Hasta La Gadget!

When you decide to pick up a Sonos speaker, you decide to jump into an ever-expanding ecosystem of both hardware and software, with a brand that’s dead set on pushing an immersive experience out to the customer. With the newest member of the family, the Sonos SUB, you’ve now got an earth-rumbling bass component in addition to a couple of sets of high-quality speakers and several center points – dock, bridge (hub), amplifier, whatever you want. The big question you should be asking yourself here is not just if you want to work with the magic that is the SonosNet wireless mesh network, but if you feel its necessary to pick up more than one of the Sonos family components.

Joining the Sonos Party

With the Sonos SUB you’ve got a one-button-connected bass component for your Sonos system. You will not want to buy just the SUB and not at least one of the two speakers that Sonos has to offer, those being the PLAY:5 or the PLAY:3. With either of the PLAY speakers – if you buy one at the time this post is being published – Sonos has a special “Gift Pack” that essentially means you’ll get a free Sonos Bridge with the purchase of either speaker. So you’ve got the Bridge, either a 3 or a 5 speaker (or two) and the SUB – this is the basic setup you’ll want, not just the SUB.

This is because the Sonos family of devices works in its own net, and does not connect the same way a standard speaker does. On the other hand, if you do pick up the Sonos CONNECT or CONNECT:AMP, you’ll be able to connect a standard RCA line-in bit of audio to your SONOS network where it can be wirelessly output to the SUB and wired to several of your standard speakers with combined spring binding post / banana jack connectors all at once. And if you don’t know what that means, I wish you good luck and suggest you get a standard speaker setup.

On the other hand again, if you want to work with Sonos from top to bottom, you can connect whatever you want to a CONNECT and blast all your audio from all your sources. If you just want music, you wont have to mess with all of this stuff, you’ll only need one Sonos speaker – and the AMP, since that’s what we’re reviewing, of course. To connect your devices together, you either need to hook one (any one) of your Sonos speakers or SUB to the internet with an ethernet cord.

If you don’t want to connect one of your speakers with an ethernet cord – if your router is in a room that you don’t want speakers in, for example – then you should indeed get the BRIDGE. With the BRIDGE you can connect to the web, then the BRIDGE will be your access point for all the rest of the devices. Then you’ve only to access and wirelessly control the music you want to listen to from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android phone, Android tablet, Mac, or Windows-toting PC.

Software

The software experience with Sonos is being updated rather rapidly – just today we found an update for the iOS apps that allow us to play music directly from the device, this effectively taking the place of what Apple notes is their unique wireless capability in AirPlay. Android has an app that’s essentially the same as the iOS experience, while the Mac and PC versions of the software offer, again, basically the same abilities with slightly different layouts.

Above: Android, Below: iOS (iPhone 5)

The larger the screen you have, the easier it is to navigate the Sonos user interface – while when you’re working with a display as small as the iPhone 5, you might be tripped up by the slightly less-than-intuitive arrangement of the buttons and access to your tunes. Once you’ve set up your own playlist or have decided upon a single source for your music though, you won’t have to worry about it.

At the moment you can use a variety of music sources including Pandora, Spotify, tunein, Amazon Cloud Player, Songza, Rhapsody, mog, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio, Slacker Radio, Wolfgang’s Vault, DAR.fm, AUPEO, rdio, murfie, last.fm, and stitcher. Sonos is currenly working with the developers of 7digital and Hearts of Space to get them onboard with this wireless experience as well.

Perhaps the most useful element in all of this SonosNet wireless control environment is the power to group speakers together individually. You can set up a couple of PLAY:3 units in your living room with a SUB under the couch while you’ve got two PLAY:5 speakers in the kitchen and a set of two 5′s, two 3′s, a SUB, and a CONNECT:AMP in your basement to play some heavy-hitting theater beats, each of the rooms with their own audio, all of them in the same network. The real power of this system is for the super-vested in Sonos to create their own massive network, really.

Sound Quality

There’s not much to be said for the sound quality of the SUB that’s not already spoken by Sonos themselves: “soul-shaking” is what they call it. Indeed it is difficult to even set this device up for sound if you live in an apartment for fear that you might not only disturb the residents above and below you, but that you might wake up your neighbors across the hall as well, not to mention the whole complex across the street.

But once you do have the system set up and ready to rock, you can turn the whole thing down to human levels. This system is made to be sitting either right out in the open next to your television set or in the center of your room or under your couch or bed. If you do place it under your seats, prepare to get you butt rumbled. The sound here is as loud and as precise as any system we’ve yet tested.

The SUB doesn’t break up the family as other massive stand-along subwoofers might. Instead it’s able to be mixed right in with the natural array of sounds coming from the rest of your Sonos speakers – and with your Sonos apps you’re able to push them all up and down individually as needed, of course.

Wrap-up

The Sonos SUB is a massively expensive subwoofer made to be part of the full wireless speaker family for an equally giant price: $699 right out of the box. You do get free shipping and unlimited support from Sonos, and we’re to understand that there’s a slightly less glossy version of this machine coming soon that’ll cost just a bit less than this first release. If you’re willing to pay $699 for a component in your hi-fi speaker arrangement, you certainly wont be disappointed in the SUB.

Have a peek at the column/review Small Sonos: Is multi-room music overkill in a tiny apartment? by Chris Davies for additional insight with the Sonos PLAY:3 and the overall Sonos experience.

Sonos SUB Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Jawbone’s UP is back for 2012, and like that gym membership you signed up for and only used once, it’s begging you to give it a second chance. The original UP launched last year to rave reviews, but the shine quickly faded as owners struggled with batteries that refused to charge and hardware that would unexpectedly stop working. Jawbone dragged it back into the lab and returned with a new version, all-change in hardware and software, and the subject of near 3m hours of testing. The wearable tracking market hasn’t stood still in the meantime, however, so can the UP regain its lost momentum? Read on for our full review.

Hardware

Jawbone’s minimal outward changes mean you might not realize you have a new UP at first glance, most of the differences between the first- and second-generation models being behind the scenes. It’s still a twist of rubbery plastic that stretches out to wrap around your wrist – your non-dominant hand is recommended, for best accuracy – only now Jawbone says it has refined both the water-resistance and the resilience to flexing, both key flaws in the original.

The circuit board running down the middle is designed to be twisted, but it turned out owners did a whole lot more twisting (and in unexpected ways) than Jawbone had initially predicted. As for water, the “wear it anywhere” message of the original UP meant that owners took it into the shower or while doing the washing up, and the seals proved to be susceptible to soaps and other factors that the original water-resistance standards – and thus Jawbone’s testing – simply didn’t envisage.

The few external changes you only really notice after a period of wearing the new UP. The material is slightly difference, and we found it rubbed against our skin in a little less of an aggravating way than before, while the cap – that pulls off to reveal a 3.5mm headphone plug – clips on more securely. That means it takes a little extra force to remove when you actually want to sync with your phone, but it also reduces the number of lost caps that frustrated original owners.

Inside, it’s the same combination of sensors (and glaring omissions) as before, though worked in different ways thanks to the circuit board redesign. The primary magic happens in the interplay between the motion sensor and the algorithms Jawbone uses to interpret them: figuring out whether you’re walking, jogging, or running, and then calculating distance, calories burned, how long you were active, and other results.

Our lingering frustration is around the way in which the UP synchronizes. Despite being best known for its Bluetooth devices, Jawbone persists with a more low-tech system for the UP: a headphone jack. Unlike Nike’s Fuelband, to get your data off the UP you have to remove it, pull off the cap, and plug it into the headphone jack on your iPhone or iPad; there’s no way to do it wirelessly.

Jawbone says that’s a compromise based on battery life: by eschewing wireless radios, the UP is rated for as much as ten days use between charges. That’s in contrast to the Fuelband’s “up to four days” estimate, though our own testing suggested that NIke’s predictions were over-ambitious and assumed minimal use of the display and the Bluetooth connectivity. Still, it’s worth remembering that it’s not just synchronizing exercise data that requires the UP be plugged in: if you want to change the alarm time (which vibrates to wake you) you’ll need to plug in too.

Software

The UP wristband itself isn’t the only thing to get a significant reworking since the first-gen model: Jawbone has also spruced up its companion app. The new software works with the original UP (though not the original UP on the iPhone 5) or the new model, though you’ll need an iOS device, since Jawbone says the Android version is still a work-in-progress.

In comparison to the bare-bones original app, the new software is far more comprehensive in the data it collects and how it utilizes that data. There’s a new system for logging your diet, and more social features that allow you to compare and share your activity to other members of your “Team.” Meanwhile, if you sync data from the old band to the new app, it will apply its new analysis to the old data.

The app does a good job in balancing what information it shows you – and there’s a lot to choose from – without being too overwhelming. The basics are activity through the day, shown on a bar chart, with a count of steps and distance traveled, how many calories you’ve burned (broken down into active and resting burn), your longest period of activity and idle time, and your total activity as well as how close you came to your “Move goal” that day. On the flip side, there are stats for sleep (the UP is meant to be worn day and night) with total time sleeping broken down into deep and light phases, how long it took you to drop off, how many times you woke up and for how long, and how close you came to your “Sleep goal” that night.

Both elements have a few extras to round out their usability. On the active side, there’s a Stopwatch Mode which allows you to manually mark the beginning and end of periods of exercise, with that section later being flagged up for specific analysis in the app. An Idle Alert buzzes the UP band after a preset period of inactivity, useful if you’re a desk-worker. Smart Alarm uses sleep tracking to figure out the best point to wake you in the morning, gaging sleep schedules rather than sticking to a single point in time as per traditional alarms, while Power Nap does something similar but for a much shorter burst of resting (Jawbone says it’s in the region of 26.5 minutes, but will vary).

The original app allowed for basic diet logging, but it was a chore to enter meals. Jawbone has addressed that with a new nutrition database that works with a barcode scanner, meaning you can simply zap the ‘code on what you’re eating to automatically log it. There’s manual search in case you don’t have a barcode to scan, or you can get particularly detailed and file each ingredient. Integration with the camera supports attaching snapshots of your meals to each entry.

Performance

The original UP was comfortable to wear, and the new model is no different: although you notice the rubberized band initially, after a few days it becomes commonplace on your wrist. It’s flexible enough to not get in the way while sleeping, but sufficiently springy to hold on and not slip around as you move. We saw battery life in the region of 6-8 days. We also feel it’s important to note that one person who tried the UP on complained of a mild rash after a period of wearing it; Jawbone says the band is made of medical-grade, hypoallergenic TPU rubber, and only one person who tried it encountered a problem.

Compared to a Nike+ Fuelband, the UP appeared to be more sensitive to movement: we logged more steps with the Jawbone than we did with Nike’s tracker. There’s more immediacy to the Fuelband, thanks to its integrated display and wireless connection with the companion app; with the UP we found ourselves synching 2-3 times a day and reviewing our activity, whereas with the Fuelband we checked progress more frequently, often in the midst of activity.

Like most if not all of the trackers on the market, the UP struggles to capture non-step based activity. However, using the manual logging system – double-tapping and holding the button built into the end of the band until a light flashes – you can flag up those periods where you’re doing other forms of exercise. The same button puts the UP into Sleep mode, which you need to do if you want the Jawbone app to work out the length and quality of your sleep.

Unfortunately, on more than one occasion we forgot to press the button, and the UP assumed we were having a long day with little activity. The band will automatically switch from Sleep to Active mode, depending on your movement, which also means you can see interruptions in the sleep-mode logging if, say, you’re a parent with a young child who gets you up a few times during the night. We’d like to see a user-configurable sleep schedule system, where we could log a “usual range” of sleeping times just in case we forgot to manually trigger the correct mode.

When in the correct mode, the UP produces stats that are easy to understand and makes suggestions on how to improve. It can prompt you to get more sleep if you’ve been short-changing your duvet time, or remind you of recommended salt and fat allowances if you’ve been indulging. Keeping a food diary is straightforward thanks to the new system, though not essential for health tracking overall.

We had mixed results with Power Nap and the Smart Alarm, primarily because the vibration alert sometimes proved too subtle to wake us. After a couple of mornings to habituate to it, we found could sleep straight through. Others who tried the system didn’t encounter the same problem, however, so some sort of adjustable intensity would be a useful addition.

It’s the social features that might be the best new addition to UP, however. You can now set up groups of people – Jawbone calls them “Teams” – who can see your fitness scores, and with whom you can either compete or encourage. There’s the option to limit certain UP status updates selectively, too, so if you’ve had a lazy day or a particularly indulgent meal, you don’t have to confess to it.

The Competition

The marketplace for fitness monitoring technology has grown dramatically in the time between this second UP attempt and the first model. Nike’s Fuelband has the edge in connectivity but lacks the breadth of data logging: it’s great for general fitness, but misses out on the sleep tracking and the food database. Fitbit’s range of trackers are more discrete and can hook up to the company’s WiFi-enabled scales for more personal data, but there’s something about having a device wrapped around your wrist to simply make you more aware of how active you are. Still, Fitbit has added Bluetooth for easier synchronization.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of apps for smartphones that promise to track your activity. Endomondo and Runtastic keep a log of movement, for a matter of dollars on your phone rather than the $129.99 of the Jawbone UP; other apps can keep a food log. Even Google Now, in its latest iteration, quietly adds up your steps and gives you a running total of distance traveled each month.

Wrap-Up

The shine quickly rubbed off the original UP, but all signs point to Jawbone having learned its lesson. The new hardware feels sturdier than before, and the more stringent tolerances mean we now have no qualms about wearing UP in the shower or pool. Meanwhile, the software has improved considerably and the UP app is now something you would readily open up even when you’re not synchronizing the band, for its mixture of diet logging and health tips.

As with any of these activity trackers, wearing them consistently is the key to their usefulness. All too often we’d pick up our Fuelband only to discover it was flat; the longer battery life of the UP meant that was far less common an experience. Being able to annotate your activity and your meals also encourages you to think about what you’re doing and what you’re consuming: it makes healthier living something you’re more consciously aware of.

We’d like to see more flexibility in the settings options and a little more intelligence in how the Sleep mode is handled, and the $130 price tag means you have to be taking health seriously in order to consider the UP worthwhile. Nonetheless, even if you’re only really approaching UP from the stance of a competitive game player, the social elements help maintain your interest. In the end, it’s a solid mixture of life-logging tools and a good example of how wearables can cross over from the stuff of science-fiction to everyday life, but approachable enough for the mass market.

Jawbone UP Review (2012) is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Along with Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has released a handful of new keyboards, trying to cover the wide range of people who need a physical keyboard regardless of it they’re working on desktop or on a tablet. Of all of these keyboards, the new Sculpt Comfort Keyboard is probably the most interesting. The Sculpt is another ergonomic keyboard in a sea of products that claim to cut down on wrist strain and actually make typing easier. The question is whether that’s actually the case, or if it’s all PR fluff meant to get us to hand over cash for a keyboard we might not even need. Read on to hear the verdict.

Design and Features

Unlike some other ergonomic keyboards, there isn’t a split down the middle of the Sculpt. The Sculpt looks more like a regular keyboard than some of the other ergonomic ones, save for a bump in the middle that raises some of the keys and gives it a nice curve. It looks really nice – I’ve never been a fan of the way most ergonomic keyboards look, but I have to say that this one is pretty easy on the eyes. It’s all black and white if we’re not counting the blue Windows 8 hot keys, and it’s relative slimness gives it a more compact feeling that some of the other beasts we’ve seen in the ergonomic field.

The keyboard may not be split, but in an interesting twist, the space bar is. Microsoft has turned the space bar into two different buttons – both of them do the same thing until you hold down one of the shift keys, then the left space button turns into a spare backspace key. Microsoft says it did this because the majority of users only ever hit the right side of the space bar with their thumb. By splitting space bar into two key and adding backspace functionality to the left one, users no longer have to reach for the actual backspace key while they’re typing up a storm. It’s an incredibly strange idea at first, but it works. Holding shift and hitting the space bar is much more comfortable than reaching for the backspace key, but it’s definitely going to take some getting used to. After all, we’ve only been reaching for that backspace button for years and years, so it makes it sense that it’s going to take some time to break that habit.

UPDATE: While shift-space does indeed activate a backspace, simply pressing the left half of the spacebar also initiates a backspace – simple and clean!

Other than the split space bar, there isn’t anything all that remarkable about the rest of the keys. Microsoft claims that the slight curve to the layout helps improve typing speeds, and I feel that it’s helped mine slightly. It was kind of hard to tell at first since I had to adjust to the curvy layout, but after that adjustment process was finished, I found that my speeds were a little bit better than when I was using my regular mechanical keyboard. Resistance on the keys is nice, and they make a pretty satisfying sound when you press them. You won’t get the “clack” you’re used to hearing if you regularly use a mechanical keyboard, but the keys still make a good sound when you hit them.

The only issue I have with the keys is the fact that the letters aren’t laser etched onto them. That, obviously, is a feature of more expensive keyboards, but it still would’ve been nice to have, since without it your keys will begin fading after a while. It isn’t the biggest of problems (far from it actually), but having your keys fade on you is always an annoying experience.

On the Sculpt, the function keys double as Windows 8 hotkeys, allowing you to navigate the new Windows 8 UI with ease. There are buttons for volume and audio playback, then you have the search, share, devices, and settings keys, which all take you to the different Windows 8 submenus that are featured in the right menu bar. There are also buttons that allow you to snap what you’re currently looking at to the left or right side of the screen, letting you look at two apps at once. Microsoft has placed a sliding switch to the right of the function buttons, which you can use to change the functionality on that row of keys. It’s definitely a nice touch, especially for someone who might still be getting used to the Windows 8 UI – instead of trying to find these menus and do these actions with your mouse, you can simply hit the shortcut key on the Sculpt. That should save those who are new to Windows 8 a lot of time.

What I really like about the Sculpt is that it comes with a detachable wrist pad, but this one isn’t of the snap-on variety. Good thing too, because those snap-on wrist pads always feel so cheap and fragile. Instead, the wrist pad attaches to the Sculpt with a metal hook and a couple of metal plates. It slides into the bottom of the keyboard and locks into place, so you don’t have to worry about it flopping around while you type.

The wrist pad is soft enough to be comfortable, yet firm enough to where your wrists aren’t sinking into it. I think it gets the job done rather well, as it does a lot to take the pressure off your wrists while you’re typing. Of course, the Sculpt is still pretty easy to use if you remove the wrist pad (which cuts down on the keyboard’s overall size significantly), but if your job requires a lot of typing, you’ll probably want to keep the wrist pad attached as often as you can.

The stands have actually made their way to underneath the wrist pad, which is another strange feature that makes the Sculpt stand out from keyboards. It looks odd, having the stands on the front of the keyboard, but it actually feels surprisingly comfortable while you’re typing since it keeps your wrists a lot straighter than they would otherwise be. The only problem is that the Sculpt has a tendency to slide around when it’s up on its stands and placed on a hard, smooth surface. Most of the time I was using the Sculpt, I was typically using it without the stands, just because I found that keyboard kept sliding out from under my hands whenever I had them up.

The Sculpt is a wireless keyboard that’s powered by two AAA batteries and connects to your computer through a USB stick. Installation was a breeze, as it only requires that you connect the USB stick and give the system a few moments to install the drivers for the keyboard. Once you’ve done that, you’re good to go. As with most wireless keyboards, battery life is great. The batteries actually haven’t died on me yet, and I don’t think they will for another few weeks at least. In other words, if you pick up the Sculpt, you probably won’t have to worry about purchasing batteries all that often. The wireless capabilities work well too – I never had an instance where the signal cut out, and that’s really as good as it gets when you’re talking about wireless keyboards.

Wrap-Up

Even though I’ve never been a big fan of ergonomic keyboards, I have to say that the Sculpt Comfort Keyboard impressed. It isn’t the most feature-rich keyboard around, but Microsoft has done some interesting things with it. Splitting the space bar in two and turning one side into a spare backspace key was definitely a strange idea, but it seems to have worked. As I said above, it takes some getting used to, but once you remember to hold down the shift key and hit the left space bar, it serves as a good replacement for reaching across the keyboard to hit the actual backspace key.

Again, the wireless functionality works well, and I think that will be a major selling point for some people. While I was testing the keyboard, the wireless worked flawlessly, so the Sculpt Comfort Keyboard earn high marks in that regard.

The price Microsoft has given this keyboard – $59.95 – seems reasonable too, though to be honest I’m used to spending $100+ on mechanical keyboards with all the bells and whistles for gaming, so I may not be the best judge of value in this case. Still, $59.95 isn’t all that expensive and this is a solid keyboard – the fact that it’s compatible with Windows 8, RT, 7, and Vista just adds value. If you’ve been looking for a new ergonomic keyboard, you might want to take a look at the Sculpt since it has features that make it stick out from the rest of the keyboards out there, and it’s even made specifically to play nice with Windows 8.

Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Keyboard Review is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Philips has been pushing color-changing lighting for years now, but with Philips hue the concept may finally have come of age. No longer amorphous lamp blobs, the hue bulbs screw easily into your existing light fittings and, on the face of it, do everything a regular bulb might. Reach for your phone or tablet, however, and you can soon be bathing in a near unlimited range of custom colors. So, the dawn of a new age of home automation, or just a dreary DIY disco? Read on for our full review.

Hardware and Installation

Philips’ starter pack for hue – which comes with the base station and three bulbs – is priced at $199.95/£179.95, while subsequent individual hue bulbs are $59.95/£49.95 (initially exclusively through the Apple Store). Philips says the three bulbs that come in the starter pack can’t be used with any other hue base station; sure enough there’s no way to unpair them in the settings, though we were able to manually pair them to an old LivingColor remote. You also get an AC adapter for the base station and an ethernet cable to plug it into your router.

Setup is straightforward, as long as you have the right type of light fitting. Plug the base station into the mains and into a spare ethernet socket on your router, and then screw the Edison-fitting bulbs into whichever lamps you want to use. Philips says bayonet fitting versions are in the pipeline, but for now you’ll have to use an adapter – not supplied, but available online for a couple of dollars – if you want to use a hue bulb in an old-style socket.

Then, in theory, it’s just a case of installing the mobile app on either your iOS or Android device. Philips has iPhone and iPad-scaled versions, as well as a single version for Android phones and tablets, and you can have up to ten apps associated with a single base station. We had no problems with the auto-locate feature on the iOS app, the base station quickly being identified (on the same network) and – after a tap of the single button on top of it – paired up. However, the Android app refused to locate the base station itself, and could only see it after we punched in its IP address (as assigned by the router) manually.

The hue bulbs themselves are of a similar size to a standard bulb, with a mushroom-style glass head and a silver brushed metal body. Philips says each 600 lumen bulb – equivalent to a 50W traditional bulb – uses 80-percent power than old-style versions, and is rated for 15,000 hours of continuous use. Up to fifty can be paired with a single base station, according to Philips’ official count, though unofficially the system will apparently support more.

Those with existing Philips LivingColor lamps will be able to use them with the new hue system, though the process is fiddly. You’ll need to have one of the latter-generation LivingColor remotes (circular, not lozenge shaped, with the three preset keys running along the lower edge) and go through a multi-stage re-pairing process with that and the hue base station. It took us a couple of attempts to get the whole thing working, but once all parts of the system were talking to the other, we were able to control our old lamps with the hue app, and indeed the hue bulbs with the old remote.

hue isn’t limited to Philips’ own bulbs, though. The system uses standard ZigBee – the Light Link profile, specifically – so any third-party lighting that confirms to that will also pair up with the hue base station. Since it’s ZigBee, it also uses mesh networking: the base station acts as a bridge between your WiFi network and the ZigBee network, but as each hue bulb can talk to each other, they can be a great distance from the base station itself. Philips does warn that lag will increase the greater the number of mesh hubs the signal has to jump.

Software

Philips’ iOS and Android apps look broadly the same: large expanses of desktop, with preset icons for lighting schemes. They look fine on a phone, but on tablets there’s an odd waste of space: the buttons are just too small – split in their layout, by default, across two pages despite the potential of easily fitting onto one – and require a slightly closer look than you’d hope for in order to identify which preset you’re selecting. Big, easily stabbed keys would be far preferable.

Most of the presets Philips provides are, in fact, based on images. Tap them once and a brightness bar shows up, as well as the option to dig into the image itself and adjust the colors and lamps involved. That shows a basic white light control at the top – with the option to make the light warmer or cooler – but is mainly taken up by the source image, with color pickers for each bulb that can be dragged around to different points on the picture.

Underneath, there are brightness sliders for each bulb as well as buttons to set timings and switch individual lamps on and off within that preset scheme. Timings can either be to turn the preset on at a certain point each day, or off, or both, with the lights either coming on instantly or fading in/out over the course of three or nine minutes. If you’ve ever wanted to be gently woken to the warm, honeyed glow of a rainforest sunrise, here’s your chance.

Unfortunately there’s no way to move multiple light pickers at the same time – the app doesn’t support multitouch control – so it’s a case of adjusting each bulb individually. Alternatively, shake the device and the accelerometer automatically triggers a random array of colors.

Manual use takes two forms. First, you can pull up a master color-picker, with individual control over each bulb’s brightness, hue, or white temperature; it’s functional, though there’s no way to then save that as a preset for later use. The second way is more permanent: you can choose a photo from your phone or tablet’s gallery, or shoot a new picture with its camera, and then pick colors out of that for the lights to replicate. These can be saved as schemes and shared on Philips’ site.

Obviously some colors are easier for hue to make than others. Brown is tricky, and if you pick black then the bulb simply shuts off. What Philips also provides are four so-called LightRecipes – relax, read, concentrate, and energize – which according to the company’s research have a noticeable affect on mood and productivity. It’s worth noting that they only work with the hue bulbs, not older LivingColor lamps, and annoyingly after we paired up some of those older lamps none of the LightRecipes would actually work. When they were working, however, we can’t say we noticed a particular difference in our mood or our ability to concentrate, though it was far from a scientific experiment.

Philips also supports remote access, though only via the iOS apps; the Android version won’t get that until sometime in 2013. You need to set up a profile via Philips’ site first, and give it permission to access your hue base station: then, when you’re on your iPad or iPhone on the move, you can boot up the app and twiddle away with the colors or, more likely, use it to turn off any lights you may have inadvertently left switched on. It’s of limited use, really, though if you’ve also got a web-connected security camera system, you could potentially use hue to light up rooms for clearer visibility.

Performance

Philips’ hue is a little like Superman. By day, the bulbs can be standard, sensible white lamps – the mild mannered Clark Kent of lighting – but when things start getting interesting you can call up all manner of colors and the whole system becomes far more flexible and creative. The light itself is as bright as a standard bulb when in white mode, while the colors are generally stronger than what the previous generation of LivingColor lamps could manage.

One hue bulb hanging from a central ceiling light is enough, if it’s dark, to illuminate a whole room with color, whereas LivingColor always felt more like an accent tool than primary lighting. As before, though, it works best with white walls, while the Edison screw fitting means you’ll have to think carefully about where you put each hue bulb. An overhead light is the obvious option, but a standalone lamp might do better at focusing attention on a specific area or feature.

For safety, if you flick the light switch on the wall (which has to be left on, obviously, for hue to work properly) the bulbs will automatically come on in their full-brightness, white mode. Unfortunately there’s no way to then restore them to their previous setting, without reaching for your phone or tablet. A wireless lightswitch would be a nice addition to the range, though since it’s ZigBee-compliant you could probably find a third-party option to add to the setup.

In fact, adding functionality is something Philips has planned ahead for. As well as using the Light Link standard, hue has an API for third-party apps to hook into. Philips is hoping that will encourage developers to jump in and add light effects to their apps, whether that be disco flashing or something more subtle, like a lamp that changes color according to stock prices, or flashes when you get a new email.

Right now, there’s not much in the way of third-party functionality, but it’s very early days. We wouldn’t mind a little more polish to the core experience, however: custom color scenes are meant to sync across devices via the cloud service, but that proved hit-and-miss, and sometimes the older LivingColor lamps would get stuck on a certain color and refuse to respond to the hue app unless they were power cycled.

On a cost-per-bulb basis, hue is significantly cheaper than previous Philips color-changing lighting products; the second-gen LivingColors lamp we reviewed back in 2010 still command a $140 price tag, versus sixty bucks for an individual hue bulb. Philips sells white LED bulbs with an RRP of $40, though other, cheaper versions are available.

Wrap-Up

Philips’ hue apps aren’t entirely refined, and the promise of third-party integration is yet to materialize, but hue is off to an excellent start where it counts: bringing the cost of color-changing lighting down to a more manageable price point. That means users are more likely to install a few bulbs (rather than just, say, one expensive LivingColor lamp) and start to see the benefit of flexible lighting. It feels like a gimmick at first, true, but being able to tweak your environment to suit whether you’re listening to music, watching TV, napping on the sofa, or relaxing with friends grows increasingly addictive the more time you spend with hue.

If developers jump on board, color LED lighting could well reach its tipping point. No longer limited to expensive custom installs: you can outfit a few rooms with hue and be up and running with custom colors in less than an hour. If you’ve already got a ZigBee system, there’s even more potential for linking full-on macros with preset lighting schemes. Gimmick it may be, but it’s another example of affordable home automation trickling down to the mass market, just as Sonos did with multi-room audio, and that’s something worth celebrating in today’s smart home.

Philips hue Review is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Smartphone cases are a mixed bag nowadays — some are great, some are good, and some are just pretty awful. On top of the fact that cases are a hotly-debated item in the first place, it’s pretty difficult for case manufacturers to get the attention of smartphone users, and only a few have done it successfully. Loop Attachment has made a pretty unique silicone case called the Mummy, and it’s arrived just in time for Halloween. I ended up trying one out for myself to get a first impression and see how well it worked.

Personally, I don’t use a case on my phone since I’m not a huge fan of them to begin with. However, the Mummy case got my attention pretty quickly, and it’s one of the few cases that I was excited to actually try out. Obviously, right away you’ll notice the back of the case makes it look like the phone is wrapped with mummy wrappings (hence the name). The Apple logo and the “iPhone” are still visible, which is some clever design work to say the least. The mummy wrappings also serve another purpose besides just looking cool. You can stick credit cards, IDs, or cash in between the case and the phone, which also makes it a great makeshift wallet.

As with any silicone case, it can be a little difficult to slide your phone in and out of your pocket due to the rubbery texture, but the Mummy actually felt less rubbery, and it slid into my pocket a lot easier than most cases would. However, just like with any case, the Mummy does add a little bit of thickness to the iPhone, which gets rid of one of the features that makes the iPhone appealing in the first place. It can take time to get used to the size difference, but if you love the thinness of the iPhone, you’re probably not even using a case anyway.

The button “extenders,” so to speak, for the volume and power buttons work surprisingly well; they don’t take any more effort to push than normal, which can’t be said with most other iPhone silicone cases sadly. The opening for the ring/silent switch just above the volume buttons is a bit off, but that’s only because the case is catered towards both the iPhone 4 and 4S, which have slightly different placements when it comes to that small switch — not a huge deal there.

I did find it a bit of a nuisance trying to fit a credit card into the back of the case. Loop didn’t make it easy, since you kind of have to jimmy it in pretty good. There were even times where I was afraid I was going to scratch up the back of my iPhone with my credit card. Cash is even worse, since it’s more flimsy than a card. The trick is just to lift up the flaps and slide it in as best you can.

Overall, if you’re looking to get a minimalist and stylish silicone case for your iPhone, I’d probably tell you to get this one, despite the couple of very minor flaws. The case is well built, looks great, and has a one-of-a-kind unique Halloween theme that also works year-round.

Loop Attachment makes the Mummy case for the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and the new iPhone 5 (pre-order only). The iPhone 5 version will be available early next month for a special introductory price of $20. The iPhone 4/4S version costs $25, or you can get a bundle of three Mummy cases for $60.