On the face of it a slightly oversized screw threaded bulb that can be controlled from an App to increase or decrease the brightness seems a good idea, add the ability to play your Smart Phone music through the bulb seems a great idea, does theory work?
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I read the miniscule instruction sheet – with the aid of a magnifying glass – and managed to get my Android phone to control the light with just one permission to turn on Bluetooth. The music played but through the speaker of the Smart Phone.
I tried another recent Smart Phone and reached the same point, read the press release again and then tried a third phone all got the bulb working, all failed to play music through the bulb.
I then asked the PR person who came back saying he had discovered you had to ask Bluetooth to find the bulb again this time for sound transmission. I got the idea that this was not required for iOS devices but as I have nothing with the latest low power Bluetooth on iOS I cannot confirm this.
With this stumbling block surmounted it’s time to think how useful – or not – is the ability to get a dimmer function for a light bulb and or play music through it.
The first thing in its favour is that no battery is required as it uses mains power.
Being able to dim a light for other reasons such as a child’s night light is a certain winner.
Using light as an alarm is another good feature I have reviewed a couple of dedicated lights that wake you with light which can be far kinder than with an alarm as you emerge slowly from deep sleep and therefor are likely to be less grumpy.
A minus point is if your phone dies during the night no alarm light so you possibly wake up late.
With almost all Smart Phones using USB to charge perhaps that could be incorporated in the bulb in some way so that the phone is charged while you sleep.
While the light feature to give exactly the level you want for reading, watching TV etc is great I am less convinced by the sound quality and volume available.
There is another problem in that the bulb only appears to be currently available as a screw fitting and while there are plenty of units that use screw fittings few ceiling lights do and certainly for a child light the ceiling fitment can stop tiny hands tinkering.
While this is interesting I feel it has a way to go, currently it seems to only have white as an option certainly for a young child the option of multiple colour would be good. The sound could be better. there does not seem to be any ability for adjustment of tone or bass currently.
While I am led to believe ‘i’ devices only need one link currently you have to do the link twice on Android, once for the light and then again for the sound, small tweaks maybe but they need implementing.
The PlayBulb from Mipow is available from the link below for £58.59 with free delivery.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IRQ6TOK?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634
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