I purchased the in wall power block and the power cable pops out a single gang passthrough and you cannot see to cable at all. Now this isn't for everyone but definitely worth it.
Nice video, Shane! Great intro and good choice to put up a “W” with the Nanoleaf shapes! Loved this and excited to hear more about the whole border router piece.
I did go through social commitment apartment anxiety myself, but once I started building the light tiles slowly, it was the best thing I ever started. The Nanoleaf really added to my apartment, you will love every minute of it ! 👍
On top as always Shane. Keep up these amazing videos and honest reviews! You’re the first go to when I need HomeKit related videos. And in my opinion.. slick,direct,very explained. 👌🏼 thanks for continuing these vids!
@@ShaneCreates you’re welcome. If someone deserves the credit it has to be said. Hope your channel grows with the same dedication you put on your videos! See ya on the next one!💪🏼
Good video as always Shane, I’ve had these for a while now, I even asked you before about them, but I can tell you that thru Shortcuts you can tie them to your weather and they will show a specific color you choose for the expected weather at a specifics time, so I have red for hot, blue for cold and purple for rain to display at 8am so my fam knows what to expect (I have them set in diamond shape in my living room). I also have a specific theme pop up at sunset so my kids know it’s time to start getting ready for bed. Lastly you can do special theme colors per season, so there is a lot you can do with these, get creative. Thanks Shane, keep these coming.
Hi Shane! I hope you like this idea. I have the prior generation of these lights. I originally had 12 of them arranged in a snowflake configuration and mounted directly to the wall but after a year, the triangles began to come loose because the drywall underneath is slightly porous. So, I took it down for fear it would fall down while I was away from home and damage them. But rather than give up, I went to Lowes and bought a piece of clear plexiglass. I’d already done the math and had the people at Lowes cut it into a square that was slightly larger than my snowflake shape. It was pricey but a good investment. I returned home and drilled a shallow indentation in the back side of the plexiglass where it would be hidden by the triangles but above the center point of the square allowing the plexiglass to hang like a picture and just deep enough for a nail or screw but not all the way through the material. I replaced the old command strips with new ones trimmed to fit behind the triangles (the release tabs used to stick out from behind the triangles) and remounted them. I placed a drywall anchor into the wall and screwed a small screw in that slightly stuck out and hung the entire thing like a picture. It can be easily moved and the triangles are very secure as the plexiglass has no pores. My lights are also tied into HomeKit. I use them to wake me up (mimicking the sunrise), they are also tied the motion detectors of the cameras in my backyard so , at night, when motion is detected, they light up briefly to let me know to check the cameras without having my iOS device near.
Great video Shane, covered a lot of stuff I didn't know about Nanoleaf Shapes. Definitely one to watch for when they're enabled as a Thread border router! Makes them even more useful than just art!
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I'm installing a set of 24 of these in my backyard office building. The power cord has always bothered me so I am installing a recessed outlet that will be behind the panels, allowing me to hide that hideous cord. The outlet has to be quite deep though because the transformer/plug is quite large. I'm also venting the recessed outlet so heat doesn't accumulate in that recess.
Good video Shane, I have just moved house this week and I think they will be a good edition to my home. Thanks for the discount code, much appreciated! 👌🏼
These look like a lot of fun. I think people would be fine with the expenditure as long as they go into the purchase with the attitude that the product is maybe 70% frivolous and 30% functional. I wonder if there's a a practical and safe way to conceal the cord.
Yea I agree. The main reason to get these is just because they are fun and look REALLY cool. However, adding the ability to use them as homekit buttons is a nice addition and I am glad they included that. And that update turning them into a thread border router does also give them a little more function as well.
Wow, I did not realize that you could do so much with these devices. Unfortunately we have very little wall space in our home and what we have is covered up by art work (oil paintings, water colors, shadow boxes, et cetera. Several of our main walls have large cut outs that help make the main living space seem larger than it is. Unfortunately, that also limits the wall space in these rooms. I'll have to think long and hard to find a spot to put these. I also have to consider the WAF and use cases that would be useful in our home. I am very glad to see other companies coming out with a Thread border router option. I am surprised that Eve hasn't come out with a device that can act as a Thread border router as they were an early adopter of Thread enabled devices. Now that Nanoleaf has said they will make their light shape controller a Thread border router through a future software update, I am wondering if Eve may do the same with one of their current, or maybe even future, devices. Another great video. And another video that is making me rethink my HomeKit home and if there is a way I can integrate Shapes into my set up. I bet you are looking forward to Monday's WWDC commencement address! I will be interested in seeing what this new HomeOS is (hopefully a combining and rebranding of the AppleTV OS and HomePod OS) and maybe, just maybe, some updates to how HomeKit works. Is it too much to hope for that they will bring some more updates to HomeKit, like more light icons, more automation options, and maybe make HomeKit more than a hobby product? Or am I wishing for too much?
Thanks Frederick! Yes, these shapes are really cool. Also checkout the new "elements" by Nanoleaf. They are like the shapes but have a wood grain look. Yep, definitely looking forward to WWDC. Hopefully we'll hear something regarding HomeOS!
Thank you for the video. I always wondered how these things worked. Can never be sure which version will be able to support thread as they have been in the market fot a few years now. So I am holding off until I see the thread stamp on the box.
Thanks for watching! I hear that. Always a good idea to wait until it actually happens. With that said, they say all the "shapes" and the new "elements" products will get the thread update (the older canvas and light panels will not). Either way, it should be real soon, before the end of the month according to Nanoleaf.
If you use the double sided tape that came in the box good luck with not damaging the wall. I bout the original kit and took those down because I but the new shape kit with 3 expansion.. I learned my lesson..I went out and bought command strip and those work just as good without damaging the wall
Hey Shane. Thanks for the review! I went to sign up for the trial and was first told it would be for 14 days but when I created an account with my Apple login it changed to 7 day. Just FYI.
Great video and I think thread is the future of a smart home , I have a Nanoleaf bulb and am very exited for the screen mirroring, I was wondering if you could make a video on it so I could see how it works and how to set it up. Thanks for the good review and keep it up 👍🏻
Thanks for watching Jo! I think the screen mirroring only works with their light panels right now. I appreciate the video suggestion. In the meantime, Nanoleaf did make this How-To video for the screen mirror feature that may help : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o2598C-GLkA.html
Great review, didn’t realize there were so many other things you could do with the nanoleaf. I think you have provided enough ammo to justify the purchase ;).
Yeah I really need help sticking my triangles to my wall again before I did good by buying command strip and sticking them on the back and wall but now I’m having trouble they keep falling apart which is disturbing because I keep having to put them back together
I always thought that these were just cool lights and I had no idea that you could turn each shape into a HomeKit controller. I wonder if you could make the shapes respond to specific people arriving home or particular sensors detecting motion or something. As usual, great video!
Thanks Howard! Yea you could certainly do all those things you mentioned. Since the lights, and even the effects/scenes work in HomeKit, you can creat those automations based on location or sensors just like any other HomeKit automation. I was thinking of doing something like that for these actually.
Since they can be used as a button, can I set it up so they act as a combination lock? For example, if I tap the triangles in a certain pattern, that will lock/unlock a door?
Yea, they don't look great during the day... defiantly a little "plasticy." You may want to look at the Nanoleaf Elements or the Lines to see if they would look better for your setup.
Haha they would look cool for sure as a backsplash. Although I wouldn't want to put them there.. I'd be too afraid they'd get messed up with all the steam, grease, etc. from cooking.
Great review I’m looking to start HomeKit. I live in the country and don’t have very good Internet. So I’m thinking Products with thread is the way to go. What do you think is the way to go with bad Service. Thanks love your videos.
Thanks Greg! I appreciate the support! Yea, thread products are probably a good option for those with bad internet since they can communicate locally via thread. And HomeKit in general is probably a good thing because of that local communication. Also, products that use a hub that can be hard wired into your router, like zigbee (Phillips Hue, Aqara, etc) or Lutron's ClearConnect may also be good options. But you'll still have frustrations at times I'm sure if your internet is that bad, especially when it comes to things like controlling products remotely.
Greg Bales - when you say you don't have good Internet, are you talking about the speeds coming into your house? If so, that doesn't have anything to do with the IoT devices inside your home unless they have to communicate with a cloud service (like Google and Alexa). If you are using just HomeKit devices and having them communicate with just your HomeKit servers (AppleTV, HomePod, iPad), then all you need to do is have a good WiFi device/devices that cover your home well. That said, using things like Lutron Caseta switches which talks to its own dedicated hub using their ClearConnect communication standard will take a bunch of the WiFi traffic off of your internal LAN and just the Lutron Caseta hub will be the only device connected to your LAN and that is through an ethernet cable direct connect to your router or switch. So all of the switches "talk" to the Lutron hub and the hub then communicates directly to your HomeKit server. If your internal LAN WiFi has poor connectivity, then I highly recommend you look into first correctly that with a good mesh router setup or step up to a system using Wireless Access Points like Ubiquity UniFi or something similar. Otherwise, you may experience the dreaded "No Response" on your WiFi attached IoT devices. If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact me as I would be happy to help you get your internet issues resolved.
@@Polkster13 I have century link I only get 12 MBps it work ok looking to get one of the hub Systems. Really interested in the thread systems when They get more products in stock. I just don’t want to slow down my Internet any slower than it is.
@@gregbales5110 Your internal and external speeds are quite different. Even though you have low external speeds for your Internet coming in, that really doesn't affect the internal speeds between devices on your internal LAN. For instance, if you have a 10 GB network card in a computer that is hooked up to a 10 GB switch that is hooked up to a NAS drive system that has a 10 GB ethernet card in it, then transferring data to and from the NAS from your computer will be close to 10 GB regardless of your WAN speed coming in. The limiting factors are type of cabling, network card speeds, and the switch being used. If the switch were say a 1 GB switch, then everything going though that switch would be reduced down to 1 GB of speed regardless of the connections to the NAS and computer. The same applies to your internal LAN in your home. should It sounds like the bottle neck you are experiencing is the slow speeds coming from your WAN device (modem/router) when you are trying to access the Internet in the outside world from your internal LAN. As long as your IoT devices are not sending requests out to the cloud (like a lot of Alexa and Google devices do because they are cloud based), then that should not adversely affect your computers from accessing the WWW through your WAN device.
@@gregbales5110 Does your CentryLink modem also serve as your DHCP router? If so, I would highly recommend that you get a mesh router system to cover your house and have the CentryLink modem set up to be just a WAN access point to the WWW. The mesh routers will then handle all of the internal traffic in your home for wired and wireless devices and then route any outside requests through the modem. The mesh routers will also handle your IP address assignments, DNS lookups, and any firewall rules that you set up (or are set up for you by the mesh network).
Shane, do these put out a meaningful amount of light? I’ve got a dark corner of the room and I’m wondering if they would be enough to brighten it up or if I’d be better off with a proper lamp.
Depends on the size of the panel, spec'd at 80 lumens/panel for the triangles and 100 lumens/panel for the hexagons. For comparison, a typical Hue smart light bulb is 800 lumens.
They are very bright imo. Of course, the more panels, the brighter. And the brightness also varies some depending on which shapes you have. I have 10 triangles and they are definitely enough to lighten up a corner of the room.
Great video, I actually bought 2 starter kits and 2 expansion kits of their Canvas panels, but I haven't installed them because of the commitment involved, and I bought them over a year ago, do you know if the Canvas will get the Thread treatment or not? That will definitely push me to finally install them.
I don’t believe the Canvas panels will get the thread update as it does require some hardware that they don’t have. If I recall correctly, only the shapes and new elements light panels will get the thread update.
@@samturner3478 yes the shapes have already been updated to act as a thread border router, currently just for other Nanoleaf thread devices. But soon there will be another update for them to be a border router supporting ANY thread homekit device.
Hi Shane, Thanks for your video! I am trying to understand how these new product(s) will connect. You explained and this is also mentioned on Nanoleaf’s website, that these need to be connected to 2,4 GHz Wifi. When the thread update has been rolled out, would these new products also be able to be connected via / through HomePod mini’s? Asking because the HomePod mini’s connect to 5 GHz WiFi. If that, unfortunately, would not be possible (connecting the new Nanoleaf products to the HomePod mini’s via thread) I will pass on these beautiful looking new products. But there is no way I will connect these to a 2,4 GHz Wifi network. Hopefully you can shed some light on this?😉 Thread to HomePod mini, fine. Connecting directly to a 2,4 GHz Wifi network, not so fine, instant showstopper. Appreciate your response. Stay healthy 🍏✅👍
Hey Mark, yes, these need to connect to your 2.4 GHz wifi network and will even after they get the update. They will not connect via thread. Since they will act as a border router, they will still connect directly to the wifi network, and thread child devices can then connect to the shapes via thread.
@@ShaneCreates Thanks for your quick reply Shane. Too bad. Obviously it is what it is. Just wondering, what is your opinion on this, no 5GHz support? Best.
@@ShaneCreates I am in the process of phasing out as much 2,4 as possible, hence my question. Thanks for your response and keep up the great videos 🍏✅👍
I understand that. Have you seen the new Shape Elements, just recently announced? They have a wood look, a little less modern and more natural looking than the original white shapes. (affiliate link) geni.us/NanoElements
Misleading and click bait title. IT DOES NOT HAVE THREAD (yet) and you did not review the thread aspects. You just talked some BS about it and don’t have the details or tests. Waste of time.
Where I get confused is with all the different panels they make and the compatibility, for starters Im looking at the 3 pack shapes expansion and they aren't compatible with canvas or rhythm lights(I want them to react to music) ... Now your saying that the "shapes" actually can react to music... I dont know which to buy anymore or what works with what so confused 😩
