As if HomeKit and other automated home appliances weren’t bad enough, now you can buy a HomeKit-enabled light switch. That’s right. Instead of just walking into a room and flipping the switch on the wall to turn on the lights, you can now walk into a room, flip a switch on the wall to turn on the lights, and also deal with firmware and connection issues for the rest of your life.
One of the least welcome aspects of the HomePod smart speaker is its propensity for leaving unsightly white rings on your tables, due to an interaction between the silicone used in the device and the wood.
According to one industrial designer, however, the problem could be solved by Apple without too much cost — although there may be a bit of retooling of their equipment required.
There are boatloads of smart speakers out there, but nothing quite like HomePod. Like many Apple products that came before it, HomePod is here to revolutionize an industry. It’s certainly not first to market, but Cupertino’s plan is to make all HomePod competitors insignificant. The new Apple smart speaker uses cutting-edge technology that delivers outstanding sound quality to do just that.
In this week’s issue, you’ll find that story and more. Learn how ‘Hey Siri’ works with HomePod and other devices. Don’t miss Cult of Mac Watch Store’s big President’s Day Weekend Sale, here you can save up to 20 percent on great bands and accessories for Apple Watch. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.
Apple’s HomePod arrives in homes today. It’s already sold out online, but if you’re lucky you might still snap one up in an Apple store. And you probably should, because the HomePod looks to be just about the best small speaker you can buy — in terms of musical performance, anyway.
If you want to find out how to set up and get the best of your new HomePod, or if you want to read a bit more before deciding whether to get one, you’re in the right place. Below you’ll find all our HomePod coverage: how-tos, reviews, tips and opinions.
Some folks are having trouble getting their HomePods set up. For most of us, Apple’s streamlined setup is fantastic. The HomePod and your iPhone see each other, and the iPhone tells the HomePod everything it needs to know about your home network, and your iCloud ID. But this simplicity means that troubleshooting failed setups is hard. If you’re faced with nothing but a blank white screen when you plug in, here’s how to fix HomePod.
Friends, HomePod is even better than the hype! It’s one of the best products Apple’s ever made. Don’t miss our discussion on The CultCast. Plus: HomePod versus the rivals; the big HomePod flaw you need to know about (one Apple is trying to downplay); how Apple plans to revamp its future software; and, is another new Apple product on the horizon? We think so, and we’ll tell you what it is.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off any hosting plan.
There are boatloads of smart speakers out there, but nothing quite like HomePod.
Like many Apple products that came before it, HomePod is here to revolutionize an industry. It’s certainly not first to market, but Cupertino’s plan is to make all HomePod competitors insignificant. The new Apple smart speaker uses cutting-edge technology that delivers outstanding sound quality to do just that.
You can’t buy another speaker of this kind for $349. That price tag is not exactly cheap, but if you love music, HomePod should be at the top of your shopping list.
Apple’s HomePod is leaving its mark on wooden tables across the globe, but the folks at Pad & Quill have already come up with an elegant solution to save your furniture from ugly white rings.
It turns out that HomePod isn’t the only fancy speaker that can stain wooden tables.
One Sonos user has discovered the same problem caused by a Sonos One. Just like HomePod, it has silicone on its base to prevent slipping.
Did you know that setting modern materials like silicone down onto traditional furniture finishes like oil and wax, or lacquer, could leave a mark? Judging by the insane clamor on the internet, roughly half of the planet has just discovered this fact, and is blaming it on Apple.
Those HomePod ring marks are a result of the oils in the finish of the furniture being sucked into the silicon base of the HomePod. The good news is the fix is easy, but if you’d listened to your grandmother, you never would have had this problem in the first place.
The HomePod may have just dropped, but Apple’s not the only tech giant to be getting into the smart speaker business in 2018. According to a new report, Facebook will be launching two smart speakers this year — with July being given as “the latest” that they could make their debut.
A new report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple’s $349 HomePod smart speaker costs the company around $216 in components, giving Apple a 38 percent margin.
If accurate (and we’ll come to that!), the figures suggest that despite charging users considerably more money than Amazon and Google charge for their rival smart speakers, Apple is actually earning smaller margins than Google Home’s 66 percent and Amazon Echo’s 56 percent.
But the numbers almost certainly don’t tell the whole story.
An apparent bug has left some HomePod owners unable to get their new Apple smart speakers up and running. Complaints about a mysterious “Setup Failed -6722” error message surfaced soon after HomePod launched last Friday.
HomePods are already making their mark in new homes across the country — but not in a good way.
Apple customers started noticing that HomePod can damage wood furniture by leaving a white ring after resting on a table for just a few minutes or days.
Professional grade acoustic tests appear to confirm that the HomePod is indeed the real deal as far as speakers go.
Apple has been talking up its smart adaptive speaker and high-end audio processing algorithms since the HomePod was first shown off at last year’s WWDC event. According to Apple, the HomePod can adapt its sound to fill any room it’s put in. It seems it wasn’t kidding!
Instead of recognizing the voices of various users and serving up their personal tunes, HomePod is tied to one person’s Apple Music library. That leads to an unfortunate side effect: Whenever anyone in your home tells your HomePod to play a track, that song is added to your listening history.
That means your teenagers’ ironic Ramones session, or your spouse’s un-ironic David Hasselhoff listen-a-thon, will pollute your listening history — and affect your future recommendations. Here’s how to stop that from happening.
HomePod may not be the smartest speaker on the market, but it packs some serious skills where it matters the most: sound.
Now that we’ve had a few days to play with HomePod and compare it to competitors like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, we’re absolutely in love. The CultCast host Erfon Elijah went ears-on with HomePod at his podcast command center for one of the funniest reviews you’ll ever watch.
Prepare to laugh your nips off.
One of the most reputable tech review sites isn’t that impressed with the HomePod’s superb sound.
While most reviewers have noted the HomePod as the best sounding speaker they’ve ever listened too, Consumer Reports claims Google Home Max and Sonos One sound better.
Siri itself might be frustrating, but Hey Siri is great. And on the HomePod, the voice activation for your virtual assistant is even more impressive, because it hears you perfectly, even if you speak at normal volume while the music is hammering the walls, the floor, and your neighbors’ patience. Now it’s possible to have many Siri-equipped devices laying around a room, but somehow, when your say “Hey Siri,” only one device responds. Did you ever wonder how? Here’s the answer.
If you’re a home automation fan, then you’re going to love Apple’s new HomePod speaker. Not only can you use it to control your HomeKit setup with your voice using Siri, but you can also use the speaker as a Home Hub. That means that you can leave it at home taking care of business, letting you dial in to tweak things from wherever you are in the world.
iFixit’s HomePod teardown reveals a veritable tank of a smart speaker that’s incredibly durable but virtually impossible to get inside. Unless you fancy using a heat gun and saw to open up your brand new Apple speaker, that is!
Apple debuted short four HomePod-themed ads over the weekend, showing off the speaker’s high-end audio playback capabilities. The ads are titled “Beat,” “Bass,” “Equalizer” and “Distortion” and feature some striking but simple imagery that subtly harks back to the clean dancing silhouettes Apple used to use to advertise iTunes and the iPod.
Check them out below.
Apple has been pretty outspoken about marketing HomePod as a high-end speaker that just happens to have Siri, as opposed to a smart speaker built around its AI assistant, like the Google Home or Amazon Alexa.
A new study published by Loup Ventures suggests one reason why: Because Siri is seriously lagging behind its rivals in terms of its functionality and ability to answer questions.
The HomePod reviews have been coming out hot and heavy, and they’re surprising. This week on The CultCast, we’ll tell you what people like, love and hate about Apple’s new speaker. If you’re planning on buying one, don’t miss our discussion. Plus: Something strange is happening at Apple HQ … we elaborate; 150 new kickass emojis are coming to your iPhone; and we pitch you the movies, gadgets and food we can’t get enough of in all-new What We’re Into!
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off any hosting plan.
After months of delays, Apple’s HomePod is finally available in Apple Stores today. Before we get to the reviews, comparisons and tips, with our latest video we give you a tour of what’s in the box, show you how easy it is to set up, show it off in action and my first impressions.
In this week’s issue, you’ll find that story and more. Learn how to set up Apple’s Health app to unlock its awesome fitness potential. Apple is investigating iPhone X’s incoming call bug. Discover how to to see Cult of Mac at the top of your Facebook feed. And, now until Tuesday take advantage of a two-for-$65 promo on Nyloon’s lineup of great nylon Apple Watch bands. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.