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Suggested alternative to Philips Hue?

XboxMySocks

XboxMySocks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 25, 2009
2,242
219
I've been looking around and while I'm willing to shell out a pretty similar price for the Hue, it won't ship for 4 months... NOT exactly what I needed in time for Christmas. Any help? I would LOVE LIFx but it's not even beginning to be produced, so that is again, no help.
 
I have not found any alternatives but I suggest you put in your order and wait for them to ship. I put in an order online with the ship date of 1 to 2 months and had them delivered in 2 weeks.
I will say they have met my expectations and I am putting in another order. I love them. :D
 
sraber said:
I have not found any alternatives but I suggest you put in your order and wait for them to ship. I put in an order online with the ship date of 1 to 2 months and had them delivered in 2 weeks.
I will say they have met my expectations and I am putting in another order. I love them. :D
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Awesome bit of info. Thank you :)
 
are you close to an apple store. the 2 i frequent in NJ both have ample stock of the hue set and single bulbs
 
I just went to their website and this is awesome! I never knew about this product but I like it a lot. Sorry I'm of no help otherwise. :eek:
 
jessica. said:
I just went to their website and this is awesome! I never knew about this product but I like it a lot. Sorry I'm of no help otherwise. :eek:
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They really are awesome. My apple store also has the starter packs but no singles. The word from my apple sales guy is that they had to stop the employee discount program on the Hue. Too many sales to the staff and none left for the customers. :)
 
sraber said:
Nice, competition and sales will bring the price down.
The engineers have come a long way from the X10 stuff.
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Yup. By years end I could have smartphone control of:


Nest Thermostat - controlling HVAC

Hue or Lifx - controlling lighting

Lockitron - controlling door locks

Cool thing is that both the Nest and Hue support Zigbee so it's feasible that they will eventually tie into Zigbee based networks for even more automation.
 
Cool info guys. I'm guessing our Apple store will have some in stock... If not, might see about begging users here to pick up a set and ship it to me :eek:
 
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sraber said:
They really are awesome. My apple store also has the starter packs but no singles. The word from my apple sales guy is that they had to stop the employee discount program on the Hue. Too many sales to the staff and none left for the customers. :)
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Apple shouldn't allow discounts on things like this or they should at the very least reduce the discount. Either way, it is a neat product. Single bulbs are $60. :eek: that will give a whole new meaning to yelling at folks who leave lights on when they're not in the room!
nuckinfutz said:
We'll see if Lifx ships soon enough. It's the Hue minus the need to hook a gateway device to your router.

http://lifx.co

Look for Greenwave to make some "waves" next year as well.

http://www.greenwavereality.com
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I wonder how that works then. I'll have to check out the link you provided.
 
jessica. said:
Apple shouldn't allow discounts on things like this or they should at the very least reduce the discount. Either way, it is a neat product. Single bulbs are $60. :eek: that will give a whole new meaning to yelling at folks who leave lights on when they're not in the room!



I wonder how that works then. I'll have to check out the link you provided.
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Actually if you use I believe it's $177 a year on incandescent, equivalent to ~$66 on CFL, these LED's would only use $21 worth of hydro.
 
sraber said:
I have not found any alternatives but I suggest you put in your order and wait for them to ship. I put in an order online with the ship date of 1 to 2 months and had them delivered in 2 weeks.
I will say they have met my expectations and I am putting in another order. I love them. :D
Click to expand...

Check your local stores. When I picked mine up, they said that even though the Apple Store site says 4 months, they get regular shipments every few days.
 
XboxMySocks said:
Actually if you use I believe it's $177 a year on incandescent, equivalent to ~$66 on CFL, these LED's would only use $21 worth of hydro.
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I have dimmers on all my incandescent lights but often leave my rooms dark to save electricity. With the 8.5 watts max the Hue's pull I have no problem leaving these beautiful lamps on. These have really improved my environment. :D
 
sraber said:
I have dimmers on all my incandescent lights but often leave my rooms dark to save electricity. With the 8.5 watts max the Hue's pull I have no problem leaving these beautiful lamps on. These have really improved my environment. :D
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Hah, really cool info man thanks for sharing! Still kinda hoping to get these
 
Just thought I'd chime in again.

Got the Hue. Incredible system.

The app is slightly less complex than I'd like it (very basic and no way to set general fading moods which would be so nice) but otherwise it is incredible. The setup is horrendously easy. Plug it all in, press a button, done.

The greens are slightly whiter (and less deep) than I'd wish, and browns are a bit more subdued as well, but the rest of the colours (especially purple, red, and blue) are absolutely gorgeously rich and amazing for setting the mood of a room. The Light Recipes are pretty nice too.
 
XboxMySocks said:
Just thought I'd chime in again.

Got the Hue. Incredible system.

The app is slightly less complex than I'd like it (very basic and no way to set general fading moods which would be so nice) but otherwise it is incredible. The setup is horrendously easy. Plug it all in, press a button, done.

The greens are slightly whiter (and less deep) than I'd wish, and browns are a bit more subdued as well, but the rest of the colours (especially purple, red, and blue) are absolutely gorgeously rich and amazing for setting the mood of a room. The Light Recipes are pretty nice too.
Click to expand...

I agree with your estimation and have settled on the colors of the Deep Sea environment. I also enjoy them all day long. ;)
 
sraber said:
I agree with your estimation and have settled on the colors of the Deep Sea environment. I also enjoy them all day long. ;)
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Yeah. I have my settings as the primary colours, as well as 2 mood lights and normal lighting, the blue is one of my favourites.
 
I just picked up a Hue myself, the app is horrible.

I started playing around with the RESTful calls to the hub, thinking I may just write my own app. Have to decide if I want it to be native or web-based, I am thinking web-based for portability.

Fun stuff though, really liking it so far.
 
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