In Short
When you think of connected home lighting, Philips Hue is one of the first systems that comes to mind. Hue is a system of connected bulbs that can be controlled by smartphone or tablet via a Zigbee bridge that connects to your home Wifi network. With APIs open for third-party developers to use, Hue has an entire ecosystem of the weird and the wonderful control apps built around it.
The standard bulbs can be set to any one of 16 million individual colors or combined together to create a "scene" in any room in your house. Beyond standard bulbs the Hue ecosystem has since expanded to incorporate the Friends of Hue series with LED light strips and bloom lights part of it.
Additionally Philips recently introduced its first physical light switch and plain white lights for the Hue system. The Hue Tap is a Wifi enabled switch that does the same job as a smartphone app – it turns on (or off) any one of 4 pre-programmed scenes – without the need for batteries or any kind of power supply. It generates the power it needs every time you press it.
Hue Lux is the name of the plain light bulbs that integrate with the system in the same way as the more colorful options. Both Lux and regular Hue are available as a starter kit that includes three bulbs and a bridge to get you started.
