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New Version of Original HomePod to Return Next Year
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But Samsung are now delivering (compressed) Dolby Atmos wirelessly to their soundbar over wifi.
So it could be done.
Siri wont get any love, its clear theres some significant problems that mean they cant really do much with it given its been years since it's had any kind of major update. In comparison Alexa and Google have constant non stop updates. This is one of those situations where Apples archaic fixed date update cycle is absolutely the wrong approach.
Especially now that Sonos has their own voice assistant (“Sonos Voice Control”) that works entirely on-device.I have a HomePod mini sitting about a foot away from my Sonos gear - I ask the HomePod mini for timers and reminders and light control, but I ask the Sonos Arc to play music.
i would have preferred an all-Apple solution for home theater, but they were too late, and the method they chose is too fiddly. If they came out with a HomePod Home Theater, with a soundbar-ish front unit and separate rear surround speakers, it might very well sell well, but sadly I’m not in the market any more (or not sadly - the Sonos Arc 5.1 system sounds pretty great - yes, I know separates could be even better, but they won’t fit in the space where I need them to, and wouldn’t have the integration that Sonos has).
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You'll need an Apple TV 4K (2021) plugged into your ARC port, and ARC enabled on the Apple TV.
Then, on Playstation, go to Settings > Sound > Audio Output -> Audio Format (priority), set to: Linear (PCM). That will improve the audio latency.
Won't matter much if Siri is still struggling of processing basic commands and tasks. The reason why the original HomePod got lacklustre sales was because it was sold as a smart speaker while not being very smart compared to Alexa or Google Assistant (all of which can be had for far cheaper). It's not because its design was bad.
If there's no significant or meaningful improvement to Siri, then they would literally be be re-packaging their old problem and selling it again.
If there's no significant or meaningful improvement to Siri, then they would literally be be re-packaging their old problem and selling it again.
Agree that’s it’s a network issue. I have 3 OG and 2 mini’s, Apple TV4K and zero latency. An additional note, the sound quality of the OG HomePods always leaves me blown away, the minis leave a lot to be desired in terms of sound, but then again, considering what it is, no way could it compete. I for one am curious to see if the sound quality is as good as or better than the OG pods.
Very excited about this as I’ve been holding off for years replacing my old bulky wired towers from the 90s. But Homepod was so expensive. And I don’t want to go with Sonos. So happy HomePod will be an option again. And my first thought was “oh wow it’s going to come back and be cheaper” (since everyone assumes that was it’s main problem). But then I remembered Apple sells headphones that are almost $1000 Canadian and I realized… it’ll probably come back in some high-end bead-blasted aluminum enclosure boasting audiophile quality and separatly sold polished stainless stands for $500 each and actually be twice the price it was before… not less. And Siri will still suck. I really hope I’m wrong.
Sounds like its time to dump our 3 OG HomePods on eBay while people are still paying stoopid money for them.
I got mine for $79 at Costco. For what it does, and how it sounds, $99 wasn't worth it to me.
You should always be on Linear to get the best sound out of what you are playing or watching.I fixed it on PlayStation by going to Settings > Sound > Audio Output -> Audio Format (priority), set to: Linear (PCM)
This pretty much eliminated the lag.
Note, because folks are asking how to do this: You'll need to enable ARC (audio return channel) on your Apple TV (2021 4K or later), have a TV that supports ARC, and use the ARC HDMI port if your TV has it marked (most only have one or two ARC-enabled ports). Once that is all enabled, everything should fall into place.
I think the default setting is Dolby DTS or something, but it is apparently responsible for a latency issue in this case.
Apple, make up your mind. Another "experiment" that will be discontinued within a few years?
Speakers should last for decades, if not life. If you cannot make a decent speaker and support it for such time periods, then please don't...
If you do however make some real superior product with the intention to get that in my house for several decades, without glitches (remeber "it just works"?) then...
Speakers should last for decades, if not life. If you cannot make a decent speaker and support it for such time periods, then please don't...
If you do however make some real superior product with the intention to get that in my house for several decades, without glitches (remeber "it just works"?) then...
I think your expectations are far too high. A speaker alone is a far less sophisticated device, the HomePod has a lot of additional electronics that just won't last as long.
Agreed. As a product (phones, speakers, bikes, cars) becomes more delicate and smarter, its lifespan tends to be shorter. It’s just the price you pay to enjoy its smartness.
Stick with passive speakers w/ separate amps if you want a lifelong audio system.
How about Spotify and Apple get their crap together and come to whatever agreement they need to. We can go to the moon and travel solar system but we can’t get Spotify on HomePod. It’s pretty wild.
From what I've seen, Spotify complained a lot, Apple added APIs for everything needed, and then... <crickets> from Spotify. They wanted to complain that they were being kept from adding stuff, but when given the chance, have done nothing.
The is indeed welcome news if true.
The original HomePod was a very good speaker but a terrible Alexa/Google Home alternative. I have 7 HomePods sprinkled in 3 stereo pairs and 1 stand alone. I use them as speakers for listening to music with the capability to give them voice commands to select playlist, music genre etc. with a little bit of HomeKit control thrown in. I think that they are superior in sound to the Sonos 1 but do not have the AI capabilities of the Sonos and Amazon/Google equivalents.
I hope they add bluetooth and external connection options, as the biggest issue was always getting them to connect to and stream from a wifi network which is their only way they function at present. I would happily use them as a dedicated powered speaker for music , which would not need software upgrades and which will eventually make them obsolete. I have a NAIM MuSO 2 which is a fabulous powered speaker and has mutliple ways of connecting to my music sources. However, it does cost $1250 + but then that is what you to pay for quality. However it is more useful and possibly longer lasting and less dependent on software updates in order to connect to my music sources.
Again let's hope this rumor is true. An Apple speaker based on the HomePod audio design but with connection issued fixed would be great news. And I am willing pay what it takes to make that device. I do not fool myself into thinking you get something that good for $100.😀
The original HomePod was a very good speaker but a terrible Alexa/Google Home alternative. I have 7 HomePods sprinkled in 3 stereo pairs and 1 stand alone. I use them as speakers for listening to music with the capability to give them voice commands to select playlist, music genre etc. with a little bit of HomeKit control thrown in. I think that they are superior in sound to the Sonos 1 but do not have the AI capabilities of the Sonos and Amazon/Google equivalents.
I hope they add bluetooth and external connection options, as the biggest issue was always getting them to connect to and stream from a wifi network which is their only way they function at present. I would happily use them as a dedicated powered speaker for music , which would not need software upgrades and which will eventually make them obsolete. I have a NAIM MuSO 2 which is a fabulous powered speaker and has mutliple ways of connecting to my music sources. However, it does cost $1250 + but then that is what you to pay for quality. However it is more useful and possibly longer lasting and less dependent on software updates in order to connect to my music sources.
Again let's hope this rumor is true. An Apple speaker based on the HomePod audio design but with connection issued fixed would be great news. And I am willing pay what it takes to make that device. I do not fool myself into thinking you get something that good for $100.😀
It would be interesting to know why they discontinued the old one only to bring back a new one in what sounds like will be less than 2 years later.
I always thought the timing of the announcement was odd. They had just upgraded the software quite a bit, really improved the tv speaker functionality for example and the Mini just launched which was the perfect gateway drug. It felt like they pulled the plug way too early.
It makes me think there is more to the story then just we made a mistake to cancel it so soon so we're bringing it back.
I always thought the timing of the announcement was odd. They had just upgraded the software quite a bit, really improved the tv speaker functionality for example and the Mini just launched which was the perfect gateway drug. It felt like they pulled the plug way too early.
It makes me think there is more to the story then just we made a mistake to cancel it so soon so we're bringing it back.
This will be the most anticipated release of the year for me, personally, besides if apple brings in lossless or hi res for AirPod Max. Looking forward to seeing how they can improve upon the OG HomePods, but I bought up six and split them between mine and my family’s house and everyone loves them. Anything audio coming this way, I’m excited for.
Apple is likely to release a successor to the original HomePod next year that will feature a new display on top supporting new touch interactions, according to Mark Gurman.
Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, the Bloomberg journalist says the smart speaker will have a similar size and boast comparable audio quality as the original, now discontinued HomePod, and will be powered by the future Apple Watch Series 8 chip, the S8 processor.
According to Gurman, the S8 chip in the new HomePod will have the same specifications as the S7 chip, which was also the same as the S6 used in 2020's Apple Watch Series 6. For context, the current HomePod mini uses the S5 chip that was introduced with Apple Watch Series 5.
In 2021, Gurman reported that Apple shelved plans for a direct successor to the HomePod that was originally scheduled to launch in 2022. Since then, Gurman has reported that Apple is working on new HomePod models with a display and a camera to compete with the likes of Amazon's Echo Show and Facebook's Portal, although that now sounds like a different device altogether.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently claimed Apple is working on an updated version of the HomePod that could come in the fourth quarter of 2022 or the first quarter of 2023. Kuo cautioned that there "may not be much innovation in hardware design" compared to the original HomePod, but that is unlikely to concern fans of the discontinued model.
The original HomePod was announced in 2017, and was Apple's first foray into the competitive smart speaker market. Apple discontinued the HomePod in March 2021 to focus on the HomePod mini and due to lackluster sales.
Gurman's latest newsletter also mentioned Apple's intention to bring always-on display features to this year's iPhone 14 Pro models, as well as launch a new Mac mini with an M2 Pro chip, and a new Apple TV with an A14 chip.
Article Link: New Version of Original HomePod to Return Next Year
That’s interesting. Demanding Spotify integration is one of two primary reasons I chose Alexa over Siri for my smart home. That and Alexa is embarrassingly superior for day-to-day around the house uses. Side rant (I try to be a positive person I swear), the fact that we’ve added little more the cinema and sport integration to Siri logic since it’s inception is mind blowing.
Anyway, I guess it’s only the customer who suffers here. I’m not gonna ditch Spotify because my HomePod isn’t compatible. I have no right to speak on it since I’m clueless about the dev process but it just can’t be that hard.
I’m probably more passionate than most about this because music is a part of every aspect of my life. I am still mourning the removal of touch preview. It was one of the greatest music discovery tools of all time in my opinion. It was only available on iOS and you could be listening to a track and tap/hold on another song and it would seamlessly transition to the 30 second preview of the track. When you let it go, your original track seamlessly resumed. Even better, you could touch preview any album or playlist, and a grid of the tracks would overlay the UI and you could move your finger across the screen to preview any of the content. It was incredible if you are constantly digging for new music. They mentioned on a community post (I think) that it was an underutilized feature. Which blew my mind. I can’t move on. 😂