Huge fan of apple products, but I am going to come out and say this. Apple HomePod / Siri is SO weak. Agree it 'sounds amazing' and is nicely built, but the 'smart' features Siri provides are so so weak. We purchased and stuck with HomePod and Siri for 2 years - we really wanted it to be great.... we constantly corrected it / got frustrated / were sometimes amused by the appalling recognition. We had faith and paid over the odds for plugs, hubs etc.... but 3 weeks ago while trying to persuade it to play a radio station that works - sometimes - yet again, I gave up. HomePod is sold and good riddence. We are three weeks into owning a little alexa echo thingy and its a thousand times better for $40. Cold hard truth is Apple is years behind Alexa in this space. Come on Apple do this properly and invest in Siri dev teams with monthly releases to catch up, or don't bother. Is 'wake with your favourite music' really what you would consider a notable feature. 'Alexa - turn HomePod off'
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HomePod Owners Will Soon Be Able to Set Songs From Apple Music as Alarms
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I'm talking about the features announced at WWDC'20 as I said in my post? All which was supposed to arrive with 14.0 this fall.
The latest update is 13.4.8 released in July. We haven't had any feature updates to the HomePod for a while now. And that's no biggie but having features detailed at WWDC'20 that was supposed to be released with 14.0 in fall and yet we have not heard anything regarding this ever since is just poor communication. Especially when Apple is suddenly releasing a new HomePod mini showing off features that we don't currently have on the HomePod and still no information on when we will get this update.
The list of supported languages is six. You only get to twelve when you count variations of the same language as an additional language. Guess how many languages Siri supports on iOS and has been for like five years+? Twenty. And that's not including variations of the same language.
The HomePod has barely moved an inch since it's release when it comes to supporting additional languages that were already supported by Siri on iOS since before the HomePod itself was released. Apple is doing a very poor job at making the HomePod becoming a global product which is baffling to me considering the number of resources both in terms of developers and money they have at hand and they already support all of these additional languages on iOS already making it even more disappointing.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!! Can I also set a song as ringtone on my phone? No? Ah, ok - Tim wants to sell ringtones - understood ....
Waiting for this feature on my phone for almost ... forever?
Waiting for this feature on my phone for almost ... forever?
I know you are kind of kidding and not, but my alarm uses a Spotify playlist set on random. It's a nice to wake up each morning to a melodic track that I like and yet a perfect way to not hate any of them! I find it remarkable that a device who's sole purpose in life (really) is to play music, couldn't do this already, especially within it's own ecosystem.
The ecosystem already has a better way to do it. Tapping your wrist to wake you up by Apple Watch. It’s so good I don’t bother with sound anymore.
Siri: set wake up alarm to the Ewok Celebration and Finale from the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)...
Yub nub, eee chop yub nub;
Ah toe meet toe peechee keene,
G'noop dock fling oh ah.
Yub nub, eee chop yub nub;
Ah toe meet toe peechee keene,
G'noop dock fling oh ah.
I have the HomePod with Spotify subscription. Works great over airplay, but really miss the feature of the alarm with a song from Spotify. Locking users to Apple Music isn't a good idea.
I think it’s really weird this is tucked away in the settings of HomePod in the Home app. I would expect this to be in the Clock app, integrated with all other alarm options.
Welcome to 2014 Cupertino.
Edit. Sorry. You're still not there.
"Alex wake me in at 7AM with Watermelon Sugar..."
"Hey Google, wake me up at 6 am with death metal...."
"Hey Siri.... #%#)%^##%)"
Edit. Sorry. You're still not there.
"Alex wake me in at 7AM with Watermelon Sugar..."
"Hey Google, wake me up at 6 am with death metal...."
"Hey Siri.... #%#)%^##%)"
iOS has had alarms with music for several years. You have misunderstood the article.
Did you allow 35 different apps to have notification access when asked? The notification system is entirely manageable and customizable, and opt-in.
I think it’s a great idea to make it a standard feature, but how can you complain that the device has access to customizable automations? It allows you to do almost anything you want, before it gets support officially by the parties involved.That's a bit like saying you can always set the IP configuration using the command line on your Mac.
Just because you can do it that way doesn't mean that should be the solution.
My "complaint" was for Apples default Apps (incl. those on iOS) being "extremely basic". Some people call it "clean", "minimalistic approach", etc... but in fact it's just lack of even basic features. We are talking Apple here... they sell premium stuff for premium prices. That the HomePods alarm config doesn't by default allow music, webradio,... to be selected for wakeup is pathetic. Also an adjustable volume curve to gradually increase volume over time is something I would expect from a device in that price range...
To add a song as a ringtone to iOS all you need to do is import it into GarageBand, cut it to less than 30s and export as ringtone. Simplicity made by Apple. 🤦♂️
In the same app in which you configure the HomePod there are buttons that let you select a time and have your HomePod play selected music at that time, at a predetermined volume level. You could use the last paused track and volume as well. It does exist and is trivial to set up. It isn’t as flexible as you would like, I’ll give you that.
Similarly here, it’s a bit kludgy, but Apple has provided good stuff. You have free software included on your phone that can be used to remix existing tracks and export them as ringtones, or completely generate your own custom tones with thousands of loops and samples. The option to buy ringtones is there to appease the basic users and the record labels.
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Basic feature that should have been available from day 1.
Half baked release (mandatory Apple music subscription).
I suppose it is ok for the “good enough” kind of customers.
Half baked release (mandatory Apple music subscription).
I suppose it is ok for the “good enough” kind of customers.
As someone else pointed out, you have been able to do this for years as an automation, so this is not really new at all, just a different avenue to get to the same location. Automations allow you to grab audio from your library, so just like your cd alarm clock, without the Cds
Without me doing anything, since one of the WatchOS7 or iPhone 14 Betas, if I am wearing my watch to bed, it plays the alarm sound my phone normally would, and my phone stays silent. I can still either tap my phone or watch then pick Snooze or Stop, but the sound only plays from my watch. If my watch is charging, then the phone plays the sound.
Same. If I already own the song, I should be able to use it as the alarm. I know you used to be able to use iTunes to make ringtones from songs, but never knew if you could make alarms too.
yawn, you could have done this for years through an automation, so.... nuff said. Oh, and you can airplay from any source that supports airplay, so no mandatory subscription. And according to professional reviewers it is absolutely the best sounding (as in accurate) of speakers in this price range, so "good enough" kind of customers?
Seriously, I'm sure everyone appreciates that you don't own one, never will and that is all fine and good, no harm there. But in attempting to bash something, at least be honest about it.
I can set an alarm on my iPhone from a song. it is under edit alarm. I personally DGAC about setting a ringtone as a song or anything other than an alert, what is the purpose, to annoy those around you? Oh its "Big Green Tractor" that must be my mom! But I'm glad for you that you do
As someone already pointed out you have been able to do this for years as an automation. Playlists too. You are Welcome