It will be interesting to see if Philips’ new Hue lighting system takes off. At £179 for a starter pack of three bulbs and £49 per extra bulb, even hardened gadget geeks will be hard pressed to think up a justification. The starter pack includes a powered network hub, which you connect to your router by ethernet cable. You can connect up to 50 of these colourful luminances to the hub. That will cost you an extra £2,303 of course, but who cares when you can have total control over your lighting system, including a colour for every mood? No news, though, on how long they last before they go huekaput.
As you might gather from the name, Hue bulbs can change colour on demand. You can even control the whole system from a free app on your iPhone or iPad. The other bit of good news is that this new refined method of financial extortion is to be available exclusively in Apple Stores from tomorrow. Just the place. I am not taking bets on how long it will take me to succumb to this new temptation.
And you thought you had everything.
by Mike Evans, 29 October 2012
