Apple HomePod - The "Bose Wave" for fanboys - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Apple HomePod - The "Bose Wave" for fanboys

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Amazon has Echos, Fire Tablets, Fire TVs, Prime Video, Prime Audio, and many smart home devices support Echo. They also publish apps on every major mobile and desktop OS. They absolutely have an ecosystem.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2018 22:24

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 06:07

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

buglord posted:

RIP if your friends have android.

Agreed, OP

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 04:02

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Boris Galerkin posted:

Don�t worry, next year they�ll release a $299 version of AppleTV with HomePod Connection that you can link up to your HomePod 2.

e: No but seriously, as much as I'm hating against HomePod I find it just too difficult to believe that Apple wont enable a software update to let people pair their AirPods with.

AppleTVs already connect to HomePods. Like, this is a big part of why I'm interested in the thing.

And yeah, why would you want to connect your headphones to your speaker? I can't think of any situation where you're at home but for some reason don't have access to your phone. If it's to listen to your AppleTV, just pair with the AppleTV?

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 14:34

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

qirex posted:

I don't think the use case of using this as your tv speaker is going to work too well, maybe they'll be able to do audio sync between an AppleTV and HomePod but if you're gaming there will be a noticeable amount of audio lag, especially once they get into stereo pairing.

That's literally the only way you could game using it, and who the hell plays games on their AppleTV?

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 18:29

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Pissflaps posted:

Can Amazon make an echo dot that supports this or is it proprietary?

Amazon could license it from Apple. They won't.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 23:12

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

MrBond posted:

Apparently the sound quality is quite good, but if you're the sort to connect an echo dot to a receiver and home theater speakers then you probably consider yourself covered.

This isn't really the same, though, since you have to leave your receiver on and on the correct input for it to work like you want it to. If you have the Dot with an output, it won't use its own speaker at all, so it's a pretty crappy experience all around.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2018 13:57

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Yeah but Nilay is someone whose opinions are so bad that his girlfriend wrote an article about how bad they were.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2018 16:16

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

The sound is really good and the mics are insanely sensitive. I have the Black Panther soundtrack playing at a pretty good volume and it can hear me speaking at a normal speaking voice about 12 feet away. My Echo would be asking me to repeat in the same conditions.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2018 21:05

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Jose Oquendo posted:

Is there a way to connect a HomePod with my iPod Hifi?

In terms of what? You won't be able to get them to run in stereo, but I guess you could use an Apple TV and some adapters to extract audio from HDMI to make it an AirPlay 2 receiver* and connect that to the AUX in on your iPod Hifi.

*Apple hasn't said if Airports Express will get an update for AirPlay 2, which would make this a lot easier.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2018 02:19

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

So after a couple days, I have a couple minor complaints:

1. I wish there was a way to see what's playing without having to ask.
2. I wish I could turn off touch interactions since I don't see myself using them and my cat has turned it on more than once. (There's an accessibility setting to increase the touch time needed to activate, so that might solve it, at least.)

Said cat has thankfully NOT used it as a scratching post, and just walks over it, turning it on or off.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2018 17:42

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Not exactly a perfect solution but you can go to control center on the iPhone and force touch music controls to see other devices, one of which should be the HomePod.

Oh cool this is good enough. Thanks!

# ¿ Feb 11, 2018 23:33

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

MarcusSA posted:

Finally got my HomePod set up and drat it does sound really good.

It�s a lot heavier then I thought it would be though Jesus.

Also I kinda wish the phone displayed what song was playing but that�s a minor gripe I guess. So far I�m really happy with it.

Since I had the same gripe, and got a helpful answer:

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Not exactly a perfect solution but you can go to control center on the iPhone and force touch music controls to see other devices, one of which should be the HomePod.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2018 20:24

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

WithoutTheFezOn posted:

Should as in �in a fair and good world�, yeah. Should as in �reasonable to expect�, I would doubt it. Multi room will just be being able to start/stop playback on multiple HomePods, I'd bet.

I mean, you can play the same song in multiple rooms or different songs in different rooms. At worst, you would be able to start the one you're moving to, then stop the one you left.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2018 21:28

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

MarcusSA posted:

Maybe I�m confusing the issue as well but are they gonna let us have all the HomePods in the house play the same thing?

It would be nice to have one upstairs and downstairs.

Unless it already does that and I am missing something.

Yes, AirPlay 2 will enable this.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2018 21:48

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Use a non-lovely Twitter app and then you won't see ads.

And, yeah, if you're listening to music, just use Siri.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2018 14:48

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

VladimirLeninpest posted:

I found out that you can browse the Music app as the Homepod and play music without using AirPlay! That fixes all of the issues here.

Can you explain this? I don't know what you mean

# ¿ Mar 30, 2018 15:07

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Yeah I played around a bit and figured out what you meant. It seems largely undocumented and untalked about.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2018 18:08

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

It's really bad that when multiple devices hear you, the HomePod gets priority, even if it's not something it can do, but one of the others can.

# ¿ May 28, 2018 22:10

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Don Lapre posted:

You have to take cost into consideration. It's not like you paid $40 for a Google home or something.

Are they still spying on you 24 hours a day?

# ¿ May 28, 2018 23:08

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

It's out on my iPhone, so I imagine it's out on HomePods, too.

# ¿ May 29, 2018 18:23

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

It is. Reminder you need to go to the Home app and check the homepod details to see/install the update.

I am doing this remotely, which is pretty cool!

# ¿ May 29, 2018 19:42

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Mine is on 12.0.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2018 00:51

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

It's way better than an Echo (at least my first-generation Echo), but midrange is not always the best. It's kind of hard to really say, though, since it does a ton of audio processing based on the song and room conditions and such.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2018 16:42

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Mine is still on 12.4. Is that the highest version available since 13.2 got pulled?

# ¿ Oct 30, 2019 15:46

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

GATOS Y VATOS posted:

How do I check which version I have on the HomePod?

Open the Home app on your iPhone, hit the house icon in the upper left corner, tap Software Update

# ¿ Oct 30, 2019 20:47

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Boris Galerkin posted:

I�m thinking about a mini but one of my use cases would be listening to podcasts. On some of the ones I listen to they have ads for Google products where they say you could just say �Hey Google, play The Daily� for example. I�m assuming that Google would play the proper podcast even if it�s not one on a playlist. Does Siri do this too? I use Overcast but I guess I could use Apple Podcasts.

You don't have to use Apple Podcasts on your phone to do this, though I suppose if it's a more obscure podcast it might have trouble finding it. In any case, I just said "Hey Siri play podcast Robot or Not" and it worked fine, despite me having deleted Podcasts from my phone.

But yeah, you can always use Airplay if keeping your Overcast playlist accurate is important to you.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2020 21:06

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Boris Galerkin posted:

Really? I just said �hey Siri play podcast robot or not� and she said she didn�t see an app for that. I don�t have Apple podcasts installed so that�s why I figured I would have to switch to it to get the integration I wanted.

To be clear: you do not need the Podcasts app on your phone for a HomePod to play podcasts. You do need it on your phone to play via the Apple Podcasts app on your phone.

FWIW Overcast at least has Siri Shortcuts support so you can set those, though it doesn't seems to let you ask for an arbitrary podcast, just play a playlist or create one for a specific podcast, but these don't transfer to the HomePod, since it doesn't have Overcast support.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2020 13:54

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Boris Galerkin posted:

Oh I get it. I could say �Hey HomePod-Siri, play the latest episode of blah podcast� and she�ll play it because she has the software needed to do that on the HomePod? If I did use Apple podcasts on my phone would that sync over to that app then?

The first part is "yes" but I can't comment on the latter since I don't use Apple Podcasts and don't have it on my phone.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2020 22:12

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

crackhaed posted:

Anyone seen the minis on display at an apple store yet? I want to listen in person before I pull the trigger on a couple for the bedroom and bathroom.

I think the original Watch was the only time they've put a new product up for display before it went on sale, and that was so people could try it on and see what worked.

Anyway, I'm going to get two.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2020 14:53

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Hippie Hedgehog posted:

Am I the only one who doesn't find it an inconvenience to lug a small speaker around with me as I move around the house? Isn't that the point of getting a Mini, that it's very portable?

Considering they are wall-powered-only, they are clearly not intended to be portable.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2020 16:49

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

The intercom feature is pretty neat.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2020 01:55

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Picked up a couple Minis last night. They sound shockingly good for the size. The fullsize HomePod is still way better, but for what we're using them for, I can't complain.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2020 04:25

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

The people you want to send to have to be part of your home and have to have Intercom turned on to be able to send them Intercoms.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 19:25

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

priznat posted:

So apart from the sound quality/power, being able to use as a homekit hub, is there anything the regular size homepod has over the mini?

I have a few sonos units and would like to start moving over to homepod because I'm quite homekit centric. Also the sonos app is loving garbage.

HomePods Big can do Atmos when connected to an AppleTV. That's the only feature difference I can think of.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2020 21:57

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

I turned on iCloud Private Relay on on my home wifi to see what it was about then forgot to turn it off, and my Homepod couldn't fine my phone. Which makes sense. So don't do that.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2021 14:29

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Henrik Zetterberg posted:

My phone hands off audio just fine if I have private relay on.

Sorry, I meant doing things like adding reminders via the HomePod. Kept telling me it's not on the same wifi.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2021 15:46

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

GATOS Y VATOS posted:

Welp my OG HomePod suddenly died with no warning. Apparently this is an issue for a lot of people. Bummer that Apple wants $280 to repair it.

That sucks.

Give this guy a holler and see what he thinks.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2023 02:08

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Henrik Zetterberg posted:

Don�t the Apple Watch S6/7/8/Ultra/OG HomePod/HomePod mini all have pretty much the same CPU? And this one has the same one?

No, the original HomePod has an A8, the Mini has an S5, and this has using an S7, so this is a bit faster (the S6, S7, and S8 all use the same CPU, the S5 is a generation older CPU than those).

# ¿ Jan 18, 2023 16:44

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

My original is noticeably slower than my Minis.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2023 23:02

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 06:07

Endless Mike: Aug 13, 2003

Works for me! I now have objective information about how poorly the HVAC heats upstairs!

# ¿ Jan 26, 2023 15:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Apple HomePod - The "Bose Wave" for fanboys

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