LIFX make smart lighting solutions and what started as a company that made connected LED lightbulbs, has now morphed into one that offers a wide variety of lighting solutions. Their latest is called Tile. LIFX Tile comes out in November and has just been made available for pre-order. The Tile Kit comprises of 5 Tiles and a power pack and will set you back A$349.99.
With the Pearl White Tile, you can create lighting effects that enhance your home with ambient light. You can also use the Tiles as a notification platform, part of the benefit of being connected, its ultimately down to your creativity. One thing’s for sure, this will definitely create a talking point when friends come over.
On the surface, the price of admission may seem high, but when we look through the capabilities of this creative lighting solution, it gets a lot easier to justify. The Tiles are IoT devices that connect and form a display surface that measures 200mm x 200mm per tile. The tiles are capable of generating 2100 lumens (420 lumens per Tile), with a full range 16 million colours and 64 individual zones per tile. At full brightness, the 5 Tiles use 35 Watts, while using less than 0.5W when in standby.
You can attach the LIFX Tile to your wall using a 3M Command Hook on the back. These stick to flat surfaces such plaster walls, glass and timber (sealed). This is smart, particularly if you’re renting, or just decide you want to move your Tiles to a new location, your walls won’t be full of nail holes.
Once you’ve decided on the arrangement of tiles on your wall, you can control the lighting (solid colours or animations) using your iOS, Android & Windows 10 devices. Not just on your WiFi network at home, but from anywhere in the world.
Things get much more interesting when you consider the voice assistant support on offer here. LIFX have done the hard work to deliver support for Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit (sorry Cortana users) which will let you switch colours or lighting scenes by talking to the Tile.
Since the first LIFX project, they’ve supported IFTTT which allows everyday users to configure workflows that can notify you of emails and messages with the flash of a Tile. It can alert you when you get a new Twitter follower, or when someone presses your Ring doorbell. You can have them change colours when the sun goes down or turn off when your phone leaves home. The options here really are insane with IFTTT constantly adding support for new IoT devices.
After all that, it’s definitely a big entry price, but if you can stomach it, you get a seriously functional (and cool) IoT product that helps turn your connected life into an illuminated one.
More info and to pre-order, head to LIFX.
Additionally LIFX are also have another new product on pre-order right now, their new 100mm downlight. These are a big upgrade from the LIFX Color 650 downlights.
