Tag Archive for: Smart Home

Philips Hue Play HDMI SYNC Box

/in /by

 

 

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?! Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync

WHAT'S IN THE BOX? Philips UK & Ireland Hue Play HDMI SYNC!

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Friday, 29 November 2019

 

We have checked out the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, a really cool piece of kit that syncs what you can see on screen, either on a game, movie or tv show with the various lights that Hue provides! You can also sync your music with it! How cool is that!?

IMMERSION!

With this fancy piece of kit, (trust us it’s amazing! We love it!) you are able to sync Philips Hue Lights with the Sync Box and it will mimic the lights that are on screen on to the wall behind the television. Furthermore you’re able to attach up to 4 HDMI devices, so you could attach a SKY/Virgin Box, a Game Console or an Apple TV (For Music/Games/Tv) all at once! Though only one device can be used at any one time.

Ease of use

The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync does require the Hue Bridge and Hue Colour lights to work, but once you got those it’s good to go! Plus it’s super easy to set up, we set ours up in 5mins! Even personalise your experience with the Sync Box App!

Things such as explosions were mimicked on the wall behind us. Even the intensity of said explosions were mimicked on the wall behind our TV. That certainly adds to the immersion of the content that we’re viewing. It felt like we were ‘there’!

However, if you aren’t too keen on the intense nature that may occur (all dependent on what you see on screen of course) you can select a subtle mode from within the Sync Box App to tone down the lights.

The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box is available now for $229.99 €249.95 (UK price TBC).

It will be released in the UK in January 2020

More information about the product can be found here!

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Also, follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

IKEA Smart Home Invasion

/in /by

When we think of smart home tech we think of the Apple’s, the Amazon’s, the Phillips’ of the world. When we say to you flat packed furniture the company that springs to mind is IKEA. IKEA smart home invasion is coming your way in 2019.

However, that soon may change in 2019, with IKEA set to become a major player in the smart home market. Wired are reporting that by playing to it’s strengths, not only in brick and mortar stores. One can assume that their displays is the perfect opportunity to show off how the tech works, before a customer buys it. But, furthermore by building inline sales and partnerships with the big boys in Sonos, Apple and Xiaomi.

Weapons in their arsenal

IKEA already have smart home kit in their Arsenal, with smart home light bulbs (TRÅDFRI) and smart electrical outlets (KADRILJ and FYRTUR) both systems are low cost and near invisible tech. They both work manually as you’d expect and automated controls. Not only that, but they also work within the main ecosystems of the three big players within this market. The Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit. If IKEA are smart enough they could put smart home tech into all aspects of the home, be that kitchen gadgets, home entertainment or garden accessories.

As you would expect IKEA are implementing the same DIY aspect of their furniture into their smart home tech.

“It is as simple to install KADRILJ and FYRTUR as all our other blinds….You can even change from an old HOPPVALS or SKOGSKLÖVER to this one, using the same bracket. This means that the customers can easily install the smart blinds themselves, a unique IKEA property.” Lena Engman, business leader home textiles at IKEA

Wired are reporting that Björn Block, business leader of IKEA Home Smart confirms that we will see more smart products in 2019. This smart home push begins with the smart blinds that are releasing in ‘some markets’. The highest profile product will be a smart speaker: SYMFONISK, this will be in collaboration with Sonos. Which, consequently, is part of a long-term Future Home Sound Project.

SYMFONISK was first teased in June last year and is expected to hit stores ‘mid to end of the year’. The smart speaker was designed to fit in to various pieces of IKEA furniture. Which not only makes sense in the home of customers but even easier for the retail powerhouse to show off it within their stores.

(WIRED)

An outlook…

Will this foray into the Smart Home market dent the grip that the big boys have on it? Will people take IKEA seriously in the tech world? Only time will tell, but if done right IKEA have a great outlook on things, after all, we all buy our flat packed furniture from there, why not our smart home tech if it were integrated perfectly?

For a more extensive look at how IKEA are taking on the smart home market please click here to check out WIRED’s deep dive look at IKEA’s Smart Home Invasion.

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here! 

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Google Home Hub

Google Home Hub: Incredible Home Assistant

/in /by

The Google Home Hub brings all the cool stuff about Google Home and repackages it into a small yet very powerful device with a 7″ display to help you get even more from Google Home. The Google Home Hub brings visual help to all the questions that you ask it. Use your voice to help set reminders and control a vast array of smart devices. However, with this particular device you get a visual aid, for example, see asking Google “How to tie a bow tie’ will present you with a helpful YouTube video, alongside a plethora of other YouTube videos available. YouTube you see on any other device is the same YouTube on Google Home Hub!

The device is incredibly well built, it is compact and can fit anywhere in the house and does not look out of place. Either in the kitchen, the bedroom or the living room! Google Home Hub has an inbuilt Ambient EQ Light Sensor too, so will adjust the screen to the colours and lighting in it’s environment. Therefore photos on the Google Home Hub will blend into the home decor!

Features

The device will show you a whole range of things, such as YouTube videos, Google Calendar so you can see what you have planned or Google Maps so you can see what your commute is like! Ask Google what the weather is like and get a visual aid, ask Google for recipes and be shown a step by step guide in either text or video form!

 

 

Photos

Google photos look beautiful on the Home Hub and you can use your voice to pull down the images from Google photos to be displayed on the gorgeous screen. Even set the screen to display your most favoured images when the Home Hub is not in use as a screen saver! Machine Learning will pull down the best photos too, therefore avoiding any duplicates or blurry images.Google Home Hub can also show shared Google Photo albums automatically on the device of the person you’re sharing them with, therefore avoiding any upload hassles!

Smart Home

The device is also a very powerful smart home hub, consequently easily connecting to the hundreds of smart devices already available. Such as lights, thermostats or security cameras. Control it all via the Google Home App on your smart device, no need to be next to the Google Home Hub to manage all of your devices. Even manage them away from the home! So you can monitor and manage devices easily—including compatible lights, cameras, TVs, speakers you are always in control of your home! (Android / iOS)

Kitchen

One popular feature is the that the Google Home Hub can help you in the Kitchen! As Google Assistant can understand conversational speech, simply ask the device to convert various measurements and it will tell you! Completely hands free and at a glance! If you’re not too sure when reading a step by step guide on how to cook a particular recipe, simply ask! For example, “Hey Google, show me how to dice an onion” will show you a video on how to dice an onion!

 

 

Google Home Hub works with other ‘Made by Google’ devices too, such as Chromecast, Nest Doorbells, Nest Thermostats, Google Home Speakers. Furthermore Spotify works on Google Home Hub too!

(Google Press Release)

For more information on how Google’s Home Hub can help you at Christmas please click here!

Available in four colours from the Google Store—Chalk, Charcoal, Aqua, and Sand, Google Home Hub is £139 and available from the ​​Google Store​​!

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Furthermore, click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Also, follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

Can Google’s Home Hub Make Christmas Less Stressful?

/in /by

Christmas is right around the corner! Wrapping, presents, parties, lots of organisation and STRESS?!? But, Can Google’s Home Hub Make Christmas Less Stressful? Some new research has been commissioned by Google which found how stressed Brits get at Christmas time.With nearly 2/3 of Brits finding Christmas at home and 1/3 of Brits wanting to hide in the bathroom to get some away from it all, furthermore 1 in 10 of us would rather swim naked with sharks than spend Christmas with the in-laws. It can be said that Brits find Christmas very stressful indeed!

Stress at Christmas

Google’s findings were very interesting indeed with wrapping weirdly shaped presents making up 20% of those surveyed worries. Putting on weight made up another 20%, while financial worries made up the most of peoples worries with 24% of those surveyed.  Furthermore Google even found that people would do their best to get away from people at Christmas time, for a bit of alone time. 45% of those surveyed would go to their bedroom and 8% would head to the pub! What Google found whilst undertaking this survey that a crazy amount of Brits do find it stressful over the festive period, a whopping 65%! The survey was conducted to find how people will be using Google’s home Hub to ease the stress. With Google’s Laurian Clemence stating:

“Google Home Hub was made for times like Christmas. Having family round over the festive season can be overwhelming, and this device is designed to fit in with your life by being your personal little helper when you really need it; from using recipes for sprouts while managing not to burn the turkey, to videos for wrapping oddly shaped gifts, to setting timers, entertaining the family and controlling the heating. As it’s powered by the Google Assistant, it works with a simple voice command – meaning that you can juggle all the different elements of Christmas at the same time, easily and seamlessly.”

The Stress Table

Below is a table of all the things that Google found were the most stressful around Christmas time, however, there was some that missed out! Finding things for the kids to do made up 7%, running out of alcohol 5% and having to play games with the family 10%.

Top Ten Reasons for a Festive Freak-Out

1

Finances

24%

2

Not having any time for yourself

22%

3

Cooking the Christmas dinner

22%

4

Wrapping weirdly shaped presents

20%

5

Putting on weight

20%

6

Spending time with the in-laws

16%

7

Pretending to like a present that you really don’t

14%

8

Buying presents for people you rarely see

11%

9

Decorating the house

10%

10

Untangling the Christmas lights

10%

BONUS:

The table above shows that Christmas dinner is third on the Stressmas list, the Home Hub can actually give you some help, (well we all know that!) but, there’s something special that you may not! Google have teamed up with Gordon Ramsay to create a hidden feature, you can find out what he likes to eat at home by saying ‘OK Google what does Gordon Ramsey eat at home?’ That’s not all either! Hidden content is also provided to you if you ask Google about prima ballerina Misty Copeland, famed for her performances in the festive ballet The Nutcracker, answering ‘OK Google, when did Misty Copeland start dancing?’ If you like to sing Christmas songs, you can ask Google for help with that too! Asking Google, ‘OK Google, how to sing like Nick Jonas?” will get you tips from the pop star himself!

(Google Press Release)

For more information on Google Home please click here!

Google Home Hub is £139 and available from the ​​Google Store​​!

Keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour by signing up to our newsletter by clicking here!

Let us know what you think of the show by clicking here!

Furthermore, click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see more amazing ways to kill time!

Also, follow us on Twitch by clicking here!

New Philips Hue Lights

New Philips Hue Lights: Bring more WOW into your life!

/in /by

New Philips Hue Lights for 2018: Hue Outdoor and Hue Bathroom

Adore

Adore

Hue Adore Bathroom – New Philips Hue Lights include the new Hue Adore range comes in a selection of designs to finely tune the right light at any time of the day in your bathroom. The Adore Hue wall mirror helps to get you energised in the morning and unwind with the perfect relax light before going to bed – settings can be adjusted with the Hue app. Available from Amazon, Argos, John Lewis and Very RRP £229.99

 

 

New Philips Hue Lights

Outdoor

 

Hue Outdoor – Hue fans can now bring the indoors out with the new Outdoor range. Add mood lighting to any BBQ or light the way up your garden path with a selection of luminaires which can be controlled via the Hue app when away from home. Choose designs from the Lilly, Lucca, Tuar and Turaco models.  Available from Amazon and John Lewis, RRP from £64.99

(Philips)

 

 

Purchasing New Philips Hue Lights

Purchase New Philips Hue Lights Adore Bathroom and Outdoor here:

Adore

Outdoor: Lily / Lucca / Turaco

Also, keep up to date with everything How To Kill An Hour why not sign up to our newsletter! Simply click here to get a dose of How To Kill An Hour in your inbox each and every week!

 

 

Cozify

/in , /by

Do you own a lot of Smart tech but wish you had a single place to consolidate all of that information in one and control it all from one app or hub? Well check out Cozify! Watch the video above on how to get started with a Cozify and check out more information below!

  • Cozify controls Sonos, Philips Hue, Osram Lightify, Foscam IP-cameras, Wemo and many more brands together with a single hub.
  • It is easy for anyone to install, setup and use at home
  • It has a market leading, intuitive rules engine giving you real home automation rather than simple remote control.
  • Cozify is future proofed for all new technology standards with 5 radios: Zigbee, ISM band (433MHz), Z-Wave*, Bluetooth* and Wifi* (*hw-ready).
  • Cozify already supports hundreds of devices from many different brands and will work with many more in the future.(Amazon)

To buy your own Cozify please click here!