MacRumors

Signify today announced that its Philips Hue lighting lineup is gaining new outdoor lighting and sensor options in 2019.

New to the Hue Outdoor line is the Philips Hue Outdoor Sensor, which, like the indoor sensor, is designed to detect motion. The Outdoor Sensor is able to tell when a person is nearby, turning on outdoor Hue lights automatically.

The Hue Outdoor Sensor is wireless and operates on battery power, so it can be placed anywhere that's convenient. It has a 12-meter detection range and an integrated dusk-to-dawn sensor, making sure the lights only come on when it's dark outside.

Priced at $49.95, the Hue Outdoor Sensor will be available in February 2019.

Along with the sensor, Signify is introducing several new Philips Hue wall-mounted outdoor lighting fixtures, including the Philips Hue Welcome Flood Light ($109.99), the Philips Hue Discover Flood Light ($139.99), and the Philips Hue Econic family, priced at $129.99.

The Welcome light is limited to one shade of bright white light, but the Discover light is a white and color ambiance light, which means it can be set to various shades of white or one of 16 million colors.

The new Philips Hue Outdoor lights will work like all other Hue lights, allowing for Siri-based voice controls via HomeKit as well as app control options through the Hue app or the Home app.

The lights will also work with scenes and automations, allowing them to be integrated with other HomeKit products and set to come on automatically at designated times if desired. Signify plans to release the lights in February 2019.

More info on the new Hue Outdoor lights can be found on the Meethue website.

Anker has announced a new line of portable speakers under its Soundcore home audio brand. Dubbed the Rave series, the high-watt speakers are aimed at providing the soundtrack to your next outdoor summer party.

The standard Rave speaker costs $200, is splash resistant, and comes with dual two-inch tweeters and two 5.25-inch woofers that combine to deliver 160 watts of sound.

Next in the line-up is the $150 Rave Mini, an IPX7-rated waterproof speaker that packs a two-inch tweeter and identical woofers, and offers 80W output for up to 18 hours on a single charge.

While both of those models aren't set to launch in the U.S. until the summer, Anker does plan to bring two additional Rave speakers to market as early as this spring.

Called the Icon and Icon Mini, these two smaller models are both dust-resistant and waterproof, and are light enough to float in water.

The standard Icon features a 12-hour battery and will cost $50, while the Icon Mini offers eight hours' battery life and will cost $30.

In addition to the Rave series of speakers, this spring Anker is also launching the $100 Soundcore Wakey, an alarm clock that doubles as a wireless charger.

In a bid to compete with the likes of Amazon Prime and Roku, Plex is reportedly planning to offer users ad-supported movies and premium content subscriptions through its platform.

According to TechCrunch, the personal media management service is already in discussions with rights holders and networks to bring ad-supported content to the Plex platform, in a manner similar to the way in which The Roku Channel got up and running.

It's also said to be in talks with premium networks and content providers about offering their programming and subscriptions through Plex.

The idea apparently emerged out of Plex's agreement to bundle Tidal's music streaming service, as this meant it had to build transactional capabilities into its platform that were previously non-existent.

"Now we have the ability to sell other services and bundles," noted Plex co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Scott Olechowski, in a discussion this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "We're bundling a Plex Pass with TIDAL. That took a little bit of backend work," he continued. "You can imagine a bunch of different premium [content] that comes together in a single or multiple bundles, potentially."

The premium content would be presented to users through the existing Plex interface, which is organized by media type (music, movies, TV, etc.), and would allow them to easily see what sort of content they have access to based on their subscription.

Meanwhile, ad-supported movies would be delivered using Plex's existing ad tech platform, which serves ads in its existing streaming news and web show series.

Before it can offer the new content, Plex reportedly needs to further develop its digital rights management system and one-off purchase transactions backend. It also has to work out how the premium content would be bundled and offered to both paid and non-paying users.

However, all being well, Plex hopes the new content will make its way onto the platform before the end of 2019.

Xiaomi today unveiled a new version of its AirDots wireless headphones, and it's safe to say that the average consumer on the street would be hard pressed to distinguish the look from Apple's own AirPods.

The Chinese mobile maker first appeared to take a leaf out of Apple's playbook back in November with the launch of its original AirDots, which were more akin to classic earbuds in design but offered much of the same functionality as AirPods, including gestural controls and a compact charging case.

Xiaomi's newly announced AirDots Pro (aka "Mi Bluetooth Headset Air") buds however look like a straight-up clone of Apple's best-selling wireless headphones, complete with the signature "arm" that houses the Bluetooth receiver and beamforming microphone.

Like AirPods, the earpieces feature touch controls for music playback and invoking personal assistants, and they're able to function independently of each other thanks to adaptive pairing. They also offer water resistance and a four-hour battery life, while the charging case offers an additional 10 hours of charge and can recharge the buds fully in one hour.

To their credit, the AirDots Pro have silicone tips for improved sound isolation and additional active noise cancelation. A black pair is also reportedly in the works. Still, the biggest difference is probably the price – Xiaomi's buds cost 399 Yuan (around $60), whereas Apple's come in at $159. How that saving impacts on sound quality and general performance remains to be seen.

Xiaomi devices, ranging from smartphones to tablets, have been criticized in the past for heavily borrowing design elements from Apple's iPhones and iPads and adopting marketing materials tactics similar to Apple's.

In 2017, Apple won the right to prevent Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi from registering its "Mi Pad" mobile tablet device as an EU trademark because the name was deemed too similar to Apple's iPad.

(Via gizchina.com.)

Apple-certified accessory maker Anker today at CES 2019 announced that its PowerPort Atom PD 1 power adapter, which it calls "the world's smallest Power Delivery wall charger," will be available to order later this month.

The PowerPort Atom PD 1 is about the size of the five-watt charger that comes in the box with every iPhone thanks to the use of gallium nitride components. Nonetheless, it has a max output of 30W, enough to charge not only smartphones but larger devices such as a 12-inch MacBook, Chromebook, or a Nintendo Switch.

The Atom series will be Anker's new line of slim, lightweight Power Delivery wall chargers, with a 60-watt dual USB-C port Atom PD 2 charger and a 100-watt dual USB-C, dual USB-A port Atom PD 4 charger also planned for release.

Anker first unveiled the Atom PD 1 at an event in New York City in October, but failed to meet its promised November release date at the time. The charger will be available exclusively on Amazon for $29.99 in the United States, according to the accessory maker, with a revised release date of January 2019.

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