Josh Hendrickson
Signify, the company behind the Philips smart home brand has a new feature for its Hue TV sync box—voice controls. Before, if you wanted to turn the device on, off, or change modes, you needed to get out your phone to control it. Now you can ask Google, Alexa, or Siri to make changes for you.
The Philips Hue Sync box is a novelty luxury in the smart home world. Connect it to your TV or other HDMI devices (up to four total), and it will sync your Philips Hue lights with whatever you’re watching. Using data from the video stream, the colors of your lights will synchronize with your show or movie to add a more dramatic flair.
Signify promised it would add voice controls to the box later this year back in January, and it seems that time is now. You’ll need to connect your Hue TV sync box to your Google or Alexa account, but once you do, you can turn the box on and off, change modes, or start and stop a light function.
It’s not just voice controls either; the update also allows you to control the sync box with infrared remotes and Logitech Harmony remotes. So now you have several convenient options to choose. You’ll still use the box’s app to configure how remotes work, but after that, you can practically ditch phone control.
via Engadget
