these lights. Customer hostility and forced obsolescence of things that they're currently selling is horrible corporate behavior.
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My first thought too! Every time one of these "home automation" products promises support for a new/additional standard, it seems like they only concern themselves with adding it to a brand new product. Everything else is either ignored or becomes an afterthought. (EG. Had to buy a whole new "bridge" device for my MyQ garage door opener for its promised HomeKit compatibility. They never made my existing one work with it.)

I've got a small collection of GE Cync smart lightbulbs. Thankfully, I didn't pay much for these. They were part of a bundle on Amazon where a set of 4 was super cheap, the Xmas before last. But I'd be upset if I paid a lot more for these decorative colored lights and then had to buy again for the Matter support.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Just looking at that high-mounted tv over the fire place gives me neck pains.



Would be surprised if older Cync products got updated to receive Matter support as doing so would mean less current Cync product owners buying/upgrading to the new Cync products.
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Yep! Except there's hardly anything good on TV anymore, anyway. So it's mostly just for decoration....
 
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That short guy leaving all that popcorn and beer around for that sports game he watching by himself.

He watches the tv faithfully, but thinks "that could have been me" but he was too busy drinking with the fellas and lost his university scholarship.
 
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dugbug said:
I have had endless battles with the cync app. Anyway to their credit they support real tech support (i.e. humans that call you) and really do help.

I don't know what it is about homekit 'home', and the endless parade of similar home apps with their scenes, schedules, routines, triggers, blah blah etc. that end up with goofy UIs trying to be simple but end up making things worse.

-d
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Came here to say this...my Cync lights only do what they're supposed to like, half of the time.
 
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Wait a minute...GE Lighting still exists? I honestly thought they pulled out of this market 10+ years ago when they stopped making incandescent light bulbs.

When I think of the hours wasted setting up SMART things...I'm starting to think this was all invented by aliens to see if we could pass a basic ROI test...and humanity has repeatedly failed.
 
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