Apple Working on All-New Operating System

[ThatsME.mr]

The only two three four things I need:

1. Make it programmable. i.e. by combining Shortcuts and Home triggers! And important: Shortcuts with full functionality - not the stripped down stuff that is possible now.

2. Add more device types and do this completely. I still don't know why the Eve app can do much more then Home App. Example: I set the duration of my lawn irrigation with an Eve Scene that is started from a Shortcut. Setting the duration works neither from Home nor from Shortcut. But I can start an Eve Scene. Opened from the Home App the Eve Scene for the duration seems empty.

And maybe:
3. Give it a UI that is not alltogether sh$$$y. In the Home App there are so many situations where the button are to small for the caption.

4. Make Shortcuts better:
a) Check for null
b) Fix the when-Bug
c) Add debug mode (step-by-step-execution)

edit: typo

 

[seek3r]

2. Add more device types and do this completely. I still don't know why the Eve app can do much more then Home App. Example: I set the duration of my lawn irrigation with an Eve Scene that is started from a Shortcut. Setting the duration works neither from Home nor from Shortcut. But I can start an Eve Scene. Opened from the Home App the Eve Scene for the duration seems empty.

I can do that now…

 

[gimmesomemo]

Ah yes the well received and super well aged hexagon watch app view. If there was ever a software feature to build an OS from that would be it

 

[FFMcGee]

I can't get over the name.

 

[MichaelAdam]

Great! BUT HomeKit already limited with the choice of compatible appliances compared to Google Home or Alexa … Also why would I have to go to a desktop unit when my phone or watch is with me most of the time ?

 

[gleepskip]

As I mentioned earlier, one just needs to exercise their imagination a little

I just used my imagination and realized the laptop I'm using now, my iPhone nearby, and the watch I often wear can provide 100% of the functionality of this home hub. You tried this hand-waving before and now I'm even less convinced this hub device is practical.

 

[gleepskip]

That’s odd because google home and Alexa’s are selling just fine and the don’t sit on your arm or your pocket. Maybe you aren’t aware of other companies besides Apple…there is a term for that. S H E E P

You can buy Echo devices with a screen for $40 on sale. There is a term for that. C H E A P.

Just about anything will sell in high volume if it's at impulse-buy pricing.

 

[Schizoid]

“Siri, turn the lights in the garage off”…

…”Here’s what I found on the internet about David Hasselhoff”

 

[ThatsME.mr]

I can do that now…

View attachment 2538396

But not in a scene and not in a Shortcut

 

[citysnaps]

I just used my imagination and realized the laptop I'm using now, my iPhone nearby, and the watch I often wear can provide 100% of the functionality of this home hub. You tried this hand-waving before and now I'm even less convinced this hub device is practical.

Whatever floats your boat. I'll decide when Apple's Home Hub is *actually released* and reviewed by a credible source.


"my iPhone nearby, and the watch I often wear can provide 100% of the functionality of this home hub."

Sounds like you have inside information on what Apple's Home Hub is about. Please share here.

 

[dguisinger]

How about fix the ones you already have?
God I hate Tim Cook's leadership

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Shut down device lines and focus on what you do best, which is NOT Apple Vision, NOT gaming, and NOT home appliances.

Nonsense. Apple is a huge $T company that does not need to "Shut down device lines and focus on what you do best..." Apple needs to do things well, and it has been doing so. Hence the huge success.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

How about fix the ones you already have?
God I hate Tim Cook's leadership

Interesting that you seem to seek out broken things. My M2 MBP, my iPhone 16 PM and my Apple Watch Ultra1 are all superb under Tim Cook's leadership. My iPad Air is not superb, but that is mostly because it is very old. My original HomePods are superb but also are now old and becoming software-finicky.

I guess YMMV, but [imperfect] Apple under Tim Cook's leadership is the envy of the tech world.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I have a dumb home, and I like it that way.

Enough folks disagree with you (look at the huge success of Ring Doorbells) to make it pretty much a mandatory market space for Apple to attack.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

The major upgrade will necessitate you to purchase new HomePods & minis!😆

I am OK with buying new pair of full-size HomePods if they do sound as well as the Original HomePods do. Apple needs to use care with the marketing this time around, and market the full-size HomePods as a super-sounding stereo pair instead of marketing them singly and letting them get perceived as pricey Amazon Echos to talk to Siri with. The HomePod mini can be postured as the "put them everywhere to talk to Siri:" devices, because they will never be providing good stereo sound at the necessary $99 price point.

IMO the current single-speaker marketing of the full-size HomePods on Apple's website is dumb in the extreme. One would think Apple would look at the case study of Original HomePod sales <sheesh>. Some kid marketer thinks showing the lower price of just one speaker is smart, but he/she is wrong. Claiming "immersive high fidelity audio" [Apple's words] out of a single speaker less than 7" tall fails for the people who buy full-size HomePods [like me].

To Apple: market full-size HomePods to folks [like me] that want great sound. Sell full-size HomePods as what they are, a pair of superb smart bookshelf speakers that provide immersive auto-positioning/balancing stereo audio.

The bold in the previous paragraph was very intentional. Lots of vendors like KEF, Bose, etc. make very good sounding bookshelf speakers - - but only when those speakers are carefully placed in an appropriate space. But bookshelf speakers are almost never carefully placed in an appropriate space such that they will sound "very good."

A pair of Apple's full-size HomePods can auto-position and balance in very challenging spaces such that the pair will sound very good despite facing a challenging space and placement [e.g. one wall of glass, one wall of brick and two walls of sheet rock with glass doors]. That is huge, something the other guys do not do. Sell it - - but only as a pair; single speakers fail.

Also sell to the limitations of the pair of full-size HomePods: room volume. The full-size HomePods perform adequately in a room up to ~15'x15'x8' if one does not insist on high volume. High volume without distortion will only work in a smaller space.

All bookshelf speakers have that same space limitation, so it should be [must be] addressed. Otherwise Apple will see complaints like those when the Original HomePods came out: "they suck when I play them on my outdoor patio," "they suck when I play them in my big living room," etc. Of course small speakers suck in big spaces; they must overdrive their tiny speakers to make enough sound, causing distortion.

 

[McScooby]

I am OK with buying new pair of full-size HomePods if they do sound as well as the Original HomePods do. Apple needs to use care with the marketing this time around, and market the full-size HomePods as a super-sounding stereo pair instead of marketing them singly and letting them get perceived as pricey Amazon Echos to talk to Siri with. The HomePod mini can be postured as the "put them everywhere to talk to Siri:" devices, because they will never be providing good stereo sound at the necessary $99 price point.

IMO the current single-speaker marketing of the full-size HomePods on Apple's website is dumb in the extreme. One would think Apple would look at the case study of Original HomePod sales <sheesh>. Some kid marketer thinks showing the lower price of just one speaker is smart, but he/she is wrong. Claiming "immersive high fidelity audio" [Apple's words] out of a single speaker less than 7" tall fails for the people who buy full-size HomePods [like me].

To Apple: market full-size HomePods to folks [like me] that want great sound. Sell full-size HomePods as what they are, a pair of superb smart bookshelf speakers that provide immersive auto-positioning/balancing stereo audio.

The bold in the previous paragraph was very intentional. Lots of vendors like KEF, Bose, etc. make very good sounding bookshelf speakers - - but only when those speakers are carefully placed in an appropriate space. But bookshelf speakers are almost never carefully placed in an appropriate space such that they will sound "very good."

A pair of Apple's full-size HomePods can auto-position and balance in very challenging spaces such that the pair will sound very good despite facing a challenging space and placement [e.g. one wall of glass, one wall of brick and two walls of sheet rock with glass doors]. That is huge, something the other guys do not do. Sell it - - but only as a pair; single speakers fail.

Also sell to the limitations of the pair of full-size HomePods: room volume. The full-size HomePods perform adequately in a room up to ~15'x15'x8' if one does not insist on high volume. High volume without distortion will only work in a smaller space.

All bookshelf speakers have that same space limitation, so it should be [must be] addressed. Otherwise Apple will see complaints like those when the Original HomePods came out: "they suck when I play them on my outdoor patio," "they suck when I play them in my big living room," etc. Of course small speakers suck in big spaces; they must overdrive their tiny speakers to make enough sound, causing distortion.

100%.

If only they could bring out functionality with up firing Atmos similar to Sony Quad's (for 4 of them), possibly substitution with minis offering similar, they'd work out cheaper, work directly with TV & I'm willing to bet would capture a fair proportion of the market.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

It might end up like butterfly keyboard, touch bar and Vision Pro.

?? Butterfly keyboard was a component that failed and AVP is a superb tech demo that works very, very well. And the AVP tech demo sold more than 100k units at $3,500 each. A huge tech demo success.

Touch bar worked fine but not enough people liked it [I did].

 

[Allen_Wentz]

100%.

If only they could bring out functionality with up firing Atmos similar to Sony Quad's (for 4 of them), possibly substitution with minis offering similar, they'd work out cheaper, work directly with TV & I'm willing to bet would capture a fair proportion of the market.

This. Minis with good enough sound to augment full size HomePods into a good Surround Sound system also would be desirable for many folks, but I do not know about trademark/licensing, etc. Me, I like the stereo sound as is.

 

[Powerbooky]

HomeOS... make it compatible to run it on an older iPad, even the ones that cannot run the current iPadOS. This way it still can function as a control panel and not end up on the e-waste pile.

 

[ignatius345]

I don’t want my kids fiddling with my home stuff, so I don’t get the point of it.

That's actually my main beef with the way my Homekit stuff is set up: really difficult for the kid to use. I want her to be able to change lights if she needs to. Also any guest in my home would have a really hard time accessing anything unless they 1) have an iPhone and 2) I explicitly add them to my Home app. I love having the flexibility of being able to set up lighting scenes and adjust the AC, but I want a dedicated place to do it that anyone in the house can understand and use.

 

[seek3r]

That's actually my main beef with the way my Homekit stuff is set up: really difficult for the kid to use. I want her to be able to change lights if she needs to. Also any guest in my home would have a really hard time accessing anything unless they 1) have an iPhone and 2) I explicitly add them to my Home app. I love having the flexibility of being able to set up lighting scenes and adjust the AC, but I want a dedicated place to do it that anyone in the house can understand and use.

This is why I made sure all my smart lights still have switches (mostly hue zigbee "switches", with some in-wall actual switches from lutron and eve mixed in) and my thermostat still has a physical interface that's accessible (an ecobee). Guests usually dont want to learn smart stuff anyway, so nothing is different from a "dumb" house for them. That said, I dont have kids

 

[ignatius345]

This is why I made sure all my smart lights still have switches (mostly hue zigbee "switches", with some in-wall actual switches from lutron and eve mixed in) and my thermostat still has a physical interface that's accessible (an ecobee). Guests usually dont want to learn smart stuff anyway, so nothing is different from a "dumb" house for them. That said, I dont have kids

Yeah, that all makes sense. I think in a perfect world for me every room would have a nice dial for color temperature and a dial for brightness, but I'm not rich enough to make that happen yet.

 

[ignatius345]

It might end up like butterfly keyboard, touch bar and Vision Pro.

You're lumping together three entirely different things. The butterfly keyboard was an abject engineering and design failure. The touch bar was perhaps divisive but workable and had its fans. The Vision Pro is really a first stab at something that will in some form or another be a massive market. Of the three, I think only the butterfly keyboard actually deserves to be called a failure.