C-Reach Hub brings HomeKit compatibility to C by GE's 'sleep' and 'life' LED bulbs

The family of devices compatible with Apple's HomeKit is soon to grow, with a bridge to make the established C by GE smart lightbulbs work with the system coming over the summer.

While the C by GE light bulb family has been available for some time, the company will ship a device to make them compatible with Apple's HomeKit and Amazon's Alexa this summer. The C-Reach Hub will allow consumers to use Siri through the Home app to control the bulbs like any other HomeKit-compatible peripheral.

The C by GE bulb line launched in early 2016, without any form of HomeKit compatibility. The bulbs themselves have Bluetooth transmitters, and without a hub or bridge lack any form of remote control outside the home.

A specific launch date for the hub is not yet clear, nor is expected pricing. A standard C by GE LED starter pack retails for $74.99 for a four-pack, with other options available.

Introduced in 2014, HomeKit allows users to connect to a variety of compatible so-called "internet of things" devices through the iOS Home app in conjunction with each other, as opposed to a series of disconnected interfaces. The addition of Siri control to HomeKit allows for complicated sequences of events to be induced from an iOS device or a Mac running Sierra.

9 Comments

boxcatcher 274 comments · 9 Years

About 7 years ago

Avoid. CbyGE is not even half baked.

Don't take my word for it:
https://appsto.re/us/oxQIab.i

fallenjt 4056 comments · 13 Years

I'm sick and tired with fcking bulbs and switches for HomeKit. They're all over the places. Who needs these god damn things from so many manufacturers? Make something smarter and different like...rice cookers, coffee machine, stove/oven, Fire/CO detectors, washer/dryer, voice assist TV, garage opener not like My-Q, some thing which is seamless to set up.

hmurchison 11823 comments · 23 Years

fallenjt said:

I'm sick and tired with fcking bulbs and switches for HomeKit. They're all over the places. Who needs these god damn things from so many manufacturers? Make something smarter and different like...rice cookers, coffee machine, stove/oven, Fire/CO detectors, washer/dryer, voice assist TV, garage opener not like My-Q, some thing which is seamless to set up.

Home Automation requires understand and planning. A system should have no more than 3 brides.

I have-
Philips Hue
Lutron
Smartthings

People chasing crap from Startups will end up with a bunch of obsolete hardware. People that make silly decisions like going Lifx versus Hue are the ones still waiting for HomeKit support.

Bridges have their place and they make it easy to integrate systems but if you are a lowest bidder type of buyer your system will look and perform like one.

Thankfully in 5 years or so the market will clear itself out and only a few protocols will survive and large companies will have fast product offerings based on the most suitable protocol.

If you want something that exists without bridges take a keen look at IP based offerings. Right now the best odds are with The Thread Group but there's a competing protocol named HaLOW that appears to have little traction. Once you go IP you can basically integrate the tech right alongside existing IP stuff

dachar 330 comments · 11 Years

Anything that needs its own hub seems to defeat the idea of a simple connected home and is no of interest to me. For a start where do you put all the different hubs that each manufacturer wants us to have? Why will too many hubs start conflicting with each other and the main home wifi? Why can't they work using the existing home wifi network ?

dachar said:

Anything that needs its own hub seems to defeat the idea of a simple connected home and is no of interest to me. For a start where do you put all the different hubs that each manufacturer wants us to have? Why will too many hubs start conflicting with each other and the main home wifi? Why can't they work using the existing home wifi network ?

Power. Wifi uses up MUCH more power than stuff like Zigbee or ZWave. Most of the low power protocols operate around 800-900mhz frequency so that they have long range and to further aid this they often employ a mesh network. The Bridge is there to move from these higher power protocols to lower power protocols and to store information. We need to hope that Apple supports Thread (protocol) which is lower power but still runs Internet Protocol. This would be the easiest way to meld high power IP like Wifi with low power IP addressable devices.