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Philips Won't Block Third-Party Bulbs After All (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A day after Philips announced that it would drop support for third-party Hue bulbs the company has reversed its decision. An announcement reads is part: "We recently upgraded the software for Philips Hue to ensure the best seamless connected lighting experience for our customers. This change was made in good faith. However, we under estimated the impact this would have on a small number of customers who use lights from other brands which could not be controlled by the Philips Hue software. In view of the sentiment expressed by our customers, we have decided to reverse the software upgrade so that lights from other brands continue to work as they did before with the Philips Hue system."
I'm glad I sent that caustic, hateful tweet about it. It surely played a role in this decision.
Thanks for announcing that you have both the drive and the ability to lock down your """smart"""bulbs to their own little Philips eco-system, regardless of how you plan on leveraging it. It's still a nice red-flag for those of us who don't want to throw their money down the toilet.
This change was made in good faith. However, we under estimated the impact this would have on a small number of customers who use lights from other brands which could not be controlled by the Philips Hue software.
The fact they changed their decision shows it's not really such a small number of customers.
In view of the sentiment expressed by our customers, we have decided to reverse the software upgrade so that lights from other brands continue to work as they did before with the Philips Hue system.
They reacted to the feedback properly. I think it's fair that we reverse our boycotts towards the company now.
Digital LIGHTS Management! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Forget your signature Ethanol-fueled?
Translation "for now... we'll try again tomorrow"
A bulb is just that, a bulb. A filament heated by application of 120VAC across it. Why is there firmware?
This sounds like a Millenial problem.
Every major company in the world will mess up from time to time, and I find it extremely refreshing how fast Philips reversed their initial decision. Most companies wait weeks, sometimes months, before they reverse an unpopular decision, and I always wonder, 'why don't they just fess up, say sorry and reverse the policy asap instead of letting it become a big story?!', but they rarely do. Kudos to Philips for being decisive and minimising the bad publicity.
"Posted from AC's iPad"
I read this a bit differently than how they worded it. To me it reads, "The combination of low numbers of adopters of the system combined with a natural desire to avoid 'lock-in' will limit our market share. Hence, we have decided to wait until more people adopt the product before trying again." Until they promise to NEVER do this AGAIN I recommend against the product.
A day after Philips announced that it would drop support for third-party Hue bulbs
Is "drop support for" a euphemism for "actively block"?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Look for a reversal reversal as soon as the uproar dies down a bit.
I wouldn't be so sure about that... Philips has a rather good reputation when it comes to listening to its customers. And it also ranks well on how it deals with social and environmental issues. Although it's a big company and individual parts of it may still do unacceptable things. Examples would be the Senseo patent thing as well as how they stopped fabricating their own high-quality computer displays and started selling rebranded low-quality trash without telling anybody.
I could be completely wrong of course, as I am just making guesses but I see this as being their thought process.
Worker bee 1: Boss we are getting a lot of complaints and service requests where people are trying to use non-compliant 3rd party bulbs with the Hue system. We are copping a lot of the flack for these bulbs not working properly even though it is the third party that is making shit not us.
Boss: Hmmmm. Perhaps what we could do is put together a certification system, I know lets call it "Friends of Hue", and push that out to 3rd party manufacturers. Then we set our system to only work with those compliant bulbs. That way we know the system will work. We really can't afford to be blamed for other peoples shit products.
Worker bee 1: Sounds good. I'll roll it out.
Worker bee 2: Boss we fucked up. We had no idea the level of penetration that 3rd party bulbs had with out system. People are saying we are as bad as Sony. Instead of them seeing it as a quality control measure they think we are trying to lock down the system. We can't afford to lose the enthusiast market, they ARE our market.
Boss: Crap crap crap crap crap. Roll it back and roll it back now. This wasn't what was meant to happen. Oh shit I'm going to get hammered for this.
Philips will split into a Health and a Lighting division. The Lighting division will be sold. So they simply leave this 'profit-enhancing software update' for the next owner.
They have to modify the motto "DOS ain't done till Lotus won't run" a little. But eventually there will enough slack and bugs in API that only the Phillips bulbs know how to work around, and the competitors will just wither on the vine.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
From what I have seen Philips LED's are among the worst in RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) on the market. If you think this is not a problem install several and watch your WiFi disappear. These things are like small radio transmitters that spew static all over the spectrum. The current standards are lax and not really enforced at all.
It's a through and through scam. None of their lights I've had ever draw their advertised power nor provide even equivalent amounts of light. That's from their home bulbs to actual 'professional' greenhouse LED lighting.
Just warn everyone the fuck away from Philips Lighting, PERIOD.
"....However, we under estimated the impact this would have on a small number of customers who use lights from other brands ..."
Yes, because business are always swayed by the MINORITY.
right.
Since your software in your TVs suck so much, i will never buy any of your crap again. Fuck you Philips, fuck you very much.
I bet the reason that "small number" of customers can't get it to work is because of your fucking piece of shit software.
So, lets make this change in our product (cost $10) that causes guaranteed outrage in (social) media (publicity, $0), then revert the product change ($10) and leave the impression we care about our non-customers and come out as heroes (=profit). Cherry on top we've just convinced everyone not yet our customer that it is safe to buy our product because it "can't" go wrong anymore (=megaprofit). Worried much?
SETTING: Room full of badly dressed men an women holding cell phones and sitting on cheap folding chairs facing a low stage. Podium on the stage with microphone. Display wall with 1 meter square Philips logo checkerboarded across.
SCENE: A man enters the stage from the right. Man wears a blue suit and a yellow and green tie on a white shirt. White. Mid-thirties. Neat light brown hair. He steps to the podium and checks to make sure the microphone is on.
SFX: MIC SQUEAL
MAN: Thank you all for coming. My name is Mark Neal. I'm with public relations at Philips. Last week we announced our latest upgrade to the Hue smart LED light bulb would block other smart bulbs from working if they were installed on the same network. I'm here today to tell you Philips has decided not to peruse that option.
REPORTER 1: Do you mean that Philips could block other bulbs if they wanted?
MAN: Yes.
REPORTER 2: So the upgrade doesn't have the code to block other bulbs?
MAN: No. It has the code. Philips chose not to turn that on.
REPORTER 3: But Philips could turn it on at any time?
MAN: Yes.
REPORTER 4: Isn't this a breach of trust with the consumers?
MAN: [Reaches out to reporter. Hand forms a claw in the air.]
REPORTER 4: [GRABS THROAT WITH BOTH HANDS] [CHOKING SOUND]
MAN: [VOICE SUDDENLY DEEP] We have altered the agreement. Prey we do not alter it further.
SFX: SCUBA BREATHING
MUSIC: IMPERIAL MARCH