GE Announces Line of 'Link' Smart LED Light Bulbs, Starting at $15 [Updated]

[ChrisA]

Controlling lights using Siri on my iWatch will be kind of cool in a knightriderish way.

A light switch in an iWatch sounds good until you realize that everyone living in the house would then need an iWatch and need to have it on 24/7. House guests would need a loaned iWatch too.

A better solution would be to mount a microphone to a wall some place. Then anyone in the room could use it without needing their own $600 watch.

No one except true geeks will want anything like this until the technology is standardized and available at Home Depo as commodity parts

The place to put the WiFi is in the wall switch, not the light bulb. But it's marketing saying that few end-users know how to change out a wall switch but most can install their own light bulb

 

[rickdollar]

"Smart" bulbs are the wrong approach. If want to control your bulbs all the time, you are forced to leave the light switch in the on position. Doesn't sound too bad at first, until you realize that the only way to turn on and off your lights is to pull out your phone, launch the app, and adjust the settings. Soon after, you will revert to flipping the light switch when it's more convenient. Then, one day, you will be sitting on the couch and want to turn a light on and you don't want to get up. You have these fancy bulbs, perfect! BUT... you can't since you left the switch in the off position.

Good observation.
This Jobs quote would be fitting here — "...you've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology."

 

[Parasprite]

A light switch in an iWatch sounds good until you realize that everyone living in the house would then need an iWatch and need to have it on 24/7. House guests would need a loaned iWatch too.

Because the iWatch would suddenly become the one and only way to control the lights.

 

[Mums]

Oh... $50 for a starterkit... Not bad, but people need to figure out a way to stop the word smart from meaning expensive.

GREAT point!

 

[Medic311]

Neat idea for light fixtures that are hardwired. Otherwise for anything with a plug you are better off just buying a WeMo wall adapter.

Even if you have hardwired lights though, IMO the WeMO switch is the better way to go than the bulb itself

 

[x5tuu]

I really don't see the point of 'smart lighting' I have perfectly good wall switches and dimmers, why would I want to spend a small fortune replacing what isn't broke!?!

 

[woodlandtrek]

These look to be very similar to the TCP Connected line that Home Depot has sold for some time. The pricing was identical to this GE set until it went up recently. Hopefully the GE App is a little more polished.

 

[lisster]

Neat idea for light fixtures that are hardwired. Otherwise for anything with a plug you are better off just buying a WeMo wall adapter.

Even if you have hardwired lights though, IMO the WeMO switch is the better way to go than the bulb itself

The wemo blows though. For one it goes through their servers which is incredibly stupid. If my internet goes down at the house (which it does, often ) i cant turn my light on and off from the app.

Think about that, you have your phone on your OWN wifi, the switch on your OWN wifi, but because you have no internet you cant use it...how stupid is that

 

[alexgowers]

I love the idea of automated/remote lights but the reality is so bad. Just that these competing systems are incompatible is enough to make keeping a house even slightly automated is a pain in the ass.

Even if you have all the money in the world these systems are too short term. You'd need a long term agreement to implement standards to avoid these items becoming obsolete. I know that is the downside of all tech but this area is suffering from the condition more than most and I doubt we'll see a solution.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Now that's a more sensible price, hopefully that will force Philips to start looking at their own pricing model.

The Philips bulbs are far more capable than these, FYI.

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That's what autocorrect does when you accidentally put the a before the n. It deletes the e for you and removes the wavy red line that would have alerted you to the error.

Considering there is no "a" at all in "definitely", that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[usarioclave]

That's the problem for me, I'd like to set the lights to a warm white, bright red or whatever, and have them retain that setting when they're used in the 'normal' way via the wall switch.

I wish they'd do that too. I could probably build something to do that, but it the bulb would go white, then change back to its original color/intensity. Bummer.

 

[gixxerfool]

Considering there is no "a" at all in "definitely", that shouldn't be a problem.

If you put an "a" in definitely you are definitely an *******.

-Matthew Inman

 

[Medic311]

The wemo blows though. For one it goes through their servers which is incredibly stupid. If my internet goes down at the house (which it does, often ) i cant turn my light on and off from the app.

Think about that, you have your phone on your OWN wifi, the switch on your OWN wifi, but because you have no internet you cant use it...how stupid is that

Sucks that your internet goes down often. Mine hasn't gone down since Hurricane Sandy. Before that it has never gone down since getting FIOS. DSL was a different story...frequent problems with the local hub

WeMo works great for me. Never had any problems using the iOS app. Android app sucks though

 

[bmelson0412]

What happened to being able to connect to these new home technologies with Bluetooth? Why do they all have to use wifi? Everything that we put in our home should not use wifi, but Bluetooth instead. Would save everyone a lot of money, but yet again they are just trying to get all of us to waste our money on air.

 

[jkichline]

Now that's a more sensible price, hopefully that will force Philips to start looking at their own pricing model.

It's not the same thing. These are regular bulbs with connectivity that allows you to dim the lights and some basic smart controls. Phillips Hue allows for a full range of colors and temperatures.

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What happened to being able to connect to these new home technologies with Bluetooth? Why do they all have to use wifi? Everything that we put in our home should not use wifi, but Bluetooth instead. Would save everyone a lot of money, but yet again they are just trying to get all of us to waste our money on air.

Because Bluetooth only works within 30 ft range. So if you want to turn off the lights across the house, you're screwed. Most connected devices interact from a hub that communicates over the ZigBee protocol, but talking to the hub works over WiFi which allows for easier integration.

I'm not sure what you're wasting your money on? Air? What? What house doesn't have WiFi? And if you don't, get a router for $30.

 

[C99]

Because the iWatch would suddenly become the one and only way to control the lights.

iOS is the only way advertised. The only other way would be if GE gave the bulbs a feature where they switch between "smart" and "dumb" mode every other time they are given power. So basically you toggle the light switch twice to forcibly turn on a light instead of using an iPhone, and of course off is off no matter what.

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It's not the same thing. These are regular bulbs with connectivity that allows you to dim the lights and some basic smart controls. Phillips Hue allows for a full range of colors and temperatures.

Yes, this should have been pointed out in the article. Hue seemed to have red, green, and blue LEDs that you could change the balance of, while the GE bulbs are only white LEDs that you can dim. That being said, I don't see why you'd need to change the color of your bulbs. Buying different bulbs for different applications would be cheaper. Standard 2700K warmth is good for most indoor rooms.

 

[CFreymarc]

Im assuming that these aren't colored LED light bulbs right?

1) Who did they buy for this?
2). Show me the BLE SDK.
3) If they do not publish it. At GE volumes, it will be out in a matter of a few weeks.
4) Show me the luminescence distribution spectrum compared to an incandescent bulb of equal visible spectrum emission power.
5) The Edison connector is still with us -- ugh!

 

[Rigby]

The wemo blows though. For one it goes through their servers which is incredibly stupid. If my internet goes down at the house (which it does, often ) i cant turn my light on and off from the app.

Think about that, you have your phone on your OWN wifi, the switch on your OWN wifi, but because you have no internet you cant use it...how stupid is that

Agreed. There's also the issue of security. Everything that is accessible from the Internet will sooner or later be hacked (like the Wemo was earlier this year). This could not only be used to break into your home network, but an attacker could also e.g. damage your devices or even cause fires by rapidly switching them on and off (as demonstrated in this video). I wish there were good home automation systems that don't try to circumvent my security (using protocols like STUN/TURN). They should stay in the local network and leave it to me to configure secure remote access if I need it (e.g. through VPN functionality in my firewall).

 

[Arndroid]

I'm curious if you base this statement on the marketing text on bulb packaging or actual experience with light bulbs. I've been trying to make the change from old school light bulbs for years, but CFLs have continually proven to be garbage, costing significantly more money and consistently burning out just as fast as incandescents. It's left me with such a bad impression that I probably won't try LED bulbs until the price premium is negligible.

This product is 10x the cost of a normal light bulb (about 8.9x more than negligible). It might be a lot cheaper than Hue's products, but that's still way too much money for a light bulb.

If you have been only getting traditional bulb life out of cfl's your house is possessed.

It is not even close. Over twelve years in a moderate size house we have gone from worrying about it monthly or every other month to yearly at best. The life cycle is massively different. First put cfl's in the hard to get to lights and that alone made a huge difference. For a floor lamp it does jog create much convdnirjce

 

[PNutts]

There's not enough information published yet to compare these lights to Hue, but I think it will always be apples and oranges.

Keep in mind Hue has an array of LEDs with drivers for each color, and the bulb is a mesh network point so of course the bulb is more expensive. You still get your money back three times over in energy savings IIRC. Toss in a ZigBee compatible hub with a nice API, a mesh network, and Internet functionality and you have a decent system.

 

[PJL500]

The need for a wifi hub is, I think, a unnecessary complication. The Lifx bulbs do the job themselves, they change colour and they're much brighter than the Hue. There's still some features missing from their app but Lifx got a big capital injection last week so I think their future is pretty bright!

At $99- per bulb maybe Lifx has a bright future with the 1%? The hub and a $15- bulb looks good.

 

[PNutts]

That's the problem for me, I'd like to set the lights to a warm white, bright red or whatever, and have them retain that setting when they're used in the 'normal' way via the wall switch.

Intructing my 85 year old mother in the use of an iPhone when she wants to visit the bathroom isn't a viable option, nor is resetting everything after you've had visitors.

Lighting is important, there seems no point to me to be able to control the hue if everyone has to have an iOS device or just get a bare white light.

I want visitors to come back from the bathroom and compliment me on the lighting setup, which they've activated using only the wall switch.

You can do that with WeMo, IFTTT, and a little elbow grease. Replace the switch with a WeMo switch, remove it from the light's circuit, and wire the lights to always have power. At this point you have a switch that doesn't do anything and lights that are always on. Set up an IFTTT recipe to dim the lights to 0% when the WeMo is switched off and dim them up to 100% when the WeMo is switched on.

 

[Chrjy]

The Philips bulbs are far more capable than these, FYI.

Other than color how are the Philips bulbs 'far' more capable?

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It's not the same thing. These are regular bulbs with connectivity that allows you to dim the lights and some basic smart controls. Phillips Hue allows for a full range of colors and temperatures.

As mentioned above the only difference I can see is Philips allow you to choose a different color...

 

[FoxMcCloud]

"Smart" bulbs are the wrong approach. If want to control your bulbs all the time, you are forced to leave the light switch in the on position. Doesn't sound too bad at first, until you realize that the only way to turn on and off your lights is to pull out your phone, launch the app, and adjust the settings. Soon after, you will revert to flipping the light switch when it's more convenient. Then, one day, you will be sitting on the couch and want to turn a light on and you don't want to get up. You have these fancy bulbs, perfect! BUT... you can't since you left the switch in the off position.

The better approach would be the smart switch/outlet. Use your existing bulbs with none of the drawbacks listed above. Problem is, the current generation is lacking. The Belkin Wemo line does not allow dimming, nor support for 3-way switches. I was waiting for Ube to be released since it solves both of these problems, but the've been delayed and rebranded as Plum (http://www.plumlife.com). Guess I have to wait and see if they actually release later this year.

You just perfectly said what I was thinking.

 

[blackcrayon]

That being said, I don't see why you'd need to change the color of your bulbs. Buying different bulbs for different applications would be cheaper. Standard 2700K warmth is good for most indoor rooms.

"Why?" Because you can of course. The color is "cool". Special mood lighting. Disco effects that change color to music. There are also lots of notification events you can tie to colors, if you're geeky enough. As an unusual example: if someone messes with my car I have certain lights set to flash blue and red for example. It's also nice to be able to adjust the color temperature of your lights on the fly. They sell different color temperature traditional bulbs for a reason...