ive been Mac/Apple devotee for years. I want to buy HomePod but want to be sure it will play my entire iTunes library as is the case with my other Apple devices. Spent hours uploading my store bought CDâs years ago. This is critical in my decision.
I've received my HomePod(s) now and begun to listen to music - I can say conclusively that they play anything I want to select from my own personal iTunes library. The HomePods were immediately available as AirPlay speaker choices on the iTunes menu, and I can select one or more speakers (HomePod, computer, other, in any combination one or more) to play my music.
For me, this is exactly what i was hoping for - I can now put speakers throughout my home and direct my iTunes library music to them.
The Siri control is not as complete as it will be for Apple Music. You can only control the music from your computer, as far as selecting the music to be played, and at each HomePod you can individually control volume, and you can also pause the music and go back or ahead track by track from the HomePods. So there is that degree of control but it is not Siri controlled.
One thing about Siri, as others have reported, it is uncanny that you can say 'Hey Siri' at very low volume, even with the music playing very loudly, and Siri will pause the music and wait for a request. That is quite impressive.
I've received my HomePod(s) now and begun to listen to music - I can say conclusively that they play anything I want to select from my own personal iTunes library. The HomePods were immediately available as AirPlay speaker choices on the iTunes menu, and I can select one or more speakers (HomePod, computer, other, in any combination one or more) to play my music.
For me, this is exactly what i was hoping for - I can now put speakers throughout my home and direct my iTunes library music to them.
The Siri control is not as complete as it will be for Apple Music. You can only control the music from your computer, as far as selecting the music to be played, and at each HomePod you can individually control volume, and you can also pause the music and go back or ahead track by track from the HomePods. So there is that degree of control but it is not Siri controlled.
One thing about Siri, as others have reported, it is uncanny that you can say 'Hey Siri' at very low volume, even with the music playing very loudly, and Siri will pause the music and wait for a request. That is quite impressive.
turingtest2 wrote:
Significant that it says Mac rather than include Windows or just iTunes. Not so useful for Windows users then. đ
tt2
Fears unfounded, can AirPlay to HomePod from iTunes for Windows too.
tt2
As far as I can tell the device works independently of your computer which means that anything you want to play needs to be part of iCloud. In other words, you need Apple Music, this isn't streaming your computer's iTunes collection. I am guessing to the extent that your iTunes collection would be Matched in iCloud your other tracks would be included but as is common with Apple's information pages, it lacks in the details and targets everything to promoting other elements of Apple's ecosystem while carefully omitting mention of limitations. đ That said, I am wondering why the tech. spec. page makes mention of all the file formats supported, particularly FLAC for which Apple has notoriously been omitting support for well over a decade. If music is only supported as Apple Music and all that is pre-defined as 256k AAC then why mention other format support? As I said, there's a log of vagaries.
tony.d. wrote:
This is my point exactly. The specs show nothing on Mac support. But there was an iTunes update. The specs also show support for Apple Lossless and FLAC. So how could this device play these files if not from a computer running iTunes. iTunes Match doesnât (at least I donât think it does) uploads Lossless files. Just gonna have to wait this one out and let the Tech reviews sort it out.
That's what's odd. iTunes has never supported FLAC, so unless there's a really new version of iTunes coming out in the next few days...
Okay, reading the Homepod tech specs page it says under wireless connectivity there is "direct guest access" which is completely unhelpful but refers you to faint gray, tiny print at the very bottom of the page which mentions Airplay.
"Peer-to-peer AirPlay requires a Mac (2012 or later) with OS X Yosemite or later, or an iOS device (late 2012 or later) with iOS 8 or later."
Apple's Airplay page says:
Use AirPlay to stream content from iTunes on your computer - https://support.apple.com/HT202809 - "With AirPlay, you can stream music, photos, and videos from iTunes to your Apple TV. Or, stream music from iTunes to your AirPort Express or AirPlay-enabled speakers."
HomePod - Technical Specifications - Apple
Make of that what you will. If that means you can stream from iTunes then it's a strange way of hiding what may be a major feature of the devices for many people.
I should be receiving my HomePods on the 9th so I'll know for sure, and I will post here as well at that time, but for now I'm expecting these to work perfectly well with iTunes.
Apple has actually made some updates to the specs for HomePod, and for example they're now stating:
Audio Sources
Noting that they include Mac in the list above, I'm confident that HomePod will can be used as a speaker to play anything on my Mac including my iTunes library.
Yes, I remember the days when people lamented the transition from 71/4â floppy disks to 3.5â floppies, to no floppy drives, etc. i donât think this is quite the same. Apple is trying to compete with Google and Amazon who have gotten a huge jump start on these music machines with artificial intelligence enough to turn on lights and change the thermostat. The botched release of HomePod allowed the competition to make tremendous gains in artificIâll intelligence, some say, even surpassing Siri in many ways. The competition can already outdo HomePod in Music handling by allowing the use of third party sources of music and at least in the case of Google, allowing customers to upload their pre-existing Music libraries to a free cloud. I was hoping that the delayed release would have enabled Apple to far surpass all the competition in every area from artificial intelligence, to sound, and to music handling of music from all sources, including their own proprietary iTunes libraries. But, Apple appears only to have surpassed the competition in the ability of HomePod to generate sound. That is not an innovative and winning strategy. Outfits like Sonos and Google make machines that sound nearly as good, for a mere fraction of the price of HomePod, and their machines can do more in handling music and are much more flexible in allowing customers freedom of choice. All for less money. I am a prime example of someone who would gladly buy a HomePod for its sound, but only if it could handle my own music library like Google allows, and offer music source options like the competition does. Since the HomePod apparently canât do the things that the competition can do, except for state of the art sound, I would be wasting good money to buy a machine that canât hang with its competition. I donât think asking for a machine to at least be as good as the competition is the same as those who wanted to see the return of the optical drive. I expected the Homepod to be the most innovative version of these types of machines ever released. Instead, it appears to be a Johnny come lately entry into an already crowded and more technically advanced field in almost every area of comparison. Recent announcements by Apple are encouraging in that it now appears that IOS devices and Mac will be able to play iTunes library songs on HomePod using AirPlay, but Siri cannot be used to play music in your library that was not purchased thru Apple. I guess it will have to be manually selected and sent to HomePod. That is a shame and appears to be deliberate on the part of Apple because right now, on my iPhone and iPad, I can have Siri play any song or album in my iTunes librar, whether purchased from Apple or not. So to take away this capability that Apple device owners currently have, doesnât make sense. Apple appears to be handcuffing itself to a concrete bollard in its effort to compete in the smart speaker field. Hopefully they will come to their senses when they see sales lagging and wonder why. Iâm one of those guys who has bought everything Apple since day 1, but this is the first time I will hold back until Apple makes HomePod at least as capable as the rest of the smart speaker competition. Thanks to all of you who contributed your knowledge and thoughts to this great discussion.
Limnos wrote:
As far as I can tell the device works independently of your computer which means that anything you want to play needs to be part of iCloud. In other words, you need Apple Music, this isn't streaming your computer's iTunes collection.
I'm not so sure about that, Note #1 on the bottom of the Tech Specs page says:
Peer-to-peer AirPlay requires a Mac (2012 or later) with OS X Yosemite or later, or an iOS device (late 2012 or later) with iOS 8 or later.
This would seem to imply that HomePod may be able to serve as an AirPlay target from a Mac or iOS device. Otherwise, what would these devices have to do with peer-to-peer AirPlay (between HomePods)? The only alternative explanation I can think of is that this means that these devices are required to establish a HomePod-to-HomePod connection? I guess we'll all find out soon enough ...
You may be right on nailing the sound. But then again, Harmon Kardon and Clipschorn nailed sound 40 years ago Too. I suppose we could hook up the iPhone with a wire to those old units too to get great sound, and save the $350. But having had the gift luxury experience of being able to just say, âHey Google, play The Best of Albert Kingâ, and the smart speaker says âOkâ and plays my request, I guess Iâm spoiled. Sadly, I think most people have gotten on the smart speaker bandwagon and wonât settle for less. Sad too that it seems as if Apple deliberately took away typical Apple device Siri Voice control with the HomePod, at least for those without a subscription to Apple Music. All the other smart speakers can so so much more than just play music, and itâs just not likely that vast numbers of people are going to spend $350 on a not so smart speaker. The HomePod seems to have been deliberately dumbed down in its music handling ability compared to other Apple devices that handle music, or even worse, Apple appears to have lost its cutting edge ability to outdo the competition. If a $30 Echo is smarter than $350 HomePod, then something is very wrong. I think I will wait for Apple to fix the deficiencies before I spend the big bucks. My begifted Google Home device, while far from perfect, sounds great, can play my iTunes library playlists by voice command and do all the other things that most smart speakers can do like tell me the weather, recipes, sports results, turn on lights, tell me funny jokes, etc. , all with voice command. It can even allow me to play music from other sources like Spotify. Iâve been spoiled I guess. Iâm disappointed that the long awaited HomePod isnât designed to do what all the other smart speakers can do. I would buy it just for the sound experience, but the old Harman Kardon and Clips could provide that kind of sound, and it canât do much else either. Come on Apple, get back to leading and innovating.
You are probably right in that the music must be part of the cloud although I am holding out hope that my own iTunes collection can be accessed independently through WiFi. The Google Home device allowed me to upload my entire library to their cloud and now that the free subscription period is expired, the google device can only play my personal library and some generic radio stations. That is sufficient for me in that my iTunes library contains nearly 5000 songs that I purchased on CD, and only a few hundred purchased from iTunes Store. So Apple HomePod will be useless to me after all these years of following Apple protocol with building an iTunes library with CDâs that my iPhones and iPads and iMac can all share and play currently. It seems as if the HomePod will be doomed to failure no matter how good it sounds, if it canât even match the basic capabilities of google and other competitors, including its own line of devices. Why the switch in approach with Homepod? I guess to force all customers into a monthly fee to purchase Apple Music Play or whatever itâs called. Too bad. It sounds like a great sounding music machine but itâs flawed in its design if it canât play iTunes music that customers own in their own libraries or music from competing sources as Alexa and Google Home can do. The innovative possibilities have been ignored and will result in abject failure of this device unless a course correction is made ASAP.
Iâm in the same boat. Really like the idea of the HomePod but if I canât use my library, which is 90% ripped CDs, then this wonât work for me. I feel Apple is leaving behind those of us that still use a Mac. Thereâs no mention of the Mac for system requirements on the HomePod page (although they did release a new version of iTunes). Sad really.
I feel Apple is leaving behind those of us that still use a Mac.
Wouldn't surprise me. Mobile devices are increasingly popular (you can check online statistics on how much mobile devices comprise Apple's sales) and as powerful as computers were only a few years ago. It used to be you had to have a computer to support your device but with all the steps Apple has taken in the past year or so to make everything wireless and re-downloadable, and sometimes only in iCloud it is really making a mobile device more independent. Except for the tiny keyboards and kind of small screens I bet 90% of what people need a computer for could be done on an iPhone. The only thing I think you really need the computer for with an i-device is because Apple cannot guarantee 100% that anything you buy will be available down the road for re-download (something they bury in tiny print in disclaimers because it may scare people). The HomePod is just an aspect of this. Everybody is getting into high speed wi-fi and cloud storage, streaming vs. radio broadcast, etc. Many people don't want CD collections anymore, just digital copies. Maybe if your music tastes change a lot (not me) something like Apple Music is better than purchasing tracks.
I think the HomePod is meant to be a stand-alone device, not an extension of a computer. If you want that you can probably get wireless speakers or something. The HomePod could be used by somebody who has no computer at all and who knows what direction we are heading? Clearly it is not meant to be suitable for everybody but Apple has always found niches that it then successfully develops. Sure there are people with CD collections, but in 10 years 8 year old kids will be wondering what a CD is.
People keep on invoking Steve Jobs here but he was definitely on the innovate new side of things, not somebody who said, "Make sure we continue to support yesterday's technology." He was also one who basically said, here's something new and people will like it; no choice. Then thing is, they did; at least the young ones who are the ones coming into disposable income to boost the profit line.
In over 10 years of posting here there is no indication Apple reads these forums to garner opinion on its new products. Send feedback with the link below but also realize I have been reading posts like this for almost 20 years on this site and have yet to see Apple suddenly decide that they will bring back optical drives in its computers, or make them user-repairable, or bring back floppy drives, or return dozens of features that have been removed from applications that people have bemoaned.
Yes, as I observed earlier the website talking about the features seems to have strange statements such as support for FLAC (which Apple has never supported) and all sort of other formats which are not part of the Apple Music or even iTunes system. Being familiar with Apple's web pages you learn to analyze it word for word with a legalistic perspective. It's one of those things where I don't get my what-nots in a twist and feel I have to be the first one on my block to buy it. đ I'll wait for others to do that, then site back and read reports for a few weeks.
This is my point exactly. The specs show nothing on Mac support. But there was an iTunes update. The specs also show support for Apple Lossless and FLAC. So how could this device play these files if not from a computer running iTunes. iTunes Match doesnât (at least I donât think it does) uploads Lossless files. Just gonna have to wait this one out and let the Tech reviews sort it out.
Homepod
