Eve Adds Support for iOS 14's HomeKit Adaptive Lighting to Eve Light Strip

Wish hue would add it

They've said they're looking into it. ('https://www.reddit.com/r/lifx/comments/iv3flf/adaptive_lighting_on_ios_14/g66y90r')

Only had one bit of Eve kit and it wasn't great... has the recent stuff improved? I got a load of Lifx (4x GU10's and 2x strips at 4m each) and they've been top notch.

I've dealt with a bunch of HomeKit vendors and Eve is BY FAR my favorite. It's bulletproof, just works without random weirdness. It's expensive, yes, but they're now my first choice if they offer what I want; life's too short to put up with the nonsense of other vendors. (Basically Hue and Ikea are second tier, requiring HomeBridge for full access to their functionality, and with various hassles in the setup and occasional random weirdness. Anything below those two [eg Wyze or Wemo or the Chinese no-names is just too much pain unless you have absolutely no choice.])

The one issue with Eve is that they are Bluetooth only, meaning Bluetooth range limits (but VERY convenient setup, and, like I said, reliability). If you require long range you will need to buy their range extenders which is, yes, even more dollars. Unfortunately quality costs...

Wish hue would add it

It's available in Beta in Germany and Philips say Hue will get it worldwide "later this year".

I cannot wait for it.

This is a ripoff. Wait for a Black Friday sale or Amazon prime day.

I'm hoping TP-Link bulbs and smart plugs will adopt HomeKit after not too long. I currently have about 5 of these devices being controlled by 3 Echo devices but I would love to switch to 3 HomePod Minis and not have to replace anything else to use HomeKit.

If you are the kind of person who's happy running a (very simple) home server, look into the HomeBridge project. This is software that runs on a variety of devices (I use an old mac mini, other people use a Raspberry Pi or a Windows machine). Easy install; access through a web browser. What it does is bridge various non-HomeKit HW into HomeKit so that HomeKit can control them. It usually works pretty well.

Going forward (in my experience) I would still buy genuine HomeKit stuff if possible because the cheaper stuff tends to not be as well debugged and to randomly have to be rebooted or to fail for no reason. But it's an easy cheap way to grandfather in any devices (like smart plugs or bulbs) that you already have.

I'm stuck working from home at the moment, and I like having my workspace backlit. This feature would be pretty nice for a lot of folks like me doing the same.

Issue a) Lightstrips generically.
They are nice for situations where you just want some glow, not "massive" amounts of light. One example is behind a TV (this makes the TV surprisingly nicer, even if you stick to a fixed color, not changing colors or ambilight or suchlike). Another is above your bed behind the headboard, if you read paper a lot. (It's probably not good for reading off a tablet because of reflection, but your room geometry may vary.)
A third case is if you have people walking around the house late at night, to create a light that's good enough but not too strong in a hall or stairs or kitchen.

If you just want to experiment, Ikea sell a lightstrip (superbasic, white only) for like $5. (For that price they don't include a USB charger you will have to buy separately, which to judge from certain iPhone12 rants, is the most difficult and expensive thing on earth, so be warned...)

Issue b) Fancy color changing light strip.
I'm not sure I see how I would use that in my house, rather than a basic on/off white strip. But I live in LA and every room has lots of sun right now. It's possible once winter really kicks in and the rooms are darker I will start to see places where it could add to the tone of the room.

My general feeling with all these items (ie fancy lighting, nice HomeKit stuff) is you honestly can't tell how you'll use it and feel about it without experience. It's hard to sniff and mock that you don't "need" something you haven't lived with. My philosophy (and I'm still very happy with it after a few years) is be willing to spend whatever you can budget (for me it's about $100/month) on experimental stuff to make the house nicer. I'd say about $20 of that $100 is wasted on average BUT the $80 that isn't wasted makes me so happy that it far overwhelms the $20!
I didn't think I'd like the Ikea light strip for book reading as much as I do.
I didn't think I'd like backlight LED's behind my TV as much as I do.
I REALLY like how I basically never switch on or off lights in my house (they're variously controlled by sun location, by a smart light sensor, and by presence), to the extent that it feels offensive when I go to another house and have to control them manually, like an animal! Likewise for smart blinds.
(And the same goes for some non-tech things. Foam mattress topper. 1000 thread count sheets. Foam bathroom mats. A very nice [functionally, not artsy] night stand setup. Light diffusion film on some appropriately chosen windows.)

On the other hand, I was disappointed by full color hue bulbs. Technically they work, can't complain about that. But they just don't solve a problem I have. I've tried using them in various ways and nothing has really stuck as something I care about.

Variable color temperature I'm still not sure about. I have my own hacked up Adaptive Lighting version right now (looking forward to when I can switch it off and rely on HomeKit doing this!) and, yeah, sure, it's nice. But (for ME! your milage may be very different) it's not a life changer, not something I care about nearly as much as, say, smart blinds.