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Philips heralds Friends of hue range with new color-change LED products

Philips heralds Friends of hue range with new color-change LED products
Philips' colorful hue LED light bulb has new friends
Philips' colorful hue LED light bulb has new friends
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Philips' LightStrip
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Philips' LightStrip
A pair of Philips' LivingColors Bloom would probably make quite a good alternative to Ambilight
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A pair of Philips' LivingColors Bloom would probably make quite a good alternative to Ambilight
A Philips' LivingColors Bloom
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A Philips' LivingColors Bloom
Philips' colorful hue LED light bulb has new friends
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Philips' colorful hue LED light bulb has new friends
How you might use a LivingColors Bloom
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How you might use a LivingColors Bloom
Philips' LivingColors Bloom (pictured) is joined by the LightStrip in the new Friends of hue range
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Philips' LivingColors Bloom (pictured) is joined by the LightStrip in the new Friends of hue range
Philips' LivingColors Bloom
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Philips' LivingColors Bloom
Philips' colorful hue LED light bulb has new friends
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Philips' colorful hue LED light bulb has new friends
View gallery - 8 images

Philips has announced a new range of color-change LED products designed to coexist peacefully with its chameleonesque iPhone-controlled hue light bulb. The Friends of hue range is open to independent product developers, but is being ushered in with two new Philips creations, LivingColors Bloom and the LightStrip.

Blooming 'eck

A pair of Philips' LivingColors Bloom would probably make quite a good alternative to Ambilight
A pair of Philips' LivingColors Bloom would probably make quite a good alternative to Ambilight

Perhaps the more abstractly named of the new products, LivingColors Bloom is what those in the lighting industry would have once called a wall-washer: a light fitting you put on the floor or piece of furniture to cast light over the surface of a wall. It's a round light source that props itself up at a 45º angle thanks to an inbuilt prop-like-stand-type-thing.

As is the purpose of wall-washers, it looks as though Bloom (if I can call it that) casts a nice soft ambiance, though of course the kicker is you can choose from any one of 16 million colors in which to do so, controlled with a finger from the comfort of an armchair (with a bit of help from an iPhone, of course).Sunset Strip

Philips' LightStrip
Philips' LightStrip

Philips new LightStrips are a similarly colorful prospect, designed as they are to shed light across a wall or surface. But being a linear strip, the LightStrips are easier to conceal. The 2-m (6.6-ft) long strips can bend to fit into awkward nooks or even cut down to size for fitting to the underside of shelves and what have you. Like Bloom, a single LightStrip emits 120 lumens, though it's slightly hungrier, consuming 12 W in the process.

Standard hues

It's worth noting that to use either of these products you will need Philips' hue bridge which can control up to 50 bulbs, and which comes with Philips hue starter kits. It's probably worth noting that these aren't the most efficient LED products on the market (in fact they're decidedly inefficient), but they still consume relatively little energy, and when the purpose is ambiance rather than useful lighting, lumens per watt efficacy isn't the most useful metric.

Engadget reports that both products will be available in Apple stores from Thursday, the LivingColors Bloom selling for US$80 and the LightStrip for $90.

Now that Philips has launched the Friends of hue range, it'll be interesting to see if any third-party developers get in on the act.

Sources: Philips, Engadget

View gallery - 8 images
3 comments
3 comments
TedF
This is skirting around the edges of the problem. What we need are LED bulbs that match the colour profile and light output of conventional 60 & 100 Watt bulbs - at a reasonable price!
Slowburn
re; TedF
For the most part I agree. But I prefer a little less red like halogen bulbs. The price in going to come down just not as fast as we want.
MG127
90$ for 2m lightstripe ? oO why so expensive? they aren't energyefficient and i don't think they last 5x longer than "noname" products e.g. a RGB-led stripe from LED-universum costs 8€/m, has 7,2W/m with 6,3-11 lumen per led (30 leds per m) (170-330 lumen/m ?)