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Apple Introduces the New HomePod
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y agoIt’s not clear from the announcement, but presumably if I have a first gen HomePod I can’t buy a second gen and use them in a stereo pair like in this announcement?
- wooger 4y agoIt's been confirmed that you cannot
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y agothank you for confirming on the comment
- bradhe 4y agoHonestly interested to see how these go. I haven't found a home speaker system that I like yet. I don't care too much about the voice assist features as my home is not so connected. Too bad they're like 20% more expensive here in Europe...
- laurencerowe 4y agoMost of the US/Europe price difference is simply the result of US advertised prices excluding sales tax while in the EU reflect what you pay.
- skot9000 4y agoHopefully these self-brick less than HomePod 1!
- dkonofalski 4y agoI've never had this happen to me but I hear this more and more from people. I plan on getting these new ones so I hope it's not a recurring theme with these.
- Tagbert 4y agoIf your OG HomePod dies because a component failed, you might check this site. The guy does HomePod repair work and will sell replacement components if you want to do the work yourself. Evidently some of the common failure points are replaceable. https://track44.moe/homepods/ https://track44.moe/homepods/
- tregoning 4y agoYeah mine one died by itself (one day was working, next just didn't turn on anymore)
- Tagbert 4y agoThese have the updated processors and related circuity from the HomePod mini. The minis don't seem to have the component failures that the OG HPs had.
- someotherpersom 4y agoDoes anyone have experience with the HomePod mini? Likewise, it’s not clear from Apple’s site wether or not a full size HomePod is required to use HomePod minus as part of a full home audio system
- beardbound 4y agoI have a couple. I’ll check. My old HomePod is my hub, but it looks like I could use my HomePod minis or my Apple TV to do it as well. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207057 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207057
- rcarr 4y agoI use two HomePod Minis at the minute which are wirelessly connected as a stereo pair to Apple TV which is connected via HDMI to a projector. Works great. I believe Apple products do some processing magic so that the video and sound are in sync with each other but I don't think the same applies if you're trying to connect them directly to a TV or a streaming stick from another brand but I might be wrong.
- tylermac1 4y agoYou do not need the full HomePod to do multi-room audio. I have three HomePod Minis, one 1st gen HomePod, two AppleTVs, and an old Airport Express that I can use in any combination for whole home audio in sync. It works extremely well.
- Kirby64 4y agoThe Minis are basically the Google Home Mini/Alexa Dots of the Apple ecosystem. They're all standalone, you don't need any full sized HomePod to do anything. If you want whole home audio, you can just buy the minis. They just operate via Wifi.
- dwaite 4y agoThis HomePod (being newer) can be referred to as a larger version of the HomePod mini with more/larger speakers stuffed inside it. Both use home wifi for connectivity, support Siri, and generally will act independently once they are set up from the rest of your devices. Both support the thread mesh protocol and will bridge thread (which is IPv6-based) to your local network so you can IoT it up. Both act as Matter controllers, a new home automation standard which uses wifi and thread. Both apparently have humidity and temperature sensors? Who knew! The SoC is from the Apple Watch, and the HomePod has a newer generation by virtue of being released later. There are more differences compared to the original HomePod, because it didn't have the same sensors or networking hardware and had a higher BoM/retail price. Notably, the wifi is actually 802.11n now rather than 802.11ac - probably because the didn't feel the need to have a watch support 802.11ac. Two HomePod mini set up as a stereo pair likely sound better than a single HomePod, and run at 2/3 the cost. That said, I have some large spaces I'd love to try a stereo pair of these new models in.
- rcarr 4y ago1. What is the difference between this and HomePod version 1? Because I'm struggling to see anything different to the original. 2. Does it come with a removable USB C cable or are you stuck with the stupid, permanently attached 1m cable that requires you to buy either power or USB C extension cables rather than just a longer usb c cable if you want to use it anywhere where there's not a socket?
- Kirby64 4y agoThis is the HomePod full size, not the Mini; the power cable is a standard power cable... not a USB-C cable. Differences vs. version 1 that I can see: * Thread Hub capabilities * Ultrawideband chip support, for locating devices * Fewer microphones/speakers compared to v1 * Slightly lighter? Probably from fewer speakers. Notably, the V1 HomePod was discontinued... so not a lot of that matters. You haven't been able to buy a V1 HomePod for awhile now.
- Traubenfuchs 4y ago> Ultrawideband chip support, for locating devices Excuse me? Are you trying to find your fat, lost homepod or find other lost devices with the fat homepod?
- shaunsingh0207 4y agoIt also (should) handoff a lot more seamless, as seen on the HomePod mini
- Kirby64 4y agoIt think it's mainly used for determining if your phone/ipad/whatever is close to the homepod so it can do the handoff of music seamlessly. The minis have it too, but the original homepod did not.
- zuhsetaqi 4y agoIIRC the power cable is not permanently attached it's just very strongly attached but removable
- scrumper 4y agoAgggrrrr so much hate for these devices. I bought a Mini for my oldest kid and now, when I pick up my phone in my downstairs office, hold it near my mouth, and say "hey Siri set an alarm at 7am", the phone briefly shows the Siri vortex and then stops. And I find out at 7am when my sad and confused daughter is startled out of bed that her stupid HomePod upstairs on the opposite side the house picked up what must've been to it an almost inaudible command.
- dkonofalski 4y agoDo you not have family accounts set up? Each person in your home should have their own Apple ID and the HomePod for each person should be set up by the primary user. You can also set up the recognize by voice features and that should prevent the situation you're describing.
- smileybarry 4y agoYeah, I’ve found that the HomePod Mini mic is almost too good sometimes. If Face ID gets a glance lock — I.e. looking at your iPhone directly — while speaking a command it “locks” onto that device (try that out by saying “hey siri” while using an iPhone). You can also just hold the side key instead of Hey Siri-ing it to not hop onto another mic.
- diebeforei485 4y agoI have turned off "Hey Siri" on mine. This can be done within the Home app.
- Tagbert 4y agoI really wish we could name individual devices so we can target Siri request to specific devices. Partially for situations like you describe. Also not all siri+device combos can do the same things. Our HomePod is not customized so anyone can use it for basic things like playing music but then it can't do personalized tasks like set reminders. Some apps only exist on some devices and a Siri request involving those will fail on other devices. I've turned off "hey Siri" for most devices and only use it for the HomePods who really need it to be useful. For my phone or watch, I hold down the button and the whisper to the device hoping the HomePod down the hall doesn't hear and start playing something in the living room I only wanted to play in my office.
- bgilly 4y agoThe original HomePod is cool and sounds good, but it being discontinued forced me to look elsewhere for a similar product when I wanted to kit out another room in my house. I ended up buying a Sonos Move and it’s so much better. Makes the original HomePod sound muddy. Also platform-agnostic. $100 more than HomePod, but it’s portable, so I find it a good value. Too bad cause otherwise I’d be excited about this new HomePod. I’m a Sonos convert now.