Future HomePod Again Rumored to Add Curved LCD Display

[hagar]

Or, you know, make Siri respond correctly to queries. It’s pretty embarrassing that they can’t seem to fix Siri - it’s been abysmal for years.

Exactly.

HomePod: *playing music*
Me: stop the music
Siri: there’s nothing to stop here

How is that possible? She has 1 job.

 

[Harmonious Zen]

Sounds lovely but after the endless issues I’ve had with my HomePods since HomePod OS 16 and especially 17, they’ll have to make my current HomePod fleet reliable before I ever consider buying one again. I even have a senior engineering team working on endless issues.

What are your endless issues? Mine work perfectly fine.

 

[pdmpolishing]

This already exists with eARC. I'm currently using tv audio, Apple TV audio, PS5 audio, and Nintendo Switch audio out of a stereo pair of HomePods. When the content is in Dolby Atmos I get the Atmos audio. Unless I'm misunderstanding something the HomePods already do this.

Yes that’s how I use mine, but it’s not surround, you can only use two HomePods at the front. Yes you do get Atmos but what people would like is the ability to add HomePods at the rear for actual surround sound.

 

[Regbial]

Sounds bad for dust accumulation :S

 

[Vasilioskn]

Ohhh a screen. Sold all my HomePod minis and got a proper sound bar with sub - so much better. Also Siri is still awful.

 

[k1121j]

Yup... the current "display" is enough.
I would buy a new HomePod with:

• more internal directional speakers, as the original, for better room adjustments.
• way better synchronisation with the other HomePod's - current mini's often keep on phase shifting when in stereo-pair.
• full wifi 6 or 7 support, so it wont hog the wifi as much as the wifi 4 models do when using airplay to 4 or more HomePod's. Also better for more precise timing.
• Surround support!
• Or maybe a ethernet model with PoE (power over ethernet) ? That I would buy immediately.

Apple could introduce a HomeKit iPad... or HomePad?
Or just HomePad OS for any (older) iPad? Just suggestions

Yes to the surround support. All the spacial this and that can’t make up for the Lack of more channels.

 

[Jamie0003]

What’s the point in this? Who’s going to go out of their way to look at the top of a HomePod?

 

[DaveN]

or none of the above. Siri works great for me, price is competitive for quality, I do not have any reliability problems whatsoever, and sound quality is fantastic. (way better than the cheaper Sonos, not as good as the expensive Sonos) I have two original HomePods, got updated to 17.2 (I wasn't expecting they would be updatable). 4 minis, and just bought 2 second generation HomePods refurbs - sorry haters, they are awesome!

Ditto here except I only have two of the OG homepods.

 

[DaveN]

HomePod was too little too soon.

Like, why make anything rely on Siri to the extent that HomePod does when Siri is anything but reliable?

Only a "GPT"-level AI Siri could make HomePod attractive.

And it must(!) have a feature to block out voices that don't belong to the owner or members in your Family.

Yeah, I could see a GPT style HomePod in your bedroom “Why are you telling this woman the same thing you told the other one last night? Which one is your soulmate?”

 

[Powerbooky]

I would also like to be able to connect more than 2 HomePods.

I have eight HomePod mini's in the house. 2x stereo pairs and four single units, all in different rooms.

When each HomePod is playing something by themselves (no airplay), all eight can play fine without issues. Even the stereo pairs have no issues in this situation.

But using Airplay from a Mac, HomePod, iPhone/iPad to other HomePods, the maximum I could reach is four HomePod's when all are on the 5GHz band. In this situation the wifi utilisation pushes 60-70%. Even when I use a wired Mac to Airplay, the limit stays at 4 HomePod's. Whenever there's another wireless device demanding some bandwidth, it can disrupt the whole AirPlay session. A proper QoS setup is essential to keep it working.

When some of the HomePod's are on the lower 2.4GHz band, but same subnet, the limit remains at 4. It becomes a bit more stable though.

The single channel wifi 802.11n (wifi 4, limited) the current generation HomePod is using, is a serious bottle neck for AirPlay. The maximum bandwidth for single channel 802.11n (wifi 4) is 72Mbps. Is doesn't matter if the AP is setup for 2 or even 4 channel use, the HomePod only connects in single channel mode. In this mode I usually get 72Mbps on most HomePod's, but some have different up- and download speeds. It can be as low as 6Mbps on 2.4GHz.
That's why I wish for at least 802.11ax (wifi 6), which is has a way better coverage without much bandwidth drop. Apple shouldn't have used the old S7 chip (link)

 

[b.la]

I can’t help but wish this is a soundbar with built in Apple TV, and a camera for FaceTime calls. YES PLEASE! And hello Apple Surround sound using HomePods and HomePod minis.

 

[svish]

Would like to see some new colours during the next refresh of the HomePod. Would have liked it to be a bigger display.

 

[Someirishguy]

Exactly.

I cannot believe the engineers at Apple are not able to understand the fundamental failure of a screen in this location.

So you have a Speaker on a shelf, on a desk etc, and you would like to see information on it's screen.
Perhaps the time? Perhaps an answer to some question? Perhaps lyrics for a song that's playing.

So where would you want a screen to be?
1: On the side, so you can view the screen from where you are sitting?
2: On the top, facing the ceiling, so you cannot see anything unless you walk over to it, and look down onto the screen.

Please for the love of god, tell me, that at least someone at Apple has the intellect and perhaps bravery to stand up and explain this would be a dumb place for a screen in real world usage.

Sure, it will look fine in a store display when you are standing next to it, and also fine in a demo/presentation when you are standing/sitting right up next to it.

But in real homes with real people..... Nope.

Please Apple, stop and actually think before you build it.

I imagine that’s the point of the curved display, so you can see that the HomePod has heard you and is listening from the side. It would be cool if the screen integrated with where the request came from (based on what microphone picked up the speech best), and the side of the curve pointing towards you lit up (and followed your voice)

 

[philstubbington]

I don’t really see it’s much use - would be more useful if it was on the side so you could see it from a distance.

 

[Rockin Robin]

My very useful HomePod 1st gen has a curved display area which I never use but it plays music, adds to playlists and the sound is good. Siri, however, is hapless but I have Alexa for that. I am not sure that this rumour is useful.

 

[pappl]

HomePods don't need a new display, they need:

- Smart Siri

- More functions in Home App, e.g. full Shortcuts integration (set recurring reminders, announcements e.g. when a window sensor is longer than xy minutes opened, shared playlists in Music - i still can't play my Music playlist when i'm only a shared family member even if all options are enabled)

- Flaky Wifi needs update, 2.4Ghz to 5Ghz switching interrupts streaming, Multicasting must be enabled on the wifi-router to make streaming stable. This should be announced when a stream stops.

- Thread enabled devices can't be switched on or off when Wifi-router is offline at night. Why?

 

[ric22]

Sounds lovely but after the endless issues I’ve had with my HomePods since HomePod OS 16 and especially 17, they’ll have to make my current HomePod fleet reliable before I ever consider buying one again. I even have a senior engineering team working on endless issues.

On 17.2 my HomePods are behaving for the first time since 2018/2019!

 

[ric22]

Meanwhile, Siri remains comedically brain-dead. Why would I want a screen on a HomePod?

 

[ric22]

Ditto. I love my original pair and I've never had a single issue.

Mate, I'm jealous. Stupid things caused me endless problems, which continued despite moving to 4 different countries with them, and using different routers everywhere. On 17.2 the problems seem resolved, though I haven't yet dared to try them as a stereo pair again, after the countless problems doing that caused in the past.

 

[philstubbington]

Ditto. I love my original pair and I've never had a single issue.

Same here.

 

[Seanm87]

My original HomePod is by far the worst Apple product I own. Everything else I own iPhone iPad MacBook etc I love but the HomePod is so bad, Siri is by far the most useless “personal assistant” ever. Constantly gets things wrong, doesn’t do as it’s told, and often loses connection (never happens to anything else in my house) and just generally awful all round.

Apple seriously need to address this before launching another one because it’s embarrassing.

 

[pplfn]

I think a display on a HomePod would be more like the EyeSight, displaying something 3D viewable from different angles like the 3D billboard with a cat in Tokyo.

 

[Rooster 🐓]

Maybe I am lucky, or one will fail tomorrow, but my aging pair of OG HomePods are up there with my favourite ever apple products.

Such an uncluttered, beautifully designed, high quality e-arc pass through Dolby atmos AV sound system. If the new ones improve on the sound further I’m in.

But as many have said Siri is such a fail. So bad, I’ve disabled it on the HomePods. Why oh why can apple not fix it?

 

[Mr Todhunter]

Sonos has terrible quality too. So being better than a ‘cheap’ Sonos and even worse than an expensive one is really not much of an achievement. Quite the opposite: it confirms the audio quality is embarrassing.

It confirms NOTHING. It's just one person's opinion. Like my opinion which I state here. Homepods sound great.

 

[ric22]

It confirms NOTHING. It's just one person's opinion. Like my opinion which I state here. Homepods sound great.

Full sized OG HomePods do sound good from my experience, and I've liked the Sonos speakers I've heard too. I wouldn't compare either with £3,000 floor standers, of course, but they still sound great. What the heck do people compare them to?