As we lean more and more on connecting our homes and devices, while equally using such setups to facilitate mood, or expand upon our entertainment, the more we see innovation in the colourful space. In today's example, we've taken the recent partnering of
LIFX lights and
Razer's
Chrom Connect to both lighting and gaming task.
Specifically, we used LIFX HomeKit to deck out three main living areas of our house, all of which are related to gaming and other forms of entertainment. Here's a snippet:
You can control every light in the house as a full group, within their own groups or individually. When my boy goes to bed, we tend to set his light to the preset Dream theme setting and diffuse the bulb to 30% of a possible 175% brightness. Other presets include things like Soothing, Relaxing, Peaceful, Proud, Cheerful and even Sports, which I tend to use a lot (it creates a warm green hue that just really works with the energy of live sports). Beyond basic themes built into the LIFX app, you can also play with effects such as having the lights fade through warm pastel colours or respond to music playing (which utilises your phone’s microphone). And it’s surprisingly responsive.
Numerous other apps and applets also work with LIFX. I use IFTTT to have the lights flash when I get tagged on Facebook, for example. Another friend who put me onto it (and who publishes content with our friends over at Press Start) set his up to flash whenever he gets an Uber if he’s out late, so his partner knows he’s on his way home. If he gets home really late and full of a few cordials, the lights come on as soon as his Uber ride has ended. But they don’t turn on aggressively, rather they light up slowly and with his own preset softness, so as not to wake his kid, or partner. And all of this is largely customisable. And the above are just examples of the potential here.
Click here for our LIFX x Razer Chrome Connect review.