Apple Introduces the New HomePod
apple.com
apple.com
2. Does it come with a removable USB C cable or are you stuck with the stupid, permanently attached 1m cable that requires you to buy either power or USB C extension cables rather than just a longer usb c cable if you want to use it anywhere where there's not a socket?
Differences vs. version 1 that I can see:
* Thread Hub capabilities
* Ultrawideband chip support, for locating devices
* Fewer microphones/speakers compared to v1
* Slightly lighter? Probably from fewer speakers.
Notably, the V1 HomePod was discontinued... so not a lot of that matters. You haven't been able to buy a V1 HomePod for awhile now.
Excuse me? Are you trying to find your fat, lost homepod or find other lost devices with the fat homepod?
Also not all siri+device combos can do the same things. Our HomePod is not customized so anyone can use it for basic things like playing music but then it can't do personalized tasks like set reminders. Some apps only exist on some devices and a Siri request involving those will fail on other devices.
I've turned off "hey Siri" for most devices and only use it for the HomePods who really need it to be useful. For my phone or watch, I hold down the button and the whisper to the device hoping the HomePod down the hall doesn't hear and start playing something in the living room I only wanted to play in my office.
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.
If Face ID gets a glance lock — I.e. looking at your iPhone directly — while speaking a command it “locks” onto that device (try that out by saying “hey siri” while using an iPhone). You can also just hold the side key instead of Hey Siri-ing it to not hop onto another mic.
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.
If you want whole home audio, you can just buy the minis. They just operate via Wifi.
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.