I'm pleased to see that Philips is releasing white bulbs with the intention of bringing the price down. That has been my primary issue with the product. I'll discuss my other one later. For now, here are my impressions of the Hue system in the reductive format of a pros and cons list (my apologies):

Pros:

- I really like that you can get precise control of light levels all around a room. With the systems I use, when it comes to recessed lights I have to dim all of them as a group.

- The geofencing and installation seem really easy to set up and use.

- The various colors as an indication of something's status intrigues me. I like your NAS project, Tom.

Cons:

- I apologize. I simply cannot understand the colors. But this is only a half-con for me now that the less expensive bulbs are coming out. Tom, is there any word on an MSRP for those? Your link didn't mention anything. Anyway, I recognize that this is a subjective thing, so this isn't a negative for everyone.

- Tom, I'm curious to get your impression of the brightness of the bulb at 2700K, which is the temperature of the Cree LED bulb. Cree lists their 2700K bulb at 800 lumens, and the Hue site appears to indicate that at that temperature the Hue has an output of half that. In the end it wouldn't be the end of the world for me, since my lights are dimmed most of the time, but some might find this an issue.

- I'm still concerned that Hue is such a siloed product (this is and has been my second big issue with the product). Its inclusion in HomeKit would be a step forward, but clearly only for iOS users. I'm also still unclear on how/if HomeKit can share its scenes, settings, and connected devices with other iOS users in the same house. Does each user have to set HomeKit up separately? Another reason for my dislike of these siloed products is that you have to have separate control units for each thing. The new Hue switch, for example, only controls Hue devices. It can't unlock your front door, for example. Perhaps HomeKit will address that.

- Lastly, I still consider price a factor. I know they're working on that, but price-wise the Hue system only seems feasible for apartments. There are far too many light bulbs in my home to replace them all with Hue bulbs. And even if I could, a single controller can only support 50 bulbs (I don't believe that two controllers can talk to each other to combine the networks, but that may have changed).

- A minor issue: I assume that you have to leave all your light switches in the on position, right? Training guests might be challenging


Don't get me wrong, I love all the focus on home automation right now. It's probably my biggest hobby, and since we moved into our home almost two years ago I've slowly worked to get the entire place onto my system. I can now remotely control almost every light in the house (there's a couple in the basement and back yard that I haven't gotten to), and there are a dozen other things on my system like the thermostat, front door lock, ceiling fans, cat feeder, motion sensor, garage doors, etc. I'll be curious to see where this all goes.