Apple HomePod (1 Viewer)

[Clinton McClure]

I’ve heard the full sized HomePod sounds amazing but I can’t justify $300 each for them so minis will have to do. The one in the kitchen is for me to use pretty much every afternoon when I’m cooking and cleaning the kitchen / washing dishes afterwards. The other is in the master bath upstairs for my wife when she’s getting ready for work or soaking in the jacuzzi tub.
Like I said earlier, the sound quality is a bit muffled like there is a towel over the pod but what can you expect from a tiny speaker? I can go into the Music settings on my iPhone and turn on the EQ setting for more treble which makes it sound a lot better but then I’d have to remember to turn it back off before using my Airpods or getting in my car. Like it is, the Mini still sounds better than the portable skull candy and JBL Bluetooth speakers we’ve used in the past so I’m ok with it.

 

[dpippel]

HomePod and HomePod mini to Gain Support For Apple Music Lossless Audio in Future Software Update

The HomePod and HomePod mini will gain support for playing back Apple Music Lossless audio in a future software update, according to a newly...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Sam Posten]

HomePod lives

Apple announces the second-generation HomePod

The HomePod…lives! In a surprise announcement on Wednesday, Apple announced the second-generation HomePod with support for spatial audio, smart home automations using Siri, and a slightly ref…

sixcolors.com

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This announcement comes as a huge surprise.

Yes, it was talked about and rumored but nobody thought it would be announced this week.

Kudos to a slightly $50 lower price point. The article does state that this price saving comes with a few sacrifices over the original speaker.

Quite frankly, I am happy with the Mini speakers. I can get two for less than one of these and play them in stereo. Of course, not have the same level of sound quality.

And, in the bigger picture, I have Sonos speakers across the home which are in an entirely different class.

 

[Sam Posten]

 

[dpippel]

I'm completely underwhelmed. The additional sensors are sort of nice if they'll give you data directly from the HomePod, but other than pretty much matching the functionality of the Mini (Thread support, etc.), what is the point here? They've dumbed-down the speaker and microphone configurations, and it only supports 802.11n Wi-Fi??? From what I've been reading, quite a few people in the industry were hoping for a multifunction touch display up top instead of what looks like a simple rehash of the same design from the 1st gen HomePod, if not the identical component. Personally, I was hoping for something really innovative, but that's not the case as far as I can see from this announcement.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I'm completely underwhelmed. The additional sensors are sort of nice if they'll give you data directly from the HomePod, but other than pretty much matching the functionality of the Mini (Thread support, etc.), what is the point here? They've dumbed-down the speaker and microphone configurations, and it only supports 802.11n Wi-Fi??? From what I've been reading, quite a few people in the industry were hoping for a multifunction touch display up top instead of what looks like a simple rehash of the same design from the 1st gen HomePod, if not the identical component. Personally, I was hoping for something really innovative, but that's not the case as far as I can see from this announcement.

Hey, Doug!

You have cited one of the rumors about what would be included in this device which was a touch display on top of the device.

However, this is what I presume happened...

The initial Homepod was pretty much a failure for Apple. And maybe failure is not a good word, but it didn't meet sale expectations so they stopped making the device. Many speculated Apple overpriced the device.

So, what they essentially did here was put out the same speaker, stripping it of a few features, and offering it for $50 less in hopes it would attract a more budget-minded audience.

I think this speaker is still overpriced by $50. I tried doing a search to see what Google had available in comparison and Amazon isn't immediately showing me any $200+ speakers from that company. I do see, instead, a lot of $70 speakers coming up in the search.

My thought is that Apple failed the first time and now they are setting itself up to fail again. It was apparent their Homepods weren't selling and now they are offering something a bit inferior and only knocking $50 off the price.

 

[dpippel]

My thought is that Apple failed the first time and now they are setting itself up to fail again. It was apparent their Homepods weren't selling and now they are offering something a bit inferior and only knocking $50 off the price.

I agree on all points, Ron. $300 is still a lot of money for a smart speaker, and I can only assume that with the change in speaker configuration, Apple is offering a "new" full-size HomePod that will not sound as good as the 1st gen, which was its biggest advantage over the competition, IMO. At the very least it will sound different, making it difficult to integrate into a multi-device household for us OG HomePod owners. What were they thinking?

 

[Nelson Au]

I saw this news pop up from the Apple Insider app alert this morning. This is a surprise! I had no idea.

i have several of the original and I like them a lot. (I got a few on the sales before they were all gone) I have one pair set up as stereo. I had been a bit worried that if these go bad, what to do. So nice to see that Apple revived these.

By the way, I was going to ask you guys about a Siri question with HomePod. Perhaps I do not a have setting correct, but if I ask Siri a question, HomePod will answer and not the iPhone or iPads. And the answer is sometimes, “I can show you on your iPhone, do you want me to open on your iPhone?” Words to that effect. And if I saw yes, nothing happens on the iPhone. So I was curious if this happens to others.

I know HomePod and Siri in general has been criticized heavily for not functioning as well as the Google versions. But I don’t use my HomePod for being a smart speaker much anyway, I just like that it works great as a speaker and connects to my iPhone and iPads. If the Siri functionality is improved, then it will be a delightful bonus.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I saw this news pop up from the Apple Insider app alert this morning. This is a surprise! I had no idea.

i have several of the original and I like them a lot. (I got a few on the sales before they were all gone) I have one pair set up as stereo. I had been a bit worried that if these go bad, what to do. So nice to see that Apple revived these.

By the way, I was going to ask you guys about a Siri question with HomePod. Perhaps I do not a have setting correct, but if I ask Siri a question, HomePod will answer and not the iPhone or iPads. And the answer is sometimes, “I can show you on your iPhone, do you want me to open on your iPhone?” Words to that effect. And if I saw yes, nothing happens on the iPhone. So I was curious if this happens to others.

I know HomePod and Siri in general has been criticized heavily for not functioning as well as the Google versions. But I don’t use my HomePod for being a smart speaker much anyway, I just like that it works great as a speaker and connects to my iPhone and iPads. If the Siri functionality is improved, then it will be a delightful bonus.

Nelson,

It's amazing that after all these years, Siri is still the worst voice assistant out there. This is an Apple product, for God's sake.

As far as what device will answer your "Hey Siri" requests? I am not certain how that works but if I ask my HomePod Mini "Hey Siri" and my phone and Macbook are both nearby, all the devices light up. However, only one answers and I think it's whichever picks up my voice first.

I would love to have those original HomePod units in a stereo configuration as you have them. They must sound great.

 

[dpippel]

I would love to have those original HomePod units in a stereo configuration as you have them. They must sound great.

They sound phenomenally good as a stereo pair. I have two set up in this configuration on my patio, and sometimes it's hard to believe that what I'm hearing is coming out of two such relatively small speakers.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey Ron, I’d agree that whichever device is near, they answer first. But the devices often defers to the HomePod and Siri answers from the HomePod. I have tried to quietly speak to the iPad or iPhone directly it replies.

Yes, as far as stereo goes with the HomePods, it works and sounds great! Not as good as my full size home theater speakers, but really darn good! It’s kind of like the computational photos from an iPhone verses a “real” SLR camera.

There has been a few times recently I noticed the right channel wasn’t working at first, but would hook up after a minute. I wondered if it might be the new iOS or there was an issue with the pairing. Or the HomePod was going bad. So that’s why this news is good if my current HomePod is dying. So far, the stereo pairing is working so far.

 

[Ted Todorov]

They sound phenomenally good as a stereo pair. I have two set up in this configuration on my patio, and sometimes it's hard to believe that what I'm hearing is coming out of two such relatively small speakers.

That's what I care about: and if the new HomePods sound just as good or better than the old ones, their mere existence is a win.

As far Siri is concerned -- it is software: it can improve, indeed vastly improve in the future if Apple fixes/enhances the Siri software. You won't need a new HomePod -- all these improvements will happen on the existing ones - original or new one. If there are hardware changes, they will be at Apple's back end to contribute to faster, better, more reliable handling for what must be a genormous amount of regular Siri users.

We may think that Google's voice assistant (or Alexa) are better than Siri, but I would bet both of them have far fewer users at any given time than Siri does. That's no excuse for many of Siri's long existing flaws, but look at some basic differences. For instance, how many languages does Siri 'speak' vs Alexa?

According to Apple, Siri currently is at 37 (including variants of the same language): https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#siri

Best I can tell Alexa speaks 7

 

[dpippel]

Sound quality is definitely what set the OG HomePod apart from the competition IMO, and helped justify its high price. Siri? Well, Apple has had YEARS to improve it and it still has lots of issues. I know because I have four OG HomePods, two iPhones, an iPad Pro, an Apple TV 4K, two MacBook Pros, and lots of HomeKit devices in the house, and I use Siri every single day to control those devices. I also have two 5th gen Echo Dots and one Google Home Mini that I use regularly. From my direct experience, I can say without a doubt that Siri comes up dead last in reliability and trouble-free functionality for controlling devices and completing requests for information. Alexa and Google Assistant are about equal in those two departments, and I rarely have trouble with either of them. Siri is another matter.

As for market share, I think that because both Apple and Google have their voice assistant tech so entrenched in the cell phone market, we should just look at the smart speaker landscape and compare apples to apples, so to speak. In that evaluation, as of 2022, Apple comes in dead last at a measly 12% of the global market, with Amazon at 37% and Google at 48%. Amazon and Google have sold so many smart devices because they're affordable, something that Apple didn't catch up with until they released the HomePod Mini a little over two years ago.

So, it appears that the ability to understand 37 different languages doesn't mean a whole lot in the end for Siri.

 

[Carlo_M]

One of my stereo pair of the OG HomePod died a year or so ago. I held off "repairing" it (which was actually Apple just selling me what I assume is a refurb for $270) when I heard rumors that a new version was coming out. With less drivers and incompatibility with the original HomePod, I am pretty sure I won't be buying a new stereo pair of the 2nd gen HP. I'm debating whether to see if I can still "repair" my old one, or just leave the HomePod ecosystem. I realize after I lost the stereo pair functionality, I was dissatisfied with the single speaker sound (too bassy) and have essentially stopped using the remaining HP altogether.

I've given up on Siri "getting smarter" because as others have said, it's been a thing for over a decade now and it still is what it is. And yes, I know all "smart assistants" take your personal data, but given Apple's heightened privacy stance in comparison to its competitors I think the fact that it doesn't collect everything is part of the reason it's not as "smart" as other assistants. My former roommate had several Alexa devices and that thing listened to everything all the time...we'd see things appear in our Amazon account and paid web ads that we had literally discussed over the dining room table the night before, and we'd never put in a web search. Let's not even get into the Google/YouTube/Amazon data linkage...things I look up on Amazon suddenly end up in my paid Google ads and recommended YouTube videos...

 

[Nelson Au]

Carlo, I did a few searches on eBay and there’s quite a few of the original HomePods available. I’ll bet the prices might drop a bit as the new ones begin to go on sale. That is if you want to replace the bad one you have to get stereo again.

By the way, I‘m curious about the rumor you heard that the new HomePods would be incompatible with the originals. That seems very un-Apple like. I hope it’s not true.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

A very encouraging review...

Hands-On Experience of New HomePod Reveals 'Exquisite' Audio Quality

One of the first hands-on experiences with the new second-generation HomePod has offered new details on the latest smart speaker's quality and...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Greg.K]

Carlo, I did a few searches on eBay and there’s quite a few of the original HomePods available. I’ll bet the prices might drop a bit as the new ones begin to go on sale. That is if you want to replace the bad one you have to get stereo again.

By the way, I‘m curious about the rumor you heard that the new HomePods would be incompatible with the originals. That seems very un-Apple like. I hope it’s not true.

The new ones can't stereo pair with the old ones. That's the only incompatibility. I can't imagine that would be a good thing to do anyway, with different drivers in them.

HomePod 2 stereo pair is incompatible between first and second-gen models

One thing to bear in mind when purchasing a new HomePod is that you need two identical HomePod devices to create a stereo pair.

www.ithinkdiff.com

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Greg. That makes sense that you can’t pair the new ones with the original ones to create a stereo pair. Since the new HomePods have different internal speaker and microphone set-ups, that means they are not the same as an original HomePod.

i would think though that you can still stream music to a set of original HomePods to a new HomePod in a different room.

 

[Sam Posten]

Reviews are up