They can. If paired to a 2021 or 2022 Apple TV 4K, which is hooked to your TV’s ARC port, the HomePod pair becomes an Atmos soundbar.
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5 New Features and Changes Rumored for the 2023 HomePod
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They can. If paired to a 2021 or 2022 Apple TV 4K, which is hooked to your TV’s ARC port, the HomePod pair becomes an Atmos soundbar.
To be honest I don’t interact with siri on mine beyond the basic things. I do use them everyday as they are set as the audio out put for my Apple TVs so for that they are worth the admission price and I do like them for music However, given the state of siri I also have echo devices which I use for smart home control and more of the AI stuff.
I think the HomePods are the best for music, not only the sound output but also for making requests using voice commands. I have echos and I’ve also had google home devices in the past and they leave a lot to be desired music wise. So for music and audio output for the Apple TV/Streaming devices the homepod is best for me. For everything else Alexa and google assistance are better.
None of this is enticing, nor a big departure from the previous one (except maybe price, but I never thought it was expensive). What I would like to see:
- Bluetooth. Not everyone has an iPhone
- Soundbar design. The large HomePod is for the living room, so may as well have the ATMOS sound and the aesthetics to match a TV. Kitchen bedrooms and offices would be for the HomePod Mini.
- Improved Siri, my Lord its horrid. Even if you just use it to play music - for example, why can it not play the version I have on Apple Match, instead of the version on Apple Music? Try sending messages, or “intercom” the house and its bad, try anything else and it is useless (apart form the morning weather report)
- Nice to have? Integrated Apple TV and camera, so it can be used for FaceTime on TV.
- Bluetooth. Not everyone has an iPhone
- Soundbar design. The large HomePod is for the living room, so may as well have the ATMOS sound and the aesthetics to match a TV. Kitchen bedrooms and offices would be for the HomePod Mini.
- Improved Siri, my Lord its horrid. Even if you just use it to play music - for example, why can it not play the version I have on Apple Match, instead of the version on Apple Music? Try sending messages, or “intercom” the house and its bad, try anything else and it is useless (apart form the morning weather report)
- Nice to have? Integrated Apple TV and camera, so it can be used for FaceTime on TV.
RGB lighting so we can change colors and have the lights dance to music as well
A lot of people hate on these, but I can't get enough of them. I'll never go back to a bluetooth speaker. Adjusting sync'd speaker volumes across a house all from one phone is awesome. Streaming to two in stereo, from Apple TV via Airplay, is such an underrated feature. It allows my wife and I to have HomePods on our night stands, near our ears, rather than on a TV 20 feet away that vibrates the wall with sound. I also love having one in each of my kid's rooms for ambient ocean sounds, kid songs, etc... Also have a few more in the garage, kitchen, which makes ambient tunes for house parties great. Of course, they are not a dance party speaker.
The MINIs sound OK for podcasts and such, but the original models are the jam. In stereo, the original Homepods actually have enough cone size diameter to move a little air and create enough bass to rock out to, while doing the dishes. If I was to improve upon them, I'd make a complimentary subwoofer model to improve the home theater experience, and definitely put a raised texture to the plus and minus volume buttons. Otherwise, it's too easy to touch the center button in the dark, which can wake all the kids up. In other words, put the volume buttons in a separate location from the center button.
The MINIs sound OK for podcasts and such, but the original models are the jam. In stereo, the original Homepods actually have enough cone size diameter to move a little air and create enough bass to rock out to, while doing the dishes. If I was to improve upon them, I'd make a complimentary subwoofer model to improve the home theater experience, and definitely put a raised texture to the plus and minus volume buttons. Otherwise, it's too easy to touch the center button in the dark, which can wake all the kids up. In other words, put the volume buttons in a separate location from the center button.
Later this year, Apple is expected to reintroduce a new full-sized HomePod, a successor to the original smart speaker which was discontinued almost two years ago.
Apple reportedly discontinued the HomePod in March 2021 due to lackluster sales and a lack of features compared to the speakers offered by Amazon and Google. The HomePod lineup remains part of Apple's portfolio thanks to the smaller HomePod mini, which Apple announced in 2020.
The HomePod mini, in its smaller form factor and cheaper $99 price point, has been a bigger success than the original HomePod. In 2023, Apple is widely expected to reintroduce the full-sized HomePod to its lineup with several new features. Below, we outline five new features and changes we expect from the upcoming HomePod.
1. Faster Processor
The original HomePod featured an A8 chip, which helped power music playback, Siri, and more. The upcoming HomePod, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, will feature an updated S8 chip from the latest Apple Watch models.
2. U1 Ultra Wideband Chip
The HomePod mini features a U1 Ultra Wideband chip, which detects when other U1-equipped devices, such as the latest iPhone models, are nearby and allows it to quickly hand off the audio to the smart speaker. The upcoming HomePod could feature the U1 Ultra Wideband chip to bring it to parity with the HomePod mini.
The U1 Ultra Wideband chip, in the future, could also allow for other experiences, such as close-range data transfer, improved AR experiences, and the ability to track a user's exact location within their home.
3. Larger Backlit Touch Interface
The original HomePod and the HomePod mini feature a backlit touch interface at their top. The interface is small and doesn't show images or text but instead glows different colors to indicate different statuses or when Siri is invoked.
For the upcoming HomePod, Apple is expected to make the touch area even larger, according to a recent report by Gurman. It's unclear if the larger area will allow for richer information or expanded functionality.
4. Cheaper Price
When Apple first announced the HomePod, it was priced at $349, a higher price point than competing smart speakers on the market. Apple eventually dropped the price to $299 in hopes of sparking sales.
Even at $299, users were still put off by its high price and Siri's shortcomings. With the upcoming model, Apple is expected to drop the price even further, according to several reports. For comparison, Amazon's Echo Studio, which has a similar overall footprint compared to the full-sized HomePod, is priced at $199 and has direct integration with several services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Samsung's Smart Things, and more.
5. Faster Software Features
The A8 chip powered the original full-sized HomePod, which provided adequate performance to power different HomePod features, such as spatial awareness, Siri, and more. In recent years, however, users have found that the original HomePod struggles with certain tasks, sometimes making it difficult to use certain features.
Thanks to the S8 chip in the upcoming HomePod, users will be able to better use new software features, such as improved Siri capabilities, faster Siri voice recognition for multiple members of a household, and more.
Article Link: 5 New Features and Changes Rumored for the 2023 HomePod
So frustrating! Reintroduce the AirPort Basestation concept by incorporating it into these devices. I want an Apple built Wifi 6 mesh network with the features of a HomePod. I would immediately buy a set of these.
I don't find a problem with OG HomePods tbh.. Hopefully it stays that way. Siri sucks on both Minis and OGs, for me at least. Sound on Minis, stereo paired or not reminds me of portable tape players when I was young. OG sounds great, I know I'd get better sound if I invested in an expensive Hi-Fi but for my home setup I think I prefer the separate speakers everywhere so they are doing a great job. I don't find them "slow" in terms of function, but Siri has to go to the internet to check everything I ask her, even the time. Where I live, I get internet disconnections regularly, like a couple of times a week, so when that happens, Siri can't even tell them time, can't turn on a bulb, can't do anything except saying "I'm having trouble connecting to the internet.." .. New HomeKit architecture appeared to be more stable in the beginning but I'm struggling with it, I have to re-set the scenes every few days. The wait it takes to turn on the light was shortened, seemed more responsive, so the slow performance I can blame on Siri, HomeKit and whatever Apple is doing in the background, which affects both the Minis and OGs. I won't be looking forward to new HomePods, I already have what I need, but I'm definitely looking forward for Apple to clean up their *** and leave things to work as they are supposed to.
If I didn't know better, Apple priced it originally at $350 just so they could lower it (and advertising the price drop), while still maintaining their margins they so desire.
no 3,5mm input?
i own the original homepod.
the most thing i want is to connect my Apple iPod Classic, which is …. an Apple product.
And - which is a generell thing - i want iPadOS / iOS based user definable EQs per output and room (homepad, earpods, airplay, etc) instead of the simple „reduce bass“ toggle for homepods. Because every device and every room is different. I think, actual iPads and IPhone have enough power for 24Band EQ with DSP.
i own the original homepod.
the most thing i want is to connect my Apple iPod Classic, which is …. an Apple product.
And - which is a generell thing - i want iPadOS / iOS based user definable EQs per output and room (homepad, earpods, airplay, etc) instead of the simple „reduce bass“ toggle for homepods. Because every device and every room is different. I think, actual iPads and IPhone have enough power for 24Band EQ with DSP.
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at $200 (which means like $150-180ish occasionally at Costco and Amazon if you wait) this would make sense, and I would totally buy one for my kitchen. If it was good enough with ARC I might even consider a pair to replace the stereo hooked up to my living room TV (the minis don't cut it, their sound isnt good enough for that, I've tried. Still have one in my living room, but for "hey siri" homekit use, not sound output). At $349, even at $299, it was way too expensive.
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It'd be cumbersome, expensive, and not worth it unless you already had everything else, but a TV with analog inputs + AppleTV +ARC would provide a pathway to do that by hooking the iPod up to an RCA connection on the TV (iPod--minijack-to-RCA-adapter-->TV--ARC-->AppleTV--Airplay-as-default-output-->HomePod). That's the only "easy" way I can think of doing that though, which is absurd. It absolutely should have a damn aux port.
The one thing missing from this list is the one reason I liked the original HomePod (and why I have 7 of them), the sound quality. Will it be preserved or sacrificed for price? I have examples of all the competitors in this space and, unlike some other commenters, the original HomePod knocks the socks off them including the Sonos 1 (which is good but is inferior in a number of acoustical ways). I have to go to Naim and Devialet to get better and they are in a different price league ($1000 or so plus). I have both. So please Apple add BT, Ethernet networking, direct audio (analog connections) and clean up Siri and I will be happy. I don’t want an Echo alternative (the Mini does that, albeit by sounding as bad as the Echo and Google alternatives). I just want a reasonably priced high quality speaker with better connectivity. Oh and Siri if you can get Siri to work properly.
We do the same with our stereo pair of HomePods in our bedroom. On our bedside cabinets and paired to the Apple TV. Have either a homepod or HomePod mini in all rooms in our house apart from the bathroom. I also love controlling things from control centre. Start listening to something in one room then decide I want to move to another room and I just use control centre and AirPlay to another speaker in another room.
The original HomePod (OHP) product was mis-marketed, for sure. However simplistically blaming price is flawed thinking. The price was not out of line for what the OHP consisted of and the amazing self-balancing capability and excellent sound quality of the OHP in (small to medium size) spaces otherwise impossible to obtain such good sound at any price.
Apple allowed the OHP to be directly marketed against small inexpensive poor sounding smart speakers from other vendors. Buyers in that market space were not seeking really good sound and amazing self-balancing capability in difficult sound environments, so the OHP was indeed much too pricey for that low-end market space.
So Apple made its own small inexpensive poor sounding smart speaker the Mini HomePod, and it did OK.
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Sonos One is a good sounding small speaker in an easy sound space but it cannot even come close to the sound quality of the original Home Pods in a difficult sound space.
I could never fix it. I made sure they were updated, logged out and in, and restarted them through Home. Is there anything else? After all those things, it worked like once. The next time I tried to play something, it did it's working on that...............I can't find XYZ in your AM Library. I don't need it in there with a sub, and it would even do it for something in my library. Got Google Nest Mini on sale, set it to AM default, and it works perfectly. Only thing I have to figure out is if I can set music vs voice volume separately. The music volume is way higher. If the music is normal, I can barely hear the voice.
That is easy enough now.
You say you replaced your Ultimate Model 200B bookshelf speakers with a HomePod and it was not better sound. It takes two HomePods for the excellent sound.
No. The original HomePods were a bargain for what they do: provide great stereo sound to small impossibly difficult sound spaces.
Unfortunately Apple Marketing screwed up big time and did not market the original HomePods as "providing great stereo sound to smallish impossibly difficult sound spaces."
Instead Apple marketed the pricey original HomePods into the smart bookshelf speaker space against crap like Amazon's cheap Echo. Huge mistake that denigrated the spectacular engineering of the original HomePods while pitting the original HomePods against the cheapo Echo's communications strong point. Dumb, dumb marketing.
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The original HomePods do auto-EQ better than any other speakers made at any price. Amazing actually. In my case I have a glass wall, a brick wall plus two heavy wood bookcases, and a plaster wall; then two original HomePods; then three 32" displays; then my ears. Basically an impossible sound scenario.
The original HomePods promptly self-equalized, yielding excellent sound to my trained ears. They - and Siri - have been working flawlessly for years now. However they by definition are small bookshelf speakers (6 tweeters plus one 4" midrange) so folks must be careful not to overdrive them. Personally I have Siri not exceed 50% volume.
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I returned my pair of HomePods after 5 days, because of the awful sound. I was hoping to use them as TV speakers with the AppleTV, but couldn’t get over the tubby sound with poor voice rendering, diffuse stereo image and overblown faux bass.
I’ve still got several HomePod minis, which I’m going to keep for various purposes. They sound far less offensive to my ears, even though they don’t have much volume and no bass.
I recently bought a pair of krk5 for approximately under 300€ and they sound astonishingly true to life and precise. So I expect apple to be even better when using two HomePods. Just bring ‘em out already.
That comment shows lack of understanding about what the original HomePods are capable of. Sound quality from the original HomePods is that great when a stereo pair is used as designed, and in a space not too large.
Apple unfortunately confused buyers by allowing them to consider 7" HomePod speakers as just another low grade overpriced bookshelf speaker.
Oh, I agree. I just meant that the HomePod isn’t a product people want. Apple is actually better off making a slightly worse, but cheaper HomePod (i.e. cheaper than the original, like an Sonos One competitor), and a separate HomePod Max/Ultra that sounds better than the original HomePod (priced higher).
The original HomePod sat in no-man’s land.