Victor Marks
Misfit — Â backed by former Apple CEO John Sculley — Â announced its first foray into the connected home this week, unveiling the $49 Misfit Bolt iOS-connected smart lightbulb.
Like most other connected light bulbs, Misfit's low-cost Bolt can be used to set the mood in a room by altering its color individually or via a series of pre-set scenes. Unlike competitors, however, Bolt is designed to work with Misfit's existing lineup of sleep and activity trackers.
At this week's Consumer Electronics Show, Misfit representatives told AppleInsider that Bolt will communicate with the company's Shine wristband and Beddit sleep tracker so that it knows when users go to sleep and wake up. Using this data, Bolt can work as a sort of visual alarm, rousing buyers from their sleep by emulating a natural sunrise.
The demonstration unit that we saw on the show floor appeared to be a good-quality bulb, demonstrating excellent color fidelity and temperature. Bolt scores 90 on the color rendering index — Â a measure of LED-based bulbs' color reproduction capabilities — Â which is a significant achievement. Philips's competing Hue, for instance, scores just one point higher.
Unlike Hue, Bolt does not require a hub. It connects directly to users' mobile devices, and can be controlled by Misfit's existing iOS app (though a Bolt-specific version is on the way.)
Bolt is available for pre-order now, with shipping expected in mid-February. Buyers can pick up one Bolt for $49.99, or a three-pack for $129.99.
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12 Comments
Nice to see Sculley has been able to build upon the role of Misfit Chief that he initiated at Apple.
Glad to see a real competitor to Hue finally materializing. Hopefully this will provide Philips with incentive to improve and reduce the prices of their own product.
Is it compatible with Wink?
Im not so sure multicolor lightbulbs will catch on in homes... There is a reason 2500k white lightbulbs are the color that they are... Our brains seem to like colors rendered in approximately the color of daylight sun it seems. These lights seem like nice novelties mainly. I want simple remote lightbulbs that are cheap and LED. Or perhaps a universal lightbulb holder that allows you to use various bulbs.
We are used to yellow bulbs because that's what incandescent bulbs produced. If the light bulb was invented today it would be white, not yellow. People are just used to yellow. Yellow bulbs are 2700k where sunlight is 5600k, much whiter than the typical home bulb. Go buy some white 5000K bulbs and live with them for 3 months and you'll see how ugly yellow light looks.