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Lightbulb DRM: Philips Locks Purchasers Out of 3rd-Party Bulbs With New Firmware (techdirt.com)
sandbagger writes: Purchasers of the Philips Hue 'smart' ambient lighting system are finding out that the new firmware pushed out by the manufacturer has cut off access to previously-supported lightbulbs. Philips contends that this move will help their customers. A statement from the company reads in part: "While the Philips Hue system is based on open technologies we are not able to ensure all products from other brands are tested and fully interoperable with all of our software updates. For guaranteed compatibility you need to use Philips Hue or certified Friends of Hue products."
Printers are moving in the other direction - at least Epson. I finally gave up on feeding my ever-more-finicky Canon and got an Epson L355 with the ink tank system... god, I've been waiting so long for something like this. The paper now costs well more than the ink. The side effect is if I want something... I just print it. I don't have to worry about whether its worth the cost.
My only complaint is that they could have designed the refill bottles better... they're just pretty normal squeeze bottles, no leak protection on the openings, and no special splatter protection on the ink tank openings, so you have to be rather careful when filling tanks. But it's a minor complaint. Oh, okay one more: I can't tell it not to shut itself off - you can do that in Windows but I use Linux, and the android app (which is otherwise really excellent) doesn't have the ability to control that aspect.
Nothing says 'welcome to the neighborhood' like a gunny sack full of dead squirrels.
Keurig tried this crap and it didn't work out well for them.
Philips is the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world, with revenues of about 21 billion Euro a year. It is a potent incentive for potential competitors to make their products Hue-compatible.
The Philips Hue devices form a 'network' of devices, with controllers (dimmers, light switches, and the "Hue Bridge" which talks via a Rest API with Philips' Android/iOS apps), and lights. Philips devices are 'ZigBee' devices, and other manufacturers also make ZigBee devices which can interoperate with the Philips ones, joining the same network.
As of this change, ZigBee devices of any sort can still join the network, and non-Philips ZigBee controllers can still steer the entire network (including Philips devices), but now Philips' controllers will not control non-approved devices. They'll just refuse to talk with them altogether, not even making an attempt.
Philips says they'll approve certain third party devices as "Friends of Hue" and let them in, but presumably that will involve paying some amount for the certification.
Philips Hue. I'm not kidding. The ZigBee Light Link protocol that it uses is an open standard. The API that the Bridge uses to communicate via HTTP is also open, published by Philips. A few third parties have even made LightLink-compatible bulbs. They did not reverse-engineer anything. This summary is a little misleading in several ways: first, any third-party devices already joined will stay that way (unless you reset your bridge to defaults with the new firmware on it); second, there actually are problems with some bulbs that were exposed with the new firmware; and third, it's not that they aren't allowing third-party devices but rather that they just want them to be "Friends of Hue" certified first--though in fairness, even though that program has been around for a couple years I don't think anyone besides Philips has created products for it.
Someone could create an open-source ZigBee LightLink "bridge" compatible with Hue that lets you join whatever bulbs you want. It's just that nobody's done this, possibly because Philips' own product has historically been so good. I suspect some third party may create a compatible "bridge" soon, maybe SmartThings since their hub already has a ZigBee-capable radio, if they ever decide its' a good idea, but who knows. You'd probably also lose the Web-based functionality the Philips bridge enables, like scene syncing across devices, control when you're away from your home network (without needing to VPN in), and the ability to also use the website to control your lights.
R.Mo
Folks, take a couple of minutes and add a review of the Hue products you own on Amazon. A naive buyer will think that he/she can use it with the LED lights from Cree, for example, because there are websites showing this pairing -- we need to inform buyers that this will not work.
It's a service we owe other consumers.
Hue hubs currently enjoy an average of approximately 4 stars. That number seems overly high.