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HomePod is the most annoying piece of technology that I still frequently use. I was an early buyer of the first version, but this update doesn't address any of
by yowzadave 4y ago
HomePod is the most annoying piece of technology that I still frequently use. I was an early buyer of the first version, but this update doesn't address any of the complaints that I have about it:
1. No audio line-in! It's a $300 speaker, it sounds great...sometimes I'd like to be able to just plug something into it. If you have a record player, you have to have a separate set of speakers for it, because this thing won't work.
2. No EQ. Apple claims their room-sensing tech will pick the best EQ for your room/the music, but for my personal preference it's always too bassy-sounding (also, I live in an apartment, I don't want to disturb my downstairs neighbors with the bass). Apple added a limited "bass-reducer" mode, but I want more control.
3. Siri tries (and frequently fails) to identify me and my wife by our voice, and then won't do things (like turn off the music, find our iPhone, etc.) because she can't figure out who we are. Every time Siri refuses to obey my wife, and then does something when I make the same request, it ratchets up the marital tension a notch.
I should probably get rid of the thing, but it's actually convenient when it works, the kids use it constantly to play music, and I assume (naively?) that it has a better privacy stance than the competing Google/Amazon products.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hnkfrh 4y agoThe input situation is dreadful and I couldn't stand the delay with AirPlay2 either. However, combined with an AppleTV 4K (2nd gen upwards), HomePods can be used as HDMI eARC devices. This enables playing sound without delay from any HDMI output. In my setup I use an eARC capable HDMI splitter and a $10 Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter to create an audio device for my mac that has virtually no delay. The video output of the HDMI adapter is set to just mirror my first screen, which avoids additional video processing load.
- odysseus 4y agoI also had #3 happen many times, but my wife just laughs at Siri being dumb and is usually just thankful /somebody/ stopped that timer or turned down that music.
- colordrops 4y agoAny privacy benefits from Apple are mostly nominal. They are a giant corporation beholden to shareholders, that sells ads and collects user information, and works with the government providing said data. They may have marginally better policies but they are still in the same ballpark with Google rather than true privacy products that don't connect to the cloud or self-hosted. Edit: for those downvoting, don't fall for the marketing hype. This isn't a conspiracy - the evidence is out in the open.
- ezfe 4y ago>3. Siri tries (and frequently fails) to identify me and my wife by our voice, and then won't do things (like turn off the music, find our iPhone, etc.) because she can't figure out who we are. I've never had this issue in my household. Have you tried re-training it?
- atdrummond 4y agoShouldn’t we give him the benefit of the doubt over the HomePod?
- dkonofalski 4y agoWhy? One is a human and the other is not. Humans have far more failures than limited tech.
- daniel_reetz 4y agoThank you. This is a perspective that is often overlooked. We all know the shortcomings of software engineering - why are we blaming the user first?
- jdminhbg 4y agoA suggestion to fix it isn’t “blaming the user.” I’ve had to retrain mine. It’s annoying that it failed and I had to do it, but I’m also glad I spent 20 seconds fixing it instead of worrying about blame.
- daniel_reetz 4y agoWith respect, I'd just like to add that this is the company that famously said "You're holding it wrong". Voice assistants fail in surprising and strange ways. Retraining might help, it might not.
- jdminhbg 4y agoI have no idea how what Steve Jobs said about the iPhone 4 over a decade ago is supposed to be related to a random HN poster's suggestion for fixing a HomePod.
- benhurmarcel 4y agoThere's also no way to use Ethernet. It could be on the power brick like the iMac or Chromecast Ultra.
- savoytruffle 4y agoThere's an interesting idea. But I think there's no power-brick. The Power Supply is internal.
- criddell 4y agoAudio line-in would be nice even if it's just to get rid of wireless latency. If they had that, I'd buy a pair today just to test with my home office receiver.
- jdminhbg 4y agoAudio line-in doesn’t remove wireless latency if you have a pair of them, because they still need to talk to each other.
- gnicholas 4y agoIs it possible to pipe sound into a Mac or iOS device, which then sends it to the HomePods? Macs can now use HomePods as the sound-out, so presumably this would be possible (but kludgy).
- 1123581321 4y agoProbably with Rogue Amoeba's audio apps: Audio Hijack capturing the input to Airfoil output, I think.
- adamparsons 4y agoThere was a project a few years ago called BabelPod that would take line-in (or any audio source really) on a raspberry pi and it would send it to airplay speakers, effectively making a janky wireless aux cord for record players and such. I tried setting it up the other day after seeing a fork that has addressed some of the isuses, but I only had about 2 hours to try getting it working before giving up. For those interested, just keep in mind the chances of it working are pretty low without some debugging, and most people run into issues with it https://github.com/maexdaemaege/babelpod https://github.com/maexdaemaege/babelpod