Apple Releases New HomePod 16 Software

[twistedpixel8]

Updated.. I said hey siri add milk to my shopping list and I was welcomed with a “who’s speaking”. Welcome HomePod OS 16..

Last night: “hey Siri, set an alarm for 7:30am” she responds “ok, your alarm for 7:30am is set.”

I wake up around 7:15 this morning so I say “hey Siri, cancel my alarm.” she responds “there are no timers set.” I ask again, “turn off my alarm” and again she says “there are no timers set.” So I ask “what alarms are enabled?” and for a third time she responds “there are no timers.” So I get in the shower.

10 minutes later the 7:30 alarm starts bonging. Apple is a joke of a software company these days.

 

[mxrider88]

Last night: “hey Siri, set an alarm for 7:30am” she responds “ok, your alarm for 7:30am is set.”

I wake up around 7:15 this morning so I say “hey Siri, cancel my alarm.” she responds “there are no timers set.” I ask again, “turn off my alarm” and again she says “there are no timers set.” So I ask “what alarms are enabled?” and for a third time she responds “there are no timers.” So I get in the shower.

10 minutes later the 7:30 alarm starts bonging. Apple is a joke of a software company these days.

I ABSOLUTELY agree.

Too much focus on emojis and gimmicks for too many years, while they were showing off with "the most advanced operating system in the world". They had it, built on the legacy of Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall, under the supervision of Jobs.
Since Federighi took over it all crumbled apart.

I wish their software was at the same level of their hardware once again.

 

[B/D]

I ABSOLUTELY agree.

Too much focus on emojis and gimmicks for too many years, while they were showing off with "the most advanced operating system in the world". They had it, built on the legacy of Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall, under the supervision of Jobs.
Since Federighi took over it all crumbled apart.

I wish their software was at the same level of their hardware once again.

At this point I am convinced that is not a software issue per se (the pods run a fork of tvOS which is very stable), but a longstanding sever side issue pertaining Siri on the homepods specifically.

Some times it just goes crazy -giving wrong answers and such- or just stop working for a while (Siri, not the speakers), which tells me that the servers are misbehaving.

 

[twistedpixel8]

At this point I am convinced that is not a software issue per se (the pods run a fork of tvOS which is very stable), but a longstanding sever side issue pertaining Siri on the homepods specifically.

Some times it just goes crazy -giving wrong answers and such- or just stop working for a while (Siri, not the speakers), which tells me that the servers are misbehaving.

My issue regardless of whether the issue is Siri processing server, DNS or whatever - is that it worked perfectly fine right up until the end of iOS14. I distinctly remember the first time I asked Siri for something on day 1 (hour 1!) of iOS 15’s first HomePod update and she was doing all that “working on it… just a sec… this is taking longer than expected…” nonsense.

It can’t be HomeKit because iPhone Siri and Mac Siri work just fine. It’s *only* on the HomePods. Why are the servers listening for HomePod Siri commands so poor though?! Surely if that’s the issue, Apple can just revert them to whatever they were using in iOS14!

 

[mxrider88]

At this point I am convinced that is not a software issue per se (the pods run a fork of tvOS which is very stable), but a longstanding sever side issue pertaining Siri on the homepods specifically.

Some times it just goes crazy -giving wrong answers and such- or just stop working for a while (Siri, not the speakers), which tells me that the servers are misbehaving.

I think it’s deep in the software..

Just told Siri to play some music and the volume went from 40% to 100%. Couldn’t change the volume from the iPhone and tapping on the HomePod went down and straight back up.

Rebooting all devices right now.

What a joke.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Here goes. Updating all of mine now. I Hope my OG’s survive.

 

[Htsi]

I had problems with the volume control only controlling the right HomePod in my stereo paid. Update to 16 fixed it for me. Happy happy. Devices are on iOS 15, till i get the new iPhone

 

[Htsi]

Anyone noticed when you ask for the weather, she replies with my weather data is supplied by xyz? I wonder if ads are creeping in?

Been that way for ages, happens sometime not every time.

 

[twistedpixel8]

I ABSOLUTELY agree.

Too much focus on emojis and gimmicks for too many years, while they were showing off with "the most advanced operating system in the world". They had it, built on the legacy of Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall, under the supervision of Jobs.
Since Federighi took over it all crumbled apart.

I wish their software was at the same level of their hardware once again.

Exactly. What’s the point in them making such attractive devices with insanely tight tolerances and spending months fussing over the particular shade of color, etc. if the software is garbage!

I feel like they need to apologize to Forstall and beg him to come back to sort things. You could tell from the way he talked about the software in their videos and interviews that he really cared so much about how it all worked and not just how it looked. I like Federighi but he seems like more of a “nice guy showman” than someone who obsesses over little details. And those little details matter when you’re selling your product as “the best available”.

But no more skeuomorphic design please, that was all a bit weird.

 

[mxrider88]

Exactly. What’s the point in them making such attractive devices with insanely tight tolerances and spending months fussing over the particular shade of color, etc. if the software is garbage!

I feel like they need to apologize to Forstall and beg him to come back to sort things. You could tell from the way he talked about the software in their videos and interviews that he really cared so much about how it all worked and not just how it looked. I like Federighi but he seems like more of a “nice guy showman” than someone who obsesses over little details. And those little details matter when you’re selling your product as “the best available”.

But no more skeuomorphic design please, that was all a bit weird.

The attention to detail in the software is zero.
It’s all rushed out and half baked.
I wonder if they use the software in their private life, there are some issues that are just impossible to miss.
Just to mention one, sending a voice message with the messages app on the iPhone was stopping at 30 seconds because the screen was dimming and turning off to save battery.

It was like that for several years, I reported it so many times they finally fixed it in iOS 16.

 

[Cheesehead Dave]

One mine is apparently downloading 15.6 and another 16 lol

Same here. My OG Homepod downloaded 16.0 and all my minis supposedly did 15.6. They all say they're at 16.0 now, so beats me...

 

[TVreporter]

All you Day 1-2 updaters are braver than I am - I'll wait a month before I even consider updating any system, in hopes most of the bugs will be discovered and/or fixed.

 

[twistedpixel8]

All you Day 1-2 updaters are braver than I am - I'll wait a month before I even consider updating any system, in hopes most of the bugs will be discovered and/or fixed.

Apple? Fix HomePod bugs? 🤣

 

[Digital_X]

My one hope for this update is that Siri no longer gives me a long winded, overly cheery response every time I ask her do something as basic as turning on/off a light in another room. I still cannot believe it works like that and that there's no way to turn off those unnecessarily long and loud responses.

In the Homepod settings, I believe you just need to turn off Activity Notifications in the Siri section under Personnal Requests - Activity Notifications - toggle on or off. And yes, those are annoying as hell. I just toggled it off but haven’t tried yet. Hope it does the trick.

 

[Squuiid]

In the Homepod settings, I believe you just need to turn off Activity Notifications in the Siri section under Personnal Requests - Activity Notifications - toggle on or off. And yes, those are annoying as hell. I just toggled it off but haven’t tried yet. Hope it does the trick.

No, that disables Activity Notifications only. It doesn't disable Siri's often long winded, overly cheery responses.

 

[Ashbash75]

I use the ozzie accent. Seems more lazy in replying back.

 

[twistedpixel8]

I use the ozzie accent. Seems more lazy in replying back.

I legitimately can’t tell if you’re joking 🤣

 

[Ashbash75]

I legitimately can’t tell if you’re joking 🤣

I'm not, it's true mate. I live in the UK.

 

[twistedpixel8]

I'm not, it's true mate. I like in the UK.

Seems bizarre. Why would she be functionally different across accents? I must try this. I use the American voice. I live in the UK but am American and the British voices are way too pompous to put up with. I’d love a Welsh voice or something, maybe a Geordie. “Wey aye mate, your lights are off like!”

 

[Ashbash75]

I have never met any one that speaks like the British siri. For me either the scouse accent "chicken and a can of coke" or some yam yam brummie cus siri is sooo dense 🤣🤣

 

[tubular]

In the US but use the British voice. The US voices all sound like robocalls trying to sell me an extended warranty for my Honda. The British one, after I've asked for the lights to be switched off, I half-expect to respond "and that is the end of the world news."

 

[B/D]

After testing everything extensively during this whole week for MANY hours, I´m glad that the huge step back that audioOS 15 was -particularly on the original homepods, but it also applies to the Minis to the extent that it can- is finally over.

Everything, for the first time in more than year (in my case, the performance and sound quality started deteriorating slowly after the release of audioOS 14.6, and went downhill with 15.0) remember me to the experience that I had with the original homepods when I first bought them.

First of all, everything is much faster, and I´m not talking about the usual sensation of improvement that we talk about sometimes after an update (myself included).

I´m convinced that Apple did something to the backend process of requesting data from Apple servers latency wise, because EVERY request (Apple Music songs, podcasts, radio stations...), is pretty much instantaneous now. Its unbelievable. This also applies to Homekit.

The new home app is fantastic, faster and a lot more reliable.

Lossless songs in particular now load as fast as their AAC counterparts. There is no buffering, no popping, no stopping at 15 seconds. Completely rock solid. This is also true of the IOS 16 music app, by the way.

Then there is the sound. First, Apple FINALLY restored the original maximum volume levels of the OG Homepod, which was capped around the release of 14.6 (maybe because of the overheating fiasco that killed many units around that time), and never cared to restore it in subsequent firmwares.

But it isnt just that. The detail of the bass, which is cleaner, is remarkable. The mids are no longer recessed, but louder and cleaner.

The highs are a little more prominent in the mix but not brittle. All in all, it just sound great. And if you use them with an Apple TV in home theater mode (make sure that you also update the Apple TV to tvOS 16), you are in for a treat.

Not only they are louder and fuller, but dialogue is much more clear and prominent without having to enable "reduce bass", which wasnt a solution because all that setting does is to remove sub bass.

Overall, a fantastic and long overdue update, IMHO. Just wanted to share it with the community because it was such a pleasant surprise.

PS: To avoid possible issues, make sure that you update your main IOS device (the one used to set up the pods) to IOS 16 before you update the Homepods themselves.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Kind of related… I see they haven’t bothered fixing the color bug present since forever. Jesus, does Apple give a toss about HomeKit at all?

 

[srbNYC]

Does anyone have any suggestions for Automations not happening at their designated time? I have deleted and rebuilt a couple that I use to start music to wake me. The "Test Automation" makes everything work fine. But when the time comes, it doesn't run--and I oversleep!

 

[I7guy]

After testing everything extensively during this whole week for MANY hours, I´m glad that the huge step back that audioOS 15 was -particularly on the original homepods, but it also applies to the Minis to the extent that it can- is finally over.

Everything, for the first time in more than year (in my case, the performance and sound quality started deteriorating slowly after the release of audioOS 14.6, and went downhill with 15.0) remember me to the experience that I had with the original homepods when I first bought them.

First of all, everything is much faster, and I´m not talking about the usual sensation of improvement that we talk about sometimes after an update (myself included).

I´m convinced that Apple did something to the backend process of requesting data from Apple servers latency wise, because EVERY request (Apple Music songs, podcasts, radio stations...), is pretty much instantaneous now. Its unbelievable. This also applies to Homekit.

The new home app is fantastic, faster and a lot more reliable.

Lossless songs in particular now load as fast as their AAC counterparts. There is no buffering, no popping, no stopping at 15 seconds. Completely rock solid. This is also true of the IOS 16 music app, by the way.

Then there is the sound. First, Apple FINALLY restored the original maximum volume levels of the OG Homepod, which was capped around the release of 14.6 (maybe because of the overheating fiasco that killed many units around that time), and never cared to restore it in subsequent firmwares.

But it isnt just that. The detail of the bass, which is cleaner, is remarkable. The mids are no longer recessed, but louder and cleaner.

The highs are a little more prominent in the mix but not brittle. All in all, it just sound great. And if you use them with an Apple TV in home theater mode (make sure that you also update the Apple TV to tvOS 16), you are in for a treat.

Not only they are louder and fuller, but dialogue is much more clear and prominent without having to enable "reduce bass", which wasnt a solution because all that setting does is to remove sub bass.

Overall, a fantastic and long overdue update, IMHO. Just wanted to share it with the community because it was such a pleasant surprise.

PS: To avoid possible issues, make sure that you update your main IOS device (the one used to set up the pods) to IOS 16 before you update the Homepods themselves.

You know, come to think if it, I played one song in particular on my OG Hp that was bass heavy and remember being wowed by the sound…like I had not had noticed that clarity in a while.