HomePod

notahappycamper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963314#Comment_117963314

Any noticeable improvement in sound quality and volume? I (and others on Reddit) have noticed sound quality deterioration on OS 15.0

notahappycamper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963186#Comment_117963186

Is yours a mini or original HomePod? I’ve noticed the volume on OS 15.0 appears lower than on previous OS i.e. volume at 50% sounds lower than previously.

peteeeed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963422#Comment_117963422

yeah its all good for me on 15.1 beta

eeloe

Still no sing of spotify coming natively for homepod? kinda sick of paying a sub for both.

peteeeed

new colours for the mini's

https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/18/apple-unveils-homepod-mini-in-new-colors-yellow-blue-and-orange/

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117968275#Comment_117968275

I dumped spotify, we're an all apple household so it made sense integratdionwise to change to Apple music. Couple of grumbles from some, but they were quickly reminded they can pay for spotify themselves or use our family apple music for free.

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039514#Comment_118039514

Such a bold move. Extremely underwhelmed by their approach to audio in this event.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118040979#Comment_118040979

Did the same some time ago as well, had been paying the extra for more iCloud storage and Spotify family was €14.99 so just moved to Apple Family plan. Same as yourself some grumbling about it but advised them of the same options :) I don't like Apple Music app at all though, find it unintuitive and difficult to find what you want easily. Spent several minutes about a week ago trying to find a recently played section only for google to advise such a thing doesn't exist. Its also far too many button presses to get from song to album/artist.

Tempted to pick up a HomePod mini but have a Bose bluetooth speaker in the office and a standalone AV audio setup in the room I'd probably put it which has airplay so struggling to justify it. Not sure where I'd even put it.

Creamy Goodness

If you have apple music with a HomePod you rarely AirPlay to it. It’s almost always “hey siri play X” in vicinity of a HomePod. Only time I airplay to mine is when I want to play a podcast or an audiobook from O’Reilly.

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044020#Comment_118044020

I’ve got a couple of of HomePods. Mixture of OG and minis inc one at my desk, it’s always “hey Siri, play…”. It’s only the kids who don’t have them (&they’re going to be on the Santa list this year)

DubDJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044020#Comment_118044020

On the Listen now tab, below the Top Picks section you should find Recently Played.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118055831#Comment_118055831

Yeah that is there but its albums rather than songs, it also seems to regularly miss things where I've searched for an album/song and played it. Those don't always appear in that section. In Spotify you could find an extremely lengthy list of songs that you had played going back a long way. I just find Music in general to be a very limited app compared to Spotify. The Spotify app on my Mac would be seamless with the iOS app and I could be playing songs on the Mac app while using the AirPods connected to my iPhone, things like that are missing on Music. The Mac app is incredibly poor. I suppose its due to maturity and I don't really use the Mac app very often outside of work but it is an annoyance. Not enough to make me pay for an additional subscription for Spotify though.

DubDJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118056408#Comment_118056408

I understand what you mean. Yeah, I get the same thing when playing songs from search. Sometimes if I Shazam a song, and play it and then can’t find it anymore in Music. Luckily they’ve added Shazam history now which is handy, but it really should be in the recently played regardless.

peteeeed

New homepod announced

https://9to5mac.com/2023/01/18/apple-second-gen-homepod/

Zhane

Available to preorder, available from Feb 3rd. €349

Will wait for reviews, but will likely get one.

peteeeed

i was interested but the new one cant be paired up with the older model homepod which i have so i'm out for now

iniall

Will they ever get Siri working properly though? I have one OG HomePod and three HomePod minis and lately Siri has been a basket case on all of them - failing to play radio stations, failing to play music, apologising for being unable to fullfil a request and telling me that whatever song I've asked for isn't available on Apple Music (spoiler alert: it is). I love the sound especially of the original HomePod, but, god, Siri is a sh1tshow - and seems to be getting worse rather than better...

pnott

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128606#Comment_120128606

Couldn't agree more! Siri has definitely gotten bad recently. RTÉ radio stations will not play at all for the past month or so. All other stations play fine. Often get 'there was a problem with Apple Music when asking it to play a radio station' or it will say 'this seems to be taking awhile' and then it just does nothing. I have factory resetted my Homepod Mini and still the problems remain. Back to Alexa for me I think.

turfthrower

My homepods (2 xOG, 2 mini) are amazing devices, seriously let down by how shakey their connections to each other are. Don't know if it's a wifi thing or what, but the older ones in particular are incapable of maintaining a stereo pairing. I end up re-pairing them every two days or so, or restarting them etc.

The new big ones aren't compatible with the older ones to make stereo pairs, so perhaps there is some improvement that will make them more stable?

Also, unless I'm mistaken, this is the first time the larger homepod has been made available in Ireland? I had to buy my last one in NI, and the second one off Ebay.

whippet

The OG HomePods were never available in Ireland - I got two in the UK when they launched and they are in stereo pair in my kitchen since then. Never really had a problem with them, SIRI is still flakey but I don't use SIRI all that much. For radio and movies on the AppleTV they are great.

I've three minis around the house - one in the home office with is really good. One feature I'd love but don't even know if it is possible - I'd love it they were teams enabled for calls.

I'm not sure the new ones are something I'd be looking at upgrading the others to ... but as with anything with an apple logo eventually I get sucked in and loose all my money

fuse

Does the homepod mini reliably play RTE Radio yet? I tried this eve, "play rte radio one" it responded with, "Now playing RTE Radio one from TuneIn" then proceeded to play the one song I have in Apple Music.

I tried setting up an ios shortcut to do it but the RTE Radio App doesn't appear in the shortcuts>Apps menu.

Any reliable way of doing this?

iniall

Apparently RTÉ and TuneIn are currently fighting over fees, so in this case I don't think it's actually Siri's fault...

gmacww

Yeah. If you go into the music app you can see the RTE stations provided through tune in but none of them will play. As iniall says there is an argument regarding fees. I doubt we'll see RTE back to be honest and I'd say they are looking to get people accessing via their app.

iancairns

Just bought a home pod mini. Hated my Echo Studio. Was always disconnecting. But it was good for TuneIn. Never thought about that with HomePod. I see it does works with TuneIn but when I say plate Rte 2fm, the icon comes up and it’s a Spanish station?

on Amazon you can see what TuneIn song playing or on Sonos you can see what channel. Where it’s this option on HomePod? Or how to fix the wrong station?

notahappycamper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120312846#Comment_120312846

There are issues getting RTE 1 and 2FM on Tunein on the HomePod at the moment- not sure why? It’s been like that for months. Someone mentioned a dispute over fees. Email radio.player@rte.ie and ask them what’s wrong.

peteeeed

Kuo: New HomePod with built-in 7-inch display to be announced in early 2024

Apple this year introduced a new HomePod that looks exactly like the original model announced in 2017 and discontinued in 2021. However, amid rumors of the company working on a new product that combines the iPad, Apple TV, and HomePod into a single device, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has now reported that Apple will announce a new HomePod with a built-in 7-inch display in early 2024.

https://9to5mac.com/2023/03/09/homepod-built-display-2024-rumor/

pad199207

Looks like the RTE and TuneIn issues have been rectified.

iniall

Yep seem to be. Noticed it last week, I think. I guess money changed hands.