why would they only upgrade one of the colours?
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Space Gray HomePod Currently Unavailable From Apple in the United States
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I bought a pair of the space grey HomePods earlier this year so it should be updated soon.
i wonder if that's a symptom of Siri software and Siri Servers and not homepod hardware. I've found siri to be lackluster on every apple device I've used. As for competition the Echo hardware is pretty low-end but Alexa feels very snappy.
I'd love to get a homepod for it's sound qualities but there are just too few homekit devices right now. What is available seems to be expensive.
Most people probably have Amazon and Google compatible devices. It would be expensive proposition for people to convert their homes to Apple Homekit. I think Apple moved to slow to get into the smart home arena.
Most people probably have Amazon and Google compatible devices. It would be expensive proposition for people to convert their homes to Apple Homekit. I think Apple moved to slow to get into the smart home arena.
That is my feeling as well. I don't think they are upgrading, but they might be having an issue with a supply chain source. Maybe the space-gray fabric material.
They wouldn't -- but what they would do, is stop producing the current version several months prior to the introduction of a new model, allowing it to go out of stock in regions of the world where people actually buy that sort of thing. And of course, the ones that will go out of stock sooner... are the more popular colors.
Thus, we could potentially infer from this situation that 1) a new version might possibly come out before the end of the year and 2) the space gray version is more popular than the white version.
Also, a sidenote observation of my own: The HomePod Mini is $99. When I worked at Radio Shack back in the mid-'90s, there was a particular high-end non-powered bookshelf speaker (the Optimus LX5) that cost exactly the same price, per unit, when it was on sale -- and of course, just like the HomePods, you needed two of them if you wanted stereo sound, in addition to a powered head unit that would cost easily anywhere from $200 to $800. We routinely went out of stock on the LX5, because it was quite popular among the audiophile crowd.
Of course, the LX5 was about the size of the larger HomePod... so while it's not really a 1-to-1 comparison to the Mini, I still find the progression interesting.
Sound bars are, at best, a poor simulation of what true, discrete, speakers provide. It's like looking at a photo of the Grand Canyon vs being there.
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It's obvious why the space grey HomePod is more popular than the white one: it's better suited as TV speakers. Most people have a black theme for their home entertainment centre. Now the Apple TV allows you to use HomePods as TV speakers, more people want the black ones so they blend in.
It looks like I picked the wrong three weeks ago to buy one of these. And I was considering a second one, possibly even today. I'd need Space Gray to match what I have.
I'm glad this article popped up now.
I'm glad this article popped up now.
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A sign has finally moved through the initial production batch. 
Sure. But if it's Atmos you're after, a £500 Atmos-capable sound bar is going to handle that better than two HomePods.
I was on the initial launch team for supporting them and try as I might to like them I sold mine because they had too many issues. Not recognising voices, strange garbled noises coming out of them at a whim, and Siri is just meh on them. The inability to stream to them via bluetooth from other devices has made me just use echos. I can say Alexa pair with TV, MAC, etc.
This is Mac RUMORS. Which means that small details that could be clues that something of greater interest is going on, are very relevant to this site.
Lordy! How you post with so much self-confidence and so little knowledge about apple rumors.
I have noticed that if I ask Siri to turn a light on or off via my HomePod there is a substantial delay (I would guess 4-8 seconds) but if I make the same request for the same lights using my iPhone 12 Pro, the response in almost instant.
I have a pair of HomePods that I use with my Apple TV 4K and they sound incredible. However, while I would like to upgrade to newer units with U1 and a more responsive Siri (I typically experience a 4-8 second delay when asking Siri to do something via HomePod compared to asking Siri via my iPhone 12 Pro) I cannot justify the cost of 2 new HomePods for that small improvement in functionality. I feel like I am stuck with what I have for a while since upgrading would be pretty expensive.
So we’re just over three years ago from when the HomePod launched in February 2018. Which also indicates to me Apple might have that key note suggested that’s allegedly coming in the next two weeks, it might be updated then. So that’s this all makes sense to me for an upgrade.
I’m the other way. I’m thinking I should get one quick to pair with my existing one in case a new one has better internals for sound and then they will seem off balance when old is paired with new.
I’ve been waiting for an update. I typically have one per room except with my tv in living room which is a pair. They do sound better as stereo pairs so my plan is to just use the old ones to make more stereo pairs as I add new ones. I assume they will bring up to par with mini specs (thread). My dream is they would add networking to create a mesh system for internet access throughout the home.