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Apple Releases HomePod 16.3 Software With Humidity and Temperature Sensing, Find My Improvements, Audio Tuning, and More

I see they have a regression in 16.3 and brought back the bug where if you have a stereo pair of HomePod originals connected to an AppleTV as the output source it keeps saying there is a problem with the Apple Music account when asking HomePod to play anything. Workaround for now is to select TV as the audio output on the AppleTV and the HomePod will play music whilst not connected :confused:
 
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The update finally decided to download. I'm guessing they are spreading out this update just in case something went bad, and it bricked a whole bunch of HomePods. I just want to see the temperature and humidity of my room!
 
I was excited about the tuning for spoken podcasts, but installed the update before realizing I could have done a before and after test. Doh!
 
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Sorry Siri is just as annoying as before. In the same room as my lamp, Siri turn on my lamp, siri replies, open it, then lamp is on.

Why can’t you just shut up and turn on the lamp without having a one sided useless conversation?
 
Located in the US, I got the update notification for one of my Minis maybe three hours ago, the same one that I had a few minutes before looked at its settings on the Home app on my iPhone 12 Pro Max(which was already updated to iOS 16.3); and all the update notifications trickled in after that. Per longstanding habit I updated one (original or Mini) at a time (and unpaired the paired originals for updating and re-paired them afterward, so as not to risk bricking more than one). All went well, and all would play something afterward, either individually or the recreated pair.

Although I didn't time it, I'd say that the Minis definitely took less than 2 1/2 hours to finish calibrating and show temperature and humidity, which was consistent enough with my Eve Room (indoor HomeKit temperature, humidity, and air quality sensor) allowing for such unsurprising differences as higher humidity as seen by the Mini in the bathroom. I wouldn't necessarily expect ±1ºF accuracy given that the Minis have to allow for their own internal heat, but within 2 or 3 (ºF; say 1 or 2 ºC) should be reasonable to expect.

(hint: the level of detail above may not be necessary for a success report, but IMO should be a minimum example of what a problem description should have)
 
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darthbane2k said:
This is true apparently. I wish Apple wouldn’t continually mess with the volume and sound signature of these speakers. Ridiculous!
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Are we certain this isn't just 16.3 on device having sound protection (or whatever its called, volume check?) enabled at a lower threshold affecting streaming playback to the HomePod? Just a thought.
 
Can someone here confirm how I play those new immersive ambient sounds? Is it the same Siri command as before e.g. 'Hey Siri, play rain sounds' or something like that? Would be great to have an overview of the available ambient sounds :)
 
Happy to report my Apple TV 4K can once again use a pair of OG homepods for default audio output. Atmos and all.

That‘s been completely broken since December when I upgraded to the new HomeKit architecture. Been listening to tinny TV speakers since and was seriously considering Sonos.

The Apple TV remote is behaving itself again too, FWIW.
 
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iStorm said:
I don't think it's an option or choice. At least I haven't found a way to make her speak the response for home commands again. She does the ding ding tone on all my devices now, so it isn't limited to just the HomePod.

Did you upgrade your Home architecture last month before it was pulled? (I did.) I wonder if the difference in behavior depends on which architecture you're on. If so, Apple hasn't re-released the option to upgrade again for those that haven't yet (link).
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You're right. Suddenly, I'm getting just a "ding" when Siri turns things on or off...and I'm very happy. It's brand new -- but odd because I installed the Release Candidate last week, not the public release this week. And yet the behavior seems to have just changed.

Will update my earlier post.
 
Davidglenn said:
Sorry Siri is just as annoying as before. In the same room as my lamp, Siri turn on my lamp, siri replies, open it, then lamp is on.

Why can’t you just shut up and turn on the lamp without having a one sided useless conversation?
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See my post above. Behavior just changed to subtle SFX rather than voice, on both my HomePod Mini and iPhone.
 
I’m very excited to get the temperature and him sensors working on my Mini.

Instead of buying a HomePod stereo pair I’m thinking about just getting 6 Minis for the same price to finish filling out my house. This would be especially useful now that the temperature and humidity sensors are enabled. Seems like a better deal than buying a bunch of Eve Room sensors for the whole house.
 
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iamasmith said:
I see they have a regression in 16.3 and brought back the bug where if you have a stereo pair of HomePod originals connected to an AppleTV as the output source it keeps saying there is a problem with the Apple Music account when asking HomePod to play anything. Workaround for now is to select TV as the audio output on the AppleTV and the HomePod will play music whilst not connected :confused:
Click to expand...
Ah, luckily, I didn’t get that. I suddenly had zero audio after the Home Pod update was installed. I have to restart. But when I did, the sound was much more solid. And I got far better Spatial Audio, too. I didn’t experince any sound cutout after the reboot, or any problems with Apple Music. Maybe it’s just the things you happen to play first. YouTube, which I’m addicted to now, has turned silent in the past. But restarting settled it down.
 
After I updated to 16.3, the temperature and Humidity reading did now show up. I read on this form a way to see the reading was to restart my homepod mini. It worked but my audio automations now do now work!!!
 
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Anyone having success with the ambient sounds and automations?

If I attempt to add one using the personal automation for “when bedtime starts”, I can see ambient sounds as a new option to play audio, alongside Apple Music, but it throws up a “please try again later” error.
 
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