Hive’s network of interconnected smart home devices, from Yves Béhar-designed Hive View, to lightbulbs, plugs and smart thermostats, have a new grand master – and it’s got built in WiFi.
Like the existing Hive Hub, the new, updated Hive Hub 360’s primary function is to organise existing Hive devices. It works through an integrated ‘Hive Actions’ feature, that cleverly and intuitively connects existing Hive hardware together via a mobile app, so you can control your temperature, lights, and secuity in one, functional space.
Though it may seem like the ‘Internet of Things’ has turned into the ‘Internet of Everything’ – the Hive Home Hub has a seriously impressive secondary function, which is getting smart-home aficionados and gadget collectors buzzing. The Home Hive 360 has powerful, 360-degree audio detection, thanks to in-built microphones. It’s able to listen in on worrisome noises, from a dog barking, to glass windows shattering.
Instinctively and immediately, it notifies you via the Hive app, wherever you are in the world, so you can take action remotely. Of course, you can turn it off when you’re at home so it doesn’t eavesdrop on your conversations.
It looks good too – taking its design-cues from Yves Béhar’s effortlessly stylish Hive offerings, the new 360 is available in of-the-moment colourways of brushed copper, or white and champagne gold. Millennial ears are pricking everywhere. (If we can’t own a home, at least we can technologically micro-manage a rental for £99.)
While smart speakers from Apple, Samsung and Sonos battle it out to be crowned the best smart speaker of 2018, who would have thought another tech titan would be claiming the title of best smart listener? Bravo, Hive!
Hive Hub 360, alongside Yves Béhar’s Hive Viewv
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Hive website
-
Samsung and Sony have unleashed new phone flagships, with Nothing snapping at their heelsDo flagship smartphones still have a place in a world of masterful mid-range devices and a general move towards less screen dependence, rather than more? We explore two new entries into the genre
-
Find bubbly, chewy, perfectly crusted pizza at Cosetta, LA’s new Westside Italian gemLocated in a slightly industrial area by the Santa Monica airport, Cosetta, from pizza maestro Zack Pollack, champions the local Italian dining scene with tradition and innovation
-
Oscar Niemeyer: a guide to the Brazilian modernist, from big hits to lesser-known gemsArchitecture master Oscar Niemeyer defined 20th-century architecture and is synonymous with Brazilian modernism; our ultimate guide explores his work, from lesser-known schemes to his big hits; and we revisit a check-in with the man himself
-
Yves Béhar-designed underwater research station is inspired by 1960s designYves Béhar and his firm Fuseproject have collaborated with ocean conservationist Fabien Cousteau to design an underwater scientific research habitat of the future
-
Yves Béhar designs robot called Moxie, a companion for the curious childWe chat to San Francisco-based designer Yves Béhar about Moxie, a new robot designed by fuseproject and made by Embodied Inc using the very latest form of AI
-
Yves Béhar takes Hive outdoors with a new home security camera -
Next stop: are smart homes making us stupid? -
Muscle suits, Bitcoin miners and artificial leaves descend on the V&A in a technology takeover -
Eye spy: Yves Béhar’s Hive View is an all-seeing addition to the smart home -
Moving pictures: Samsung and Yves Béhar create an artful television concept -
Technically speaking: how designers are putting the home back into home techOur monthly dissection of the best design-minded technology happenings the world over
