The smartphone has become an important tool in our lives and today we can get almost anything done with it. Apart from keeping you connected, smartphones have also replaced some crucial gadgets from our lives like music players, cameras and even remote controls. But wouldn’t it be amazing if one could control the lights around your house by just tapping on your smartphone?
Cube26, an India-based tech company, has introduced the IOTA Lite which is a simple smart lighting solution for your home that can be controlled via your smartphone. Now this is not the only product available in the market as Philips also has the Hue smart light kit, but unlike the Hue, the IOTA Lite uses a simple Bluetooth connection whereas Philips chose to stick to Wi-Fi to connect to the lights. The IOTA Lite is also a lot cheaper at just Rs. 1,899 per unit and doesn’t require a complicated setup.
The IOTA Lite is a simple LED bulb with a Bluetooth chip inside. It can be controlled with the Lite app which is available for Android as well as iOS. Once installed, you can choose the bulbs in your room and connect them to the app. The app lets you change colour of the bulb on a simple colour wheel as well as the intensity by simply sliding a bar at the bottom. It also offers some modes like a bright light for when you are reading, a strobe light or a colour changing mode which suits for a party or a simple warm candle effect.
The app can also alert you when you calls, messages, emails or almost any notification on your smartphone. This is a handy feature when you don’t have your smartphone close to you or when it is on silent mode. The app can also be configured to give you weather alerts through a customization option where you can choose any colour to indicate different weather conditions. Lastly there is a music synchronization option where the colour of the LED bulb changes with the rhythm of the music playing, like a sound and light show. The overall experience is excellent, and the response time is also smooth.
According to the company the lifespan is close to 15,000 hours, and the LED bulb has 16 million colors. In terms of energy, it is rated at 7W and offers 500 lumens of brightness. If you are looking forward to getting an IoT enabled home, this is one of the cheapest investments.
