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Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

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Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#131

Does it work with non-Apple hardware? Amazon and Google have the "works with Amazon/Google" so you can buy any brand of hardware (smart plugs for ex) and control them all with one device.

anything that works with Homekit works with it, similar to the "works with Amazon/Google"

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#133
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fyi HomePod Mini also has those sensors

Siri claims it can't tell me the room temperature.

I wonder if it needs an update because I've just asked one for both temperature and humidity and it was able to tell me.

Also see the comparison table at the bottom of this page: https://www.apple.com/uk/homepod-2nd-generation/

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ) Seriousl…

I’ve seen the GTV on sale for $20, the ATV is almost $200. That’s a 10x in price difference. I think the most sensible way to use both devices is as a dumb “cast” target. FWIW, the fireTV literally had a bug where it’d crash because the ad data collecting daemon used up too much processing power. For $20, just be thankful Google has that much self control.

Fair point but, this is the definition of fuzzing the margins here. The Google TV retail price is $50, the Apple TV is $129 now.

I get that that is a big jump but it's not 12 times the price. The performance per dollar tends to go down as you go up in price, not up.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#135
post #107

The HomePod is the worst Apple product I’ve ever owned, especially for what it’s supposed to do. I need to restart it every few days to even be able to connect to it and playing music with Siri stopped working a few months ago. It also mixes up HomeKit devices that don’t sound similar at all.

I use mine all the time and haven’t had these issues. Just the occasional Siri misunderstanding. My family loves it for playing music and a few other simple tasks like timers.

No issues here either, but I've stuck to version 14 and refuse to update after reading so many reports of issues with lag.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#136
post #46

Is 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…

Siri complain time? Well, my newest problem with Siri is: Let's say I want to play some classic song (like Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd). So I say "hey siri, play sweet home alabama" - and what I get is not the original one but some newish remake/remix/reinterpretation. Why on earth would you play some unknown version over the popular original? Oh also ... what's the "next song pls" command in German? With Al…

Are you using Spotify or Apple Music as your streaming service.

We had endless problems with cover bands and tribute songs rather than the mainstream song when we used Alexa with Spotify (which baffled us as I expect that would be the most common configuration).

We currently use Apple Music and Google Nest devices since our mesh network has them built in. Music works fine. Podcasts are a curse on humanity — if you say “play podcast”, it always defaults to the last episode you played, even if it was months ago. You have to specify the latest episode of so and so podcast EVERY TIME, and even then it’s flaky. It’s like it forgot that podcasts are a derivative of “broadcast” where timeliness is relevant.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#137
I F'in LOVE the OG HomePods. The sound quality absolutely slaps for the money/size/convenience. I've got one for music in the kitchen and it fills the room like a setup 3x as large. The bass response even at low volumes is remarkable, and clarity through the whole volume range is near perfection. Many of my guests have sourced their own OGs after hearing it. I've got another hooked up to my Apple TV (mono) that replaced a 3.1 setup that cost 3x as much and somehow didn't sound as good.

I can't relate at all to the bike-shedding of Siri complaints. It's like we're experiencing totally different products. Does anyone actually want to use smart speaker features beyond simple cooking timers and controlling music? These features work great. I thought we'd already determined (4 years ago) that voice/audio was a poor user interface even with google/Alexa? I always felt this was a remarkable speaker that got unfairly panned in reviews for performance on silly and contrived smart-assistant use cases.

Despite the fact that I love these speakers and could care less about Siri, this release has me a little disappointed. I don't see much stated improvement. Kind of seems like a processor bump type release, which is not what I expected in V2 after so many years.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#138
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should put U1 Chips in them so i can see which room i left my phone or airpods in.

Maybe it was U1? There are too many apple chips that it is easy to confuse now. I can't find anything on the page saying exactly which chip it is. Regardless it was a chip that was missing from the original but is in the Mini that made this feature work. That would be awesome, I would love some feature that it could actually be room aware and knowing where devices are in that space instead of just relative to your ph…

You would just name your homepods and ask siri where your phone is and it would reply "10ft away from you kitchen homepod".

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#139
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Siri claims it can't tell me the room temperature.

I wonder if it needs an update because I've just asked one for both temperature and humidity and it was able to tell me. Also see the comparison table at the bottom of this page: https://www.apple.com/uk/homepod-2nd-generation/

Seems like it: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/18/homepods-now-feature-te...

Maybe the update also requires iOS 16 on a connected device, I’m still on 15.

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