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Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

defcon.social

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Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#51

Post by dao- »

jorvi wrote: post #22
zeisch wrote: post #10

Time and time again It takes just one MBA trying to boost numbers to turn a good product into a data collection nightmare. Honestly is there any IoT brand that we can trust long-term? Maybe IKEA stuff?

There is a somewhat strangely named German brand that sells private IoT door / security cams. Forgot the name, sadly. They’re quite expensive though. My guess is they might sell private lightbulbs. For home audio, Sonos is great. Their voice assistant is completely locally processed.

https://smart-life24.de/ perhaps? They do sell light bulbs. They're not particularly expensive. I think you might need an account with the Smart Life app, and my girlfriend appears to have a proper account using her e-mail address, but my user ID appears to be a random string, so I guess that's somewhat private?!

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#52

Post by skunkworker »

kosmotaur wrote: post #44
skunkworker wrote: post #6

This is a disappointing if not unexpected update. I currently have a hue bridge for some hue ambiance bulbs but also have control through HA. There have been some needed bulb updates (improving the stability of last color temp and state on power on) but I will soon fully transition over to HA with a zigbee adapter because of stuff like this.

what's HA?

Home Assistant https://www.home-assistant.io/

It's a quite powerful tool to integrate a variety of different smart home devices into one location and share them between ecosystems.

I have a wifi thermostat that requires a dedicated app and does not allow for Apple Home integration. With Home Assistant I installed an integration for that thermostat, then shared it with the Apple Home bridge (also an integration) and quickly was able to allow my iphone/automations etc, to modify the thermostat. And that's only scratching the surface and something that took a few minutes.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#53

Post by LinAGKar »

zeisch wrote: post #10

Time and time again It takes just one MBA trying to boost numbers to turn a good product into a data collection nightmare. Honestly is there any IoT brand that we can trust long-term? Maybe IKEA stuff?

Shelly seems very good so far. No need to connect it to the cloud at all, or use their app, since you can configure the via an onboard web UI (well, they'll still check for firmware updates when you connect them to Wi-Fi, but that's it). They can be controlled from Home Assistant completely without internet.

Of course, there's no guarantee for future products, but once they're set up they're not gonna change unless you go in and update their firmware.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#55

Post by _nalply »

zeisch wrote: post #10

Time and time again It takes just one MBA trying to boost numbers to turn a good product into a data collection nightmare. Honestly is there any IoT brand that we can trust long-term? Maybe IKEA stuff?

Trust stuff running on generic embedded open-sourced hardware running on open-sourced software.

Raspberry, Arduino and others: Release some awesome open-sourced hardware standard for the smart home: lighting, measuring, interfacing!

Or does something already exist?

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#56

Post by [deleted] »

krisoft wrote: post #9

I have noticed the announcement of the change too. This materially changes the product for me. I was a happy user so far, and was thinking about buying more bulbs in fact, but not anymore. Is there a way to force the company to return the money I have paid for my bulbs and hub so far? Even if it is arduous and cost me more money than I'm able to gain back I would be inclined to do it to signal my displeasure with thi…

[deleted]

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#57

Post by ssddanbrown »

skunkworker wrote: post #6

This is a disappointing if not unexpected update. I currently have a hue bridge for some hue ambiance bulbs but also have control through HA. There have been some needed bulb updates (improving the stability of last color temp and state on power on) but I will soon fully transition over to HA with a zigbee adapter because of stuff like this.

I've just ordered an adapter with the aim to do the same. Hue products have been great due to their quality (often at an extra expense I've deemed worthwhile) and their local-only functionality, but this change indicates it's time to stop buying their products and move things away from their control while it's still possible.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#58

Post by theshrike79 »

baal80spam wrote: post #11
andersrs wrote: post #3

#internetofshit

Oh come on - don't you want for all your bulbs to be turned on already _before_ you get back home? It's a gamechanger!

Being able to remotely make sure the coffee machine isn't powered is the true game changer.

Having the lights turn off automatically when there's nobody home is also nice though.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#59

Post by drcongo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #34
jorvi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a somewhat strangely named German brand that sells private IoT door / security cams. Forgot the name, sadly. They’re quite expensive though. My guess is they might sell private lightbulbs. For home audio, Sonos is great. Their voice assistant is completely locally processed.

This one is French, but I thought it might be what you are referring to. https://www.netatmo.com/

Word of warning about Netatmo cameras - even if you buy the HomeKit Secure Video ones, they stop working if the memory card dies. And it dies a LOT on their cameras. I've got 3 of their outdoor security cameras, and two of them stopped working while I was away on holiday. I had a very long conversation with them about this massive flaw in their system, they kept just saying "it needs the memory card to save the video" - I pointed out that a) it doesn't, it's streaming to HSV, and b) with every other camera I own the memory card is optional. The quality of the video on them is also considerably worse than any of my other cameras.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#60

Post by drcongo »

zarker wrote: post #13
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #4

I'm slowly moving control to a Hubitat ( https://hubitat.com/ ). But still use the Hue hub for the noisy (frequent messages) Hue bulbs. Anyone have any alternatives?

I use Home Assistant. It's open source and there is a huge community around it.

You still need the Hue hub for that though right?
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