Hasta La Gadget!

Philips today announced that it is adding yet more products to its popular Hue line of wireless-controlled LED lamps. Three new products were introduced, including a less expensive white-only bulb, a wireless switch, and a line of 3D-printed lighting fixtures.

The Hue Lux works just like other Hue LED bulbs, but it only outputs pure white light. This allows you to add more remote-controlled bulbs to your network in rooms that just don’t need mood lighting. Philips hasn’t mentioned what color temperature the bulb will output, but I’m assuming it will be pleasing to the eye based on Philips’ other LED bulb products.

The Lux bulb is also $20 cheaper than the standard Hue bulb, selling for $39.95(USD). A starter kit will also be available with two Hue Lux bulbs and a Hue Bridge for $99.95. The Hue Lux will ship sometime “after Summer 2014.”

The Hue Tap is perfect for those times that you don’t have your smartphone readily available, or if you want family or guests to be able to control the lights. The small switch can be wall mounted, and lets you turn lights on and off, and can store preset scenes from the Hue app as well.

While you can currently approximate similar functionality by purchasing a LivingColors lamp and reprogramming its remote like I’ve done, it’s nice that Philips is finally addressing this need with a dedicated product. Incredibly, the Tap’s switch requires no batteries, it gets all the power it needs from the kinetic energy captured from your finger taps. Hue Tap will also be available later this year for $59.95.

Perhaps the most interesting addition to the line-up are the new 3D-printed luminaires. These dramatic lighting fixtures were created in collaboration with the design teams of WertelOberfell and Strand+Hvass, and they are in a word – stunning. The lamps offer the full wireless control found in Hue bulbs, casting colorful shadows through their complex geometric structures.

Unfortunately, the 3D-printed luminaires are extremely expensive, with the pendants going for €2,999 (~$4113 USD) and the table lamps going for €2,499 (~$3427 USD). Philips will be taking pre-orders for the lamps starting on March 31.

The Bluetooth speaker market is very crowded, so it’s quite difficult to decide what speaker to go with. Well, the portable speaker that has now jumped to the top of my list is the Grain PWS (Packable Wireless Speaker). This compact Bluetooth speaker measures just 7″(W) x 2 3/8″ (D) x 3 1/8″(H), but it packs a punch, and looks great doing it.

The first thing you’ll notice about the PWS is just how substantial it looks and feels. Its case is made from solid walnut, so right there it’s got a big advantage over other portable speakers. Wood is just a much better material for speaker enclosures than plastic. There’s a reason that high end audiophile speakers are made of the stuff. Grain is quick to point out that the wood will change color with time, which just adds to its design panache. In addition to the wood enclosure, the speaker has metal grilles with a soft rubberized bezel which just looks sharp.

Of course, a case does not a speaker make. Inside, you’ll find a pair of 2″ drivers and a passive radiator, backed by a stereo amp and Waves award-winning MaxxAudio sound processing. While the wattage of the amplification system isn’t specified, the speaker pushes out sufficient volume to fill my 15′ x 20′ living room. At full volume, distortion was inaudible to my reasonably well-trained ear, and at normal listening volumes, audio was well-rounded and warm, without the tinniness usually associated with small speakers.

Connecting your wireless device to the PWS is brilliantly simple too. Just press the power button for five seconds, and a voice will announce “pairing mode”. Then select the PWS with your mobile device’s Bluetooth settings and the voice will announce “pairing complete”.  The Other than play/pause, the speaker forgoes any sort of remote track control feature like some Bluetooth speakers, but this is okay by me. I use the controls on my mobile gadgets to choose tracks and playlists anyhow, and I’m pretty sure that most of you do too.

Naturally, the PWS has a built-in rechargeable battery too, so you can take it wherever you go. Battery life for the PWS is rated at eight hours, and I had no problem achieving (and slightly exceeding) this in my testing at medium volume levels. A handy LED indicator inside the rubberized power switch changes color to indicate when the battery is at 25% remaining, and then again when it’s at 10%. When you plug it in to charge, a voice announcement says “charging” and then “charge complete” when it’s done. Charging an empty battery takes somewhere between two to three hours.

Not only does the Grain look and sound great, its packaging is top notch. Inside the box, you’ll find a soft carrying pouch, a matching dark grey Grain USB power adapter, a MicroUSB to USB cable and a 3.5mm stereo cable for directly connecting audio sources.

To sum up, I’m impressed with this little speaker, and it’s currently my favorite Bluetooth travel speaker. While other speakers may be more rugged or waterproof, or offer more bells and whistles, I’m giving the Grain PWS the win on sheer sound quality and aesthetics.

The Grain PWS is available for order now, and sells for $249(USD).

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This article was written on October 22, 2009 by CyberNet.

Wireless everything… It’s one of those clichés that usually come to mind when talking about the future of technology. While wireless has seen plenty of success with the invention of the mobile phone and WiFi networks, our computers still have a truckload of wires attached to them. Why is it that many of us still prefer wired mice and keyboards? And, more importantly, what could be done to resolve these issues?

We’ve got your keystrokes
Ever thought about how your wireless keyboard communicates with your computer? Your keystrokes are sent to the receiver so that your computer knows what you’re typing. But what if a hacker builds a custom-made receiver with a signal amplifier to record keystrokes from random keyboards in reach? Your passwords could get stolen without you ever knowing it. Just imagine what would happen if our monitors were wireless…
Possible solution: the industry should do for wireless peripherals what WEP/WPA did for wireless networks.

Battery inconveniences
Every once and a while, you have to replace the batteries in your wireless peripherals. If you’re sitting one foot away from your computer, it may not be worth the hassle of changing the batteries in your wireless mouse when wired mice are satisfied with plain old USB juice.
Possible solution: now that we’re advancing in wireless power transmission research, we may be able to get rid of those batteries sooner that we think.

It’s not green
Wireless communication needs extra power, even if the transmitter and the receiver are close to each other. Obviously, this is not eco-friendly. You can often find information about your device’s energy consumption on its back or in its manual.
Possible solution: while making devices more efficient can help, this only works to a certain degree. We may have to wait for energy to become greener before this problem can get ironed out.

Wireless signals cause cancer. No, they do not. Yes, they do.
There’s a lot of debate about possible health issues with our increasingly wireless lives. Contradicting studies have proved and rejected theories about wireless signals being a cause of cancer. The sad thing about this is that the only thing we can do to solve this dispute is wait for about twenty years to see how wireless technology has impacted our health. Then we’ll finally know if wireless is indeed the new tobacco.

[image via Flickr]

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