The HomePod is the second $349 speaker Apple has pitched over the years. It seemed obvious to compare it to the iPod Hi-Fi:
Category: Apple
Tuning off ‘Hey Siri’ on HomePod
I’ve been tinkering with my HomePod today, and I realized I didn’t know how to turn the microphones off. On the Amazon Echo and Google Home, there’s an easy way to keep the device from listening. Turns out, Apple has a way as well:
Say “Hey Siri, stop listening.” When Hey Siri is turned off, touch and hold the top of HomePod to talk to Siri. To turn Hey Siri back on, in the Home app, press (or touch and hold) a HomePod, then tap Details and change the Listen for “Hey Siri” setting.’
The HomePod User Guide⇢
Got a HomePod on its way? You can get a head start on checking out the User Guide starting now. Don’t miss all the ways you can control the device, what types of things Siri can handle and what a user can do with your personal data if you enable the feature.
Awkwardly, at least at the time I published this, this page refers to AirPlay 2 more than once, but doesn’t seem to list any features that are being held back until AirPlay 2 ships later this year.
On the Possibilities of an iPhone SE 2
With March approaching, it’s possible we may see an iPhone SE 2 in the coming weeks.
The SE was announced in March 2016. It took the guts (more or less) of the iPhone 6S and squished them into the body (more or less) of the iPhone 5S.
The SE is a big hit in my house. I bought my wife an iPhone 6S for Christmas in 2015, but she never adjusted to liking the larger screen size. When the SE came out a few months later, she swapped back to the 4-inch form factor she had come to love with her iPhone 5S. At a full ounce lighter than the 6S, she can run with the SE much easier than a larger, heavier phone.
Siri, Read Some HomePod Reviews
Early HomePod reviews are out. The TL;DR seems to be “It sounds great, you’re locked into Apple’s ecosystem and Siri isn’t great.”
None of that is surprising. Here are some highlights:
It feels like it was designed for a very demanding person to use while living alone entirely inside Apple’s ecosystem. It’s tied more closely to a single iPhone and iCloud account than any other smart speaker, and Siri has none of the capability or vibrancy of what’s happening with Alexa. Apple can try to move mountains by itself, or it can recognize that the HomePod is a little iOS computer for the home and let developers build on it as they have for so long and with such great success with the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Judging the 18-core iMac Pro⇢
Craig Hunter has put the 18-core iMac Pro through its paces:
So in summary, we see performance increases ranging from 27% to 79% for the 18-core iMac Pro when compared to the 10-core model. I suspect many computations and applictions will be in the middle of that range depending on how well they can take advantage of multiple cores, but there will certainly be some hot rod uses that get closer to that 79% end of the scale (and may do even better). Though I haven’t mentioned it, if you look back through the various benchmark results, you’ll see that the 18-core iMac Pro shows no disadvantage for single-core performance, despite running at a lower clock speed (2.3GHz/4.3GHz) than the 10-core iMac Pro (3.0GHz/4.5GHz).
Apple Opens Repair Program for iPhone 7⇢
Apple has determined that a small percentage of iPhone 7 devices may show “No Service” in the status bar (even if cellular coverage is available), due to a component that has failed on the main logic board.
These affected units were manufactured between September 2016 and February 2018 and sold in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, and the U.S.
If your device exhibits the symptom described above, Apple will repair your device, free of charge. Your iPhone will be examined prior to any service to verify that it is eligible for this program. This program only applies to iPhone 7.
Apple Posts Q1 2018 Results: $88.3 Billion in Revenue⇢
Apple just posted its largest quarter ever, booking $88.3 in revenue:
“We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup. iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also achieved a significant milestone with our active installed base of devices reaching 1.3 billion in January. That’s an increase of 30 percent in just two years, which is a testament to the popularity of our products and the loyalty and satisfaction of our customers.”
Apple Clarifies HomePod Audio Sources⇢
With a little over a week to go before shipping, Apple has finally cleared up what audio the HomePod can play, as noted by MacRumors:
- Apple Music: HomePod users can ask Siri to play any of over 45 million songs available on Apple Music. A subscription is required.
- iTunes Music: HomePod users can ask Siri to play any songs, albums, or audiobooks they have previously purchased from the iTunes Store.
- iCloud Music Library: HomePod users can ask Siri to play any songs uploaded to a user’s iCloud Music Library, including songs imported from other sources such as CDs, with an Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription.
- Beats 1: HomePod users can ask Siri to play Apple’s official radio station that is apparently still a thing.
- Podcasts: HomePod users can ask Siri to play podcasts from the Apple Podcasts directory.
- AirPlay: HomePod users can use AirPlay to play other audio from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Mac. AirPlay 2, coming later this year, is only required to stream audio from these sources to multiple HomePods.
It’s silly that there was so much confusion over this, but I’m glad Apple has documented this for customers. This whole product launch has been unusual.
Review: the iPhone X
These things come in cycles.
There’s revolution, followed by evolution. The Apple II, then the IIe. The Macintosh, then the Macintosh SE. The Titanium PowerBook G4, then the aluminum models.
Both sides of the revolution/evolution coin have their winners. The IIe became Apple’s bread and butter for years, introducing an entire generation to personal computing. The SE and SE/30 are among the most-loved early Macs, and it is still hard to talk about the 12-inch PowerBook G4 without smiling.
iOS Snow Leopard⇢
Apple has shaken up its iOS software plans for 2018, delaying some features to next year in an effort to put more focus on addressing performance and quality issues, Axios has learned.
Software head Craig Federighi announced the revised plan to employees at a meeting earlier this month, shortly before he and some top lieutenants headed to a company offsite.
Fried goes on to report that larger iOS projects, like a revamped home screen and CarPlay UI are now slated for 2019, being pushed back to make room for a year of bug fixing and polish.
The Beginning of the End of 32-bit Mac Apps⇢
With the release of the latest macOS developer beta, Apple will begin to alert users that they are using older, 32-bit apps, instead of the more modern 64-bit apps, the company told me today. The macOS beta will be released to developers on Wednesday.