Philips Hue

Thanks to a pair of new features, Philips Hue users are getting upgraded control over their home lighting setup. In a release Monday, Signify announced two new additions to Hue customization options, both of which already exist but are now getting some fine-tuning. 

The first update involves Hue motion sensors. At present, users can set two time slots for scenes (or color schemes) to automatically occur when motion is detected - essentially, a day and night option. But Signify said users will now get up to 10 customizable time slots. 

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The additional time slots now give users significantly increased automation options to tailor their lights throughout the day - something especially useful as remote jobs are on the rise. And with Hue's dozens of available scenes, that's a lot of options. 

For example, Philips Hue pointed out the Hue's "Natural light" scene, which mimics the outside sun, can now replicate outside light that stays true throughout most of the day. 

Philips Hue also announced a brightness balancer option for individual lights in a group instead of a group as a whole. Users who have several lights in a room can now control specific bulbs (for instance, dimming lights behind a TV to watch a movie while keeping lights behind the couch fully lit), whereas before, all bulbs in an environment had to be changed together. 

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This is an important change for people who have multiple types of Hue lights in a single room, as lumens vary from product to product. This sometimes creates lighting that isn't exactly even, even if the dimness percentage is the same.

The press release noted that these features came as a result of user feedback. Both of these features will launch this fall and will work on all existing devices. 

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