HomePod FAQ: Everything you need to know!
Mikah Sargent is Senior Editor at Mobile Nations. When he's notbothering his chihuahuas, Mikah spends entirely too much time and money on HomeKit products. You can follow him on Twitter at@mikahsargent if you're so inclined.
Apple's HomePod is here and we've got everything you need to know right now!
Apple announced its long-rumored HomePod at WWDC 2017. The Wi-Fi connected speaker offers up Siri voice control, HomeKit functionality, and boasts incredible, virtual surround sound. Wanna know more? We've got the details!
Apple Home Hub? Siri Speaker? Siri Home Hub? What's this thing actually called?
It's called HomePod. It's like an iPod for your home!
Neat … so what can it do?
Apple is positioning the HomePod as an excellent wireless speaker. It's also another in-home point of contact with Siri. Use the wake phrase, "Hey, Siri," and it can do anything Siri can do … and a little more! You can control your HomeKit-enabled accessories (even when you're away from home, since the device acts as a HomeKit Home Hub), listen to music and other content with the device's excellent speakers, set timers and reminders, check your calendar, send messages, etc.
Apple's main focus was on the device's audio quality. Using what Apple calls "Spatial Awareness," its beam-forming tweeters and Apple-designed woofer work together to provide virtual surround sound in whatever space you're in. The HomePod will "scan" the room and adjust its tweeter/woofer system accordingly to provide the best possible sound. The HomePod is also a Musicologist, meaning it helps you find great tracks on Apple Music and — thanks to its beam-forming microphones — lets you control your listening experience no matter where you are in your room.
Wait, can you tell me more about this Musicologist?
Yeah! It basically means HomePod can help you find good music to listen to. Here's how Apple puts it:
"By saying, 'Hey Siri, I like this song,' HomePod and Apple Music become the perfect musicologist, learning preferences from hundreds of genres and moods, across tens of thousands of playlists, and these music tastes are shared across devices. Siri can also handle advanced searches within the music library, so users can ask questions like 'Hey Siri, who's the drummer in this?' or create a shared Up Next queue with everyone in the home."
Does it work with AirPlay?
Sure does! In fact, it works with Apple's freshly announced AirPlay 2! You can use it to connect to other HomePods in your home and to control other AirPlay 2-compatible speakers.
Have ya got some specs for me?
- 7 inches tall
- 3D mesh fabric
- Apple-designed A8 chip
- 7 beam-forming tweeter array
- 1 4-inch, Apple-designed woofer
- 6-microphone array
- Siri built in
- 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi‑Fi with MIMO
- Multiroom speaker support with AirPlay 2
- capacitive touch controls on top of the device
- data encryption
'Data encryption,' you say?
Yep! Apple's got your privacy and security in mind. Here's what you need to know about it:
"With HomePod, only after 'Hey Siri' is recognized locally on the device will any information be sent to Apple servers, encrypted and sent using an anonymous Siri identifier."
Other smart speakers offer personalization options. Does the HomePod let me customize the look?
HomePod comes in two colors: white and Space Gray.
So, uh, what's this gonna cost me?
Both the white and Space Gray HomePods will cost $349.
And when can I order one?
Apple says HomePod will be available to order in the U.S., UK, and Australia in December.
More you wanna know?
Feel like there are still a few questions left unanswered? Have something specific you want to know? Give us a shout in the comments and we'll help you track down an answer!
Reader comments
HomePod FAQ: Everything you need to know!
This needs mutli-user support at launch. Just one Apple ID for HomeKit support would be fine, but not reminders, notes, music, etc.
To the author, of course if Apple makes it, of it has to better then Sonos.
Because it supports AirPlay 2, does that mean you can use it with your AppleTV?
Also, I can play any music app and even Audible from my phone to my 2 AirPlay speakers now. Will that work here with HomePod?
Did they indicate when it would be available in Canada? I am kinda surprised that Canada isn't getting it when they roll out to the U.S. seeing as we are right next to them.
If you can't make and receive phone calls with this thing, it's the stupidest thing Apple has ever done.
Seems to me like an anonymous Siri ID of whatever type is going to have to be tied to your iCloud account one way or anther cause Siri can access your calendar, etc?
To late for me, echo devices here and prime is better value for money then Apple Music.
Also am I the only person who likes to OWN there music, I only use amazon music as it comes with prime, otherwise I just use TuneIn. Other than that all I use any personal assistant for is timers ....
Nah, I prefer to own my music as well. I used to wait a little longer with prime to get that mp3 credit, but they no longer offer that. I use the fire stick to listen to prime music.
not at all. i'm cost conscious so the extreme price makes it a nonstarter. But yeah i like owning my music. also, music recommendations tend to be laughably bad for me. They might work for pop music but often the music doesn't remotely flow well which is all the more annoying since i used to be a dj and the flow of the mix does matter. Like with most services If i listen to a Tribe called Quest don't suggest some mumble rapping moron just cause they both were from New York. nobody with any sense would play those back to back. it's like netflix. if i watch any movie with an all Latino cast i just get streams of movies with all latino casts. Same with all black casts. Like am i really gonna watch The Butler then like fricken love and hip-hop or something. Regardless i have a lot of music and i can barely keep up with it. music worth knowning about i tend to hear about through word of mouth and it's from people whose musical tastes i trust more than spotify or apple music or beats by dre etc.
Can Apple activate the listening functionality remotely for "diagnostic," "customer assistance," or law enforcement purposes the way Google and Amazon can?
At $350 shouldn't the HomePod include HDMI output and Apple TV functionality as well?
When Apple says "Siri can also handle advanced searches within the music library", I hear music library, singular. Can it accommodate multiple users' libraries, or is it one Apple ID out, one Apple ID in type of deal?
Will it support multiple users/voices, like the echo, to family members with other ios devices or apple music family?
They didn't mention it so I guess not which is disappointing. More than one person tends to live in a home.
This is something I was curious about to, as one of the slides said messages. Wouldn't not want anyone who uses the hub getting access to or sending messages from my account
So one of the key points they made was that they put security and privacy first. And that the device listens locally only until I hears, "Hey Siri" then it wakes up and connects to apple's servers. Also, that it assigns an "anonymous user id" to the interaction to ensure your privacy. The question I have is, if it only uses an anonymous user id, how does it now thatI like that song. Meaning, when I say "Hey Siri, I like this song" it is supposed to remember that and get smarter with my playlists. But, if I am completely anonymous, how does that work?
So if you have your iPhone sitting on a table in the same room as the HomePod, and you yell out Hey Siri, which device responds?
Is there any way you can change the wake phrase like on the Echo? Saying "Hey, Siri" in a room full of iPhones or iPads with a HomePod could activate every Apple device at the same time.
Likely similar to what Google does where the Home will take precedent and cancel out the request on any devices.
The Google Home does a good job of canceling out the request on other devices, but it does still wake all the phones in the room, which is kind of annoying. Google offers a workaround by allowing an extra wake word for Home (Home responds to either "Okay Google" or "Hey Google," while phones only respond to "Okay Google"), so there's something you can say that will activate Home but not Android phones. It works well, but it's kind of kludgy. Hopefully Apple's solution is a little more elegant.
It will never be as fun as activating Front Row in a room full of 5000 people at an Apple keynote!!
But what you're describing is exactly what Phil Schiller did today, isn't it? A bit skynet-like, that.
Phil: "So, you guys all installed the iOS 11 beta right? Cool! Hey Siri, Could you send $20 to Phil Schiller?"
10 seconds later: "Cool, I just got paid, uh.... $100,000. That's weird."
Agree, it's already annoying when using "hey Siri" and the watch, iPhone and the wife's iPhone go off.
My wife and I both have iPhones and Apple Watch. We place the phones next to each other while the watches stay on our wrists. When I say 'hey Siri," only my phone and my Apple Watch respond. When my wife says, "Hey Siri," only her phone and her Apple Watch respond.
Can you explain how that can possibly be? If your phones are next to each other and her phone activates on Hey Siri, why doesn't yours?
Because you train Siri to listen to your voice (don't remember that in Siri setup?). Just to prove it, raise or lower your voice an octave (Mariah Carey has the advantage of adjusting by five octaves) and say, "Hey Siri." Nothing will happen. Then use your normal voice and inflection and Siri will respond.
Oh, and why didn't Apple make the HomePod wake up to "Hello Siri"? Problem solved.
My wife and I both have iPhones and Apple Watch. We place the phones next to each other while the watches stay on our wrists. When I say 'hey Siri," only my phone and my Apple Watch respond. When my wife says, "Hey Siri," only her phone and her Apple Watch respond.
As for HomePod, I think the same thing would happen. Only the person who trains Siri to recognize their voice would have their phone awoken, not everyone else's iPhones which "should" have been trained to only recognize their owner's voice. Then again, Siri MIGHT have to be trained by all users at the same household to recognize everyone's voice... I wonder what Apple plans to do to ensure the whole family can use it or will it be limited to only one user...