HomePod - page 6

Busy medical student Zach Hicks spent years developing this mouth-watering, Mac mini-powered setup. His main screen is actually a 43-inch smart TV, which gives him a bunch of screen real estate so he can open up a lot of PowerPoint presentations at once.

To accompany these big screens, he uses an Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse. A HomePod pumps out the audio, while two Philips Hue Bloom lamps illuminate everything. And, if you are wondering about the Apple boxes above his desk, they serve as a visual reminder of his journey to build this dream setup.

From Best Buy discounting the HomePod to Apple employees now able to buy up to 10 of the smart speakers at a discount, there are clear signs Cupertino is trying to clear out its warehouses before a rumored new model this year.

At $100 off retail, Best Buy began selling HomePod for $200 Monday for a limited time. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman tweeted Monday that Apple employees can now buy up to 10 of the speakers at employee discount, commenting, “These things are clearly on the way out.”

A set of origami-style lights illuminate the cozy setup of Instagram user @mrisad, an integration delivery manager. The Nanoleaf lights floating above his dual monitors evoke the control panels from some ’70s sci-fi show. And they’re integrated with HomeKit, Apple’s home-automation platform.

The heart of his rig is a beautiful pair of screens. The large main screen is a $1,000 curved, 38-inch screen from LG. The second screen is a 28-inch Asus gaming monitor. He hooked them both up to a Mac mini, and elegantly suspended them in midair by an inexpensive ($40) but fully articulated desktop stand.

To round out his setup, @mrisad has a Magic Keyboard and Trackpad from Apple, and a trio of chargers for his iPhone, iPad and AirPods. As for audio, he has a HomePod and a pair of Sennheiser noise-canceling headphones.

Apple is developing its own game controller for Apple TV and iOS devices that will launch this year or next, according to claims from one tipster, published on Monday. It is said to be part of a big push to improve Apple Arcade.

The information comes from the same source who accurately predicted Apple’s plans for the 2020 iPad Pro refresh and the second-generation iPhone SE.

Apple will deliver its new over-ear headphones, with interchangeable ear pads and other parts, “later this year,” claims a Thursday report from Bloomberg.

The company is said to be working on at least two variations of the product, including one “premium version” and another focused on fitness with a lighter design. Like AirPods Pro, they will be wireless with active noise-cancellation.

Since a system software update released in March, Apple’s HomePod smart speaker reportedly runs a version of tvOS, the operating system for Apple TV. The change might make it simpler to update this device, and support older hardware for longer.

Apple is hooking up its employees with some huge discounts on a few of its audio products this week.

It’s unclear whether it’s being done to help employees be entertained while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic or an effort to move surplus units during a sales lull.

One of the most iconic brands in rock ‘n’ roll amplification is ready to give Apple’s HomePod some fresh competition.

Zound Industries unveiled its newest portable speaker today, the Marshall Uxbridge Voice. It comes with Bluetooth and Spotify Connect, plus you can control it with your voice using Alexa. Best of all, though, this thing is really freaking loud.

Apple’s brilliant HomePod speaker is back to its lowest price yet. Best Buy is matching its big Black Friday discount by slashing $100 off the usual price for a limited time only.

That’s just one of the awesome offers in today’s Deals & Steals roundup. Other highlights include:

• MacBook Air — from $749.49
• Twelve South PowerPic for iPhone — $27 off
• Apple Clear Case for iPhone 11 — 18% off

Find all these and more in today’s Deals & Steals roundup.

Apple is finally “considering” giving users the ability to set third-party web browsers and email clients as defaults on iOS, according to a new Bloomberg report. It could also open up HomePod to rival music streaming services.

iPhone and iPad owners can already install third-party alternatives, but iOS currently does not allow them to override Apple’s built-in services. That could change as Apple faces increasing pressure over the tight control it imposes over its mobile devices.

Apple sold just 2.6 million HomePods into the retail channel worldwide in the last three months of 2020, a new report claims. While that is up from the 1.6 million units it shipped the same quarter a year earlier, it’s still a fraction of the total shipped by market leader Amazon.

“The price is still very high,” David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics, told Cult of Mac. “That closes the door to a huge swathe of potential customers.”

Apple has reduced the price of HomePod to $280, a further reduction on the $349 it charged initially for its smart speaker. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be living in India to take advantage of it.

Having released the HomePod in 2018 in the United States, Apple has finally launched it in India. This heavily populated market is comparable in size to China. However, Apple has not yet been able to make too many inroads in terms of sales.

Sonos, the smart speaker company that (usually) plays nice with pretty much every other tech company, is fighting back against Google and Amazon for allegedly stealing some of its secret sauce.

Two lawsuits were filed by Sonos this week against Google that accuses the search engine giant of infringing on five of its patents. Sonos claims Amazon is guilty of the same thing but the company decided to only sue Google because it can’t take on two tech giants at once.

Imagine arriving home, listening to music on your iPhone. You want to start that music playing on your home speakers instead, only you don’t want all the hassle of using Control Center, or the AirPlay panel, to do the connection manually.

If you own a HomePod, all you have to do is hold your iPhone near it, and playback will transfer. But what about regular AirPlay speakers? Can you hand off to those? Yes! You can. With a quick one-time setup, you can have the music or podcast app switch from your headphones, and play on any AirPlay speaker you have at home.

Apple today made its first iOS 13.3.1 and macOS 10.15.3 betas available to developers.

The minor updates don’t have patch notes yet. But they likely fix a serious flaw in Communication Limits, which can allow messages to be received from unauthorized contacts, among other bugs.

New betas are also available for HomePod, iPad, and Apple TV.

Stressed? On edge? Struggling to block out the annoying construction work down the street? Or do you just hate silence, and the way it reminds you that your life is tick-ticking away? Then you need some room-filling ambient sounds.

How about a nice, relaxing rainstorm to help you fall asleep? Or some white noise to fill the space left by your grownup children when they left you behind to start their own lives? If you have a HomePod running iOS 13.2 or later, your smart speaker stands ready to help blank out the soul-bleeding silence of your empty life. You just need to ask.

Apple requested exemptions for the import taxes it must pay when bringing many of its products from China. Currently, the Trump administration levies these on Apple Watch, AirPods, iMac and more.

These tariffs went into place in September as Apple got caught up in President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.

Apple this week rolled out an emergency iOS 13.2.1 update for HomePod. The 25MB release comes just days after iOS 13.2, which was bricking HomePod speakers for some unlucky users.

For some HomePod owners, the latest software update really was a killer upgrade. Loads of irritated people say the update bricked their HomePods.

New HomePod features like voice recognition for multiple users and the ability to send messages and make calls might sound awesome. But having your smart speaker go belly up sucks out loud. If you previously turned on automatic HomePod updates, you might want to flip the switch and wait until Apple gets to the bottom of the problem.

Update: Apple pulled Monday’s HomePod update after owners reported unresponsive devices. If you managed to successfully update your HomePod, you should be careful. An updated Apple support document warns that you should not reset your smart speaker for any reason. You also should not attempt to remove your HomePod from the Home app.

Apple is ramping up its smart home efforts in a bid to better compete against Amazon and Google, according to a new report.

Cupertino is said to be hiring for a team that will be focused on revamping HomeKit software and devices. It also wants to encourage more third-party manufacturers to support its platform.

“Apple is all-in on augmented reality. But where will it lead?” That’s a pretty standard view of Apple’s experiments with visual AR, aka overlaying virtual objects onto the real world, via the iPhone’s camera and screen.

But Apple is already providing a fully immersive AR overlay onto the real world, to millions of users — only it isn’t using a screen. AirPods are augmented reality. They are also a part of a new computing paradigm that Apple snuck into the world without telling anybody. This paradigm currently consists of AirPods, iPhone, Apple Watch and the HomePod. And it is as discreet and low-key as it is important.

The Spotify update we’ve been waiting for since the launch of iOS 13 has landed. The latest version of the app finally adds Siri support, so you can ask the virtual assistant to play artists, tracks, and more.

It also brings a brand-new Apple TV app.

Apple didn’t mention HomePod during yesterday’s iPhone 11 event — but it certainly didn’t forget about it, either.

Following the keynote, Apple quietly updated HomePod’s webpage. In doing so, it added exciting details about improvements being lined up for Apple’s smart speaker this fall.

A bunch of Apple products will be hit by new levies on Sunday after being entered into the Federal Register today.

Apple Watch, AirPods, iMac and more will be taxed 15% when entering the U.S. from China. It will be the first time Apple has been affected by the ongoing trade war.

HomePod is now on sale in Japan and Taiwan for the first time.

The smart speaker can be purchased from Apple Stores, the Apple Online Store, and from select cellphone retailers.