Can I turn off Lights with Siri / HomePod even when there is no Internet Access (for instance I turned Internet off on the router)?
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HomePod Hands-On: Unboxing and Overview
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I seem to have that problem, although I only had 30minutes to test it. Strangely, it didn’t have a problem with my wife and son, so looks like an issue with my voice.
Odd...I read what you wrote, paused the movie I was watching and said, “Hey Siri, play some music” with no pause and she fired it right up. The HomePod had been easily sitting for an hour or more without me using it when I did that.
So you’ve never realized that there are a huge number of speakers on the market? And that some have better sound and have had better sound for years.
That’s not the Siri voice control. That’s playing from your iPhone. I was promised I could tell Siri the name of my playlist to play and it would.
I can Airplay from my iPhone, but the whole point was to have voice control.
I’ll give it a couple of restarts and overnight wait and hope it comes to life.
Today's the official launch day of the HomePod, Apple's new Siri-powered smart speaker. As of now, the HomePod is available in all three launch countries -- the United States, UK, and Australia.
The first orders have gone out to customers who purchased a HomePod starting on January 26, and Apple retail stores also have plenty of supply for walk-in purchases.
We picked up a couple of HomePods this morning, and MacRumors videographer Dan has spent the last few hours testing out the sound quality, the Siri integration, the HomeKit controls, the touch gesture integration, and more.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Design wise, the HomePod is deceptively small, but it's also heavy and has a solid build. It's covered in a soft, pliable mesh material meant to enhance sound, and there's a fabric-covered cable at the back.
After a bit of a snafu with the setup process, which appears to be related to HomeKit and iCloud keychain and is something we'll need to investigate further, we had the HomePod up and running with an alternate Apple ID.
Sound, as previous reviews and impressions have suggested, is incredible. Music is crisp and clear, with the HomePod highlighting and separating every element of a song. Even if you're not an audiophile, you're going to notice the high-quality sound of the HomePod right away.
We tested HomePod with Apple Music, which is how HomePod is meant to be used, but you can also play music from other third-party music services like Spotify using AirPlay.
HomePod's voice detection works impressively well, with Siri able to pick up a "Hey Siri" command from across the room even with music playing loudly. Siri is useful for playing content from Apple Music and controlling your HomeKit devices, but if you're used to something like Amazon Alexa, you're going to notice a few shortcomings.
Siri on HomePod is basically like Siri on the iPhone, and the personal assistant has almost the same feature set on both devices. Apple didn't make major improvements to Siri for the HomePod, and that's definitely one of the most disappointing aspects of the device.
For HomePod owners out there, how are you liking the HomePod so far? Let us know in the comments. Make sure to check out our HomePod roundup if you're new to HomePod or planning to purchase one -- it's got everything you need to know about HomePod along with a running list of our HomePod how tos.
Article Link: HomePod Hands-On: Unboxing and Overview
Today's the official launch day of the HomePod, Apple's new Siri-powered smart speaker. As of now, the HomePod is available in all three launch countries -- the United States, UK, and Australia.
The first orders have gone out to customers who purchased a HomePod starting on January 26, and Apple retail stores also have plenty of supply for walk-in purchases.
We picked up a couple of HomePods this morning, and MacRumors videographer Dan has spent the last few hours testing out the sound quality, the Siri integration, the HomeKit controls, the touch gesture integration, and more.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Design wise, the HomePod is deceptively small, but it's also heavy and has a solid build. It's covered in a soft, pliable mesh material meant to enhance sound, and there's a fabric-covered cable at the back.
After a bit of a snafu with the setup process, which appears to be related to HomeKit and iCloud keychain and is something we'll need to investigate further, we had the HomePod up and running with an alternate Apple ID.
Sound, as previous reviews and impressions have suggested, is incredible. Music is crisp and clear, with the HomePod highlighting and separating every element of a song. Even if you're not an audiophile, you're going to notice the high-quality sound of the HomePod right away.
We tested HomePod with Apple Music, which is how HomePod is meant to be used, but you can also play music from other third-party music services like Spotify using AirPlay.
HomePod's voice detection works impressively well, with Siri able to pick up a "Hey Siri" command from across the room even with music playing loudly. Siri is useful for playing content from Apple Music and controlling your HomeKit devices, but if you're used to something like Amazon Alexa, you're going to notice a few shortcomings.
Siri on HomePod is basically like Siri on the iPhone, and the personal assistant has almost the same feature set on both devices. Apple didn't make major improvements to Siri for the HomePod, and that's definitely one of the most disappointing aspects of the device.
For HomePod owners out there, how are you liking the HomePod so far? Let us know in the comments. Make sure to check out our HomePod roundup if you're new to HomePod or planning to purchase one -- it's got everything you need to know about HomePod along with a running list of our HomePod how tos.
Article Link: HomePod Hands-On: Unboxing and Overview
I think that is fair enough, I really like my HomePod but lets remain realistic it is a HomePod. It will not be replacing my Monitor Audio 5.1.2 ATMOS setup in the lounge driven by my Denon home cinema amp.
But definitely is good enough to make it into nearly any other room, including getting rid of my Q Acoustic speakers on stands with separates amp and DAB receiver in the the dining room.
Sounds great, easy setup, just like everybody says. Only two issues: 1.) nobody told me that until Airplay2 arrives you can't have two HomePods in the same room, insofar as from any Apple mobile device you have to choose one and only one to route programming to. On the other hand, from the menubar pulldown on your Mac's iTunes you can tick any number of boxes and route programming to them simultaneously (but what you get is two mono speakers in the same room, there's no attempt to give you two stereo channels). 2.) the alarm clock sound that comes with HomePod is very wimpy, not likely to wake up a deep sleeper. Is there any way to select your own HomePod alert sounds or substitute tunes from your library? Usually Apple products give you plenty of options for customization, it's strange if HomePod departs from this tradition.
Wait. What’s the frigging difference from playing “your” playlist from any Mac device to your HomePod ??? So your saying it’s a killer if your personal playlists through asking Siri on HomePod doesn’t work maybe yet? Omg.
Edit... your WRONG. it plays my personal playlists perfectly right from it. I even changed the song via the music toggle on my iPhone X to a different song then selected HomePod and BAM the song changed immediately and super smoothly not an even a dropout.
Fail.
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Same here. Flawless so far with ANYTHING from my personal library - songs to sound effect hooks to voicemails in iTunes lol.
Here is a similar thread discussing using an iPad and other iOS devices:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/controlling-homepod-with-iphone-ipad.2105360/
I don't really get the use of the word stereo...is the music played back in mono when there's only one pod????
You could say that about just about every purchase anyone makes.
There are, right this second, millions of people spending money on things that I wouldn’t buy. Things that I could easily find an almost unlimited number of “better things to spend the money on”.
Perhaps I could take the time to tell them all that they should be buying something else that they don’t actually want, but I do. However, I think I’ll stuck to just understanding that they probably have different tastes, personal circumstances, disposable income etc to me and therefore it’s probably best for them to actually just buy the thing that they decided upon with those factors taken into account.
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When I turned on the HomePod, my wife’s iPad was sitting next to it, and the setup pop up appeared on her screen as well as my phone, so I assume it can be.
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That on itself proves that you don't have any device with Siri on it,at least not one from the last few years. And you probably haven't even used one. Otherwise,how would you come up with such statement?
I haven’t yet seen or heard a HomePod. Based on the reviews and comments so far, I gather it’s a very decent speaker and works well with Siri.
The price? If the HomePod actually does what most users are saying it does, then $350 doesn’t seem out of line, imho.
At some point I’ll give it a listen and then decide whether or not to buy one.
In the meantime, I have my ancient Bose Soundock, which I rarely use anymore.
The price? If the HomePod actually does what most users are saying it does, then $350 doesn’t seem out of line, imho.
At some point I’ll give it a listen and then decide whether or not to buy one.
In the meantime, I have my ancient Bose Soundock, which I rarely use anymore.
No, the trigger word has to be the first word in a sentence (when spoken, sometimes she picks up on TV dialogue and joins in a conversation!).
In the US, you can set different accounts for different voices, and limit what an unrecognised voice can do, so you shouldn't be able to order things from someone else's account. In the UK and elsewhere, either treat it as a shared device or don't enable any chargeable skills. I don't personally find disabling these skills to be a big deal, but my Amazon use has gone down a lot since they upped the free delivery threshold and we don't have Uber where I am!
So basically what I’ve gathered is: The HomePod is damn near perfect hardware/sound wise and is only gonna get better with future software updates. I think I’ll take the plunge so.
I am waiting for a smart assistant with homepod’s audio quality which allows me to play music through Spotify, which I vastly prefer over AM.