HomePod Time to buy additional HomePods?

[bwoodruff]

I realize this is the age old question...

I picked up a HomePod from BestBuy at the $200 price. I really really like it. Enough so that I will eventually want a couple more, for other parts of the house. I don't need them urgently, though. So the question is: should I pick a couple more up while they are on sale, or should I wait and see if there is a new version? I believe the current price is the lowest we've seen the HomePod, but I've also seen some suggest that is an indicator that a new revision is coming.

Beyond the speculation based on the incredible sale, is there any evidence of a new version? And if there is, what features might we expect?

As an aside... my only frustration so far is that I have to unlock my phone in order to unlock my front door or open my garage door. This defeats the purpose of giving those commands to the HomePod. I understand Apple doesn't want someone to be able to yell "Hey Siri" through the window and gain access to the home, but I believe Siri on the HomePod has always locked down when the owner's iOS device is not on the network, and additionally we now have personalized voice recognition. I really want to be able to do this.

 

[Itinj24]

I realize this is the age old question...

I picked up a HomePod from BestBuy at the $200 price. I really really like it. Enough so that I will eventually want a couple more, for other parts of the house. I don't need them urgently, though. So the question is: should I pick a couple more up while they are on sale, or should I wait and see if there is a new version? I believe the current price is the lowest we've seen the HomePod, but I've also seen some suggest that is an indicator that a new revision is coming.

Beyond the speculation based on the incredible sale, is there any evidence of a new version? And if there is, what features might we expect?

As an aside... my only frustration so far is that I have to unlock my phone in order to unlock my front door or open my garage door. This defeats the purpose of giving those commands to the HomePod. I understand Apple doesn't want someone to be able to yell "Hey Siri" through the window and gain access to the home, but I believe Siri on the HomePod has always locked down when the owner's iOS device is not on the network, and additionally we now have personalized voice recognition. I really want to be able to do this.

There has been no real evidence that a new HomePod is in the works. Any of the few rumors by the tech community have long died down, but I couldn’t tell you for sure. Was always hoping for a mini to add to bathrooms and such but I find the microphones on the current HomePod to have superior far voice listening. Can change tracks/ volume on my master bedroom HomePod from the shower in my master bathroom 20+ feet away. For 200 bux, they’re still a great product.

Completely agree about the unlocking doors, opening garage doors thing, especially now that we have voice recognition. FFS, the HomePod wouldn’t read a text message for me until I activated voice recognition. “I don’t know who you are” was a common response. Maybe Apple wants to make sure it ? works properly before implementing secure entries and it’s in the works for iOS 14 (haha, yeah right). Definitely found myself needing hands free unlocking a few times though. Wish Apple would let us, the end user, put our big boy/girl pants on and have a little more control over our own devices and house. Shortcuts automations is another fail requiring user intervention to get most of the “automations” to run. The ones that don’t require intervention are the ones that require you to physically handle your iPhone... NFC tag scanning and Carplay connection to name a couple.

 

[dotme]

HomePods are addictive. My poor credit card. I bought some Echos earlier in the year because I thought HomePods were too expensive. But I live in a Homekit house, and I'm a fan of privacy. Bought my first 'Pod in the early November sale. Two more on Black Friday. I don't even want to say how many I've bought since then. My mistake was playing with stereo pairing... you think one sounds good? Wait until you get two running in stereo.

I don't worry much about newer versions. These sound fantastic and at the sensible price of $199 they are in the same ballpark as most other quality airplay speakers, with Siri and a Homekit hub thrown in.

I'm actually more worried about them being discontinued than I am about them being updated. Every 'Pod I bought had iOS 11 on it... iOS 11!! So they certainly hadn't been flying off the shelves. I really believe if Apple had managed to get these out on day one in the low $200s ($400 or so for a stereo pair) they would have sold a lot more of them.

There are workarounds for the door unlock issues. One involves setting up an unused smart outlet somewhere, and an automation that unlocks doors "when the outlet turns on". Then you simply issue the command to turn the outlet on. No authentication needed...

 

[newellj]

I'm actually more worried about them being discontinued than I am about them being updated. Every 'Pod I bought had iOS 11 on it... iOS 11!! So they certainly hadn't been flying off the shelves. I really believe if Apple had managed to get these out on day one in the low $200s ($400 or so for a stereo pair) they would have sold a lot more of them.

I bought two this weekend at BestBuy for $200 each and yes, they both had iOS 11 on them. I didn't think too much about that because I figure that it's not shocking that BB might have had these in inventory for quite a while. Did you get any of yours from an Apple store? FWIW, the update took a very long time on a fast 5gHz network.

 

[bwoodruff]

Thanks for all the comments. I ordered the ones I wanted. the price seems too good to pass up. I can't really imagine a significant upgrade in hardware coming.

Will look into the suggested workaround as well - thanks for that.

 

[Itinj24]

Yes, the work around! Actually did some thinking about that after I posted my reply and glad that dotme confirmed my thoughts. I use it for location based automations when I arrive home but never thought to use it for the HomePod when I’m in the house. Still think it shouldn’t be necessary with voice recognition though but I guess that for Apple to decide. I’m afraid they’re gonna catch on and eliminate the work around in an update.