HomePod Gaining New 'Ambient Sounds' Siri Feature This Fall, Radio Station Support Launching September 30

[19callum93]

All I want is to be able to ask Siri to play music from Spotify.

 

[gtkriz]

I don't even have a chance to buy a homepod.
Seriously... still not available in Austria (and many other countries).
Of course it's not selling well if it's not available for purchase.

 

[decypher44]

I love my homepods. I use them almost daily. I’m really stoked about the ambient sounds as I love to fall asleep to that.

But as mentioned already, how is it that there still is no sleep timer?!?! I mean, seriously!

 

[turbineseaplane]

But as mentioned already, how is it that there still is no sleep timer?!?! I mean, seriously!

They are going to add ambient sounds, which very naturally would be used to fall asleep to, but there is still no sleep timer?

 

[coolfactor]

I expect “later this fall” to become the new release date for catalina this year as well. Never seen a more troublesome update year for Apple.

I'm puzzled by the use of numeric month.day ... "Available 9.30". I know that most people can figure that out, but it's not automatically obvious what it means, especially when we're surrounded by version numbers. It could be interpreted as "Available in version 9.30". Why not just write "Available Sept 30"? Are they trying to be hip?

 

[Baymowe335]

Directionless leadership whose sole focus is on profit margins and not really capable of leading teams to get their work done in good manner.

Likely, also seeing cuts to staffing of many teams due to maximization of profit in part due to a downturn in the volume of sales declines that Apple has seen over the last year.

Lower priority items, especially ones with no direct revenue will likely slow down in favour of the "quick buck" products.

adding ambient sounds doesn't really sell devices. it's a great value added featureset, but its not likely that HomePod sales (especially at it's price point) is going ot be driven by this feature addition. Hence, it's priority is lowered.

It’s ridiculous to call a delay in a release of software evidence there is no leadership.

You saw the leadership yesterday and in the earnings reports. Like it or not, the strategy is working and the $4.99 price for TV is aggressive...showing the opposite of directionless. Apple knows they are going to more services.

Apple TV+ is the opposite of a “quick buck.”

Apple runs their business for the long term and always plays the long game. That’s why they don’t rush stuff out and people like you get mad and say there is no leadership. Wrong.

 

[atomic.flip]

But they're not, they're feature rich but they sound terrible. The HomePods actually do sound really good, although I wasn't convinced at first because i'm used to an even more high end, open, clinical sound from studio monitors and my Sennheiser HD800 headphones, but the Sonos line sounds woefully poor.

To be fair, they have a very "decent" flat sound to them and definitely fall in the upper end of "smart speaker" sound quality. What I was most unimpressed by is how relatively quiet they are. For their size, I would have expected a few more decibels.

But honestly Siri is the one thing that ruins these speakers. There are things I love about Siri, but most of those things I love seem either superficial or incomplete.

Here are a couple of things I would suggest be done to improve user experience:

1. Make all features not requiring visual feedback or tactile input available on homepod that are available on Siri for iPhone/Apple Watch.

2. Enable Siri to handle follow-up requests. (For example: When I ask Siri to turn on the bedroom lights and then want Siri to do something else she can't most of the time or can't at all. With Google Assistant / Google Home I can say "Hey Google, turn on the bedroom lights and lock the front door, also set the thermostat to 72 degrees and what is playing on CNN right now?" and Google will handle all that like a champ.

 

[thomas040]

The only question I have is; will I finally be able to EQ tune it? I feel the HomePod out of the gate is too bass heavy.

 

[FierceCorgi]

I tried this out, by playing a radio station on my HomePod. Worked as expected, got the response "playing TalkSport, provided by TuneIn".
The unexpected part is that TalkSport then showed up in my "recently played" list in iTunes, on my iPhone and on my Mac, and could be played from there also.

Is iTunes somehow acting as a kind of wrapper around these stations now (a bit like Apple TV Channels in the TV app)? I understand that the streams are accessible as just URLs, but it seems odd that TuneIn/iHeart/etc would allow these streams to be "unwrapped" from their base apps. When I play TalkSport from the iTunes link, there isn't any indication it is coming from TuneIn.

 

[dannys1]

2. Enable Siri to handle follow-up requests. (For example: When I ask Siri to turn on the bedroom lights and then want Siri to do something else she can't most of the time or can't at all. With Google Assistant / Google Home I can say "Hey Google, turn on the bedroom lights and lock the front door, also set the thermostat to 72 degrees and what is playing on CNN right now?" and Google will handle all that like a champ.

It took them AGES to get to this but yes totally agree, this is something I was requesting for years, not sure why it took so long and why Siri doesn't have it.

I still prefer Siri over all for home automation just because I prefer Homekit and the combination with Homebridge to get basically anything you can think of working. Google lacks a lot of these features and Alexa is a mess in comparison. Google definitely leads the way in terms of asking stuff that it basically goes to it's own search engine to answer that's for sure.

The HomePod (at least in a stereo config) is more than loud enough for me though, I think the bass is ridiculous for a little speaker (probably too much and they should offer a "low cut" night mode.
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You say All Sonos speakers sound woefully poor???? Mmmm not to my ears, or many of the reviewers ears out there.

Yes they do, they don't even sound as good as budget hi fi speakers. They're boomy, muffled, lacking depth and clarity. They've just very average mainstream speakers all in one speakers. They're sort of in par with those flashy hifi's you got teenagers in the 90s. It's madness that for the same sort of price you get a pair of Adam A5X's.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I’ve been using my HomePod for about a year and a half and Siri works great.

How long have you been using yours?

Since it was first released. In constant every day conversation in the house, she starts responding when the words we are speaking are not even close to Hey Siri. And if you ask her a question, about 25% of the time she responds with I don't understand.

Maybe I have a bad microphone array...

 

[iDento]

I just bought the app Dark Noise for 3.99$, airplay it and that's it. No need to wait.

 

[Mtmspa]

Didn't need or want it when it first came out, still don't.

Then why are you posting here? I love mine and will be adding two more.

 

[csalm87]

Apple pushing back even more software releases and features at the last minute. What is going on over there?

Who said they're pushing back anything? They said it would be available in the Fall. They never provided a date.

 

[Martyimac]

Then why are you posting here? I love mine and will be adding two more.

Good for you.

 

[Shing]

Allow streaming from SiriusXM and I'm in.

 

[DeepIn2U]

My HomePod and Apple Watch gained the radio station feature on Sep 10, before the keynote. I wonder if its being randomly rolled out while in testing.

Great to know ... i just got my HomePod 2 days ago ... I've set it up basically (Don't want my current side gal to be reading my iMessages).

 

[DeepIn2U]

Hmm, nice. Though not sure how built-in sounds are any better than using an ambient sound app like Relax Melodies.

Speakers vs headphones which do you think would be louder or more immersive?

 

[Arran]

I have zero intensions on buying a mini-van - perhaps I should seek out all the mini-van forums and tell everyone how much they suck... smh...

Good point. It's such a waste of human energy. Totally pointless.

 

[Arran]

Thank god for ambient sounds. I use thunderstorm sounds albums on Apple Music when I sleep, but it has absolutely ruined all the recommendations in the For You section despite me telling it I don’t like those albums for recommendations. My New Music mix on Friday is loaded with the stuff every week. It sucks.

Yeah, I love ocean waves in the background (grew up on the coast) but asking siri to "play ocean waves" can be inconsistent. Sometimes great, sometimes disjoint.

So much so, that I was planning on making an apple music playlist with just the few tracks I love. Adding the same tracks to the playlist over and over. Enough for eight hours, say. Then anyone could just say "hey siri, play ocean playlist" and leave it at that.

This ambient sound function might achieve all that easier. Looking forward to trying it.
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I just bought the app Dark Noise for 3.99$, airplay it and that's it. No need to wait.

True, but you have to futz about with your phone to get it all started. And then it's using your phone's battery to stream (not that it seems to be much).

OTOH, Just telling homepod to play something (anything) is so much easier. "Frictionless" is trendy word I use hesitantly here - only because the poor word is being overused to death. But it's a true description of how HomePod brings sound to life at home.

 

[840quadra]

My issue has nothing to do with releasing features to products over time or taking their time to do so – my issue is that Apple has been delaying, last minute, many iOS 13 features in a fashion that's not consistent with previous history. "Release too early and unpolished" is a lot different than "Missing the original time table for announced features and delaying them".

If Apple had said, in June or any time leading up to the event, that HomePod features wouldn't be released until late fall, my comment wouldn't have been posted.

I commented on exactly what you posted. How is holding back something that isn't complete a bad thing?

My comment still stands, I am glad they are waiting until things are finished and properly working before they release them to devices I use, and have to support .

 

[Mascots]

I commented on exactly what you posted. How is holding back something that isn't complete a bad thing?

My comment still stands, I am glad they are waiting until things are finished and properly working before they release them to devices I use, and have to support .

Excuse me? I merely commented on the fact that they are delaying more features (which they are) and followed it up with a “What’s going on over there”. Then backed up the original intent of my message after you seemed to misinterpret the meaning. I NEVER implied they should release things not ready or that delaying is bad - I am questioning on the cause of the unexpected delays, nothing more.

I get what you’re saying and I even agree, but it’s totally directed wrong. Anything else you want to read out of my comment is on you.

 

[ipedro]

Thank you! My Apple Music is littered with albums of thunderstorms because it’s been the only way to play white noise on the HomePod with Siri.

Steadily, HomePod is matching available features in competing smart speakers and doing so at a steady clip. Remember, HomePod is virtually brand new, at only a year and a half since its release.

Multi user support, multiple timers and now ambient sounds completes most of what was missing. Siri Shortcuts go head to head with Alexa Skills and is filling in HomePod’s blindspots day by day as more and more apps get updated with Siri Shortcuts support.

In terms of intelligence, I have an Amazon Echo Show on my bestside table and I have through first hand experience confirmed that Alexa is in fact not smarter than Siri. Alexa requires very deliberate narrow commands whereas Siri understands natural language. I also have a Google Home which is only slightly ahead when it comes to general knowledge since Google has access to its own search engine results. I would put that at about par but Siri beats the other voice assistants when it comes to music knowledge.

 

[Black Belt]

Fabtastic! I already listen to rain sound effects on Apple Music and I’ve been wanting to listen to iHeartRadio on the weekends. I love my HomePod! I’m going to buy more

 

[ipedro]

Hmm, nice. Though not sure how built-in sounds are any better than using an ambient sound app like Relax Melodies.

Built in sounds work natively with Siri, rather than have to run your app’s sounds through AirPlay. If you want to use a third party app, you can use Siri Shortcuts if your fav app supports it.

I can’t believe radio station streaming wasn’t one of the original features. That’s one of my main uses for my Echo speaker - listening to live NPR news.

Did Amazon Echo come with every feature on launch day? HomePod has only been out for a year and a half and has already received 3 firmware updates with a dozen new features.

I keep hearing about all of these "new features" with Siri, yet she cannot do even the most basic tasks correctly. Is Tim Cook living in a fantasy world?

What basic features doesn’t Siri do correctly?