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HomePod OS 12 Beta Software Said to Support Multiple Timers, New Phone Call Features, and More

DoctorTech said:
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?
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I have read that this is based on the location/room your HomePod is in. For example, if your HomePod is in the living room and you say "Hey Siri, turn off the lights in the bedroom", it will give you a verbal acknowledgement because it knows you aren't in that room. If you said "Hey Siri, turn off the living room lights", it would say nothing as it knows you are in the room and don't need a verbal acknowledgement.
 
After the initial HomePod reviews I was expecting to hate it but I bought one at the Apple Store when I purchased my iMac and my wife and I love it. Being able to play just about any song at any time is sweet and we like to use Siri to control HomeKit devices. I wouldn’t bother if I weren’t an Apple Music subscriber. Keep in mind your buying a quality speaker that works very well with Apple Music but it’s the least smart speaker on the market.
 
jordanm86 said:
Fingers crossed it includes EQ settings - I have used my Homepod about 10 times due to its swampy, heavy, heavy bass.

Apple need to recognise that not all songs are produced by DRE.
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Yes, I bought the HomePod because I just got the AirPods and was stunned by how great they sounded. If only the HomePod sounded as good.
 
BWhaler said:
This is the software which should have come with the launch of the device.

Apple really needs to get its act together.
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This is par for the course with early Apple products. You’re always better off to wait until the second or third generation of the hardware when it ships a new products. I take that into account when I buy them. Are you better off having what’s there or waiting for a more complete product? It depends on how much dispossible income you have.
 
DNichter said:
I have read that this is based on the location/room your HomePod is in. For example, if your HomePod is in the living room and you say "Hey Siri, turn off the lights in the bedroom", it will give you a verbal acknowledgement because it knows you aren't in that room. If you said "Hey Siri, turn off the living room lights", it would say nothing as it knows you are in the room and don't need a verbal acknowledgement.
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Ah, that make sense. I had not heard about still getting confirmations regarding commands for other rooms, I will give that a try. Thank you!
 
Boatboy24 said:
Do you need voice recognition for that? I would think it'd be as simple as saying 'Hey Siri, where is John's iPad?' vs 'Hey Siri, where is Jane's iPad?'
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Goog question. And even one person could have multiple iPads, it would need to be able to look for a specific one. But currently if I use Find My iPhone on iOS/macOS I would need to log in under my Apple ID to find one of my devices and under my wife's Apple ID to find one of her devices.

Not sure how that work for HomePod unless either it supports multiple Apple IDs or the whole approach to Find My iPhone changes.
 
rturner2 said:
Please let me choose another tone or music for the alarm. Also, “hey Siri” turns off alarm (should it?).

Also, “available in the fall”... not everyone lives in northern hemisphere; why not just say “3rd quarter” or a calendar month?
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99% of apple customers live in the northern hemisphere. get on our level.
 
This would be a perfect time to implement a feature (which I've been complaining about wanting for years) - notifications of incoming calls on the Apple TV. That way you know whether or not to answer on the HomePod if you're watching TV since there's no display on the HP to tell you who's calling. Cable boxes have done this for many years and it's quite handy.

Texts would be nice too, with the option to hide the content of the message of course.
 
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Where does one get on a HomePod beta sign up "thing" cause it's not in the normal dev portal.
 
DoctorTech said:
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?
Click to expand...
Seems to depend also on the Homekit hardware. Lifx lights (with built in Homekit compatibility) have no acknowledgment but Wemo devices (via Wemo Bridge) do acknowledge - Siri says “OK”, “got it” or “Done”. In my test both devices are in the same room. Or maybe power supply switches like Wemo operate differently to lights?
 
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mpainesyd said:
Seems to depend also on the Homekit hardware. Lifx lights (with built in Homekit compatibility) have no acknowledgment but Wemo devices (via Wemo Bridge) do acknowledge - Siri says “OK”, “got it” or “Done”. In my test both devices are in the same room. Or maybe power supply switches like Wemo operate differently to lights?
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Switches it acknowledges no matter what, lights depend on the room. If the lights are in the same room as the HomePod you're talking to it won't acknowledge.

You can turn a switch into a light in the Home app.
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mmomega said:
Where does one get on a HomePod beta sign up "thing" cause it's not in the normal dev portal.
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It's a private beta, not available to developers or the public.
 
DNichter said:
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.
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This is exactly why I purchased the Cube. I tell it a movie to start and it works beautifully. Dims the lights, Turns off my fish tank lights. Turns the tv and receiver on. I feel like I’m living in the future! Haha. When Apple integrates this smoothly I’ll go back to them but right now I feel nope.
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rturner2 said:
Also, “available in the fall”... not everyone lives in northern hemisphere; why not just say “3rd quarter” or a calendar month?
Click to expand...

needsomecoffee said:
A new seasonal date zone is needed: "available in the Fall NHD" (Northern Hemisphere Date). Programmers rejoice.
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To be fair, America is the only country that calls it "Fall", so it's obvious they mean Q3 in the Northern Hemisphere.
 
A few years ago I picked up a google home, my son was 6 months old and we had so much fun asking what Animals sound like, asking google to sing the alphabet, and play songs from YouTube. It was and still is a great tool. I was stateside a few weeks ago and went to an Apple store to check out the home pod. No Animal sounds, no Plex support, no Spotify, limited questions and info response, and on. Weak product

Picked up a Sonos 1 with Alexa, and 3 echo dots. Connected up my PLEX, Amazon music, Apple Music via Sonos, Spotify, and more. Sitting in my office miles away I can ask for .flac based music sitting in my Plex server at home! Love it, Call the living room, etc..

Lack of features pushing me out of the Apple ecosystem in some areas like this and I’m finding incredible products.

HomePod is so basic and limited
 
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The sooner people understand that Apple was NOT making and Echo or Home competitor the better. They just wanted to make a speaker with amazing sound, and they succeeded beyond anything Amazon or Google has
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itsamacthing said:
A few years ago I picked up a google home, my son was 6 months old and we had so much fun asking what Animals sound like, asking google to sing the alphabet, and play songs from YouTube. It was and still is a great tool. I was stateside a few weeks ago and went to an Apple store to check out the home pod. No Animal sounds, no Plex support, no Spotify, limited questions and info response, and on. Weak product

Picked up a Sonos 1 with Alexa, and 3 echo dots. Connected up my PLEX, Amazon music, Apple Music via Sonos, Spotify, and more. Sitting in my office miles away I can ask for .flac based music sitting in my Plex server at home! Love it, Call the living room, etc..

Lack of features pushing me out of the Apple ecosystem in some areas like this and I’m finding incredible products.

HomePod is so basic and limited
Click to expand...
HomePod was never designed to be a “smart speaker”. It was designed to give high end audio and most Siri features relate to music on this speaker
 
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JimmyHook said:
The sooner people understand that Apple was NOT making and Echo or Home competitor the better. They just wanted to make a speaker with amazing sound, and they succeeded beyond anything Amazon or Google has
[doublepost=1532406162][/doublepost]
HomePod was never designed to be a “smart speaker”. It was designed to give high end audio and most Siri features relate to music on this speaker
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I don't agree with any of this - besides third party app support and general knowledge questions the HomePod is very much a smart speaker. And they are apparently adding a slew of general knowledge to Siri on HomePod in OS 12. Every update they have been adding features that bring the HomePod more in line with Alexa and Google Home. Perhaps that wasn't their intention when it was released but it sure seems to be the goal now.

I replaced all of my Amazon Echos with HomePods recently and I couldn't be happier.
 
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I love my HomePods and all these new features are very welcomed. But please, Apple, add some true alarm clock features, like the ability to set multiple alarms, choose different sounds for the alarms, or choose a specific song, playlist or radio station to wake to. This is basic functionality that needs to ship as soon as possible.

And while we’re discussing essential features to add, let me mention the need for a few quick, basic EQ options (less bass, more treble, etc.) and voice recognition to increase security and improve functionality.
 
JimmyHook said:
The sooner people understand that Apple was NOT making and Echo or Home competitor the better. They just wanted to make a speaker with amazing sound, and they succeeded beyond anything Amazon or Google has
[doublepost=1532406162][/doublepost]
HomePod was never designed to be a “smart speaker”. It was designed to give high end audio and most Siri features relate to music on this speaker
Click to expand...
I agree which is why I don't expect it to be as good in terms of smarts as the echo or google home. Making and answering phone calls and being able to find my iPhone was on my very short list of things to do. Now all I want is for it to be able to control my Apple TV better.

I think Apple has a different vision for Siri which explains why it's so far behind Alexa and google assistant. Amazon don't really have any other hardware of software projects going on. Their tablets are now phoned in budget devices which get a speed bump every year and software, well thats just a forked version of a much older version of android. So not much development going on there. So they can put all their resources into developing Alexa. Whilst google do have a lot of projects, AI and machine learning is at the core of all they do so pushing and developing the assistant is their number one priority.

Apple on the other hand see Siri as useful assistant. Nothing more which is probably why it has been put on the back burner for years. I think it's only now that they have seen the market overtaken by competing devices that they have decided to put some real effort into developing Siri.
 
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