Apple Confirms HomePod's Supported Audio Sources in Tech Specs

[legacyb4]

I am a bit confused. Is homepod just a speaker then. I thought it would control your lights just like homekit and be an alarm clock etc. Basically an Amazon replacement.

At the bottom of the Homepod page...

This is how you command a room.
Just say “Hey Siri, turn on the lights” or “Hey Siri, make the room cooler.” You can even ask Siri to set scenes, like “Good morning,” that put multiple accessories to work — all at once. A wide range of accessories work with Apple’s HomeKit platform. Just add an accessory to the Home app, then control it with your voice on HomePod.​

 

[neutralguy]

Does it support analog in?

Yes.. and also it has balanced input, plus phono.. lots of input connections around the cylinder. /s

 

[afd]

Apologies if this has been said in one of the previous 14 pages of posts, but what stood out as missing as a source for me is radio streams other than Beats. I’d like it to be able to play bbc radio 6 or Scotland without airplaying from an app.
I listen to Apple Music and don’t think Siri is up to voice controlling music yet. Half the time it gets things wrong and a lot of the time I like to visually browse for music.
It also costs too much, I’ve probably spent less on my Denon hifi and airport express.

 

[citysnaps]

Homepod threads seem to have a lot of comments for a product that supposedly no one is going to buy and will spark the demise of Apple.

Yeah... Just like AirPods.

 

[TheHotdog]

I can't decide between grey and white...

Same, bro. I preordered the grey. If I don't like it I will return it and buy the white one at Best Buy or something.

 

[citysnaps]

Yah, I'm going to drop a big wad of money on these speakers just so I have to use Airplay on my iPhone or iPad to stream music to it. Seems a little backwards, no? Why can't I tell it, "Hey HomePod, play my favorite songs on Spotify." You mean I can't do even that? I have to pull out my iPhone, open the Spotify app, and then use Airplay to stream that music to a speaker that should just do it by voice command. Apple is rotting.

Keep it up, Apple. You're pushing me further towards Google and Amazon every day.

Why not get ahead of the curve and make the switch? Happiness is just a decision away. Easy.

 

[Nathan576]

So that it remains anti-competitive and forces users to stay within the Apple ecosystem. (That way you can't use it with an Android device or something)

You can't blame apple for this. You can not mirror audio to the chrome cast audio if you have an iPhone, they only let androids do that. Google started it.

 

[fleggy]

Well, it was never needed to be "confirmed" because Apple TV can output to any AirPlay speaker just like iOS can.

What remains to be seen is whether or not it is a reliable output device. AirPlay from iOS is an occasional output - never a permanent audio source.

With Apple TV, I would want it to be able to permanently output to Home Pod without having to reconfigure it every day. I have no confidence that it would work this smoothly, as I don't think it is designed to work this way.

Truth is - I think the product that I want is a HomePod with an AppleTV inside of it, and an HDMI connection for the TV.

Apple TV is the media center of my house. Everything starts from there. But I do want Hey Siri controls for it, which currently don't exist.
[doublepost=1517497442][/doublepost]
That's not what multi-room audio is. Multi-room audio is playing the same thing in multiple rooms at the same time. What you describe is just using 2 separate HomePods normally...

[doublepost=1517520858][/doublepost]Apple TV does have Siri...it’s from the remote. What version you got?

 

[the future]

It‘s really weird to me how many people seem to see big enough differences between the music streaming services that it influences their hardware buying decisions. If - and we absolutely don‘t know this yet - the HomePod is indeed the best-sounding smart/wireless speaker, it makes no sense to me to buy an inferior speaker just to stream Spotify or Pandora or whatever instead of Apple Music.

 

[deanthedev]

How far the wall should be to take advantage of the reflection? Does that mean, we need to keep HomePod in a corner? Can I put it in the middle against a wall where the side walls are separated by 20ft?

Doesn’t matter. HomePod analyzes its position and will adjust accordingly. It can’t perform any miracles, but will have a superior soundstage to any other single speaker out there.

 

[ersan191]

[doublepost=1517520858][/doublepost]Apple TV does have Siri...it’s from the remote. What version you got?

It doesn't have "hey siri" - as in hands free access.

 

[EdT]

Not one thing has been mentioned about home kit support or any feature other than music. Basically, I want to just replace the word Alexa with the word Siri and do the same things. That is why I preordered one.

I think it’s more or less agreed that right now Siri isn’t as good at interpreting meaning as either Alexa or Google Home. If some improvement has been made very recently then your iPhone/IPad/ATV should already have that improvement implemented. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for future IOS versions, and it may take several. In the meantime, neither Amazon or Google is going to be standing still.

I haven’t heard or read of any recent improvements but I don’t use or want a voice assistant so it’s possible that Siri has gotten better.

 

[fhall1]

Sounds like you were lied to by someone on Twitter. Someone who didn't know the real reason so they just made up something that they thought sounded plausible.

I wasn't lied to at all....it was a quote from Jim Dalrymple's Blog "The Loop" and the Twitter feed was a post from someone at Apple Support

 

[EdT]

I really don’t get the desire of some to shoehorn this thing into being a “home theater”. The ATV exists for a reason. Aside from the fact that $700 is overpriced for a 2.0 setup of this quality, there’s no way to expand the setup to surround sound. You can also only stream audio from an ATV or other Apple device. Cable/sat feed? Nope. Gaming console? Nope. Back to the crap TV speakers for all your other sources with a HomePod as a “home theater”.

It was all of the descriptions of HomePod being similar to Sonos that confused me. Sonos CAN be a surround sound system** and I hoped HP could as well. I haven’t looked, it is possible Apple themselves never compared HomePod features to Sonos features. As far as costs, I don’t remember exactly what the Sonos system cost me 3 years ago but I think it was at least $2300.00.

Around $500 for two system 3 speakers, about $600 for the sound bar, close to $1000 for the bass box, somewhere around $350 for their networking controller. I may be off somewhat on these prices.

** A soundbar is NOT as good as 3 real speakers for left, center, right.

 

[69Mustang]

I wasn't lied to at all....it was a quote from Jim Dalrymple's Blog "The Loop" and the Twitter feed was a post from someone at Apple Support

Apologies, I misread that as you speaking to someone.
Apple Support? Sweet Jeebus. Apple Support is the most inaccurate and unreliable source of information regarding anything at Apple. But it's pretty obvious that BT thing is a lie and someone made it up.

 

[fhall1]

Apologies, I misread that as you speaking to someone.
Apple Support? Sweet Jeebus. Apple Support is the most inaccurate and unreliable source of information regarding anything at Apple. But it's pretty obvious that BT thing is a lie and someone made it up.

No problem.....I've never accessed Apple Support via Twitter, but I would hope it's a lot better/accurate than Spectrum Cable's Twitter feed.

 

[Brandhouse]

Is it just me that even though these are meant to be definitive, they still feel like each pint is written at the end to leave some ambiguity about them.

"iTunes Music: HomePod users can ask Siri to play any songs, albums, or audiobooks purchased from the iTunes Store."

At the start it reads like HomePod will play any songs in iTunes, (a comma is a break in a sentence) or audiobooks purchased from iTunes.

Is it either:
• any songs I have in iTunes, purchased or saved into iTunes; or
• any songs and audiobooks etc., so long as I've purchased them?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

It‘s really weird to me how many people seem to see big enough differences between the music streaming services that it influences their hardware buying decisions. If - and we absolutely don‘t know this yet - the HomePod is indeed the best-sounding smart/wireless speaker, it makes no sense to me to buy an inferior speaker just to stream Spotify or Pandora or whatever instead of Apple Music.

Generally, people are not choosing a speaker based on the service. They wish they pay up for the rumored best speaker and it bring the competitor-like versatility to play a variety of sources. Not every consumer looks at lock-in as some kind of huge benefit. Many consumers want as much versatility as they can get out of things they buy- especially when one of the things in consideration is toward the highest price of it's group.

 

[ignatius345]

The two main sources I use at home are Spotify and streaming music I own from iTunes on my iMac. If the HomePod can't take verbal commands to play specific things from either of those sources, probably a non-starter. I'm doing just as well doing what I'm doing: using Remote and Spotify to AirPlay music to my "non-smart" speakers.

Which is fine. There are two of them and they're better quality than HomePod anyway.

 

[ersan191]

]
Which is fine. There are two of them and they're better quality than HomePod anyway.

Unless you already have one there is literally no way you can make that call right now...

 

[Paultmaine]

Sweet. Apple TV connectivity finally officially confirmed.

Does that mean my Apple TV 4K will play through the speaker ? Cheers

 

[OllyW]

It also costs too much, I’ve probably spent less on my Denon hifi and airport express.

Sounds like you've already got a perfect setup for your needs, especially if you don't get on with Siri.

 

[Paultmaine]

Nice... Looking forward to picking up my ordered HomePod.

Same

 

[iPhonefan200]

So that it remains anti-competitive and forces users to stay within the Apple ecosystem. (That way you can't use it with an Android device or something)

GOOD! they cant slate Apple 11 months out of the year and suddenly demand support from a good product.

And also, bluetooth audio connections with the audio tech in this product don't exactly go well. In terms of capabilities bluetooth is very limited with transfer rates and it could most likely hinder quality so Apple would rather not. Sonos don't support for a similar reason, Wi-Fi is a stronger transfer system, whether Apple release a HomePod for Android app in the future we do not know but i don't expect them to

 

[gnasher729]

Is it either:
• any songs I have in iTunes, purchased or saved into iTunes; or
• any songs and audiobooks etc., so long as I've purchased them?

Using Airplay: Anything your computer or phone can play. (Note I'm not saying Mac or iPhone. For example https://drfone.wondershare.com/airplay/android-airplay-apps.html shows "the top ten Airplay apps for Android").

Using Siri on the HomePod: Any podcasts. Any music purchased from Apple. Any music uploaded from your music library using iTunes Match ($25 per year). Any of 45 million songs using Apple Music ($99 per year).