Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I’d love to see the speaker be able to understand the current ambient volume level in a room and respond in an appropriate volume. For instance first thing in the morning it’s quiet in the house, and a response around 10-15% volume is loud enough. Once all the kids wake up and the volume in the room has increased, it would be great if replies were auto adjusted to say 70% volume just based on the fact our kids are loud!

Also.... it really needs support for voice recognition and multiuser support.
 
Because the 3rd quarter in Apple Earnings parlance is April through June... and the specific month may change (see the HomePods original release...)
[doublepost=1532342815][/doublepost]Stuff like Find My iPhone doesn't make sense for anyone but HomePod owners who live alone. Until Siri starts recognizing specific voices all the personal features can cause more problems than good.

But overall I am very excited about iOS 12, etc. Big improvements
I won't buy one until the device can recognize specific voices. Having family members going through my messages and mail is not ideal.
 
This is awsome. Have wanted the ability to answer and initiate calls on the homepod. Also using it to locate my phone is another useful feature. Now all apple need to do is to get it to work better at controlling the Apple TV.
 
these are some needed improvements. I'd also like to see Apple include some push AI to the HomePod. When I say "Hey SIRI I'm leaving" it turns off all the lights - then says something stupid like "I'm on it... your home says good bye". This is a wasted opportunity - how about giving me some useful information like - "it's raining out don't forget your umbrella." or - "don't forget your next meeting."
 
Does Find my Device support family sharing yet? Cause otherwise, that wouldn't really work, since the devices are tied to a main iCloud account.

Not sure exactly what support you're referring to, but I see all my family's devices in "Find my iPhone" and used it yesterday to help my son remember where he'd left his iPad (it was in the room he'd just left when he came to ask me if I'd seen it o_O ).
 
Yes but random commenter on internet recently told me ‘Apple bad, and HomePod bad’. Surely a positive comment must therefore be untrue, mustn’t it? ;-)
But then random Apple sycophant on internet repeated, "All Apple thing good, if you don't like Apple thing then YOU bad!" So gosh, with such strong arguments, its tough to know just what to think.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WatchFromAfar
I'd like to see them add a feature like Alexa has where when she answers and responds your smart home request she just gives a light ding and that is it. When I tell Siri goodnight I don't need a long drawn out "goodnight enabled, calling it a night". It was cute the first couple of times, but at this point I just want it to do the action and stay quiet.

In this same breath I would like there to be separate volume slider for Siri and music. Nothing like being blasted by Siri early in the morning because the night before the volume was set at 85%.
 
  • Like
Reactions: otech
This is awsome. Have wanted the ability to answer and initiate calls on the homepod. Also using it to locate my phone is another useful feature. Now all apple need to do is to get it to work better at controlling the Apple TV.

This is what I am waiting for also. I really want simple requests to turn the TV on or off, open an app, play a show/movie, etc. through the HomePod.
[doublepost=1532356577][/doublepost]
Some would argue we’re using the beta software right now.

I wouldn't think so. What the HomePod is supposed to do right now, it does very well. People just want more features, which will happen faster than other competing smart speakers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shanghaichica
Yes, it works with iOS 11 as long as they are tied to the family.

Not sure exactly what support you're referring to, but I see all my family's devices in "Find my iPhone" and used it yesterday to help my son remember where he'd left his iPad (it was in the room he'd just left when he came to ask me if I'd seen it o_O ).

Huh, I had no idea. Nice!
 
Serious question for everyone - is it just me or did Siri on HomePod originally give verbal confirmation / acknowledgement of your spoken commands (i.e. "Hey Siri, turn off living room lights" response "done"). I am 99% sure I remember this originally happening when I got my HomePod several months ago but then Siri went silent on me. If I ask her a question she will respond but I no longer hear acknowledgment of my voice commands. Is there a way to turn the acknowledgments back on?
 
Kinda sad it took them this long to figure out multiple timers. At least the thing looks to becoming more useful. Maybe I'll buy one in a few years if things continue to progress under the leadership of that new AI guy from Google.
 
Never mind advanced Siri features - I wish they could simply get the basics working right. I have two HomePods set up as a pair and I told my Apple TV to use the speakers for audio output - the TV set's speakers are just too bad. This works fine. But why the heck does the Apple TV and the TV set now turn on every time I tell my HomePods' Siri to play a song? And if the logic is that the Apple TV is now "bound" to the HomePods - then why the he11 can't I control my ATV via the HomePod Siri - I still have to press the ATV Remote's Siri button to do anything on the ATV by voice??? There's a bug here or some bad logic on Apple's part.

And, of course, the ATV doesn't always stay connected to the HomePods. Whenever I try to AirPlay a video to the ATV, the ATV reverts back to outputting audio to the TV set's speakers and I subsequently have to go back into Settings to re-activate the HomePods.

I echo someone else's comment that this is beta-quality stuff Apple is throwing out over the wall :-(
 
  • Like
Reactions: DoctorTech
Serious question for everyone - is it just me or did Siri on HomePod originally give verbal confirmation / acknowledgement of your spoken commands (i.e. "Hey Siri, turn off living room lights" response "done"). I am 99% sure I remember this originally happening when I got my HomePod several months ago but then Siri went silent on me. If I ask her a question she will respond but I no longer hear acknowledgment of my voice commands. Is there a way to turn the acknowledgments back on?

Yes she used to say "Done" but not anymore. I cant understand why that would be removed.
The Apple Watch is fun. if I asked Sri to turn on the driveway light using my watch, she answers "10-4" or "I have sent your request"
 
Never mind advanced Siri features - I wish they could simply get the basics working right. I have two HomePods set up as a pair and I told my Apple TV to use the speakers for audio output - the TV set's speakers are just too bad. This works fine. But why the heck does the Apple TV and the TV set now turn on every time I tell my HomePods' Siri to play a song? And if the logic is that the Apple TV is now "bound" to the HomePods - then why the he11 can't I control my ATV via the HomePod Siri - I still have to press the ATV Remote's Siri button to do anything on the ATV by voice??? There's a bug here or some bad logic on Apple's part.

And, of course, the ATV doesn't always stay connected to the HomePods. Whenever I try to AirPlay a video to the ATV, the ATV reverts back to outputting audio to the TV set's speakers and I subsequently have to go back into Settings to re-activate the HomePods.

I echo someone else's comment that this is beta-quality stuff Apple is throwing out over the wall :-(
I agree with you 100%. It seems SO obvious that you should be able to control your ATV via voice with the HomePod - I can't believe Apple didn't include that functionality. It is all their hardware & software so they don't need any 3rd party approval or support.
 
these are some needed improvements. I'd also like to see Apple include some push AI to the HomePod. When I say "Hey SIRI I'm leaving" it turns off all the lights - then says something stupid like "I'm on it... your home says good bye". This is a wasted opportunity - how about giving me some useful information like - "it's raining out don't forget your umbrella." or - "don't forget your next meeting."
You’ll be able to do this with Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12. Not everyone wants this.
 
Yes she used to say "Done" but not anymore. I cant understand why that would be removed.
The Apple Watch is fun. if I asked Sri to turn on the driveway light using my watch, she answers "10-4" or "I have sent your request"
Serious question for everyone - is it just me or did Siri on HomePod originally give verbal confirmation / acknowledgement of your spoken commands (i.e. "Hey Siri, turn off living room lights" response "done"). I am 99% sure I remember this originally happening when I got my HomePod several months ago but then Siri went silent on me. If I ask her a question she will respond but I no longer hear acknowledgment of my voice commands. Is there a way to turn the acknowledgments back on?
It will only say “done” or similar if you’re controlling an appliance not in the room you’re currently in. The logic being that you should be able to see the light go off if you’re in the same room. I prefer it this way personally.
[doublepost=1532365499][/doublepost]
I agree with you 100%. It seems SO obvious that you should be able to control your ATV via voice with the HomePod - I can't believe Apple didn't include that functionality. It is all their hardware & software so they don't need any 3rd party approval or support.
I’m sure it will come with time.
[doublepost=1532365883][/doublepost]
Never mind advanced Siri features - I wish they could simply get the basics working right. I have two HomePods set up as a pair and I told my Apple TV to use the speakers for audio output - the TV set's speakers are just too bad. This works fine. But why the heck does the Apple TV and the TV set now turn on every time I tell my HomePods' Siri to play a song? And if the logic is that the Apple TV is now "bound" to the HomePods - then why the he11 can't I control my ATV via the HomePod Siri - I still have to press the ATV Remote's Siri button to do anything on the ATV by voice??? There's a bug here or some bad logic on Apple's part.

And, of course, the ATV doesn't always stay connected to the HomePods. Whenever I try to AirPlay a video to the ATV, the ATV reverts back to outputting audio to the TV set's speakers and I subsequently have to go back into Settings to re-activate the HomePods.

I echo someone else's comment that this is beta-quality stuff Apple is throwing out over the wall :-(
Agree with all of this. They need to fix the TV turning on - it’s quite annoying. What it does when you ask it to play music is pull the Apple TV out of standby, which will send the power on signal over CEC. I think there’s not really a perfect solution to deal with this, but I hope they come up with something.

AirPlaying to the Apple TV disconnecting it is annoying. Same as using multi room audio commands (play music everywhere). I avoid using multi room now because when I do I know I’m going to have to go around the house to all 4 TV’s and manually reconnect the HomePods. It’s just stupid. Same if there’s a power outage or the network went down or god knows what else. It’s extremely unintuitive. Apple seems to be making more things run natively on the ATV (podcasts and playlists were both on this last minor update), so I think they will figure it out with time.

I think running HP Siri requests through the Apple TV will come eventually as well. They need to have feature parity between the Siri’s to do this properly.
[doublepost=1532366488][/doublepost]
I'd like to see them add a feature like Alexa has where when she answers and responds your smart home request she just gives a light ding and that is it. When I tell Siri goodnight I don't need a long drawn out "goodnight enabled, calling it a night". It was cute the first couple of times, but at this point I just want it to do the action and stay quiet.

In this same breath I would like there to be separate volume slider for Siri and music. Nothing like being blasted by Siri early in the morning because the night before the volume was set at 85%.
To the first point, it won’t make any sort of response if the appliance you’re controlling is in the same room. Amazon didn’t add the ding confirmation until 3-4 years in. I think this is just a personal preference thing.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.