Philips Hue Tap is now a Dimmer (sort of)

Philips has been slowly updating their lineup of wireless Hue LED lighting the past few months. Last week, Philips announed HomeKit compatibility for the Hue system stating that all existing lights would be compatible. Now whether that means a new bridge is required (my strong guess would be yes!) or a software only update to the existing bridge, you will be able to voice control your Hue lights this fall.

hue-tap

And, now today, Hue announced new “beta” features for their Tap product that makes the device much more useful. Previously, you have 4 buttons to use for your Tap. You would assign these four buttons to existing scenes of your Hue system, and usually you’d want to have one of the buttons be an “all off” option. With Hue Labs, you now have two more options you can select for a button: a toggle and a dimmer.

Let’s start with the toggle feature first.

Read more

Ultimate Ears Roll Wireless Speaker Spotted On Apple Store

By way of a pulled Apple Store listing, it appears we’ll soon see an addition to the Ultimate Ears Boom speaker line in the form of a new UE Boom “Roll” — the design is clearly flatter and disc shaped, with an integrated lanyard. We were delighted with the original UE Boom when reviewed back in July and this update brings … Read more

TiVo DVR Nows Streams To Web Browser!

So a variant of the web portal that TiVo had developed for their cable partners, like RCN, is now being made available to retail subscribers. And TiVo Online is looking pretty killer. Beyond the expected Season Pass OnePass configuration, recording management, and a highly polished guide, the tent pole feature is the ability to stream our DVR … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

Insteon’s Apple HomeKit-compatible hub drops support for many Insteon products. So will the new Hub Pro eventually support the same devices currently supported by the product formerly known as the Hub II? We don’t know. Insteon’s not saying. We have to imagine that this is not what long-time Insteon users expected or hoped for. DISH … Read more

Logitech Harmony Exceeds Apple HomeKit (Today)

IMG_9079

Last year, Logitech announced a new Home Hub which began a transformation of Harmony into a home automation hub by integrating a number of third party devices including as Philips Hue, Nest, SmartThings, and more! Not only could you control your media devices with a single remote / app, but we now also had the ability to control your lights, locks, and temperature of your home. Mix and match devices within your activities to create powerful new automations.

Sadly, at the time, Logitech left their older Smart Hub customers out in the cold. The new Home Hubs seemed to just be software updates, rather than any kind of additional hardware updates. Whether it was a change of heart, the angry voice of Harmony enthusiasts, or a little of both, Logitech has now provided an update for the older Smart Hub bringing it up-to-date with the Home Hub feature set.

Read more

OneNote-to-WordPress Seems Cool, But Slows Workflow

onenote-wordpress

As one of the bazillion WordPress bloggers, I’m always on the lookout for tools to improve my efficiency. And, sadly, Microsoft’s surprising new OneNote plugin isn’t one of them. While Microsoft does seem to have intelligently integrated picture attachments into WordPress (including the Media Manager), the rest leaves something to be desired. The initial linkage is a kludgey exercise. Fortunately it’s just a one time thing — so, though it lacks polish and may seem somewhat arcane, the directions can be followed by most that first time. I was more concerned with the slightly dirty HTML and slow Notebook/Page lookup in brief testing.

Read more