Apple HomePod (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/04/04/apple-cuts-homepod-price-worldwide/

MSRP cut to $299

 

[Ted Todorov]

Long review: https://medium.com/rethink-reviews/in-defense-of-the-homepod-df2bd0f8f16c

 

[Sam Posten]

I like mine. They are expensive but worth it.

 

[Mark Booth]

We've got 4 HomePods and one or more of them get used every single day. When we have guests for the Booth Bijou I love that I can simply say, "Hey Siri, play my Movie Night playlist everywhere" followed by "Hey Siri, set the volume to 20% everywhere" and the same synchronized background music is softly playing in each room. Mood music.

Mark

 

[Ted Todorov]

https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/06/08/everything-new-with-homepod-in-ios-13
Handoff certainly sounds very appealing

 

[Cranston37+]

All I want is to not have to say "hey Siri" after every flipping sentence. Alexa solved that a year ago...

 

[DaveF]

Don’t you still have to say “Alexa” to get its attention? (I have a Dot but rarely use it except “Hey Alexa set a timer for five minutes”)

 

[Cranston37+]

Don’t you still have to say “Alexa” to get its attention? (I have a Dot but rarely use it except “Hey Alexa set a timer for five minutes”)

Yes, but on Alexa you can ask follow up questions immediately after without having to say "Alexa" again , whereas on HomePod you have to keep saying "hey Siri" at the beginning of every sentence...

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys-

I’m still using my one HomePod. I did buy a second one during the Christmas deals, but I haven’t set it up yet. I want to set it up for stereo but the room needs to be sorted out.

But I posted to ask a question. When I first got HomePod, I tried Apple Music for a few months during the trial period. It was nice to ask it to play NPR via the local PBS app. I rarely used the music option because I have a lot of special edition CDs or CD box sets that I ripped with Apple Lossless. I really wanted to be able to say Hey Siri. Play such and such and it won’t work because Siri says it’s not in my music. I though the week before last week’s WWDC, something happened to get what I wanted to work has worked.

What I did wasI happento have a track playing on the iPhone and I said, Hey Siri, play Stairway to Heaven on the HomePod. It actually worked. But once that was going I asked Siri to play another song from another band. It didn’t work.

So I guess for now, either I don’t know how, or the HomePod OS and iOS cannot play music from the iPhone via Airplay from asking Siri. I haven’t tried this with my Mac on and iTunes on yet. But I suspect I’d have to manually send the music from my Mac or iPhone or iPad to the HomePod via AirPlay.

 

[Cranston37+]

Hey guys-

I’m still using my one HomePod. I did buy a second one during the Christmas deals, but I haven’t set it up yet. I want to set it up for stereo but the room needs to be sorted out.

But I posted to ask a question. When I first got HomePod, I tried Apple Music for a few months during the trial period. It was nice to ask it to play NPR via the local PBS app. I rarely used the music option because I have a lot of special edition CDs or CD box sets that I ripped with Apple Lossless. I really wanted to be able to say Hey Siri. Play such and such and it won’t work because Siri says it’s not in my music. I though the week before last week’s WWDC, something happened to get what I wanted to work has worked.

What I did wasI happento have a track playing on the iPhone and I said, Hey Siri, play Stairway to Heaven on the HomePod. It actually worked. But once that was going I asked Siri to play another song from another band. It didn’t work.

So I guess for now, either I don’t know how, or the HomePod OS and iOS cannot play music from the iPhone via Airplay from asking Siri. I haven’t tried this with my Mac on and iTunes on yet. But I suspect I’d have to manually send the music from my Mac or iPhone or iPad to the HomePod via AirPlay.

This is music you currently have uploaded to your Apple Music account through iTunes Match, not just on a hard drive?

If your music is loaded to your Apple Music account, there are 2 things you can do to get Siri to play that specific music:

1) Say "hey Siri, play such and such from my library," and it should play it.

2) In the rare case that doesn't work, turn the album into a playlist, then you can say "hey Siri, play the such and such playlist."

A couple other things -

1) You don't need a PBS app to play NPR. Just say "hey Siri, play NPR."

2) Don't worry about getting your room sorted out and set up that 2nd HomePod. It will automatically adjust for how the room is to sound the best, then if you make changes to your room it will make adjustments to the sound on it's own, even if you move them. They really are nice little bits of tech...

 

[Nelson Au]

I should have been more specific, I forgot to mention that I cancelled the Apple Music account after the trial period. So the HomePod is not connected to an Apple Music account. I’m more interested in playing albums I’ve set up in my iTunes on my Mac. The music is synched to the iPhone and an iPad.

I have asked Siri to play NPR and now it just does NPR news reports. But it’s just the headlines and then it stops.

I need to find a place to place the second HomePod. I might just use it in another room for now.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Cranston37+]

I should have been more specific, I forgot to mention that I cancelled the Apple Music account after the trial period. So the HomePod is not connected to an Apple Music account. I’m more interested in playing albums I’ve set up in my iTunes on my Mac. The music is synched to the iPhone and an iPad.

I have asked Siri to play NPR and now it just does NPR news reports. But it’s just the headlines and then it stops.

I need to find a place to place the second HomePod. I might just use it in another room for now.

Thanks for the input.

Yeah, the stuff you're asking the HomePod to do requires an Apple Music subscription.

If you want to be able to ask it to play your personal music, the music has to be in the cloud, and right now it's only on your devices. As part of your subscription, Apple will keep all of that music in the cloud for you, enabling you to just ask for it like you're trying to do.

Same with the NPR thing - you can get that and 1,000's of other stations through the Apple Music subscription.

I think Apple still offers a yearly iTunes Match subscription for $24.99, but you might as well wait for something like Target to put iTunes cards on sale and get a year of Apple Music for about $85...

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks. I’m hoping iOS 13 might change things a little, but I can see that the music has to be accessible and the cloud is how Apple set it up.

On the bright side, I’m really glad Apple offers iPhones and iPads with very large storage capability, at a cost of course.

 

[Carlo_M]

And iPod Touches now go to 256GB...but as you say, for a cost (of $399)

 

[Nelson Au]

Guys, I see that Best Buy had a great deal on HomePod’s the last few weeks. it’s been a busy time for me recently at work and so I missed the recent sales. I was really tempted too to go for another pair at $199.00 each.

I see a sale at OWC that is $200-something and they list them as non-bulk packaging and after a quick search, it means a simple brown box that sounds like a refurbished unit. So I’ll skip that. Maybe for New Years, there will be another sale? Or it’s too late for this year.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Best Buy also sells them “opened box” for $170
I bought a pair of the $200 ones for my mom last week

 

[dpippel]

Best Buy is once again selling brand new HomePods in both colors for $200 + tax:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-...3XRkUknXXRTdyV4kQI0&acampID=614286&mpid=10078

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks a lot for the tip!! Much appreciated.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, thought I’d check In. I’ve been messing around with a second pair of HomePods set up in stereo and it’s been pretty cool. Since we’ve been in lockdown, I finally set up the pair in my home office. So I can enjoy music at work. What’s neat is having the speakers also play in my kitchen area as I have another one there.

I’ really having fun as I didn’t expect so much control of the HomePod can be done with the Apple Watch, and I stream from my iPhone. I still do not use Apple Music.

I’m tempted to get one more set but I see rumors of a possible HomePod 2. Or a smaller one. Plus there are sales again and it could mean they are trying to clear stock for the new models. Or it might be going out of production. Or the Pandemic is slowing sales down and the price drop is just a stimulate sales.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Hey guys, thought I’d check In. I’ve been messing around with a second pair of HomePods set up in stereo and it’s been pretty cool. Since we’ve been in lockdown, I finally set up the pair in my home office. So I can enjoy music at work. What’s neat is having the speakers also play in my kitchen area as I have another one there.

I’ really having fun as I didn’t expect so much control of the HomePod can be done with the Apple Watch, and I stream from my iPhone. I still do not use Apple Music.

I’m tempted to get one more set but I see rumors of a possible HomePod 2. Or a smaller one. Plus there are sales again and it could mean they are trying to clear stock for the new models. Or it might be going out of production. Or the Pandemic is slowing sales down and the price drop is just a stimulate sales.

There have been sales for a long time now -- when I bought ones for my mom more that a year ago there were steep discounts. FWIW I think the current HomePods are fantastic -- the sound in incredible. Not hoping for smaller ones. Have always been advocating for a HomePod SoundBar for people home theaters & aTVs, but I see no prospect for one of those soon