So lets get the cat out of the bag, this is not your normal average everyday lighting unit. This my friends is a $199 wireless lighting unit with personal settings, different mood settings and a variety of colors for your personal needs. Still not convinced, that's ok, this is not for everyone, I was brought into this unit with the quest for my own home personal automation. So far, this is the first step. But on to the Hue lights. So what this is really is a light bulb (3 of them) that you can program ( a slew of different colors) and personalize to your own discretion. When you get your system you get 3 sets of wireless bulbs, a disc shaped wireless hub (or the bridge that the lights connect to) and a network cable. Yes this has to be hard wired to your existing router, but that's ok, just hook it up and put it somewhere out of sight. Once you get everything out of the box, you download the app in either the Google Play store or the App Store on iOS. You can also connect via your computer and that's cool as well just incase you are away from home and you want to control your lights or you want to turn them home while your on vacation or if you are a Windows Phone owner, because there is no native app on Windows Phone...yet (I don't even know if there will be one either). So whatever your preference, there is a way for you to connect to this system.
Once you go through the very simple setup and then naming your lights so you know which one is which, that is when the magic happens. I will give you an example of how we use our lights. I have a ton of timers set, but they are all at different time intervals. The kids get up in the morning to the "Waking Up" mood setting. This turns on at 5 am Monday through Friday, every week and shuts off at 7:45 am every week as well. When the light cut on, they are set to come on as incandescent lights and they are at about 45% brightness. That way when they get up, its not totally dark in the house and they don't have to search for lights in the house. I have all three lights coming on and they serve there purpose very well. So the afternoon is a little different. The lights are set to come on at 4:50 pm (now because where we are it gets dark around this time and totally darks outside at about 5:15-5:30 pm) and then cut off at 11 pm. Those lights are at a different color white, almost a yellowish color light. So its bright in the house but not to much. The idea is to get a bunch more of these bulbs, only thing is they are $59.99 for each additional bulb. Yeah they are a bit expensive, but if you are building a network and just want a piece of mind, maybe then the cost is not an issue for you. I want about 3 more in the living room and then 1 in each of the kids rooms. When its homework time, they have a preset mood setting called homework and concentrate. Both offer a lighting solution that is very easy on the eyes, a kind of a soft light with a low brightness and reading a book with it flat on the table as kids do, I think its a good lighting solution for them to not have to move the books all the time just to get a good reading angle. It would be cool to set their timers for the times that they do their studies and in room activities. 
The best thing about the Hue is that when you do add more lights, you can add up to 50 light bulbs to one hub (the disc bridge thing) and mix and match with a bunch of different mood settings. Now I don't want you to think of these as glorified light bulbs, because there are a lot more ideas you can come up with when using these light. I have a setting on the app for when we watch movies. Lights are at about 15-20% brightness and if its scary movies, a reddish like tint and for other movies, we use blue. When I play PlayStation in the living room, I use all blue and Xbox is at a bright green. Its actually a cool ambience. The Wii U has only been used once out here in the living room (where I am working at now) since I have had these lights and I used the Wii U's blue color to set mine at their blue color. Now if your wondering how I got to use that sky-bluish color, well here is the thing. When you set up a new mood setting, you set it by picture, either pictures within the app or pictures from your own camera. If you don't have anything on your camera roll that you like, then snap it right then and there. Once you do that, you move the color selector to the color you want it to be within the picture. If not that, then there are basic colors off to the side. If your still wondering why you should spend $200 for a set of 3 lights, then these lights may not be for you. They are not very practical, but they can be used that way and in that way very well. You don't always have to use and app to turn off or on the lights, you can flick the switch just like normal on and off and it will still work. Having a diner party, add some light to the party. Having a house party with music and all, add some color to the mix. On Android, there is an app called Hue Pro that adds even more fun to the hue lights like lava lamp and pulse to music. Its real nice, almost better than the real app but it doesn't work as smooth but when it works, it works real well (both actually). If there was anything else to say about these awesome light bulbs other than, you should buy these, I am at a lost for words because when I seen the demo of these, I was had at the first sign of color. If you are interested in these and you wonder where you should buy this at, I got mine from the Apple Store. I seen that Best Buy is now selling them (awesome) and Amazon sells them as well. Overall these lights are worth it to me. There are more lights from Philips that are out there now as well (Friends of Hue and the light strips) and I think I am more interested in the one more than the other. But this again is the first step into my home automation because I love tech a lot and a connected household is the future for me and this family. Next up will probably be some sort of cameras or the Nest thermostat systems/smoke detectors. Then it will be the door lock and so on and so forth. Home automation is here and I find it as the beginning as the next step into the future.
Well this was the Philips Hue Wireless Lighting System. I didn't talk much about the geo-tag feature were when connected to your phone sense's where you are (well tracks your phones geo location) and when your close to your house or whatnot, your lights can cut on or set it up the way you want. I haven't talked about it because I have not used it yet and honestly probably not. But it is a feature that maybe you can try out and tell me how it works out. Thanks for reading.
Coming Soon: AOC 23" Full 1080P monitor; PS4, Xbox One, Games for next Gen, and thinking of switching to Windows or Android or iOS for full time use.
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