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Apple Introduces the New HomePod

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Re: Apple Introduces the New HomePod

#21

Post by burlesona »

scrumper wrote: post #14

Agggrrrr 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 be…

I share your frustration. I found a workaround that solves it for me:

When I want to talk to my phone or my watch I don’t say “Hey Siri” anymore, I just hold down the lock button (aka use it the old way). That activates Siri on the device without triggering any other devices. Since I generally have my watch or phone at hand, this has solved the issue for me. Still I wish the detection for “which device am I talking to” was better.

Re: Apple Introduces the New HomePod

#22

Post by bgilly »

The 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.

Re: Apple Introduces the New HomePod

#23

Post by laurencerowe »

bradhe wrote: post #2

Honestly 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...

Most 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.

Re: Apple Introduces the New HomePod

#24

Post by scrumper »

burlesona wrote: post #21
scrumper wrote: post #14

Agggrrrr 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 be…

I share your frustration. I found a workaround that solves it for me: When I want to talk to my phone or my watch I don’t say “Hey Siri” anymore, I just hold down the lock button (aka use it the old way). That activates Siri on the device without triggering any other devices. Since I generally have my watch or phone at hand, this has solved the issue for me. Still I wish the detection for “which device am I talking t…

I've started doing that too. Makes it quite a bit less useful though.

Re: Apple Introduces the New HomePod

#25

Post by dwaite »

someotherpersom wrote: post #4

Does 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

This 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.

Re: Apple Introduces the New HomePod

#26

Post by wkat4242 »

dwaite wrote: post #25
someotherpersom wrote: post #4

Does 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

This 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 con…

The mini does thread and matter? Really?? That would be great news as I've got 2 of them.

Re: Apple Introduces the New HomePod

#29

Post by dkonofalski »

scrumper wrote: post #14

Agggrrrr 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 be…

Do 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.
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