Make your light switches literally green with envy with LiFX, the amazing new Wi-Fi enabled, multi-color, energy efficient LED light bulb that you control simply with your iPhone or Android.
This amazing LiFX comes from prolific Aussie developer and inventor Phil Bosua who’s new light bulb has just surpassed 1.3 million dollars in funding on Kickstarter. After 6 months and a dozen prototypes Bosua has quite possibly done something revolutionary: bring the light bulb into the 21st century.
Taking his amazing talents as an app developer to the light bulb, Bosua’s LiFX has a dazzling array of settings making literally the coolest light bulb you’ve probably ever seen. With the control of your smart phone you can choose any color imaginable with an intuitive color picker, you can dim the lights, you can get notifications when you receive a text or missed call or even a Facebook or twitter message, there is a one tap off switch when you leave the house or arrive, it can visualize music and you can also switch on the security function for when your away on holiday. The bulb will also come with a hacker kit, so hackers and developers can to create even more functions.
Installation is as simple as replacing your existing bulbs and downloading a free application from the App Store or Google Play. That means no electricians horribly unsatisfied with their lives schlepping to the house. The LiFX is also energy efficient, using LED technology, thereby reducing energy costs and also lasting up to 25 years.
The LIFX App is also incredibly intuitive and user friendly. After screwing in the light bulb, it will auto configure itself to your router as the master bulb and all the slave bulbs will auto connect to the master. If you add more slave bulbs down the line these will also auto connect and each can be controlled individually so they don’t only mirror the master bulb.
LiFX is currently sold out in its initial round of preorders on Kickstarter, but it could soon be more widely available due to the overwhelming consumer interest.
I saw this when it went live and specifically chose to not fund it. As has also been pointed out in a Reuters piece, the likelihood that they are going to release a bulb that has the performance that they’re implying (being a 60W equivalent bulb) is, frankly, almost impossible.
Amazingly dedicated teams have been trying to make 60W equivalent LED bulbs that can fit in standard form factors while providing good light quality while not overheating. Phillips, Sylvania, Lighting Science Group and Switch all come to mind…The idea that LIFX has solved the lighting problems these guys have struggled with is improbable.
But I don’t doubt that we’ll see a sub-par light that CAN be controlled from your smart phone.