HomePod

whippet

iniall wrote: »

My HomePod minis went through a dodgy period for getting Siri to play Irish radio stations, but in the last week to ten days, it's been perfect. "Hey Siri, play RTÉ Radio 1 FM" works every time. I assumed it was because they'd finished their localisation efforts ahead on the mini's launch here... (Haven't tried it on my original HomePod, mind you)

mine have been fine over the last few days - originals and minis!

notahappycamper

Strange one this morning- asked the HomePod to play “Today FM” it plays BBC 2 Radio! The logo is Today FM though when checking on my iPhone what the HomePod is playing!

Casher

Good, it's not just me. I had the exact same problem. Trying to play Today FM and all I get is BBC radio, but with the Today FM logo. It seems to be an issue with Tunein through Apple Music. I've tried it on my iPad and same problem. Alexa still plays Today FM when asked though.

notahappycamper

Casher wrote: »

Good, it's not just me. I had the exact same problem. Trying to play Today FM and all I get is BBC radio, but with the Today FM logo. It seems to be an issue with Tunein through Apple Music. I've tried it on my iPad and same problem. Alexa still plays Today FM when asked though.

It was fine yesterday.

Casher

I only got my HomePod mini yesterday so thought I was doing something wrong:rolleyes: hopefully it will fix itself as easily as it broke

Zhane

Not just the HomePod. iPhone and Mac apps are playing BBC even though it’s showing Today FM.

iniall

Still working fine today for RTÉ Radio - must be a TuneIn and/or TodayFM issue?

Zhane

iniall wrote: »

Still working fine today for RTÉ Radio - must be a TuneIn and/or TodayFM issue?

South East Radio(Wexford) also plays the bbc station when playing through tune in in Apple Music

OU812

Just ordered my third mini

notahappycamper

Still not working- getting BBC Radio 2 instead of Today FM!

whippet

Newstalk is the same .. playing some random music station

notahappycamper

Today FM is back working.

turfthrower

Any big HomePod users out there finding the same issue as me - stereo pairing just doesn't hold.

I never know when I try to play something if it's gonna come out of one or two speakers. I seem to end up resetting them and re-pairing them with each other at least two or three times a week.

I have two minis as well, and this seems to happen with them too, but maybe not as often. Or it's possible I just use the bigger ones more often and don't notice as a result.

I've heard some speculation this kind of issue could be because the HomePods are connecting to different wifi bandwidths - anyone know how to check?

Leftwaffe

turfthrower wrote: »

Any big HomePod users out there finding the same issue as me - stereo pairing just doesn't hold.

I never know when I try to play something if it's gonna come out of one or two speakers. I seem to end up resetting them and re-pairing them with each other at least two or three times a week.

I have two minis as well, and this seems to happen with them too, but maybe not as often. Or it's possible I just use the bigger ones more often and don't notice as a result.

I've heard some speculation this kind of issue could be because the HomePods are connecting to different wifi bandwidths - anyone know how to check?

I didn’t do a stereo pair I just set them up individually and then join them up through airplay. They stay coupled most of the time actually. Works pretty well.

Can adjust the volume of them individually as well. Not sure that’s possible with a stereo pair.

notahappycamper

Has anyone successfully got Dublin’s 98FM and FM104 working via. Siri on the HomePod? If so what way did you ask it to play each station?

Thanks

CptMonkey

How are people finding them? Have a google mini but I’m tempted by the mini home pod. Is it worth it to change

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117701653#Comment_117701653

Use mine all the time. Have a mini in the kitchen, by the bed & on my desk. Listen to a lot of podcasts while I work so I Like the integration. Also have two of the large ones which admittedly get very little use. Am considering selling them but am holding out until after the September event to see if they announce an updated model or some sort of software development to provide true atmos surround sound (the current one is no comparison for a dedicated system).

notahappycamper

Anyone else noticing a reduction in both volume and sound quality on the original HomePod since OS 15.0?

Pete123456

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962842#Comment_117962842

cant say that I have but I really wish it was possible to disable the need to confirm any volume over 90% - it’s not “very loud” 😂

peteeeed

i'm on the homepod 15.1 beta and the first version of that was unstable but beta 2 is loseless and very stable

notahappycamper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963314#Comment_117963314

Any noticeable improvement in sound quality and volume? I (and others on Reddit) have noticed sound quality deterioration on OS 15.0

notahappycamper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963186#Comment_117963186

Is yours a mini or original HomePod? I’ve noticed the volume on OS 15.0 appears lower than on previous OS i.e. volume at 50% sounds lower than previously.

peteeeed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963422#Comment_117963422

yeah its all good for me on 15.1 beta

eeloe

Still no sing of spotify coming natively for homepod? kinda sick of paying a sub for both.

peteeeed

new colours for the mini's

https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/18/apple-unveils-homepod-mini-in-new-colors-yellow-blue-and-orange/

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117968275#Comment_117968275

I dumped spotify, we're an all apple household so it made sense integratdionwise to change to Apple music. Couple of grumbles from some, but they were quickly reminded they can pay for spotify themselves or use our family apple music for free.

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039514#Comment_118039514

Such a bold move. Extremely underwhelmed by their approach to audio in this event.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118040979#Comment_118040979

Did the same some time ago as well, had been paying the extra for more iCloud storage and Spotify family was €14.99 so just moved to Apple Family plan. Same as yourself some grumbling about it but advised them of the same options :) I don't like Apple Music app at all though, find it unintuitive and difficult to find what you want easily. Spent several minutes about a week ago trying to find a recently played section only for google to advise such a thing doesn't exist. Its also far too many button presses to get from song to album/artist.

Tempted to pick up a HomePod mini but have a Bose bluetooth speaker in the office and a standalone AV audio setup in the room I'd probably put it which has airplay so struggling to justify it. Not sure where I'd even put it.

Creamy Goodness

If you have apple music with a HomePod you rarely AirPlay to it. It’s almost always “hey siri play X” in vicinity of a HomePod. Only time I airplay to mine is when I want to play a podcast or an audiobook from O’Reilly.

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044020#Comment_118044020

I’ve got a couple of of HomePods. Mixture of OG and minis inc one at my desk, it’s always “hey Siri, play…”. It’s only the kids who don’t have them (&they’re going to be on the Santa list this year)

DubDJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044020#Comment_118044020

On the Listen now tab, below the Top Picks section you should find Recently Played.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118055831#Comment_118055831

Yeah that is there but its albums rather than songs, it also seems to regularly miss things where I've searched for an album/song and played it. Those don't always appear in that section. In Spotify you could find an extremely lengthy list of songs that you had played going back a long way. I just find Music in general to be a very limited app compared to Spotify. The Spotify app on my Mac would be seamless with the iOS app and I could be playing songs on the Mac app while using the AirPods connected to my iPhone, things like that are missing on Music. The Mac app is incredibly poor. I suppose its due to maturity and I don't really use the Mac app very often outside of work but it is an annoyance. Not enough to make me pay for an additional subscription for Spotify though.

DubDJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118056408#Comment_118056408

I understand what you mean. Yeah, I get the same thing when playing songs from search. Sometimes if I Shazam a song, and play it and then can’t find it anymore in Music. Luckily they’ve added Shazam history now which is handy, but it really should be in the recently played regardless.

peteeeed

New homepod announced

https://9to5mac.com/2023/01/18/apple-second-gen-homepod/

Zhane

Available to preorder, available from Feb 3rd. €349

Will wait for reviews, but will likely get one.

peteeeed

i was interested but the new one cant be paired up with the older model homepod which i have so i'm out for now

iniall

Will they ever get Siri working properly though? I have one OG HomePod and three HomePod minis and lately Siri has been a basket case on all of them - failing to play radio stations, failing to play music, apologising for being unable to fullfil a request and telling me that whatever song I've asked for isn't available on Apple Music (spoiler alert: it is). I love the sound especially of the original HomePod, but, god, Siri is a sh1tshow - and seems to be getting worse rather than better...

pnott

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128606#Comment_120128606

Couldn't agree more! Siri has definitely gotten bad recently. RTÉ radio stations will not play at all for the past month or so. All other stations play fine. Often get 'there was a problem with Apple Music when asking it to play a radio station' or it will say 'this seems to be taking awhile' and then it just does nothing. I have factory resetted my Homepod Mini and still the problems remain. Back to Alexa for me I think.

turfthrower

My homepods (2 xOG, 2 mini) are amazing devices, seriously let down by how shakey their connections to each other are. Don't know if it's a wifi thing or what, but the older ones in particular are incapable of maintaining a stereo pairing. I end up re-pairing them every two days or so, or restarting them etc.

The new big ones aren't compatible with the older ones to make stereo pairs, so perhaps there is some improvement that will make them more stable?

Also, unless I'm mistaken, this is the first time the larger homepod has been made available in Ireland? I had to buy my last one in NI, and the second one off Ebay.

whippet

The OG HomePods were never available in Ireland - I got two in the UK when they launched and they are in stereo pair in my kitchen since then. Never really had a problem with them, SIRI is still flakey but I don't use SIRI all that much. For radio and movies on the AppleTV they are great.

I've three minis around the house - one in the home office with is really good. One feature I'd love but don't even know if it is possible - I'd love it they were teams enabled for calls.

I'm not sure the new ones are something I'd be looking at upgrading the others to ... but as with anything with an apple logo eventually I get sucked in and loose all my money

fuse

Does the homepod mini reliably play RTE Radio yet? I tried this eve, "play rte radio one" it responded with, "Now playing RTE Radio one from TuneIn" then proceeded to play the one song I have in Apple Music.

I tried setting up an ios shortcut to do it but the RTE Radio App doesn't appear in the shortcuts>Apps menu.

Any reliable way of doing this?

iniall

Apparently RTÉ and TuneIn are currently fighting over fees, so in this case I don't think it's actually Siri's fault...

gmacww

Yeah. If you go into the music app you can see the RTE stations provided through tune in but none of them will play. As iniall says there is an argument regarding fees. I doubt we'll see RTE back to be honest and I'd say they are looking to get people accessing via their app.

iancairns

Just bought a home pod mini. Hated my Echo Studio. Was always disconnecting. But it was good for TuneIn. Never thought about that with HomePod. I see it does works with TuneIn but when I say plate Rte 2fm, the icon comes up and it’s a Spanish station?

on Amazon you can see what TuneIn song playing or on Sonos you can see what channel. Where it’s this option on HomePod? Or how to fix the wrong station?

notahappycamper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120312846#Comment_120312846

There are issues getting RTE 1 and 2FM on Tunein on the HomePod at the moment- not sure why? It’s been like that for months. Someone mentioned a dispute over fees. Email radio.player@rte.ie and ask them what’s wrong.

peteeeed

Kuo: New HomePod with built-in 7-inch display to be announced in early 2024

Apple this year introduced a new HomePod that looks exactly like the original model announced in 2017 and discontinued in 2021. However, amid rumors of the company working on a new product that combines the iPad, Apple TV, and HomePod into a single device, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has now reported that Apple will announce a new HomePod with a built-in 7-inch display in early 2024.

https://9to5mac.com/2023/03/09/homepod-built-display-2024-rumor/

pad199207

Looks like the RTE and TuneIn issues have been rectified.

iniall

Yep seem to be. Noticed it last week, I think. I guess money changed hands.