Disclosure: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reI Have a Smart House: Connected Home with reduced price or for free.
With the world going “smart” and our family being a bunch of geeks you would think our entire house would be running through apps by now, but the truth of the matter is we only have a few things, up until now, that qualify as “smart”. We can access our home security wirelessly and through apps no matter where we are and I love it, but I’ve often wished I could control things like the lights, temperature, and stuff like that. Well, I’m taking baby steps and now I have the New Netgear exclusive router to make it all happen. As you make your house smarter and smarter you have to have the router to handle it all and this baby is gold!
The Nighthawk® DST—AC1900 DST Router & DST Adapter can handle all my needs. Not only does it come with Geek Squad set up and support by phone or web, but it also has a Dead Spot Terminator that eliminates your WiFi dead zones. In larger houses like our it’s an important bonus because we all have devices running off our WiFi and this 1 GHz dual core processor supports 10+ connected devices with ease with lag-free gaming for my oldest son. The fact that you have this new technology that includes set up is truly valuable.
So what did I do with this amazing router?
I got the New hue A19 Starter Kit and hue Go!
Have you ever heard of it? It’s like so awesome and I have no idea how we lived without it. I know it will save us a small fortunate in our electric bill, which is a bonus! No more leaving the lights on all night or all day. I can access the lights from my Android and my iPhone as well as my iPad so I can turn the lights on for hubby when I’m not home or just mess with him, which is much more likely. We have the three lamps in the living room set up on different “scenes” to turn on when I have to get up Monday – Friday for school but not on the weekends so that I can sleep in. I have them to turn off too, so I don’t forget to when I get started working.
There are over 16 million colors to choose from with the new hue A19 and the starter kit gives you everything you need to get started. Once you download the app and set it up (it’s super easy) all you have to do is either use one of the color schemes already included or make your own from a photo. In the evening our Farmers Market scene slowly fades in so that when the sun goes down our living room is gorgeous with shades of green (think peppers), red (plant tomatoes), and purple (think eggplant). When watching scary movies we change the lighting to Halloween Horror, another fun recipe I created from a photo I took at Halloween Horror Nights. I can do all of this on my phone from anywhere. I haven’t checked it out yet, but I heard something about syncing it with music. That’s something I need to look into in order to tell you more about it.
The hue GO is also pretty cool. It can be used wirelessly or plugged in, but since you don’t have to have it plugged in there are so many things you can do with it. We bring it out back at night to relax on the patio, we use it in the kitchen when we go to bed to give a warm glow so the kids can see their way around if they need a cup of water. I even used the super bright white light to do a photoshoot of cookies that glow in the dark the other night. I haven’t hooked it up to our app yet because I haven’t needed to, but I probably will soon enough. Right now I just love it for use in the kitchen or bathroom at night. We will probably find this one particularly important when we go camping next time!
Have you heard of hue?
How is your home connected?
@BestBuy, @ Tweethue, @Netgear, @Sling
Join the conversation on social using the hashtag #BBYConnectedHome
Some other features of the Nighthawk® DST:
• Prioritized bandwidth for streaming videos or music
• DST Adapter sets up in minutes – no need to configure or install software
• DST Adapter indicates the connection strength at any electrical outlet Nighthawk® DST—AC1900 DST Router & DST Adapter Data Sheet R7300DST The NETGEAR Difference – R7300DST
• High-powered amplifiers—Three (3) external antennas
• FastLane™ technology improves performance using both WiFi bands
• Implicit & Explicit Beamforming
• Downstream & Upstream QoS
• ReadySHARE® USB—Share your USB hard drive and printer
• ReadyCLOUD® USB Access—Enjoy personal & secure cloud access to USB storage anytime, anywhere
• NETGEAR genie® with remote access
Some other features of the Philips hue A19 Start Kit & Go:
o Works with Apple HomeKit (iOS users) so you can control your lights with Siri voice control on your iPhone. Turns your existing hue lights into HomeKit controllable lights and discover exciting new use cases through 3rd party homekit apps that also control door locks thermostats and more.
o Also OpenHome certified, so you can create your own ecosystem
o Installs easily, the A19 bulbs have been upgraded from 600 to 800 lumens, providing brighter light
o Hue Go has up to 3 hours of rechargeable battery life
o Although Hue go is not waterproof, it is designed to withstand high humidity.
o Offers 5 patented “natural dynamic effects”: Cozy Candle, Sunday Coffee, Meditation, Enchanted Forest, and Night Adventure. Each dynamic effect has its own mix of colors to set the right mood.
· Simply connect it to your Hue bridge (available separately, but included with A19 the starter kit)
Overall for hue lights:
o You can manage hue lights from your smartphone or tablet and all hue lights work together. The free iOS- and Android-compatible app lets you adjust colors, brightness and functions without leaving your seat. Create a hue account to access your lights remotely by app or Web browser
o Get the full functionality of the Philips hue app when connected to the Hue Bridge – adjust colors, set timers, notifications, alarms, geofencing and more
