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

rdlink said:
1. I'm a "bright" light kind of guy. I would much rather have bulbs that can be bright (around the 80-100 watt range) and dim them when I need less light than have darkly lit rooms.
2. Was not aware of the switch you're speaking about. I'll check it out.
3. I mean actually talking to my lights to turn the on and off. In this day and age it has to be easy to design a module that will let me walk into a room and tell Hue to turn on a particular scene, or turn off my lights with my voice when it's time for me to go to sleep. Seems that would have occurred to them a long time ago.
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With SiriProxy I actually had that working for a while (voice control of lights), but it's way too hacky and inconsistent (I don't know if they've updated it to even work with iOS 7). That's one little piece Apple left out, developer extensions to Siri. I'm sure they could allow us to add some basic toggles pretty easily- Apps could just "publish" a list of their buttons and Siri could invoke them as if they were the actionable widget. Oh well, maybe in iOS 9 :/
 
markosb said:
Agreed, I almost bought into Phillips, this is defiantly a better price.
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you're failing to understand these are different products. how can you change the color hue (see what they did there?) of your room with these? you can't. myself and the many like me who bought hue do these on a daily basis and find value in it.
 
redscull said:
Yeah, my CFLs consistently burned out in 1-2 years. I can't say how many hours that was, but not high usage. The one lamp we use that's on more than most lights always burns them out in under a year. Incandescents in that lamp last a year or so, consistently a bit longer. In our other lights, they usually last several years.

There's always the oddball incandescent that burns out in less than a year, sometimes in just a few months, which is a little annoying, but not a real concern when it's only $1-2 wasted.

But CFLs have that same oddball failure rate. And when a $5-10 bulb burns out in just a few months, I don't replace it with another $5-10 bulb.

Light bulbs need to come with warranties: 1 year for every $1 the bulb costs. Maybe some do? That's the only way I'm ever switching off incandescents.
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Whoa, we went all CFL a few years back (2.5-3), and we haven’t had any burn out yet. Based on our usage, I was planning on another six months, probably, and then switching to LEDs as they died. It’s been a fairly noticeable savings over our old incandescents (assuming our usage hasn’t changed, which it probably has), so I’m an advocate.

I really can’t speak to your experience, though. That’s… extremely obnoxious and bizarre.
 
BrentD said:
That's what the Hue Tap is for. Hasn't hit stores yet, but it's an actual switch that you can assign 3 of your light scenes to. Put it on your nightstand or anywhere else and have one set to your "Don't blind me" scene.

Also, people keep mentioning visitors not being able to turn lights on and off, but with the Hue lights, every one of them works just fine without the app as a "normal" bulb. Use your light switch to turn it off, flip it on and it comes back on as a normal bulb temperature. The only issue with that is that if your power goes out in the middle of the night, every Hue light in your house comes on when power is restored. Experienced that myself a few weeks ago.
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sounds complicated. wake me up when I can put a bulb in a ceiling fitting and open an app on my iPhone to set the times and colours :)
 
Phillips is coming out with a Hue Lux line that is $99 for 2 bulbs and the necessary hub. These will be white only bulbs and is much more in line with what I want to spend. It was announced in March and supposed to be out this summer.
 
Zxxv said:
sounds complicated. wake me up when I can put a bulb in a ceiling fitting and open an app on my iPhone to set the times and colours :)
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You can already do that with the app. I addressed the thing you were very specifically asking for, and you said you want something that's already been explained and works great. The app already has an infinite number of scenes you can set (colors and intensity) to come on and off at whatever time you wish, to fade in or fade out for whatever length of time you wish, in whichever rooms you wish that have Hue bulbs installed. And when your bladder wakes you up at 2:53 AM, you can just tap whatever scene you want (or pick one of the three on the Hue Tap that I already explained)...
 
mdelvecchio said:
you're failing to understand these are different products. how can you change the color hue (see what they did there?) of your room with these? you can't. myself and the many like me who bought hue do these on a daily basis and find value in it.
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You're failing to understand most people don't care. They want something to replace what they have now - a "white" bulb that they can control with their phone and don't want to pay $200 it.
 
BrentD said:
You can already do that with the app. I addressed the thing you were very specifically asking for, and you said you want something that's already been explained and works great. The app already has an infinite number of scenes you can set (colors and intensity) to come on and off at whatever time you wish, to fade in or fade out for whatever length of time you wish, in whichever rooms you wish that have Hue bulbs installed. And when your bladder wakes you up at 2:53 AM, you can just tap whatever scene you want (or pick one of the three on the Hue Tap that I already explained)...
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again, thats not what I wrote :)
 
Zxxv said:
appreciate your suggestion :) but I don't want to combine anything. I want the manufactures to sort it and I just use my iPhone for when I'm out and about and at night they go into "do not ****ing blind me mode" :D
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Just use the flashlight on your phone. (but don't look directly at it)

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GeneralChang said:
Whoa, we went all CFL a few years back (2.5-3), and we haven’t had any burn out yet. Based on our usage, I was planning on another six months, probably, and then switching to LEDs as they died. It’s been a fairly noticeable savings over our old incandescents (assuming our usage hasn’t changed, which it probably has), so I’m an advocate.

I really can’t speak to your experience, though. That’s… extremely obnoxious and bizarre.
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I went to CFL well before 3 years ago (so it cost more than $1/bulb), but I have had similar problems to that other guy. They don't seem to last any longer than incandescent, and there are just as many duds that only last a few months. I even thought about switching back, although you basically can't, anymore. Since it includes air conditioning, my bill really hasn't changed much. Saw a big change years back when I bought a modern fridge, but the CFLs haven't shown me a damn thing.

I hate ****ing marketers.

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mdelvecchio said:
if they're selling well, which they are, then by definition they are not overpriced. you just don't like the price.
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You didn't understand that post. (it was a veiled grammar correction)
 
JAT said:
I went to CFL well before 3 years ago (so it cost more than $1/bulb), but I have had similar problems to that other guy. They don't seem to last any longer than incandescent, and there are just as many duds that only last a few months. I even thought about switching back, although you basically can't, anymore. Since it includes air conditioning, my bill really hasn't changed much. Saw a big change years back when I bought a modern fridge, but the CFLs haven't shown me a damn thing.
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Like I said, I can’t speak to your experience, as it doesn’t match my own, and what other frame of reference could I use beyond that?
 
Zxxv said:
again, thats not what I wrote :)
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I've addressed what you wrote. You want to be able to get up to take a leak, hit a switch and have lights turn on in a dimmed/colored mode so you can see where you're going, but not be blinded. Hue Tap. Set up a "Don't blind me" scene, assign it to button 1, 2, or 3. Wake up to pee, hit button 1, 2, or 3, carry on to the bathroom not blinded. Or tap the same scene on your phone from the app. I don't see the issue here. Maybe you just need motion activated nightlights or a $1 flashlight by your bed...
 
BrentD said:
I've addressed what you wrote. You want to be able to get up to take a leak, hit a switch and have lights turn on in a dimmed/colored mode so you can see where you're going, but not be blinded. Hue Tap. Set up a "Don't blind me" scene, assign it to button 1, 2, or 3. Wake up to pee, hit button 1, 2, or 3, carry on to the bathroom not blinded. Or tap the same scene on your phone from the app. I don't see the issue here. Maybe you just need motion activated nightlights or a $1 flashlight by your bed...
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Thats not what I want and Im not repeating myself again :rolleyes:
 
jonnysods said:
What's the attraction to these? Saving energy or just convenience?

It can't be saving energy at at price.
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Coming from incandescent or CFL it would be both. CFL less so on the price but the quality of light is better plus life of the LED is much better than CFL in high on/off cycled areas.
 
BrentD said:
You can already do that with the app. I addressed the thing you were very specifically asking for, and you said you want something that's already been explained and works great. The app already has an infinite number of scenes you can set (colors and intensity) to come on and off at whatever time you wish, to fade in or fade out for whatever length of time you wish, in whichever rooms you wish that have Hue bulbs installed. And when your bladder wakes you up at 2:53 AM, you can just tap whatever scene you want (or pick one of the three on the Hue Tap that I already explained)...
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I understand now. Bought them and it all makes sense what your saying :D thanks
 
Thought I'd share - I picked some up - so far they work pretty well (the Wink app has had some updates to make it much, much less buggy). They only have the A19-style - I'm waiting for a flood or spotlight version to try, too. If anyone does have questions, I can try to answer them.
 
My house has been loaded with LED's for 5-6 years now. I've never had one go bad so far. Some get decent on/off cycles.
 
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