It works well for me for basic queries like "add paper towels to my groceries list", "how to do x in Minecraft", "what sound x (animal) makes". And it is good it can't hallucinate any answers. Kids use it too.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
HomePod 2 Now 1,000 Days Old
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have both a first and a second gen HomePod unit, and for a set of speakers, they do what they were sold to. As a personal assistant, that’s where my phone is for. And even that is still not exactly great, so I will continue to see the HomePod units as speakers until I know Siri works well on a phone, then I know it will work well on a speaker, and it may be time for me to upgrade.
See that’s strange. I have a HomePod mini. I ask Siri to shuffle a specific playlist of mine that isn’t conventionally named and she nails it everytime.
1,000 days? It could be a little more dramatic: 86,400,000 seconds! 😂
If you look at the buyers guide, you’ll notice that Macrumors has always use days as the unit for this
Very true. In other words it's just over 2 and a half years old. Not that long is it. One thousand sounds much more dramatic though
Btw, this is a ridiculously sophisticated process, and a very Apple detail. (This is a recollection of an Apple exec describing it during an interview.)
Any device in the area hearing "Hey Siri" does an analysis on the likelihood that the initiator is speaking to them. This analysis is then broadcast to other devices in the area while the other hearing devices do the same. Then all devices collectively determine the device with the highest probability that's been instructed, and that's the one that responds.
I've found it works quite well. Stand with your back to the HomePods and say "Hey Siri" to your iPhone in front of you, it's extremely likely the iPhone will respond. Environmental factors will impact it obviously, but that's my experience.
I 100% believe that. And of course, it might be kind of fun if I posted the weirdest song names in my library and you tried to get it to play them for you and we see if it works ...
but the crux of the matter is that Siri as an interface is notoriously unreliable.
That's why the lack of line-in is such a bummer for something that sounds so good!
This is why my whole house is Sonos. Much better in every way
I've got a stereo pair in the living room as may main speakers for my AppleTV used for daily TV viewing. I have another stereo pair hooked up on the patio for the same situation as well as music by the pool. I have a single solo in the Garage for the garage TV and 4 mini's floating around in bedrooms and offices. For the most part, it works all flawlessly. Simple using them as speakers and to tell Siri to turn random **** on and off.
I had a pair of these for stereo but, while the sound quality was good, they were simply too buggy. And then there was the dreaded “fart of death” that would occur periodically before Siri would forget everything. The HomePod could be creepy, too, with occasional unprompted laughter from Siri. The devices were simply too much trouble to be worth owning. I am not interested in new versions to replace them.
My iPod HiFi is still going strong to this day!
Every way except the fact Sonos one day (maybe sooner than you think) will go belly-up and your gear is dead.
I don't think Apple is in such a risky place.
Nobody and I mean nobody should buy this overpriced outdated product. Sound is fine (actually second gen sounds worse) but its overpriced and since the first gen the main selling point of the product (Siri) doesn’t work. And now they still sell the second gen despite it won’t get AI Siri. Its an overpriced Apple Music machine. I sold my first gen HomePod last year because it was gathering dust on the shelf and because Siri drove me insane.
I don’t think it sells enough unlike the Airpods Max. I remember by the end of the first gen Homepod they were still selling units of 2018. And unlike the Airpods Max (which have a use case but are overpriced and that is why sales are low) the HomePod has almost no use case. Maybe playing Apple Music and even that Siri can’t handle.
Last edited:
Yeah, the tech press needs to stop dating things in days. 3 years or so really isn’t that old for a product most people might swap out once a decade.
Totally agree especially for a speaker what else can you add? Lol
I guess Mac rumours needs to get you to their site somehow to get ad revenue lol
far more than that as the article has used a picture of the gen 1 HomePods not the gen 2s.