Archive for the ‘Decor’ Category

Review: Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box for Immersive Surround Lighting

Wednesday, July 13th, 2022

Having jazzed up my home entertainment space with smart accented lighting by two Philips Hue Play light bars, I decided to up the ante to sync the lighting effects with the movies that I was watching on my TV, as well as my music and gaming – to achieve a more immersive experience.

The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box is a fantastic way to liven up your entertainment space for movies, gaming and music. Before (bottom) and After (top). Note how the corresponding coloured light leaps off the TV onto the surroundings.

The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box is a fantastic way to liven up your entertainment space for movies, gaming and music. Before (bottom) and After (top). Note how the corresponding coloured light leaps off the TV onto the surroundings.

We are all familiar with surround sound, where the sound is expanded beyond a mono or stereo speakers to encapsulate the listener for a more immersive audio experience.

Signify is offering surround lighting with its Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box (RRP: S$419) – extending the visual experience from the confines of the television (or computer monitor) to beyond the display itself to the surroundings.

What you’ll need to set up a synchronised surround lighting from scratch (sold separately): Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, Philips Hue Play light bars, Philips Hue Bridge. You’ll also need the free Philips Hue app and Philips Hue Sync apps to set up and program the lights and synchronisation.

What you’ll need to set up a synchronised surround lighting from scratch (sold separately): Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, Philips Hue Play light bars, Philips Hue Bridge. You’ll also need the free Philips Hue app and Philips Hue Sync apps to set up and program the lights and synchronisation.

You can set this up by emplacing Philips Hue smart lights around the TV and then syncing the colours and intensities of these lights to whatever is displayed on the TV screen.

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Review: Philips Hue Play Light Bars for Instant Smart Lighting

Tuesday, July 12th, 2022

Want to jazz up your home or entertainment space with smart accented lighting that enhances the ambience and atmosphere? The Philips Hue Play light bars transform your living space instantly and easily provide immersive lighting to better enjoy your movies, games and music.

The Philips Hue Play light bars are an easy way to set up smart accented lighting to enhance the ambience of your entertainment space. Before (bottom) and After (top).

The Philips Hue Play light bars are an easy way to set up smart accented lighting to enhance the ambience of your entertainment space. Before (bottom) and After (top).

I’d installed a 65-inch Android TV from Prism+ in my living room a few months back and had been enjoying the big screen experience at home.

The basic box set for the Philips Hue Play light bar comes in a pack of two at an RRP of S$209. Currently selling online at S$146.

The basic box set for the Philips Hue Play light bar comes in a pack of two at an RRP of S$209. Currently selling online at S$146.

But that living space was a tad boring with the TV sitting on a plain cabinet against a blank wall – even though the yellow wall had been painted with an arty sponge effect.

To add some coloured ambient lighting, I got a pair of Philips Hue Play light bars and stood them on either side of the TV, atop the TV cabinet.

The light bars were really easy to set up and took all of five minutes: simply plug each light into the smart plug that came with the Hue Play light bar double pack, stick that plug into the power socket and switch on.

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New Arrival: Signify Launches WiZ Smart Lighting in Singapore

Friday, July 8th, 2022

Signify, formerly known as Philips Lighting, is launching in Singapore a new smart lighting product line under the brand WiZ.

 

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WiZ is a new line of plug-and-play smart lighting system that Signify is introducing into the Singapore market.

Based on Wi-Fi connectivity, the WiZ platform is in addition to the existing Zigbee-based Philips Hue smart light ecosystem.

“When people think smart homes, they think smart lighting. Lighting is the top device that they want to control with voice. With the intuitive, relevant and accessible WiZ product range, Signify is making it effortless for consumers to get started on their smart home adventure and ushering them into new realms of connectivity, control and convenience,” said Jitender Khurana, Country Head and Managing Director, Signify Singapore.

The plug-and-play WiZ Connected portfolio comprises modern bulbs, portable lights, ceiling lights, downlighters, lightstrips and accessories, enabling users to easily inject smart, connected lighting to every corner of their home.

Designed for hassle-free set-up over Bluetooth and connectivity over existing Wi-Fi networks, WiZ comes with multiple control options including the WiZ app, voice control, smart switches and motion sensors to make daily living smarter, easier and more comfortable.

It is a multi-protocol smart lighting system built on an open Internet of Things (IoT) platform to give users the ultimate smart lighting experience.

More details below from the press release.

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tech4xmas Gift Idea: FLO Diffuser Home Christmas Bundle

Sunday, December 19th, 2021

tech4xmas: Beautifully crafted aromatherapy diffusers for the home, with a wide selection of relaxing and fragrant essential oils for Christmas. S$218 with free delivery.

FLO Diffuser Home Christmas Bundle (S$218 with free delivery)

FLO Diffuser Home Christmas Bundle (S$218 with free delivery)

The essential oil nebulising diffuser is waterless and heatless, works silently, powerful enough to spread the scent up to 800 sqft within the first two minutes.

My own diffuser at home.

My own diffuser at home.

It is suitable for medium-sized areas such as the living room and bedroom.

There is an LED light with changing colours to serve as mood lighting.

I like how the knob allows me to control how strong a nebulising effect.

This is a fantastic Christmas for the home.

The FLO e-shop offers a wide selection of oils and nebulisers with some in the form of Christmas trees and angels.

New Arrival: Nanoleaf Lines Backlit Colour-Changing LED Light Bars

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

Nanoleaf Lines comprises short, backlit, colour-changing LED light bars connected with hexagonal joints and pasted onto the wall or ceiling to provide mood lighting. Prices below.

Nanoleaf Lines provides mood lighting for the home, entertainment, and hybrid workspaces.

Nanoleaf Lines provides mood lighting for the home, entertainment, and hybrid workspaces.

The new Nanoleaf Lines comprises short, backlit, colour-changing LED light bars connected with hexagonal joints and pasted onto the wall or ceiling to provide mood lighting.

Each set of Nanoleaf Lines is controlled by a controller which connects to a phone app via Wi-Fi.

More details below from the press release.

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Review: Philips Hue Outdoor Lightstrip to Liven Up Your Home

Monday, September 6th, 2021

Having had to #WorkFromHome for the past year, I decided to liven up the garden with a Philips Hue Lightstrip (Outdoor). It was a fun little project that was quick and easy to set up.

I got myself the 5m version of the Philips Hue Outdoor Lightstrip.

I got myself the 5m version of the Philips Hue Outdoor Lightstrip.

The Philips Hue Outdoor Lightstrip is a flexible, weatherproof LED strip that can be bent and shaped to produce your own lighting designs and mood in your garden or patio.

You can also use it indoors although there is a cheaper version (Lightstrip Plus) for indoor usage that’s not weatherproof..

With its diffused glow, the lightstrip can be used for direct or indirect lighting, and is able to display 16 million colour and 50 shades of gray all shades of white to create your personalised desired effect.

In the box is the lightstrip itself, the weatherproof power supply for plugging into the mains outdoors, as well as clips and screws to fasten the lightstrip onto the ground or wall based on the design you want to shape it to.

The lightstrip itself is quite flexible so if you’re just laying the lightstrip on the ground, I found that I could shape it without using any clips.

The lightstrip comes in 2m (S$209) and 5m (S$339) versions and is part of the Philips Hue line of intelligent lighting products for the home.

 

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#t4tTUCU: Philips Hue Outdoors Lightstrip from Signify – freshly unboxed. Time to add some fun and snazzy (or calm and relaxing) ambience to the garden.

Note that, in order to maximise the use of the lightstrip, you’ll need to have a Philips Hue Bridge (S$89), which is sold separately.

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TUCU: Philips Hue Bridge for Smart Home Lighting

Sunday, September 5th, 2021

Tech-U-Can-Use (TUCU): The Philips Hue Bridge (S$89) is the starting point for anyone thinking of building a smart lighting system for their homes. It is the hub that connects and controls smart lights and accessories from the Philips Hue family of smart lighting products.

The Philips Hue Bridge is the HEART of the Philips Hue home smart lighting.

The Philips Hue Bridge is the HEART of the Philips Hue home smart lighting.

Since we’re all spending so much time #WorkingFromHome and doing #HomeBasedLearning – thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to turn as much of my dwelling into a smart home.

There are already Google Home wireless speakers around the home, so the next step is to introduce some nice lighting to enhance the ambience for both work and play.

One of the easiest ways to fix up smart lighting in the home is the Philips Hue bulbs and lights from Signify (foremely Philips Lighting).

The Philips Hue Bridge is the hub to which all the Philips Hue smart lights are connected and through which the Philips Hue App controls those lights.

 

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Philips Hue Bridge – freshly unboxed. Excited to take the first step in setting up a smart lighting system at home.

The Hue Bridge is a compact little box that measures 90.9 x 90.6 x 26 mm and weighs 280g.

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New Arrival: Signify Launches New Philips Hue App

Thursday, June 3rd, 2021

Signify has improved the new Philips Hue App with better app performance and enhanced user experience with easier automations, a new Hue scene gallery and more.

The new Philips Hue App serves as the foundation for the future of Signify’s smart lighting and includes familiar user interface elements from the previous Philips Hue app but is now sleeker.

The new Philips Hue App serves as the foundation for the future of Signify’s smart lighting and includes familiar user interface elements from the previous Philips Hue app but is now sleeker.

Rebuilt from the ground up, the fourth generation Philips Hue app has been designed with new technologies to improve app performance both in overall function and in communication with your smart lighting system, while also delivering an intuitive and enhanced user experience.

More details below from the press release.

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New Arrival: Prism+ Launches Smart 4K Android TVs in Singapore

Friday, October 23rd, 2020

Homegrown Prism+ attains Android TV certification and launches three new affordably-priced TVs measuring 55” (S$699), 65” (S$99), and 75” (S$1,599). Available online from today.

New Prism+ Q-series Android TVs launched in Singapore (from left): 55”, 75”, 65”.

New Prism+ Q-series Android TVs launched in Singapore (from left): 55”, 75”, 65”.

Having just entered the smart TV market last November with their inaugural E-series (32”, 43”, 55”), Prism+ is now launching their second generation of smart TVs that are Android TV certified.

That means that the new Q series Android TVs ships with the Android TV 9.0 operating system, more than 5,000 apps on Google Play, Google Assistant to voice control the TV, and built-in Chromecast to cast photos and videos from the phone or computer to the TV.

And the TVs are affordably priced because Prism+ sells directly to the consumer and removes the extra layer of middlemen mark-up that other makers have to price into their TVs.

More details below from the press release.

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New Arrival: Dyson Lightcycle Morph Light Table/Stand Lamp

Thursday, October 1st, 2020

The Dyson Lightcycle Morph light lights a room in one of four different ways: indirect, task, feature and ambient. Available in Singapore from today. Prices below.

The Dyson Lightcycle Morph light is available desk lamp and floor lamp versions in Black/Black and White/Silver.

The Dyson Lightcycle Morph light is available desk lamp and floor lamp versions in Black/Black and White/Silver.

The Dyson Lightcycle Morph has local daylight tracking and can be personalised via the Dyson Link App to intelligently adjust the light it emits depending on the user’s task, age, mood and local daylight.

It has 360° manoeuvrability to provide customised light where you need it.

Dyson boasts that its Heat Pipe technology enables the light quality to last for decades.

Building on the core technologies of the Dyson Lightcycle task light which was launched in 2019, the Dyson Lightcycle Morph has the ability to emulate some of the properties of natural light in multiple different formats.

Using Dyson’s Daylight Tracking algorithm with 3 warm and 3 cool LEDs, the Dyson Lightcycle Morph continually adjusts its colour temperature and brightness in relation to local daylight, providing the right light for the time of day depending on the user’s location.

More details below from the press release.

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