Been messing around a lot with my HomePod and am pleased it does other things that haven’t been mentioned. I was worried it would be quite limited, but I was able to grab sports scores, grab movie release dates, and get business hours for stores too. I don’t need it to order me a pizza for it to be useful. I do want it to be able to reply with basic web search results such as business hours and movie release dates etc... any of those small questions that I usually pick up my phone to do.
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How to Use HomePod to Control Your HomeKit Devices
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Sure, if you’re locked out and not within hearing range of your HomePod.
No: door locks and garage doors are "secure devices" in the Homekit world. They require "authorization" to change state. There is currently no way to give the Homepod authorization... so there is no way to unlock a door with it. The same goes for an AppleTV.
This even goes for a _locked_ iPhone. You have to unlock it before using "Hey Siri" can unlock/open a door. The only Apple device that works "seamlessly" with secure devices is actually an Apple Watch. This is because as long as it stays on your arm it stays "unlocked"... so you can always raise your wrist and ask Siri to unlock/open your doors without any further prompting!
I wish that Apple had done voice recognition for changing the state of secure devices. That would work on the HomePod and AppleTV. I know it's probably not as secure... but just giving me the option (with a big "this is not as secure!" warning) would be awesome.
Alternatively... they could build TouchID into the AppleTV remote... which would be awesome (could also use it for ApplePay, iTunes, etc.).
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Not necessarily biometrics... any authentication works (including your PIN on iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch). But TouchID/FaceID are definitely the best choices for this.
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Are you SURE? That shouldn't be possible. It should be able to tell you the state of your lock... and it can _lock_ your lock... but _UN-locking_ should NOT be possible.
Yeah rene on vector did a video where you could lock the door but not unlock with homepod. You can however unlock using your ipad or iphone.
Right - the iPhone and iPad allow unlocking a door after you’ve unlocked them.
I have my Apple TV on the dev beta channel and iOS devices, as well as MacBook. AirPlay 2 will be awesome when it goes live completely. From any device you can assume the role of another device taking over playback functions that work natively as if playing from the device your on. From iTunes your able to do the same, including taking over playback functions of HomePod, as well as select multiple outputs(Apple TV, HomePod, and your computer) all this while keeping system audio on your Mac separately playing on your system speakers. Your also able to change your systems audio output to HomePod. All that gives one a good number of options. You can have your Apple TV on showing album art, you can even add to up next, while playing on the HomePod. (From Home screen, press and hold play/pause, on iOS, from control center deep press the music tile) Your also easily and reliably switch outputs of a phone call, from AirPods to speaker phone, to HomePod.