Either way, it’s not a good story. For a cheap $20 Bluetooth speaker it’d be ok. For a $350* product it’s not.
* $700 in stereo.
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HomePod Owners With an iTunes Match or Apple Music Subscription Can Access Their iCloud Music Library Using Siri
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* $700 in stereo.
Of course you can. Anything you can AirPlay these speakers will play.
This is a valid point. I realized this the first time when I recently wanted to use Siri on my Apple TV. No chance that Siri will ever understand e.g. an English title or interpret, as she always tries to convert the spoken word to the selected system language.
Siri is completely useless in this instance.
Apple are only really advertising it as an Apple Music companion though. I don't expect many users of competing music services to chose the HomePod when there are other speakers available which are purposely designed to suit their streaming provider.
Yes, as the HomePod needs to be able to download the track, and there isn’t desktop iTunes integration. But perhaps in the future there will be.
Okay, can a user access their music available through iCloud? Also, I realize that the quality is allegedly much better than Amazon Echo, but the price is also a premium.
Apple began taking pre-orders for its HomePod on Friday, but the company has remained unusually reticent regarding some of the Siri-based smart speaker's finer functions.
Last week we learned that HomePod can play songs purchased through iTunes Music as well as stream podcasts and Beats 1 radio, but Apple didn't address questions about the device's handling of iTunes Match content stored in iCloud Music Libraries.
For those unaware, iCloud Music Library lets users upload or "match" up to 100,000 songs from their personal music library with the DRM-free iTunes Store catalog, without eating into their standard iCloud storage allocation. The feature comes as part of Apple's iTunes Match service ($24.99 a year) and is also included with every Apple Music subscription ($9.99 monthly).
As it turns out, both iTunes Match and Apple Music subscribers will be able to use HomePod's Siri voice-based activation to access tracks stored in iCloud Music Library. The detail was seemingly confirmed on Sunday by Apple, as relayed by iMore's Serenity Caldwell in a tweet. Also Sunday, Daring Fireball's John Gruber reported hearing similar iCloud Music Library support from "a friend seeded with HomePod", although how Siri works with cloud-stored tracks not matched with the official iTunes Store catalog remains unknown.
To reiterate, the user whose iCloud account is linked to HomePod can access their Apple Music subscription, tracks stored in their Cloud Music Library, and iTunes Store purchases via Siri. However, Siri will not be able to control any content streamed over AirPlay from supporting devices.
Meanwhile, HomePod owners without an Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription can still play music they've purchased on iTunes, as well as stream podcasts and Beats 1 radio, but Siri requests for playing songs by name, genre, artist, and so on will not be available. Apple has still to clarify how HomePod handles Family Sharing subscriptions to Apple Music, and whether the speaker's Bluetooth 5.0 specification means it will accept pairing requests from devices over the Bluetooth protocol.
Apple has positioned the HomePod as a speaker that can stream Apple Music, but with built-in Siri, users can also send messages, set timers and reminders, check the news, control HomeKit-enabled smart home accessories, and complete several other tasks without needing to take out their iPhone. The speaker is equipped with spatial awareness and Apple-engineered audio technology, including a seven-tweeter array and high-excursion woofer. It stands almost seven inches tall and is powered by Apple's A8 chip.
HomePod is available in the United States ($349), UK (£319), and Australia ($499). Apple is currently taking pre-orders for the HomePod, with the device set to ship on Friday, February 9.
Article Link: HomePod Owners With an iTunes Match or Apple Music Subscription Can Access Their iCloud Music Library Using Siri
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I happen to agree. By comparison, I subscribe to Amazon Unlimted and with a Prime Membership, the music subscription is less expensive. The individual Apple Music Subscription is a minimum of $9.99 per month. Amazon Unlimited is $79 per year, but the user must also have a Prime Membership. Since I have always maintained an Amazon Prime Membership, then Amazon Unlimited makes more sense to me.
I find it sad there is even the slightest confusion over features that should be completely obviously standard. I hope Apple gets this product right, and I think for certain people it’ll be great, but I feel like they’ve fumbled the launch quite badly already, from a PR point of view. Why are we still even having the conversation about whether their fancy $349 speaker can play all your music from any service you pay them money to hold music in!? That should have been dealt with the day they announced the product, IMHO.
"Ow bin ya Siri" here in the Black Country.
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Good news about iTunes Match but I still don't understand why Apple are being so cagey about the HomePod's functionality.
only thing I can reasonably come up with is that we're seriously not going to favor it, whatever it might be.
.....orrrrrrrrrrrr maybe they want it to surprise people with a such a magical, Apple wow-factor and let the reviews/word of mouth do all the talking they need.
I know where my money is, though - haha.
So same as for Siri on the AppleTV - it won't search your iTunes library for media, only your cloud account. No reason this couldn't be implemented in future (i.e. search cloud access first and if not found, return the query to the local iTunes library), but let's face it - Apple has all but abandoned users who store their own media in favour of subscription services.
To people saying that Homepod supports Spotify, Soundcloud, etc over Airplay:
Sure, but that requires you to control it 100% from your phone/computer and defeats the whole purpose of a smart speaker.
Spotify will never come to the Homepod because Apple doesn't allow third party apps on the Homepod. It is impossible for Spotify to make a Siri-powered Homepod integration because Apple is locking competition out from this device.
This is the real reason you should get an "open" smart speaker like Sonos. Not sound quality. But for being able to stream music from whatever service you want without mirroring it through your computer. This is 2018 not 2008.
Sure, but that requires you to control it 100% from your phone/computer and defeats the whole purpose of a smart speaker.
Spotify will never come to the Homepod because Apple doesn't allow third party apps on the Homepod. It is impossible for Spotify to make a Siri-powered Homepod integration because Apple is locking competition out from this device.
This is the real reason you should get an "open" smart speaker like Sonos. Not sound quality. But for being able to stream music from whatever service you want without mirroring it through your computer. This is 2018 not 2008.
For me, the problem is the price. For $350 I expect more functionality options, not less. Even if it sound great, there are plenty of other products at that price point to choose from. I don't find Siri to be a big selling point.
I thought I remember reading somewhere that SiriKit on the HomePod will eventually allow handoff of commands not natively handled by the HomePod off to the iPhone, and then spit back results to the HomePod... I’m wondering if this is where the majority of HomePod Siri support will come from. I’m thinking as long as there are the APIs for SiriKit for music playback etc that eventually the HomePod would support Spotify although not directly on the unit, but through the offloading of the command to the iPhone. I can imagine it sounding like this. “Hey Siri play _____ from Spotify on the living room HomePod”
Oh well. You seem to be very slow here. First, read the article and what it's about. iTunes Match subscription is enough. Second, read what CmdrLaForge said. He didn't ask for playing music using Siri, you asked about playing music from Mac, iPhone or iPad. Which he can. Plus he can play music from PCs or Android devices with Airplay software added.
The concerning part is people are still ordering this thing without knowing fully what it does or doesn’t do.
Siri on my Mac streamed music that was uploaded. That is on a Mac that hadn't actually downloaded the music.
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Depends on how many HomePods Apple sells. Once someone spent $350 on a HomePod, they won't want to buy something else.
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For $349 you won't get into one of here concerts in London. Last year, yes. This year, no.
It is just because the word is part of other words. Someone saying "Serious" or "Seriously" would trigger it. "Alexa" doesn't really have that issue. I don't really understand why Google still goes with Hey Google, other than avoiding accidental triggers when someone talks about the company (Would be annoying if the news was on the TV.)
Granted, they should be able to start the recording and look at the trigger word and then throw it out when they realize it wasn't someone asking for Siri, but I guess they aren't there yet.
No, there isn't a 1:1 relationship between what is sold in iTunes and what is streamed through Apple Music. The iTunes catalog is the larger of the two.
I suspect that most people who have ordered use Apple Music or iTunes Match, so we already know that it will play our libraries.
Rather than features, the most relevant unknown for me at the moment is sound quality, but I was always going to have to get one home to really test that anyway.
Anything else it may do is just a potential bonus.
I would certainly hope that Apple, before selling a dedicated audio device including Siri, will have worked on this.
