{"id":1149,"date":"2012-10-31T15:05:10","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T15:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2021-05-19T20:32:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T20:32:03","slug":"let-there-be-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/10\/31\/let-there-be-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Let There Be Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

The website Kickstarter<\/a> has been coming in for a bit of a, well, kicking recently.<\/p>\n

On its face, it seems like a marvellous idea. Launched in 2009, it\u2019s a crowd-sourcing platform, initially focused on creative or artistic enterprises but increasingly with a heavy gadget and especially iOS bias. In case you don\u2019t know, here\u2019s how it works.<\/p>\n

I am an inventor, artist or other creative individual and I have thought of a thing. Ideally, I\u2019ve reality-checked it, prototyped it, got it to the point where I can explain it, demonstrate it or pitch it. If I knew that there were 10,000 people out there who would all pay $50 to buy one, or come and see it, or download it, then I would know that the income would be there to justify a full production run, or staging it, or producing it. But I don\u2019t have the funds right now to start that process, making me somewhat stuck.<\/p>\n

Enter Kickstarter. You describe your project and set levels at which people can invest. Back the project for $50 and when it\u2019s ready, you\u2019ll get one, or a ticket, or a download. If I get enough people promising their money by the deadline, then credit cards are charged and I get the cash to start making my dream a reality (after Kickstarter gets its cut) and then pretty soon you should get what you\u2019ve paid for. If not enough people invest, then nobody pays anything and I\u2019ve done some pretty useful market-testing which may be enough to convince me to abandon the project.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got at least one really excellent product through Kickstarter \u2013 my Zooka Wireless Speaker bar<\/a> which connects to my iOS device (see?) by Bluetooth and amplifies my music or video soundtracks. But I\u2019ve also got carried away once-or-twice. \u201cWow, shooting 360 degree video on an iPhone \u2013 that is so cool. Here\u2019s $40!\u201d (Six months later) \u201cWhy has somebody sent me this useless piece of plastic in the post? What? Shooting 360 degree video on my iPhone? When would I ever want to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the worst problem with Kickstarter, not the problem which has forced the site to substantially change its rules recently. With my Zooka, I plunked down my money and some months later, I received the speaker bar I wanted in the mail. Just like shopping on Amazon, if Amazon\u2019s warehouse was on Mars.<\/p>\n

But Kickstarter is not a shop<\/a>. You aren\u2019t buying a product, you are investing in an idea that might eventually turn into a product, but equally might all go up in smoke.<\/p>\n

Kickstarter\u2019s biggest success in terms of funding to date has probably been the Pebble<\/a>. This smart watch with an e-ink display pairs with your iPhone, so with your phone in your pocket you can see who is calling you, get calendar alerts, see email messages and so on. It launched in April 2012 with a funding target of $100,000 and has actually raised over $10m, but despite an estimated ship-date of September 2012, so far no-one has actually got their $99 watch yet. And they may never.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, in September, when I saw the Kickstarter campaign for the LIFX WiFi LED light bulb<\/a> I was excited but also cautious. When we bought our new flat, we had all the wiring and lighting redone. We had hoped to get dimmable bulbs everywhere, but of course, we also often wanted one bulb operated by two switches and (apparently) you can\u2019t have two dimmer switches operating one bulb or the fight each other and then your house burns down (or something). So we have several lights which are operated by one dimmer and one (or more) on-off switch. Workable, but not ideal.<\/p>\n

The LIFX bulb solves this problem at a stroke. These LED bulbs can each be set at any brightness \u2013 and any colour!! \u2013 and you control them from your iPhone. Neat, huh? Of course, they\u2019re expensive \u2013 around \u00a350 each, and for our whole flat we\u2019d probably need at least eight, maybe more.<\/p>\n

So, after some discussion, I theorised as follows. Committing to buying eight bulbs now means that by the time they eventually show up (supposedly around March 2013), I may have less enthusiasm for the project, or have found another solution. In that time, various problems may or may not come up \u2013 the bulbs may be dim, or unreliable, or the software flaky or who knows what. WiFi LED light bulbs may end up being a \u201cthing\u201d, they may go mainstream or they may not. If they do, then in time the price will come down and the technology will improve. If not, I\u2019ve bought a lemon.<\/p>\n

Shortly after I decided not to invest, LIFX was one of a number of Kickstarter projects identified as being particularly likely to be problematic in articles such as this one from Reuters<\/a>.\u00a0Now Kickstarter has substantially changed the rules making it harder for pure \u201cvapourware\u201d products to swallow up large sums of other people\u2019s money as they evaporate away.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Having mentally shelved the WiFi LED light bulb project, I was most startled when all over my favourite blogs and websites two days ago I saw an announcement from Philips that they had an essentially identical product called Hue<\/a> which would be available exclusively through the Apple Store the next day.<\/p>\n

The price is basically the same \u2013 \u00a350 per bulb, \u00a3179 for the \u201cstarter kit\u201d containing three bulbs and the \u201cbridge\u201d which connects them to your home WiFi network (the LIFX version doesn\u2019t need the separate bridge which is neater and tidier, but may make initial configuration more fiddly). The bulbs are sleeker without the heat-dissipating fins which make the LIFX bulbs look a little odd, but they\u2019re only available with Edison Screw E27 fittings, so if you have bayonet or downlight fittings, you need an adaptor. But crucially, you can go into the Apple Store and pick them up right now, today and put them in your home (but not buy them online, yet, for some reason). [UPDATE:<\/strong> You can now buy them on-line<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

So I stopped off at Ryness to buy some B22-E27 adaptors and then took myself to Regent Street, walking out of the Apple Store minutes later with a very handsomely presented box. Installation couldn\u2019t have been much easier. Like WPS WiFi systems, the bridge has a physical button on it, so you connect it to your router with the cable provided and then push the button to connect it to your iPhone. Instantly I had full control over all three bulbs.<\/p>\n

The software is a little clunky at present (LIFX\u2019s software looks more fully-featured, but of course it doesn\u2019t actually exist yet, so\u2026). In particular, it is very focused on using colour from images to create lighting effects (or \u201cscenes\u201d) which is surely a niche application. Nonetheless, after a bit of messing around, I was able to create some suitable presets, such as a dim warm glow in the bedroom for going to sleep, or a nice bright clean light for reading in the living room. I was even able to create a single button to simultaneously dim the light in the TV room, and turn the light next-door off (for fear of it casting a reflection on the TV screen). Three bulbs is not of course enough, but as a proof-of-concept, I\u2019m sold. We\u2019ll give it a few more days to see how we get on and then stick a few more in.<\/p>\n

If you turn a bulb off at the wall, you can\u2019t then turn it back on again with the app \u2013 you\u2019ve cut power to the WiFi electronics \u2013 but if you then turn it back on again, it returns with a standard warm glow and near maximum brightness, which means it\u2019s always possible to override the tech if need be. A good solution.<\/p>\n

Are they remotely worth the price though? Well, being LED bulbs they should last around 15 years. An old-fashioned incandescent light bulb, costing maybe \u00a31.50, will last about six months. So you can easily spend \u00a340 over a 15 year span. Of course, who knows if WiFi will even exist in 2027, but at least I\u2019m not going to be chucking my \u00a350 bulb in the bin this time next year. They\u2019re also energy-efficient, drawing less than 9 watts of power, while creating the equivalent light of a 50w incandescent bulb.<\/p>\n

For completeness, a Halogen bulb will last twice as long as an incandescent bulb but might cost twice as much. An LED bulb without the WiFi-ness will cost around \u00a325-\u00a330 and will presumably last as long as the Hue bulbs do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The website Kickstarter has been coming in for a bit of a, well, kicking recently. On its face, it seems like a marvellous idea. Launched in 2009, it\u2019s a crowd-sourcing platform, initially focused on creative or artistic enterprises but increasingly with a heavy gadget and especially iOS bias. In case you don\u2019t know, here\u2019s how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[111],"tags":[292,291,289,294,144,146,287,288,290,293],"class_list":["post-1149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-electronics","tag-home-improvement","tag-hue","tag-ios","tag-ipad","tag-iphone","tag-kickstarter","tag-lifx","tag-philips","tag-wifi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-ix","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1149"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2608,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions\/2608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}