I've invested a lot into the "smart light" concept in my home, mostly with Philips Hue, so I feel the need comment on some things below.
How are these the first dimmable bulbs? Do they know what first means? Have they heard of HUE? Who designed these things? They look terrible and the marketing makes it seem like this is a worlds FIRST!
They aren't the first dimmable LED bulb--some are dimmable via a dimmer switch, others are dimmable via software (e.g., Hue). This, however, is the first that is dimmable via either.* Obviously you won't be able to make them brighter via software than your dimmer switch is set to, but at least it allows you to still use them like regular bulbs in every way. So they are "first" in that sense.
*I think. I know they say it's like the Nanoleaf Bloom, which I think actually has a funny way of being dimmed with only a regular wall switch if you flick it on and off the right way. (Probably the first to dim without software
or special hardware.) I'm not sure if it actually dims with regular dimmers.
Are there easy ways to hook up these types of HomeKit lights to a physical switch also? I can't imagine having to get out my phone every time I walk into a room and either open an app or talk to Siri. Or if I get home and my battery is dead and I have to feel my way to the charger and sit there in darkness until the phone boots up.
Yes, in multiple ways. You can always use your existing switches to turn the bulbs on and off, but you can also turn them on and off via software as long as the wall switch is kept on (obviously, otherwise the bulbs would have no power to turn on). Hue will also reset the bulbs to their default color and brightness if power is lost, which means you can just flip your switch off and on if you turned them off via software but don't have your phone and want to turn them on via hardware instead. You can also replace your existing switches with Z-Wave or similar switches and integrate them with Hue via SmartThings (or Vera, etc.--or not and just control them separately with a similar caveat to a regular power-off). As others have mentioned, Philips also makes a line of switches: Tap (set scenes or turn off lights with four buttons) and Dimmer (on/off and dimming control for at least the Hue White bulb, doesn't seem to be in stock at many places yet and I'm not sure it works with the "regular"/"White and color" bulbs).
One of the biggest points about HomeKit is that it doesn't need a hub. Everything should be able to connect to wifi and work in that way.
I think there are actually some advantages to making light bulbs work this way. First, for bulbs to work with WiFi, you'd need good enough signal at all your light fixtures. This may be unlikely on the fringes of your house. Hue (and probably this new Nanoleaf product if it's compatible) uses ZigBee, which is a mesh network, and bulbs can relay signals to other bulbs, sort of extending your range. It is also a much lower-power technology than WiFi, so standby power for Hue is, I think <0.5 W (I think WeMo devices [non-lights] were about 3x that when I measured last--but even they switched to a mesh network for their bulbs). LIFX uses WiFi and a mesh network--one of the bulbs connects via WiFi and has a sort of "built-in bridge," and the rest use the mesh network. The disadvantage is that, as each bulb needs to have this capability (even if unused), the cost per bulb seems to be higher, and historically their power consumption was also greater, though their newest bulb brought that down a bit.
