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HomePod Can Now Read the News in Canada, France, and Germany, Where the Speaker Launches Monday

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Ahead of the HomePod launching in Canada, France, and Germany in three days from now, the speaker has gained the ability to read the news in those countries.

homepod-canada-france-germany-800x313.jpg

Siri can now provide news briefs from a handful of sources in Canada, for example, including CBC, Global TV, CTV, and CNN. To start, say "Hey Siri" and then say something like "read me the news" or "what's the news today?"

MacRumors reader Pedro Marques, who lives in Toronto, Canada, shared a demonstration of the feature with us today:


Meanwhile, in Germany, the same functionality works with sources such as public broadcasting radio station Deutschlandfunk, according to MacRumors reader Marco.

Apple previously announced that HomePod sales will begin in Canada, Germany, and France on Monday, June 18. The speaker will be available to order in white and space gray through Apple's online store, retail stores, and the Apple Store app on iPhone and iPad, and at select authorized resellers, including Best Buy.

The speaker will be priced at $449 in Canada, and EUR349 in Germany and France, according to Apple's online store.

HomePod first launched in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia in February. Canadians, of course, could simply drive south of the border, purchase a HomePod in the United States, and bring it back to Canada, where it worked fine, beyond a few features like news that are now being added.

Late last month, Apple pushed a software update to the HomePod that enables Siri to speak in French, German, and Canadian English. Apple notes that Canadian French will be added later this year in a subsequent software update.

In related news, Apple's TV app recently gained live news in Canada. CBC News is available for free, or $4.99 per month without ads, while CTV News Go is offered through authentication with a cable provider like Bell or Rogers. Other options include CNN, BNN Bloomberg, and online news network Cheddar.

Article Link: HomePod Can Now Read the News in Canada, France, and Germany, Where the Speaker Launches Monday
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/15/homepod-can-now-read-news-in-canada/
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Reactions: ipedro
In Germany it works as well now. You can choose between different sources:
  • Deutschlandfunk
  • Tagesschau in 100 Sekunden
  • ZDF heute Express
  • Weltnewscheck
Say something like "Hey Siri, was gibt es neues?" or "Hey Siri, spiele Tagesschau in 100 Sekunden".
 
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Reactions: CemY, PR1985, gemoritzt and 8 others
Still on the fence about purchasing, might hold off until I own a home and can setup more automation. Can only do so much in a rental.

Or might wait for some US deals that work out cheaper after currency conversion.
 
Think as long we have no Siri on TV we won’t see a HomePod release in Belgium.
That’s a bad .
Starting to look at Yamaha MusicCast system.
 
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alphaswift said:
As a Canadian, I lol'ed at this. What the hell is Canadian English?

Me: Hey Siri, what's the news?
Siri: "Let me tell you aboot a moose seen drinkin a Molson while playing hockey, eh!"
Click to expand...
If anything, for speech recognition, it would only be funny once or twice to have Siri understand "a boat" everytime one says (stereotypically) "about" in any given sentence..
 
What does this mean for the News app though. I made a guess that we'd get News access when we got the HomePod, since News is one of it's few headline features. Looks like we're getting it through Siri only... that's a bummer.
 
Dustonfoster said:
Still on the fence about purchasing, might hold off until I own a home and can setup more automation. Can only do so much in a rental.
Click to expand...

I rent and my condo is fully decked out with smarthome gear. All the lights are Hue (18 of them). I replaced the inside of my lock with an August — my landord’s key still works and the outside lock is still the same. I replaced my thermostat with a HomeKit compatible (I kept the old one to put back when I leave). I plugged in Eve power in my sockets that controls non smart things. I have Withings health devices that my home reacts to (i.e. Step on the scale in the morning and my home wakes up). My HomePod controls it all and everything can be taken with me when I leave some day.
 
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Who would want that?? I am trying to get a break from this daily **** show, the last thing I need is a thing blasting tRump again praising the dear leader Kin Jong-un how his people admire him and stand straight when he is around. for killing his people... Brrrr, shudder.
[doublepost=1529077661][/doublepost]And Siri is just useless. Last time I asked Siri something while driving and the answer was that Siri displayed the answer on the screen and I should look there. Is Siri trying tio kill me?? (And I know this is about the home pods but Siri is Siri)
 
adamski23 said:
Along with a side of poutine.
Click to expand...
And those Molson beers

I started using Siri last week, the app had problems with my voice, the commands were not what I dictated.
a day later, I canged the settings to canadien, and Siri now hears me flawlessly
 
iPod HiFi>>this.
For the simple fact that I can connect this to my tv through optical.
I have two Hifi and it is amazing.
 
Madmic23 said:
They haven't. I asked Siri for directions to a business in Colborne, a small Ontario town 20 minutes away from me. She gave me directions to Alabama. Because "Colborne" and "Alabama" sound so much a like. o_O
Click to expand...
That's been one of the oddest things about Siri when it comes to Maps directions for years — absolutely no sense of contextual location awareness, regardless of what you're saying. It took a long time for Siri to get "Yonge Street" right — even though I lived on Yonge Street at the time, it kept trying to take me to a "Young Street" in some small town about 400kms away (yes, I'll grant you the pronunciation of "Yonge" isn't intuitive, but it's only the main street less than 10 km away from Apple's Canadian headquarters — both then and now).
 
Just an FYI, I have the CBC app and it isn't just a news app. You get access to all CBC programming that functions much like Netflix with back catalogs etc. You get all that free with ads. I pay the $5.00 a month because it is worth it to not only watch ad-free, but you get access to live television.

There are tons of shows to watch and for those cord-cutters who enjoy hockey, yes it does air the hockey games on the live portion of the service.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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Dustonfoster said:
Still on the fence about purchasing, might hold off until I own a home and can setup more automation. Can only do so much in a rental.

Or might wait for some US deals that work out cheaper after currency conversion.
Click to expand...
It’s a great device. First and foremost the sound is really good . Siri works well with the basics. I will be buying another.
 
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