Well obviously the HomePod would not get it because apple put a mediocre chip in it hopefully we get a new HomePod by October
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Gurman: Apple Intelligence Coming to Vision Pro, but Not HomePod
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Siri on HomePod is atrocious. Well, Siri is atrocious in general. I have no faith Apple will make it better, just give it new ways to say “I won’t respond to that” or “I found some web results I can show you if you ask from your iPhone.” I hate Siri so much, but it is nice when he says “that’s not nice” and sounds like he’s going to cry when I tell him so.
The apple way. Box off features to try and force upgrades (while just leaving products that are plenty capable behind). At least Google and Microsoft are putting AI in everything. This wouldn't be such a big deal if Siri wasn't a total dumpster fire.
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I use my homepods (stereo pair) with an Apple TV as my TV audio. I never use Siri (because it is ass) so as a speaker (and especially as a pair) they work really well. Now with that being said, would I buy another homepod? Absolutely not, since apple seems to be treating them like the red-headed step child of their product lines.
The current HomePod is said to be "too low-volume a product to waste the engineering time" bringing Apple Intelligence to the device.
This ls why Alexa has win Apple in home assistant device for so long… well, this and Siri
This ls why Alexa has win Apple in home assistant device for so long… well, this and Siri
I don’t think it’s just a CPU it’s a ram limitation, an updated Apple TV could probably also do the job in theory. Everything that already exists that is going to get Apple Intelligence has at least 8gb of ram, if this is a limiting factor where probably going to need a new class of device whether that’s HomePod or Apple TV, which has the required ram and an updated chip, but it’s not likely to be a straight swap, but it would be a premium version.
We already have instances of devices handed off Siri requests, eg the ecobee that still requires at least a HomePod for its integration to function
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I don’t want every device in my home to have the processing power capable of on-device AI—assuming that’s what they mean by ”having Apple Intelligence”. It’s too redundant and wasteful. I see Homepods as just an I/O device and would rather it stay as simple and inexpensive as possible and leave the AI processing to any of my other Apple devices or to the cloud, and just be a relay. If Apple wants to make a new AI-focused speaker/display device, that could be useful to those who don’t have another device handy to do the processing or who want that display and whatever use cases that will enable, but my guess is it will be quite a bit more expensive than a Homepod.
Well, unless they are going to produce a version of the A16 with 8Gb RAM I think Apple are probably just going to have to update everything with A18. If the HomePod isn't designed to have A series CPU in it then there's going to be a lot of 'Ultra' models or they'll ask buyers to add something inexpensive (eg iPhone or AppleTV) to their ecosystem to do the heavy lifting.
Like Microsoft putting Copilot+ on systems with non-Qualcomm chips?
Exactly. At best it would depend on an iPhone and perhaps read results from there. I don’t think they even have base storage capacity for even the tiniest local language models.
So Apple’s monetizing play here will most likely be taking a cut of other AI provider’s revenue streams and then calling that an Apple service. Kinda gross. Just like Apple treating its cut of every micro-transaction in an iOS game as a service.
Isn’t it eventually coming to Intel and AMD non-x86 machines?
Maybe a HomePod with Apple Intelligence won’t need the full 8gb RAM. Maybe 4/6 because less RAM is needed as it’s not running a full operating system.
Handoff does feels best approach though and would allow current models to access it.
But all of the Apple fans on the forum keep telling me older devices, including the iPhone 15, weren’t intentionally skipped to drive upgrades… It was all about the RAM and Apple had no idea how much RAM Apple Intelligence would need until WWDC. 🙄
Apple Intelligence might drive upgrades, but I am not convinced it will be instant. Apple let Siri languish for so long that consumers will want to see proof it actually delivers. That’s Apple’s biggest issue here. Proving to consumers both that it works and delivers tangible value.
I suspect that’s the biggest reason it is launching for free. To convince the tech forward, like me, to try it and then evangelize it to my less tech forward friends and family. But they have to get it right from the start so people don’t see the ads and ask people like me only to get a “meh it isn’t all that great” response.
We shall see how it shapes up!
Need to see the improved Siri first. I take this with a grain of salt that we see much improvement at all.
Apple will need to shift direction here if they expect the feature to deliver. They pitched the feature as one that makes Siri somewhat useful and smart. It will be a very jarring experience to ask Siri on your iPhone something and get a proper answer only to ask on your Apple TV to get a dumb one.
RAM is the smallest of limitations in this context too. For it to be truly useful it needs access to your data stores as well, like messages or photos. That can lead to storage space issues.
The way Apple should be going here is simple. Apple Intelligence is relayed to other devices like your Apple TV or HomePod as long as a capable device is on the network.
I suspect they’ll get there and use that to try and sell iPhone 17 or something though…
They want to drip it in so it becomes like camera upgrades. A must have for the people swimming in that pool.
The device that relies on Siri won’t be getting a Siri update
One of my HomePods sat there repeating to itself “I’m sorry, there’s been a problem, please try again” for 20 minutes on end this morning. Truly a flawless product that delivers on all its original promises and is not in need of any improvement.
I don't care if the HomePods don't get "Apple Intelligence", but could they at least improve Siri on it from a 1/10 to maybe a 4/10? Siri is somehow markedly worse than when the OG HomePods launched...
Stupid things still can't manage a decent synch with a Mac either. You hit pause on a video and the audio still plays for 5 seconds after the video ceased. Such flawed software/firmware in so many ways.
If your invested in the Apple ecosystem then they are a good way to supplement the AppleTV and instantly upgrade its audio quality. We also use them to play music in any room, or multiple rooms, in the house from either our Mac, our iPads, our Phones or from any of our 3 AppleTV’s.
Sure you can use Siri to request Music but when my wife or I want to play music we’ll usually use our phones and select the HomePod(s) we want via AirPlay then use the Apple Music app to play music or do the same from the Apple TV.
I’ve got a nice little portable, rechargeable Bose Bluetooth speaker that puts out surprisingly good sound that we use to play music when we travel and are staying in a hotel, or are outside sitting on the deck or have a fire going outside, etc.