{"id":695,"date":"2015-10-10T18:18:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T18:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/?p=695"},"modified":"2015-10-10T18:18:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-10T18:18:24","slug":"philips-smart-hub-embraces-siri-homekit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/2015\/10\/10\/philips-smart-hub-embraces-siri-homekit\/","title":{"rendered":"Philips Smart Hub Embraces Siri, HomeKit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usa.philips.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Philips<\/a> on Monday unveiled Hue Bridge 2.0., which integrates the company&#8217;s smart home products and iOS&#8217;s HomeKit, giving users the ability to dictate to smart things from a Siri-enabled smartphone.<\/p>\n<p>Replacing its round predecessor, the square Hue Bridge 2.0 is compatible with Philips&#8217; legacy smart lights and controls. The hub will support new smart products from Philips for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XxgR5rwwyuc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s a mutually beneficial relationship: HomeKit can reach Hue lamps and lights, while homes already kitted out with Philips&#8217; smart lighting gain the ability to automate their Internet of Things devices via iOS.<\/p>\n<p>The Hue Bridge 2.0 supports connections to up to 50 smart things and is compatible with more than 450 apps.<\/p>\n<p>Consumers can pick up the Hue Bridge 2.0 by itself for US$59, or they can purchase the hub in a $199 starter kit, which includes three Hue lights.<\/p>\n<div class=\"story-advertisement\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"subhead\">Hey, Siri<\/h2>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s digital assistant, Siri, introduces a new dynamic into Philips&#8217; smart home ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>With Siri and its connection to HomeKit, users can activate or deactivate custom lighting schemes. For example, users can direct Siri to turn on lights along the path to a bathroom or go full power with the lighting in a home office.<\/p>\n<p>With the help of the Hue app, users also can call on Siri to control their lighting remotely. The lights can be linked to the Web, newsfeeds and email inboxes.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subhead\">In the Way of IoT<\/h2>\n<p>Philips is one party in a growing list of IoT and smart home players. Despite the efforts of Philips and the likes of Google and Apple, the market for smart things is far from mature.<\/p>\n<p>Among the biggest barriers to the smart home movement are &#8220;ease of use and compelling value,&#8221; said Charles King, principal analyst for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pund-it.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pund-IT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The first one is fairly straightforward, but the second can be harder to find,&#8221; he told TechNewsWorld. &#8220;Suffice it to say that there are lots of solutions out there that developers considered smart, which were, in retrospect, pretty dumb.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another issue is reliability and the perception thereof, said Matt Swatsky, director of product management at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lutron.com\/en-US\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Lutron Electronics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The things have to work,&#8221; he told TechNewsWorld. &#8220;You don&#8217;t want to have to reboot your lighting. So we think those three things are super important.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also the hurt from the hype.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The other thing standing in the way of smart home tech,&#8221; said King, &#8220;is gun-shyness among consumers who have been burned numerous times by next-big-thing gizmos that turned out to be total duds.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technewsworld.com\/story\/Philips-Smart-Hub-Embraces-Siri-HomeKit-82577.html\" target=\"_blank\">TechNewsWorld<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Philips on Monday unveiled Hue Bridge 2.0., which integrates the company&#8217;s smart home products and iOS&#8217;s HomeKit, giving users the ability to dictate to smart things from a Siri-enabled smartphone. Replacing its round predecessor, the square Hue Bridge 2.0 is compatible with Philips&#8217; legacy smart lights and controls. The hub will support new smart products [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[26,27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":697,"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fieldbridgeng.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}