According to the Dutch site iCulture, Philips is adding a couple of new gizmos to its repertoire of smart home products, including a smart plug that will work with a bunch of different platforms including Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and even Apple’s complex HomeKit ecosystem.
Philips is pretty late getting into the game, given that companies like Amazon, Belkin, and Lenovo are already competing with companies that want their smart plug to get a piece of the smart home pie. However, given Philip’s focus on the Hue range of products, with a sharp focus on lighting and atmosphere, the company could have an advantage, especially with consumers who already favor Philips’ wide array of smart home products.
The new plug will reportedly cost $25 in the U.S. market and 29 pounds across the pond.
If you’re not familiar with smart plugs yet, they can perform a whole bunch of different actions, depending on which smart home platform or app you’ve adopted. Most importantly, they can enable users to remotely turn off or turn on the power to an appliance. What you use it for is only limited to your imagination but common uses include lights, fans, humidifiers, and air filters, among other nice-to-have appliances like washing machines.
According to a translation of iCulture’s post, “With this plug you can, according to Philips, operate all lamps with Philips Hues.” You can also use schedules, timers and sensors to control the connected devices via your smart home hub, while voice control is (naturally) available for linking via the aforementioned Apple Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa.
The reported leak is significant, given the massive rollout that Philips has been telegraphing for months in terms of its smart home lineup. The other announcement that came out this week was the revelation of a new version of Philips’ Hue Go portable light, which are these nifty atmospheric filament lamps. It’s reported that the company will offer three versions of the lamps, which are compatible with both Bluetooth and Zigbee. These will include a small round lamp, a large round lamp, and an elongated variant, priced in a range from around $25 U.S. to a shade under $40 U.S., depending on the model and the market.
Other new devices rumored to be coming from Philips include a range of fixtures with embedded spotlights and new bathroom lights intended to accent the bathroom mirror in your home.
Few things ruin a quiet evening faster than a robot vacuum roaring through the living room. Most of us end up pausing the cleaning run, which defeats the whole purpose of owning one. Matic thinks it has the answer with its new Serene robot vacuum, and the big selling point is how little noise it makes.
The Matic Serene runs at 52 decibels even when cleaning at full power. To put that in perspective, Matic compares it to the hum of your refrigerator. It is available now for $1,695, which is $200 more than the original Matic’s current price.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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