Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/18/philips-hue-dimmer-switch-kit.html
…
Or you could just say, “Alexa, turn bedroom lights off” 
2 Likes
cue Cory’s sputtering rage about how your light bulbs are wildly insecure and sending videos of you sleeping to hackers in Africa
4 Likes
I started off with the Hue line, but Ikea is kicking their ass at the same idea for far less. I believe their dimmer kit with bulb is about $24. And it is color.
I have a couple of these Hue dimmer switches. Love them. They aren’t connected to the internet in any way, so I doubt security is much of an issue.
but is it compatible with a Himalayan salt light bulb?
3 Likes
I use the switch/dimmer about 25% of the time and ask Alexa the rest of the time. For walking in or out of my living room one of these mounted by the door is way faster (the house was built before electric lighting and has no regular wall switches). When in the room and adjusting the lights to 20, 50%, 100% or controlling the lights on each side of the room independently Alexa wins hands down (no pun intended).
I understand there’s been a breakthrough in analog dimmer switches. Not wireless, but they use the finest of wires cleverly concealed in the very walls of your home. One disadvantage is forcing the use of incandescent light bulbs, and also you now have a dimmer switch, which is so 1970s.
My Fiancee, if she asks Alexa to dim or change the light color, I get “glare of doom” if Alexa doesn’t understand her.
I’ve been into Home Automation for, hell, 25 years and she is just so used to the lights coming on when she gets up in the
middle of the night and turning themselves back off that the odd failure must be my fault, somehow.
1 Like
Definitely.
I believe it was these researchers who determined that some cities like London already have enough density of Hue-compatible bulbs to spread malware through the majority of the mesh after infecting just a few bulbs. Yeesh.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
