Sonos is making a power play to take over your living room with its latest smart speaker called Sonos Beam.
Beam is a new sound bar that is smaller than Sonos’ Playbar and Playbase, but it also packs some new features like a five-microphone array and it plays well with Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa and of course, Siri.
Watch out HomePod, this thing looks amazing:
In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: Imagine if your Apple Watch could tell you which days were best for you to do a workout, and what kind of workout you should do. Well it can, sort of, thanks to a hidden feature that few people have yet discovered or know how to use.
You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.
It’s been a tight ship over there at Apple, so for the first time in a long time, we know almost nothing about what will be announced at an Apple Keynote. But we think there’s a good case for new hardware come Monday, and on this week’s CultCast, we’ll tell you why. Plus, we’ll tell you everything we think we know about iOS 12, and stick around for our ears-on, gaping-jaw review of stereo HomePods.
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Apple still has a bunch of new devices up its sleeve for 2018 — not including the new iPhone lineup — but we won’t see any of it at WWDC.
A new report claims we can expect refreshed MacBook and MacBook Pro models, a more affordable machine to replace the MacBook Air, a new iPad Pro with Face ID, and a new Apple Watch. However, we’ll have to wait until later in the year to get our hands on them.
Almost a year after it was first announced, AirPlay 2 is finally ready and running on iOS. AirPlay 2 lets you stream audio from your iPad or iPhone to more than one speaker at the same time (something that has always been possible on the Mac). And if you use AirPlay 2 with a pair of HomePod speakers, you can choose to treat them as the left and right speakers of a stereo pair, giving a much bigger-sounding audio picture.
Here’s how to add this to your home entertainment gear or desk setup. (Yes, some people are lucky enough to use HomePods in stereo pairs with their computing rigs.)
Stereo-pairing has been one of the most anticipated HomePod features and now that it has finally arrived, it was definitely worth the wait.
HomePod owners can now pair two or more speakers together to create rich stereo soundscapes in their house for an audio experience that’s unlike any other. CultCast producer Erfon Elijah went ears-on with the new feature and says his finely tuned ears were tingling with delight from the sounds HomePod can blast out. The 360-degree sound is so enveloping that it’s hard to tell where it’s even coming from.
Listen to the difference:
Apple will introduce a Beats-branded $250 HomePod smart speaker at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, predicts Apple analyst Gene Munster.
Munster’s other predictions for the big Apple developer event include new HomePod capabilities, additional Siri abilities, extra Core ML extensions, and more.
Apple pushed two other software updates for Apple TV and Apple Watch owners this morning to go with the big new iOS 11.4 release that came out today.
tvOS 11.4 and watchOS 4.3.1 don’t contain nearly as many exciting new features as iOS 11.4, but if you like playing music from your Apple TV you should definitely grab the update ASAP.
iOS 11.4 is finally here, bringing AirPlay 2’s multi-room audio capabilities as well as the long-awaited ability to use two HomePods in stereo.
The free update uses AirPlay 2 to move music from room to room or play the same music throughout the home on compatible speaker systems. You can control music using an iOS device, HomePod, Apple TV or making requests through Siri.
The iPhone dominates smartphone sales charts. The iPad is so ubiquitous that, for many, its name is a catch-all term for any tablet. The Mac is the most desirable computer out there. But the HomePod? Not so much.
According to figures released this week, Apple’s smart speaker made up just a tiny 6 percent share of all smart speaker shipments for the first quarter of 2018. What is Apple doing wrong? And what could it do to turn things around? Here are five suggestions for HomePod improvements we’d like to see.
It looks like Siri suffered a bit of a hangover from WWDC 2017. Monday’s reports of a Siri makeover to be unveiled at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference look like nothing but old news.
The cheeky nuggets, which came straight from Siri when asked about the upcoming event, appear to be leftover responses designed to create buzz about last year’s WWDC.
Correction: This post has been updated to indicate that the Siri “leaks” making headlines this week appear to be leftovers from WWDC 2017. The somewhat cryptic Siri responses, which caused some confusion, appear to have been removed by the Siri team.
When asked about Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developer’s Conference, Siri very sweetly dishes two interesting bits of news. Apple’s voice assistant will get a new voice, and she will lend it to a new HomePod.
Rumors indicate Apple’s working on a cheaper version of the HomePod. And now there’s a new wrinkle: this device might be sold under the Beats brand name.
This would let the HomePod name stand as a premier product, while still allowing Apple to make a more affordable smartspeaker.
iOS 11.4 looks like it’s on track for a public release sometime around WWDC 2018.
Apple just released a big batch of betas for developers this morning, including the fifth build of iOS 11.4 which brings a number of new features and improvements to the iPhone and iPad.
Whether you love it or you’re on the fence, this week you can save big on an Apple HomePod if you’re willing to shop in-store. Plus, we are seeing an all-time low price on the Apple Watch Series 1 Sport!
Apple is about to let Siri control your AirPlay speakers.
As part of the latest beta for iOS 11.4, Apple has added the ability to use AirPlay commands through Siri, allowing users to use Siri on their iPhone to play something on their HomePod.
It pays to keep an eye open for great opportunities at Cult of Mac. Sometimes you’ll spot a great deal or tech insight — and sometimes you win brand new Apple gear for free!
Apple’s HomePod smart speaker isn’t off to the best start in terms of sales. A new report claims that lack of demand for the speakers has resulted in Apple cutting orders from 500,000 units per month to just 200,000.
Extrapolated over the course of a year that would mean that Apple expects to sell around 2.4 million HomePods in 12 months. That would put it on a level with the 2015 first year sales of the Amazon Echo, but would be highly disappointing given the relative maturity of the smart speaker market and Apple’s name recognition.
Facebook’s smart speaker will reportedly launch in October, a new report claims. The social media giant’s entry into the AI speaker market already home to Apple’s HomePod, Amazon’s Echo and Google Home was allegedly delayed several months as a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
As a result, Facebook has cut its 2018 order volume by around 20 percent, although orders for 2019 will remain unchanged.
Apple fixed a few bugs and added a great new wallpaper in iOS 11.4 beta 2, but it also removed at least one highly anticipated feature. Check out our video below to see everything that’s new in the latest version of iOS.
Developers received a new batch of beta updates this morning, including the second beta build of iOS 11.4.
The new build brings a number of new features to the iPhone and iPad, including some that were pulled from iOS 11.3, like AirPlay 2 and Messages on iCloud. Apple has added a number of bug fixes and performance improvements in the new builds as it preps it for a public release.
In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: When it comes to fitness apps on Apple Watch, sometimes it feels like Cupertino is running before it can walk. Fancy new features like Heart Rate Recovery are very welcome, but a few of the basics remain missing.
Apple could make major strides when it releases watchOS 5. So in the second of three posts about the future of watchOS, I’ll focus on five essential fitness features I’m hoping we’ll see at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.
HomePod sales have fallen well below expectations, according to one of the best Apple analysts in the game.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told investors today that Apple is considering making a low-cost version of the HomePod in order to give disappointing sales a boost.
This week on The CultCast: HomePod sales are already stumbling — is it doomed? Plus: Face ID could replace passwords on your favorite websites; the death of Touch ID scheduled for this fall; and our hands-on reviews of an $80 tech-packed coffee cup, a beautiful new HomeKit smart lock, and the all-new Mavic Air drone.
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Apple has been forced to cut HomePod orders as inventories continue to build up in its retail stores, according to a new report.
The $349 speaker enjoyed a promising start when it made its debut in February, but demand has fallen quickly as smart speaker shoppers turn to more affordable options from the likes of Amazon.