Philips Hue Update to New Smart Home Standard Is Delayed
If you’ve been waiting for Philips Hue to add Matter support to its popular Smart Lightning lineup, you’ll need to be patient.
After originally promising the update by the first quarter of 2023, the rollout has been delayed.
Time to wait for Philips Hue Matter update
This news was first reported by HueBlog.com. In an email, Signify, the parent company of Philips Hue, didn’t give a new time frame to expect the update.
We are working closely with several partners from the smart home industry to launch Matter. With Philips Hue, we always focus on solid quality to meet the expectations of our customers. Therefore, it will take a little longer than originally planned before we make the Philips Hue Bridge software update available to all consumers. We’ll let you know as soon as we have a concrete date for the release of the Matter software update.
Currently, Hue lights are compatible with all major smart home ecosystems—including Amazon Alexa. Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings.
But when the update does arrive, it will bring any existing Hue lights into the Matter ecosystem. The company also told HueBlog.com that with the Matter update, it will be easier to connect more than one Hue Bridge to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
Matter promises to make the smart home easier to use. Instead of relying on using devices such as smart lights with a specific ecosystem, a substance-compatible controller can interact with compatible products.
This potential is exciting and looks set to help smart home technology evolve. And Philips Hue lights are by far one of the most popular smart home devices available.
A sign of bigger problems for the Matter rollout?
The delay shouldn’t be any kind of warning sign for a larger rollout for Philips Hue Matter support. In early 2023, Matter made a big splash at CES in Las Vegas.
Signify has been an early supporter of the standard. And a company official indicated in an email to The Verge that the delay could be due to the slow rollout of other companies in the industry.
And both Amazon Alexa and the Samsung SmartThings Matter controller still don’t support bridging, which is necessary for Hue bulbs to work on Matter.
Patience is a virtue for smart home fans
While Matter is coming, the rollout has been a bit slower than expected. But with a little patience, smart home fans should be able to reap the rewards of the new standard.
It can be frustrating having to press the power button several times before your PC boots up. The problem is usually easy to fix, but sometimes it can be caused by a more significant failure inside your computer.
You may need to open up your PC case to solve the problem, but thankfully a lot of the general fixes can be found at your power plan settings.
Change or reset your power plan on Windows
A common reason for the power button not working on a Windows machine is because the PC is not shutting down properly. When you press the button for startup, it will force the shutdown to complete. Until this process is finished, pressing the button will have no effect.
Reconnect the power button cable
If resetting the power plan didn’t help, it’s time to look for hardware causes, starting with the easiest: the power button.
The power button on your computer’s front panel connects to the motherboard through a thin cable fitted with a two-pin connector. If this connector is not properly seated, it can cause the button to work intermittently.
If you’re using a desktop PC, reconnecting the power button cable isn’t too hard. First, open your computer case, taking the same precautions you would when opening your PC to clean out the dust inside (you’re cleaning the inside of your PC every now and then, aren’t you?).
Trace the cable from the front of your PC to the front panel connector on the motherboard. It’s usually in the lower-right corner of the motherboard. The power button cable connector should be marked POWER SW or PWR SW.
Pull out the connector to check if it is broken or dusty, then replace it securely. The connector is very small, making it a bit fiddly. Take your time, and avoid connecting it to different pins, or else the power button won’t work.