Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At first, I could only justify this $200 gadget as a new fun "toy". Well, they are a TON OF FUN, especially if you add one or more Hue apps. Visitors love them and most buy their own set soon. IMPORTANT COST JUSTIFICATION: We quickly realized these are enhancements to our home which are totally worth the price. Our expectations were far exceeded and in 3 weeks we went from the 3 pack starter kit to 8 bulbs, yes 5 more bulbs at $60 each and we are totally happy with them. We were sold this technology after only a month and will never go back, this is the future of lighting. Update Oct 2014: We added two physical Hue Tap switches, now you don't have to use the iPad/iPhone! See how we use them below. Some of the outdated reviews here mention the lack of a physical switch a problem, that's now solved. Each Hue Tap can have 4 scenes programmed and NO battery! This means you can place the Tap anywhere, for instance, our bedroom tap is half way down the stairs on a ledge, the kitchen Tap is on a counter. Each of the 4 buttons can be any scene, even OFF. Everyone is amazed at the range the Tap has with NO battery! Update Sep 2013: We added a Hue LightStrip over the fireplace lighting the wall only. And two more in a round window, WOW! Here's how we use them: * Control lighting color/intensity for activities like watching TV (blue), entertaining (purple), cooking (various colors), etc. * Automatically turn on Living Room (med/blue) and kitchen night lights (low purple) at 8:30 , bedroom night light at 11:00 (red). They all turn off 1:00am if we forget. * No need to go to the wall dimmer to adjust lights as the evening changes, the iPad is also our universal remote (Roomie, which supports Hue) and our cordless phone (Bria) so one device controls everything. * From bed, turn all the lights off with one tap, no more "who's getting up to turn off the lights". * Multiple bulbs in a room on the same circuit are dimmed independently, much better than a single wall dimmer! Different areas of a room (doorway vs seating vs TV area) can have different intensities or colors. We have a deck with 2 bulbs, one near the door is brighter than one near seating. * Use them as night lights since the bulbs maximum power draw is only 8.5 watts. When set low they draw about as much as a normal nitelight, 3-4 watts. * Control lights remotely from iPhones wherever we are. Turning them on for security or our pets, or off when we forgot. * The geofencing feature turned on the lights as we drove into the driveway, even with the Hue app closed! * If there is an intruder we can turn any/all lights on from bed using iPads or iPhones which are always at arms reach. UPDATE: We are using LightBow for this now, it strobes ALL lights in the house for 5 seconds then goes to bright white. Should panic most intruders to make noise! * We replaced our dimmers ($45-60 each) and simplified wall wiring. * My wife got the "disco" ball she always wanted in the kitchen (don't ask), but better, hue has strobe and other effects such as changing to music with additional apps. * The kitchen Hue Tap switch allow us to quickly call up one of 4 scenes to override the times purple nightlife that comes on, and set it back! * The bedroom Hue Tap switch allow us to quickly call up one of 4 scenes, bright, romantic colors, off, etc. to override timed red nightlite. BASICS The bulbs replace a convention light bulb. They can display a range of colors and intensities, all controlled from an iPad, iPhone or iPod. I was very concerned to control something as critical as lights via wifi. I did not want to deal with issues for something that should always just work. Well, 17 months later and there have been no issues at all, even after power failures timers work perfectly. OPERATION The bulbs must have full AC power, they cannot be dimmed via wall dimmers. When powered off then on they are white, the Hue app controls everything after they are on. Always leave the wall switch on for most or all indoor bulbs. There may cases where you want them powered off then on with a wall switch. For instance, we use an iPad to control on/off of all 8 inside bulbs, but 3 bulbs on 2 outside decks are turned on/off via wall switches while iPad controls their colors, etc. ISSUE: We had problems with electronic dimmers even when set full on that required us to change them to simple switches. You have to learn not to turn off the lights when leaving a room, this is a hard habit to break. If you plan to use Hue bulbs in rooms without iPhone/iPads you may want to just use timers or purchase a Hue Tap switch for the room(s). We were lucky to already have multiple iPads since we use them as A/V remote controllers and cordless phones. We can control any light in the house from any room with an app device. BRIGHTNESS We were surprised that when set to bright white they look brighter than 60 watt bulbs. The 3 in the kitchen are more than enough for normal activity but there are also spotlights over the sink and stove. Our decks are now much brighter than before. SETUP Initial setup is very simple and quick, we had it up and running in about 6 minutes, deciding what you want and customizing the first three bulbs may take 10-15 minutes. Here are the steps: 1. Download and install the Hue app on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch from the iTunes App store, it's free. 2. Plug in the Hue Bridge into an ethernet connection with the included or other cable, No Wifi on the bridge. Most people will connect to a router but other devices connected to the router will work. In my case the Bridge is connected to an Airport Extreme in bridge mode which is connected to an ethernet switch on the other side of the house which is connected to a Zyxel router connected to DSL. If all that works with no changes then most of you should be fine. 3. Plug the Hue Bridge in the wall for power. 4. Once the bridge is active, screw one to more bulbs into sockets and power them up. 5. This step is needed for EACH iPad, etc. that has the Hue app installed: Start the app, then push the button on the Hue bridge. 6. Play with colors and intensities. To allow syncing of scenes (as of 1.4 now syncs scene timers between IOS devices) between iPads, etc. devices OR use geofencing which will turn lights on as you get close to home (or auto turn them off as you leave) you must: 7. Setup a free ID at the meethue.com web site. 8. Go to the Hue app settings and login to the meet hue site. You can leave the app logged on all the time. COST They can save energy when used as timed night lights, and eliminate the need to install dimmers. CAVEATS: * Geofencing only works with 1 device, you can't have 2 iPhones using geofencing at the same time. Hopefully, this will be fixed. * The Hue app groups bulbs into "scenes" for 1 click operation, but multiple scenes for a room can't be grouped together into a folder to simplify organization. Customizing "scenes" is a little cumbersome and could be easier, but we picked it up quickly. We purchased ours at Apple stores since it was easy to bring back quickly if we didn't like them.