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Apple Releases HomePod Software 15.4
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I’d also like the ability to set a “primary” HomePod.
We have a smaller place so the HomePods are probably closer than most houses, but I get annoyed asking the kitchen/living room HomePod a question only for the bedroom or bathroom HomePod to take over and answer, if it even hears the request since the closest HomePod stopped listening.
FWIW I haven't heard any pops since updating to the 15.4 beta weeks ago.
I replied to OP stating that I had this error a year or so ago on my original HomePod. I refused to get a HomePod Mini only to have that problem on yet another device. But these kinds of issues really dig me and I dug around in the dupport forums and finally found the fix - I think. Or maybe it was an update. I know my HomePod wouldn’t even tell me the weather at the time. My iCloud was out of sync or something like that. I just can’t remember all the details unfortunately. I believe I did apply an update manually and that may have fixed it but I sure want to say I had to log out of iCloud on my phone a few times and maybe even my iPads as well before the fix finally “happened.” I wish I could offer more but encouragement to be persistent is the best I can do. And maybe try a support call.
I got the original HomePod almost as soon as it was released and was immediately underwhelmed. An apple device that couldn’t do 10% (probably an exaggeration but it sure felt like that at the time) of what an Alexa device could do? For real? And at that cost? But I stuck with it because the sound quality was most definitely superb. But then I faced the password issue that many of you have mentioned at about the time that the HomePod mini was released and I so wanted one at that price point but wouldn’t get it as long as I had the password on the one I already had. Finally, I somehow got my password issue resolved and (I should’ve written it down!) I cannot remember exactly what I did because I tried so many things! Finally, with that fixed, I bought my first Mini and moved my original “Big Boy” (so named in the home app) to my living room and replaced it in my bedroom with my first Mini. Yes, my first - because it wasn’t until I had the first Mini that I truly discovered the pleasure of the HomePod. I live alone but I have a big house and I venture from room to room occasionally and spend time in my office. I have four Apple TV’s in various rooms as well. And every light in my house has a Hue bulb in it all controlled by voice to Siri through one or another HomePod most of the time. I now have a HomePod mini in the office, one in the spare bedroom, one in my bedroom and one in my kitchen and the original in the living room. 4 of these are in room where there is an Apple TV and all of my Apple TV’s are “paired” to a HomePod in the room to play the sound. The sound quality from the minis is not as good as the original for a fact but it’s still great sound and the mini is definitely cheaper than the Bose sound at I bought that lasted about 2 years. Like another user stated about his kiddo, I wake to an alarm (or ten) every morning and even a couple of alarms from a HomePod in a nearby room just in case my late nights get the better of me and I have the urge to ignore the alarm. One GREAT newer feature of the HomePod is being able to create an alarm on it in the home app that will play media such as a song from Apple Music at a custom volume level. It’s really nice to go to sleep listening to the Apple TV at a suitable volume knowing that AC/DC is going to wake me up as a last resort the next morning at a volume that would bring the knights of Galahad out of their crypts! Another feature I enjoy - especially as I with my ADHD am cleaning house is that I can play music - or even the Apple TV - “Everywhere” and the sound is throughout the house so I can keep up with a show I’m watching or the news or not miss a beat of the music as my shifting focus takes me off in a new direction to a new room constantly. And yet another new feature is the compound commands with the Hue bulbs. Sooo many times back with that single homepod I wished (and tried) I could turned off the lights in certain rooms all at once! FINALLY, I discovered on the last update or maybe the one before ( and it may have been there sooner for I had given up and found it by accident) that I could then say Hey Siri, turn off the outside, the kitchen and the living room and it would actually know what I meant and would do it! I still occasionally say hey Siri and call her a bad name just to have a woman voice backtalk me. We all need to be put in our places now and then. As I’m reading I do get word definitions and like another user said, I set reminders and (when the adderall is working) add items to my to-do list or some shopping list or some other list. Yet another feature I’ve grown to really enjoy is just telling Siri to turn on the tv - it knows that’s the Apple TV and each Apple TV turns on its connected tv. I can then tell the HomePod to launch whatever tv app I want to play. If only Siri could play this channel it that on the sling app now! (If anyone has any hints to help with this I’m all ears for a reply!). Needless to say, I’m not even concerned where the tiny little Siri remote for the Apple TV ran off to these days or the remote for the tv itself. Between my Apple Watch and iPhone, I get the job done. Alas some things in this world are stil manual to keep us humble. But I do intend to get one or possibly two more HomePod minis - soecifically to pair with a sibling in the living room and my bedroom so I can have true stereo and get the best of that function. I think apple decided WISELY to over a much lower priced pod considering how little the original actually did in comparison to other “speaker assistants” out there. We’re the original priced like the mini, I perhaps would not have that memory of sore disappointment associated with this neat device. We take a lot for granted these days, but when I stop and think of how totally manual the world of my upbringing in the 70s was (yep - dated myself), I am truly astonished at how much we have available at our fingertips these days for little to no effort. This little device to a child in 2022 is the equivalent of……. what a vinyl record player with pounds of records, a tv (that didn’t have a remote control and one of which was b&w), a notebook of paper, an appointment book from a doctor’s office since that was the only place they were found and a big thesaurus and dictionary were to me in 1975. And I stopped there because that I can remember we had no way of knowing what the temperature in Paris was when it was midnight here unless we made our yearly call to my aunt who lived just outside Paris at that time for that reason because Ma Bell put steep prices on international calls back then. Call me old-fashioned but I think the pods are neat little devices though possibly a bit niche. Now pardon while I set a reminder to go to the gym and actually exercise. Cheers!
The fact that the original HomePod got updated is great. The fact that it got updated with voice recognition in italian in Switzerland, which is a very minor update, is even better. Still rocking my original HomePod and loving every bit out of it. Quality is great, and now, finally, I can use Siri even more. I love the polish of Siri. If I set a light to a certain percentage in the room where the HomePod is, then it does it without any further feedback. When I change the light in another room, then it prompts me that the light has indeed been changed.
I find these things really useful. And, after some years, the HomePod has finally matured in my region and is on par with everyone else.
Now... If only I could purchase one or two more...
With that I mean to say that, if these features would have been part of the original release in as many regions as they are now, sales of the device could have been better.
I find these things really useful. And, after some years, the HomePod has finally matured in my region and is on par with everyone else.
Now... If only I could purchase one or two more...
With that I mean to say that, if these features would have been part of the original release in as many regions as they are now, sales of the device could have been better.
It’s ranged from impressive to bad for me. It’s only sounded bad when my fiancée decided to surround it with other objects while decorating resulting in a muddy sound. I moved it to a spot with only a wall behind it and it sounded great again.
I was told by my HomePod “I can’t tell if you’re signed in” and instructed to go to the home app. Once I did this I found the HomePod notification to enter my password. After entering the password it took about 5 mins before it accepted it. No visual cues on screen to tell me it wasn’t accepted, but the HomePod still gave the vocal error and then different.
I’m not sure if this is the same “password” error others are discussing but fwiw that’s what I ran into about 2 weeks ago.
I like the sound my pair of Homepods make when working normally. They get into the grove after a few minutes, when they both decide they're going to play at the same volume level, and they stop doing the POP sound exactly the same number of seconds into each song. (Usually precisely 15 seconds).
How the software can still be such a ****ing ******** after years of tweaks I have no idea. It's pathetic from Apple. I was wary of buying wifi speakers because I know they nonsense if commonplace. Wired speakers all the way from here.
For what it's worth, one HomePod on its own behaves ok, or did 2 years ago, before I bought a second. 2 sound great together, but the flaws are as a pair. Add to the previous faults:
-if you skip to a new song the music stops on one HomePod before the other, making a weird jarring sound. This happens 9/10 times you skip.
-when you pause a song it does the same as above, about 8/10 times.
-The HomePods occasionally fail to begin playing a song, forcing me to initiate it on my iPhone and transfer it across.
-the pair of HomePods occasionally un-synch, and to fix this I must do hard resets of both
-Homepods do an absolutely disastrous job of playing from my M1 MacBook, except for native apps that sound how connect differently. If I try to play from YouTube you get cracks and pops and distortion. I'd have to plug in an audio lead and connect to other speakers if I wanted speakers to use with my Mac. This appears to be a known flaw, and has been for years.
There's more flaws, but it hurts just thinking about what a mess Apple have made of this. But then again, it is the same company that exchanged my failing iPhone with a SIM locked phone, which they claimed was impossible for weeks, until admitting they'd screwed up, and then failed to send me the free gift they agreed as compensation, despite wasting many hours of my time calling different operators, and various departments within Apple (and considerable call charges, as this occurred just before a long trip abroad, where I was left without a usable phone).
How the software can still be such a ****ing ******** after years of tweaks I have no idea. It's pathetic from Apple. I was wary of buying wifi speakers because I know they nonsense if commonplace. Wired speakers all the way from here.
For what it's worth, one HomePod on its own behaves ok, or did 2 years ago, before I bought a second. 2 sound great together, but the flaws are as a pair. Add to the previous faults:
-if you skip to a new song the music stops on one HomePod before the other, making a weird jarring sound. This happens 9/10 times you skip.
-when you pause a song it does the same as above, about 8/10 times.
-The HomePods occasionally fail to begin playing a song, forcing me to initiate it on my iPhone and transfer it across.
-the pair of HomePods occasionally un-synch, and to fix this I must do hard resets of both
-Homepods do an absolutely disastrous job of playing from my M1 MacBook, except for native apps that sound how connect differently. If I try to play from YouTube you get cracks and pops and distortion. I'd have to plug in an audio lead and connect to other speakers if I wanted speakers to use with my Mac. This appears to be a known flaw, and has been for years.
There's more flaws, but it hurts just thinking about what a mess Apple have made of this. But then again, it is the same company that exchanged my failing iPhone with a SIM locked phone, which they claimed was impossible for weeks, until admitting they'd screwed up, and then failed to send me the free gift they agreed as compensation, despite wasting many hours of my time calling different operators, and various departments within Apple (and considerable call charges, as this occurred just before a long trip abroad, where I was left without a usable phone).
I'd they do release another bigger HomePod, be it HomePod 2/Max/Pro, I wish they'd stick an Ethernet port (to alleviate the dodgy wifi issues), USB-C port and 3.5mm jack on the back, or at least the USB port, allowing us to use adapters. The software is so bad I'd much rather just plug them in to my laptop at this point.
Also, make the damn power lead removable, so it can be easily swapped when you change countries (or move to different parts of Asian countries), or if a pet chews it.
Also, make the damn power lead removable, so it can be easily swapped when you change countries (or move to different parts of Asian countries), or if a pet chews it.
They had the perfect form, The Homepod. No one wants to listen to horrible sound, and yes it is much easier to say siri play this than go over to my home theater turn on everything and click to what I want. Apple made no sense when they stopped making it.
They decided the core function wasn't audio (unfortunately) when they switched to Minis.
Unfortunately the masses didn’t like the price point for the originals. Frankly, I think that one of the problems was that a single giant noisy open-plan room with 100 other people milling around (aka the typical Apple Store) was a terrible place to audition a HomePod. They could tell you it sounded great, but you wouldn’t really hear it well enough to appreciate in that space. If they had had a separate little glass-walled room that cut the outside sound, with a stereo pair of the OG HomePods and a pedestal with an iPad on it to pick musical selections, I think they would have sold more HomePods. But that doesn’t fit well with a normal Apple Store.
I waited a long time for Apple to take the obvious step of making the Apple TV and HomePods really work together for home theater, really take advantage of what both could do, but they just… didn’t (they took a small step in that direction after they cancelled the OG HomePod). So, I went with Sonos, which can do very nice streaming music in my living room, and is fantastic for home theater. The interface is not as nice as a HomePod. I wish I didn’t have to deal with that trade off, but Apple chose to fold instead of playing their advantage.
Haven’t had any popping since installing 15.3, so somewhat reluctant in installing 15.4…
I didn't hear pops and skips for the first few weeks of 15.3, then they returned... None so far with 15.4.
I agree with all of that. As badly as two HomePods work together, I'm not sure many people would choose them over a Sonos pair, that work well with TVs and game consoles.
I genuinely wonder if Apple realised the hardware wasn't up to the job or pairing well, and gave up on the OG HomePods as a result.
I also agree with the point that HomePods were simply too expensive, for a product intentionally gimped by Apple- doesn't connect to other devices simply or well, and will only last as long as Apple deign to keep them working.
I got my original homepod so I could listen to music, the wife uses it to add up scores on the papers she has scored or do percentages or even ask the temperature everywhere on the planet. I told her her computer, phone and ipad have a calculator and she continues to meddle in my world. However, I do like the sound of the biggie, haven't experienced the smaller version.
However, any lower price point it will not produce a good speaker. I thought the original Homepod was cheap for what we were given. My speakers for home theaters range 700-2k so I expected to pay Sonos prices for the same exact thing but with Siri.
I'd be very happy to see Apple come out with a HomePod Home Theater that could compete with Sonos, at some point in the future, though I probably wouldn't be buying it, because I already have the Sonos setup. I'd really like to see Sonos work with Apple to get full Siri support in Sonos speakers. Hell, Sonos is one of the few companies I think it would make sense for Apple to buy (they're both aimed at the spendy Just Works audience, do smart speakers, and Apple could use an instant entry in the home theater area to sell alongside Apple TVs and TV+).
They lowered the price, though? They don't need to make 3x the built cost on everything...
My HomePod has been an unplugged paper weight for months, maybe I'll give this update a go and see what happens. I tried working with Apple about it and they will not offer a recall. Very bothered my $350 smart speaker had an 18 month lifespan.