Gadgetory

out-of-the-box the Philips U is an awesome centerpiece it turns your room shades of blue red green and purple plus you never have to get off the couch to control the light well once you get past that novelty you can also be really useful today I'll show you how to wake up with you use it to keep burglars away and set the mood the moment you get home once you've installed the bulbs and the portal is set up first on your list is to set up remote controlling that means you can actually control the lights from miles away to do that go to the app and tap the Settings button then log in once you register for an account on the hue website you'll be asked to grant remote control access hit yes head back to the app and you should be set now you can use almost all the app features even when you're not at home you've also just unlocked three of Hugh's best offerings alarms timers and geofencing if you need a little extra push out of bed in the morning there's a huge fear for that waking up to light will tell your brain that it's morning and it's time to get up to program an alarm hit the plus button to create a new scene then choose a recipe and the brightness energized would be a good one for the morning now choose which lights will turn on and finally tap this button then alarm to set the alarm when you're setting the time you'll see you have an option to randomize if you enable this the lights will turn on and off at various times to foil any thieves then choose your fade in interval the days and you're set now you can give the recipe a name up here and it'll show up in the app if it's blue you'll know it's activated anytime you want to deactivate it just double tap the scene' Hugh it's also pretty smart if you train it to be with geofencing lights will automatically turn on when you get home and off when you leave here's how it works like the alarm create a new scene but this time choose my location this marker indicates where your house is if you need to hit refresh to help the app find you down here check the boxes to decide when the lights turn on and off unless you don't get a lot of natural sunlight check this box to make sure Hugh only turns on when it's dark out now whenever you arrive home your lights will be on and the mood will be set these are just some of the more useful heute features but there's lots more so check out my complete guide on how to see Netcom and as always hit me up on Twitter with any questions for cnet.com I'm Sharon Vaknin now I think it's time to relax you