Sylvania smart light bulb talks to Siri without a hub
If you’ve set up smart light bulbs like Philips’ Hue, you’ve probably had to link your bulbs to a central hub — and if you didn’t, you may be making-do with only basic control. Sylvania is trying to do better. It’s introducing a Smart Multicolor A19 bulb that doesn’t require the hassles of setting up a hub, but can still give you advanced control through Apple’s HomeKit — and by extension, Siri voice commands. You only have to sync the Bluetooth lighting through iOS’ Home app to illuminate a room.
As you might guess, Bluetooth imposes some limitations. You’ll need an Apple TV or iPad to serve as a hub if you want to control the bulb when you’re not within range. Still, this is potentially a wiser choice than many smart lights if you live in an Apple ecosystem and feel that a hub would only get in the way. There’s no mention of pricing as of yet, but you should see Sylvania’s latest bulb reach Amazon by early 2017.
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