review: \'smart\' led bulbs controlled by iphones

NEW YORK (AP)--
LED bulbs seem to be the future of home lighting: They save power and are durable and contain mercury unlike compact fluorescent lamps.
But let them produce white light like any old bulb is like using a computer as a gate station.
Because each LED or light
LEDs, a small chip, are the products of similar manufacturing processes that gave birth to the digital revolution.
These chips are supported by more electronic devices on the bulb poles.
These bulbs are smart, or at least they will be smart if we do that.
Philips, the world\'s largest manufacturer of LED lighting, did.
The company produced the first LED light bulb kit, which can be wirelessly controlled in color and brightness from the iPhone.
I tested the Philips bulb and in descending order of \"smart\" I tried some green wave reality bulbs with brightness that can be controlled by the app.
I also saw a cheap off-brand color-
Replacement bulb with remote control.
Why do you want to control the light bulb with your phone?
I haven\'t found a good answer yet.
The bulbs themselves are no big deal.
Few people would buy a Philips kit for three smart bulbs for $200.
But these products are still interesting because they point the way for the future of lighting.
Remember: the first Apple computer is also a niche product.
See where it went.
Each Philips bulb produces the equivalent of 50-
Incandescent lamps in Watt.
The extra light bulb costs only $59 each.
In contrast, it\'s a little brighter. smart, white-
Philips LED bulbs cost $25 each.
Philips says the cost of Hue bulbs is higher because there are five unique and expensive lime --
Green LEDs in each bulb, balanced by four red
Orange and Blue.
Together, these LEDs produce a range of colors, including a range of \"white\" from warm to cold \".
Future, price difference between colors
Mixed LEDs and normal LEDs shrink and may disappear.
Adding color and wireless control to the bulb will cost very little, so we might as well get used to it.
In fact, I found a cheaper option than the hue: the $18 bulb for the torch Star brand. Amazon.
Com sells a bunch of similar products under different names.
This light bulb won\'t talk to your phone.
Instead, it comes with a small remote control that allows you to pick from 16 colors.
Unfortunately, \"White\" is an annoying shade of blue that reminds people of bad fluorescent tubes.
It is also much darker than the tone.
From the front, the torch star produces a more vivid and saturated color than the hue.
In order to produce a good white color, the hue sacrifices the ability to produce a true deep color.
I also found the remote control on the torch star very friendly.
Do I really want to take out my iPhone or iPad and launch the Hue app every time I want to adjust the lighting?
In fact, I would love to connect the remote to the wall like a light switch
There\'s something to say about those old wall switches.
Once you have it, the free hue app is fun.
One of the ways you can change the color is to select a photo and then point to the hue you want the lights to copy.
The app sends your command to your Wi-Fi router.
The router tells the Hue base station in turn (
$200 small box included in Kit)
Connect to it and send a signal to the bulb using different wireless technologies (called Zigbee.
Philips said the signal could reach nearly 100 feet.
But if you string the bulb up, it can go further because each bulb will pass the signal to someone else who can\'t \"hear\" the base station directly.
So these bulbs are smart enough to communicate with each other.
However, \"wisdom\" is not so far away.
You can set a timer that should fade light slowly
It\'s a great touch if you want a child to sleep --
But nothing for me.
The light just went out at the specified time and did not fade.
The base station is able to connect to the Internet so you can control your lights where you are away from home.
Some ags have created apps that turn bulbs into disco lights and change colors as they pick up music from their phone\'s microphone.
But this is just the beginning of the Internet-
The connected lights should be able to do so.
In theory, you can control the light by changing the color of the daylight, or by changing the green to warn you whether it is possible to rain today.
The hue has not done this yet.
Changing colors is a manual process, although it is mediated by a smartphone.
I tried the third \"smart\" lighting kit from Green Wave reality.
There are two bulbs, one remote control and one wireless base station.
The IPhone app can darken the light bulb without changing the color.
It\'s good to have the remote as a backup of the app, but the overall practicality of the kit is low.
The startup behind it, GreenWave Reality, wants to sell it through utilities for about $200.
I can understand the utility that wants to drive the led, but dimming is not very effective in terms of energy saving.
Switch from incandescent to LED or compact to save about 80% of your power
Fluorescent bulb.
Reducing the power consumption of the LED by half by dimming will only save about 6% of the cost.
Also, the Green Wave bulb flashes when turned off.
Shades, flare stars and green wave bulbs
We lived in our house for a few months. What happened?
Well, after initially messing around with them, we forgot to control the shades and the Green Wave bulbs and just put them in full-blast white-light mode.
We just don\'t have enough reason to keep fiddling with them.
At the beginning, my child had a great time with the torch star bulb and its remote control, but now it mainly gives a calm purple color like the night light in my daughter\'s room.
Tone bulbs can also do the character well, except for one thing: if you turn them off with a wall switch, they go back to white --
The next time you turn them on, light mode.
They don\'t remember their colors.
The underlying problem is that these \"smart\" lights force us to do quite a bit of thinking and control.
They rely heavily on our \"wisdom\" and we are just not disturbed.
Maybe one day, we can get the lights we want without being told by others, such as dim lights when the mood is right.
You do think, light bulb, make us stupid.