- The long-awaited Philips Hue AI assistant is now available in some countries
- It will be launched in the UK in July, and globally by the end of August
- The Philips Hue Play Wall Washer light is on sale today in the US and UK
If you want to have more fun with your smart lights, there’s good news – the long-awaited Philips Hue AI assistant is finally here, letting you pick lighting scenes or create brand new ones with simple voice commands. Signify, the company behind Philips Hue, first teased the assistant back in January, and last week a few iPhone users found themselves with early access, but the launch is now official.
The assistant is available now for users in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg whose app is set to English, and will be rolling out to Hue users in the UK in July. According to Signify, the global rollout is planned for the end of August.
With the AI assistant, you can either say or type what type of lighting effect you’d like to see, or what mood you want to set, and the app will either suggest something from its existing gallery of presets, or create something brand new if there’s nothing that quite fits the bill.
Clean sweep
That’s not all – Signify has also launched a new lamp that bathes your walls with a gradient of light. We got our first peek at the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer earlier this month when it was listed on Amazon ahead of its official release date.
Now it’s available to buy, and despite measuring just 3.6 x 3 x 6.2 inches / 9.1 x 7.6 x 15.7cm (that’s even smaller than the Philips Hue Play Light Bar), it promises to drench your whole wall with a smooth gradient of colored light that you can customize via a 3D drag-and-drop interface in the app, allowing you to set the direction and brightness of the light to suit your room.
The Wall Washer works with the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or Hue Sync desktop app for PC, allowing you to synchronize lighting effects with movies, TV shows, and games.
Alternatively, you can use it alone, or synced with other Philips Hue smart lights to help create a mood. It uses the same ColorCast light system as the Philips Hue Twilight lamp (one of the best smart lights we’ve ever tested), projecting a smooth gradient onto nearby surfaces. The video below gives you an idea of the overall effect.
The Wall Washer also looks appealing when switched off. Unlike the Hue Play Light Bar, which has a plastic case, the Wall Washer is finished in black or white matt aluminum.
The Wall Washer is available now in the US and UK, priced at $219.99 / £169.99 for a single light, or $384.99 / £299.99 for a pack of two. It’s due to launch in Australia in September, but official pricing has yet to be announced.
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