Does it work with Spotify yet? I remember the first one could only be AirPlayed to (if I'm recalling correctly).
No, you're stuck with handoff or airplay.
Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
81–90 of 302 posts
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#82Is it time to complain about Siri again? Sure is! I am an old-school Apple fanboy. I learned HyperCard on a Macintosh SE/30—I am that old. I still appreciate the Apple ecosystem, and I do like certain aspects of my HomePod mini…but Siri. C’mon. Get it together. It just fails at the absolute basics. https://imgur.com/q0H788Y The basics being: please add stuff to my shopping list when I yell it into the aether while in…
We have an original large-size HomePod in the kitchen. Its MAIN job is music-in-the-kitchen, and it excels at that. It's secondary job is "Siri portal" for random information or timers or whatever (btw, did you know you can set multiple timers and give then names, like "set a pasta timer for 10 minutes" and then also "set a simmer timer for 30 minutes" and ask it for status on those by name?). I have an ongoing sort-…
Aye, I have some history in software development as a UI designer. Including for something with natural language processing. So I have some heuristics for what and how to ask. But I feel like “add [x] to my Shopping list” where [x] is a fairly common would should be doable.
But also I didn’t know about named timers. So I appreciate that, that’s actually really useful. Huh, something I didn’t know about a voice assistant, it’s almost like there are issues with discoverability, who would have thought…
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#83Seems like Apple executed the way Google should have with their Google Home Max. They've added stereo pairing, so you can have two of them sync up together and then connect them to an Apple TV 4k and you basically get a pretty nice wireless sound bar with Dolby Atmos enabled. Still, at $300 per pod, I really need Siri to do better than the "dumber than a bag of rocks" vibe she currently gives off for this to be at al…
I use Siri for mundane things. Horses for courses. For music though, I prefer browsing through a playlist or artist discogs. Recalling a track from memory and requesting an assistant to play it isn’t very intuitive. Siri aside, I’m very much looking forward to this update.
You can ask voice assistants to play playlists or albums as well, not just a single track.
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#84I would love to hear the inside story about why the old one was discontinued and it took so long for the v2. The HomePod mini is the "first device" we have given to our children. No screen, I am comfortable with apple privacy, access to music and podcasts, etc. The mini has shockingly good sound for $100 and what it is.
"The mini has shockingly good sound for $100 and what it is. "
It's really something, isn't it? I mean, I'm an audio nut with genuine crazy-person speakers in my living room, but goddamn if that single mini Homepod in our bedroom isn't stupid good.
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#85Is it time to complain about Siri again? Sure is! I am an old-school Apple fanboy. I learned HyperCard on a Macintosh SE/30—I am that old. I still appreciate the Apple ecosystem, and I do like certain aspects of my HomePod mini…but Siri. C’mon. Get it together. It just fails at the absolute basics. https://imgur.com/q0H788Y The basics being: please add stuff to my shopping list when I yell it into the aether while in…
Speak recognition on Siri is horribly bad.
They need to license/acquire Nuance Dragon, or do something to improve it.
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#86I am very happy to see the bigger HomePod come back. I have a several big ones and a few of the small ones and they just don't compare for sound so I put off putting them everywhere I really wanted.
Will for sure be getting a few of these.
As far as Siri being "Stupid", idk it does exactly what I need it to do for playing music, controlling my home, measurement conversations, timers, and the occasional ask about if someplace is open or not.
I have long been wondering if Apple would expand the stereo audio for TV to more than 2. If they were to introduce a generic receiver (or actually make the Apple TV able to have inputs and not just use eARC) and allow me to have 4 or more HomePods for my stereo setup. I seriously wonder how that would compare to my current Atmos 5.1.2 setup. It would sure as hell be cheaper to buy 4 or 5 HomePods than this setup was.
Edit: Also the addition of the H1 chip was seriously the best thing to be added to the Mini and unsurprisingly it is coming here to make sending music from my phone to my HomePod easer when I get home. Not enough to replace the big ones I have but likely over time.
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#87Is it time to complain about Siri again? Sure is! I am an old-school Apple fanboy. I learned HyperCard on a Macintosh SE/30—I am that old. I still appreciate the Apple ecosystem, and I do like certain aspects of my HomePod mini…but Siri. C’mon. Get it together. It just fails at the absolute basics. https://imgur.com/q0H788Y The basics being: please add stuff to my shopping list when I yell it into the aether while in…
> Buy $299 or something that has artificial stupidity like Siri? Well, in fairness, it’s designed first as a music device, the Siri seems like almost an afterthought. That said, Spend $299 on a wireless speaker where the stereo pairing often fails, has random Wi-Fi connection issues (that no other Apple device has), and is otherwise hindered by issues? Nah, fooled me on the first gen, fooled me again on the HomePod m…
That what confuses me about the market fit here.
It’s not an amazing voice assistant. It’s OK as a wireless speaker, but Sonos is almost assuredly better, and similar aesthetics and ease of use.
So this is targeting…uh?
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#88Worth noting: - We lost two tweeters (7 down to 5) - We lost two mics (6 down to 4) Really curious how the sound compares to the original.
The description of the tweeters has changed on the spec page as well. I wonder if they're still using balanced mode radiators (BMRs) like the first gen HomePods? Perhaps these use a newer generation BMR?
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#89Seems like Apple executed the way Google should have with their Google Home Max. They've added stereo pairing, so you can have two of them sync up together and then connect them to an Apple TV 4k and you basically get a pretty nice wireless sound bar with Dolby Atmos enabled. Still, at $300 per pod, I really need Siri to do better than the "dumber than a bag of rocks" vibe she currently gives off for this to be at al…
> Seems like Apple executed the way Google should have with their Google Home Max
Google properly executing on Google TV would require them to not build hardware with 1/12th the single core performance of an Apple TV. (Seriously, it has single core performance around that of a 2011 Intel Atom while the Apple TV has an A15 throwing 12th gen Intel laptop numbers. https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/19594628)
Seriously, what is with The Chromecast with Google TV? People are like "It's laggy!" and Google is like "We do update!" and people are like "Now it's laggy AND crashes!" My entire experience with my three of them. Software is great, hardware is pure eWaste and they should feel bad about that.
Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation
#90Seems like Apple executed the way Google should have with their Google Home Max. They've added stereo pairing, so you can have two of them sync up together and then connect them to an Apple TV 4k and you basically get a pretty nice wireless sound bar with Dolby Atmos enabled. Still, at $300 per pod, I really need Siri to do better than the "dumber than a bag of rocks" vibe she currently gives off for this to be at al…
I’m very much an anecdote here, but want to give a different perspective. I’m an Apple “fan” (at least, I have more of Apple’s devices than other brands), and I don’t want voice activation. I don’t feel comfortable something listening to all my intimate family conversations. Maybe Apple fans are more likely to be privacy conscious. All that being said, it doesn’t need to be either or. They could have a great Siri pro…
You want a Sonos SL or Ikea Symfonisk (Sonos sw/hw in Ikea design). Great products, no mic, Airplay 2 support, massive group pairing and the same room detection tuning Apple bragged about in the Homepod via the App on a phone instead of mics. (Sonos holds the patent on it and famously made no claims about Apple stealing it while asking Google and Amazon to pay licenses, aka: Apple Ponied up.)