You can use Siri on your HomePod to access your messages, notes, and reminders, all of which are what Apple calls Personal Requests. As a rule, these only work when the device that was used to set up HomePod is connected to the same local network, which Siri interprets to mean that you're home.
If the option is enabled, Siri can also recognize your voice so it knows that it's you if a personal request is made. That's nice to know, but you might just not want personal requests features enabled on your HomePod for security reasons.
If you're already using your HomePod, you may recall being asked during the setup process whether or not you'd like to enable Personal Requests. Regardless of what you selected during setup, you can turn Personal Requests on and off from your iPhone or iPad whenever you like. Here's how to do it.
Following a Target BOGO deal earlier in the week, PayPal on eBay has now launched a better discount on App Store & iTunes cards: you can get the $100 iTunes card for $85 while supplies last. Similar to previous sales on PayPal's Digital Gifts eBay storefront in the lead up to Christmas last year, you'll get the iTunes code delivered to you via email, and it's valid only on purchases made in the United States App and iTunes Stores.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
You will need a PayPal account to complete the purchase, but a promo code is not required. As usual with email delivery sales on iTunes cards, you can either enter your own email address and send the code to yourself, or enter the email of a friend or family member to send it as a gift.
These iTunes card sales are a great way to stock up on iTunes credit at a cheaper price, which you can then use to rent and buy movies on iTunes, pay for your Apple Music and iCloud subscriptions, purchase a new app, expand your iBooks collection, and much more.
Head over to our full Deals Roundups for more of this week's sales.
Apple's HomePod smart speaker is primarily geared towards playing songs from the Apple Music catalog and listening to music and podcasts in your iTunes library, but it also features a handy speakerphone function that's ready to use out of the box.
The speakerphone feature is available on both the HomePod mini and larger HomePod, but it works best with the latter device since it has a multi-microphone array, which features an advanced echo cancellation system so that Siri can understand anyone speaking to it in the room.
This also means that anyone in your household on the same local network can easily hand off calls to the HomePod from a nearby iPhone, with the HomePod able to serve as both a speaker and a microphone for a handsfree conversation, regardless of their position in relation to the device. Here's how it's done.
Facebook is said to be testing a "downvote" button among some users of the social network, according to a report on Thursday. The "dislike"-like option apparently appeared in the comments section of posts within Facebook groups and on old Facebook memories content, as shown in screenshots shared with The Daily Beast.
A Facebook spokesperson denied that the company is "testing a dislike button", but then went on to offer an explanation that appeared on the face of it to suggest something just like one.
Image via The Daily Beast
We are exploring a feature for people to give us feedback about comments on public page posts. This is running for a small set of people in the U.S. only.
The feature in testing reportedly gives users the ability to downvote certain comments, similar to the way votes in Reddit work, but it's unclear how far the tests will go. According to a 2016 Bloomberg report, Facebook executives had rejected a dislike button long ago "on the grounds that it would sow too much negativity" on the social network.
In February 2016, Facebook launched Reactions, an extension of the Like button, to give users more ways to share their reaction to a post. The emoji-like feature extended to Facebook Messenger in March last year.
Facebook regularly tests features with a small number of users and many never reach the stage of a broader rollout to the general public.
Before you can start using your new Apple HomePod, you'll need to set it up using an iPhone or iPad that's synced to an iCloud account.
During the setup process, HomePod will link the iCloud account to personal request features accessed through the speaker via Siri voice commands, such as the ability to send messages, set up reminders, and get calendar notifications.
It will also link the HomePod to any existing Apple Music subscription tied to that iCloud/iTunes user, so it's worth thinking carefully about which account holder in your household you want to associate with the speaker.
For the HomePod setup process to work you'll need an iOS device running iOS 16.3 or later, so check your iPhone or iPad is up to date. To do so, open the Settings app, tap General -> About, and look for the version number. If you need to update, tap back to Settings, select Software Update, and follow the onscreen instructions.
Apple's TV app gained a new News section late on Thursday. The dedicated section is appearing for users in the United States with devices running the latest iOS 11.2.5 and tvOS 11.2.5 releases.
The new News option offers live streaming access to Bloomberg, CBS News, Cheddar, CNBC, CNN, and Fox News. The aggregated streams can be viewed directly within the TV app, although like other sourced content, users need to have the associated third-party tvOS apps installed for the channel links to show up.
The News section was originally demoed during Apple's September Apple TV 4K announcement, where the recently launched Sports section was also shown. The main difference between the two in the app interface is that Sports gets its own button, while News currently sits below a section created for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics in the "Watch Now" area of the TV app.
Florida resident Jason Colon was listening to his AirPods while at the gym this week when they started to malfunction, and a white smoke allegedly started pouring out.
According to Colon, he then left the AirPods sitting on a piece of gym equipment and ran to get help, and when he got back, one of the AirPods was charred and destroyed.
"It was already like this. It was already popped. I didn't see it happen, but I mean, it was already fried! You can see flame damage," Colon told a local channel 8 news station.
It appears no one else at the gym was around to see what happened to the AirPod, so it's not clear if the device did spontaneously explode. There have been no prior reports of issues with AirPods, but it is not uncommon for iPhones and other devices to see one off battery issues that can result in fire.
According to an Apple spokesperson, Apple is investigating the incident and will be reaching out to Colon to figure out what happened.
We've seen quite a few HomePod reviews from media sites that Apple invited to test the speaker, but now that the HomePod has officially launched in Australia, HomePod first impressions from regular Apple customers are now available.
New HomePod owners on reddit, Twitter, and the MacRumors forums have been sharing their opinions on the device, and for those awaiting a HomePod of their own or considering purchasing, these comments from average consumers provide interesting insight.
MacRumors reader ApeBot was one of the first to receive a new HomePod in Australia, and he said setting it up was "incredibly fast and easy with an iPhone." As for sound quality, it's "impressive" and "fills the room beautifully."
When using "Hey Siri" with other compatible iOS devices around, the HomePod is the device that responds first, something that future owners HomePod have been wondering about. Since iOS 10, with multiple devices around, when you say "Hey Siri" your devices intelligently decide which one should respond, and it's no different with HomePod.
Just got my HomePod. Beware, the box lid lifts off.. if you are like me, in your excitement you will hold the box up like Baby Simba in the Lion King and the HomePod will slide straight out the bottom and crash down to the floor.
Setup was incredibly fast and easy with my iPhone. Sound quality so far is impressive. Fills the room beautifully. The top display is captivating. Control via control center on my phone is integrated nicely.
For me personally, it doesnt feel as familiar as Apple products usually do. Maybe thats because it doesn't have a familiar OS?
Reddit user ghostinthelatrine offered to answer questions about the new HomePod, leading to some insightful discussion. He says the HomePod's sound "blows the [Sonos] Play 3 out of the water," and that Siri's voice detection is "phenomenal."
Image via reddit user ghostinthelatrine
Holy crap. Siri's ability to pick up my voice is phenomenal. Really phenomenal. I stood 10 meters away (32.81ft - Thanks, Siri!) with my fridge door open and I was able to just speak like a normal person (this is important for my wife who likes to use the Google Home to set timers, etc.). Felt like I was always shouting at the Google Home.
Using the HomePod as a speaker for the Apple TV was "surprisingly quiet," even at a high volume level, though the sound itself was described as "crystal clear." You can also use the HomePod with a Mac as an AirPlay destination from iTunes and it appears as an output device in the Sound settings.
Another redditor shared a detailed list of initial impressions, and he too praised the HomePod's sound quality and the ease of activating Siri on the device.
- Audio is very good, with impressive clarity and loudness. I'm no audiophile, but I do enjoy music a great deal, and the quality of HomePod is immediately evident from the moment you start using it.
- Setup grabs Apple Music AppleID details, etc from the phone, so no time was spent entering those in
- Hey Siri activates extremely well, at normal speaking volume, and I have been able to get it to play stuff on Apple Music and Podcasts very easily
AirPlay also worked well from both iOS devices and the Mac, with the exception being AirPlaying content from the Overcast app. His other comments focused on the HomePod's design. The "size and heft" of the device were surprising, and the outer fabric is "soft, but firm."
Image via Reddit user eats_midgets
The top of the HomePod, where the touch controls are located, is glossy and smooth, and in a separate tweet, another new HomePod owner said this area is something of a fingerprint magnet.
First HomePod impressions: - Sounds amazing - Siri is still dumb as a brick - Small and heavy - Really nice power cable
— Russell Ivanovic (@rustyshelf) February 8, 2018
Holy Crap - I am an audiophile and the HomePod is an austounding leap forward in audio for price - the separation and soundstage from a “single” speaker is amaze balls
— Ed Dale (@Ed_Dale) February 8, 2018
On the MacRumors forums, upcoming HomePod owners have also listed some songs they'll be using to test out the HomePod's capabilities when it arrives, including "Hotel California" from The Eagles, "Prelude and Kiara" from Bonobo, "Hits and Exit Wounds" from Alabama 3, "Core" from Stone Temple Pilots, "Your Latest Trick" by Dire Straits, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.
Once the HomePod launches in the UK and the United States, our forums will be filled with HomePod users sharing their opinions and tips and tricks for using the new speaker. Make sure to check out our HomePod forum to share your thoughts on the new speaker, or post them here in this thread, and stay tuned to MacRumors because we'll have plenty of HomePod coverage both tomorrow and next week.
Apple seeded the second beta of macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 to developers earlier this week, but it appears an updated version of the second beta was just released this afternoon.
The original beta had a build number of 17E150f, while the new update available today from the Developer Center lists a build number of 17E150g. It's not clear why Apple has released an updated version of beta 2, but the new beta is also available for public beta testers.
Registered developers can download the beta from the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.
macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 beta 2 didn't introduce any major new features, but it did change "iBooks" to "Books" to mirror changes made in iOS 11.3.
The update includes bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren't addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.3, and it offers support for some features that are also available in iOS 11.3, like Messages on iCloud, which uploads all of your iMessages to the cloud. It will also support Business Chat, a feature coming when iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 are released to the public.
macOS 10.13.4 also includes the smoke cloud wallpaper that was previously only available on the iMac Pro, and it introduces a warning when opening up a 32-bit app as part of an effort to phase them out.
In the future, Apple plans to phase out 32-bit Mac apps, just like it did with 32-bit iOS apps. Apple says macOS High Sierra is the last version of macOS that will support 32-bit apps without compromises.
Now that the HomePod is available in Australia, where it is Friday, February 9, Apple has shared its official HomePod User Guide, providing an overview of all the features for new HomePod owners.
The guide offers a detailed walkthrough on getting the HomePod ready to use out of the box, with information on HomePod controls, HomePod settings, and using AirPlay.
There are also dedicated sections for Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and News, which outline all of the Siri commands you can use with the HomePod, such as "Hey Siri, play some party music," or "Hey Siri, add this song to my library."
A "Control your home" section of the guide walks users through using Siri commands to control HomeKit devices and it includes details on using HomePod as a home hub, an automatic function, while an "Assistant" section includes even more Siri options.
On HomePod, Siri can send messages, read messages, and create notes and reminders for the person who owns the HomePod, and there are tools included to turn off these kinds of personal requests if someone else also uses the HomePod.
Siri can also offer up general knowledge, provide traffic information, set alarms and timers, share the weather, provide details on sports games, do unit and math conversions, and translate English into French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.
Many of the Siri commands outlined in the HomePod User Guide will be familiar to you if you already use Siri on iOS devices, but the guide is still worth looking through while you await your HomePod delivery just to get familiar with the setup and the controls.
HomePod is already available in Australia and is set to launch in the UK and the United States soon.
Apple customers in Australia are always the first to get their hands on new devices on launch day, and now that it's after 9:00 a.m. on Friday, February 9 in the country, the first HomePod orders have started arriving to customers.
Australians who ordered the HomePod starting on January 26 have begun receiving their deliveries and have shared their excitement over the new device on reddit, Twitter, Instagram, and the MacRumors forums.
Apple Stores in Australia are also now open, allowing customers who placed orders for in-store pickup to receive their devices. Retail locations also have stock for walk-in purchases, and in Australia, same-day in-store pickup is once again available.
Following Australia, HomePod sales and deliveries will kick off in the UK in about 10 hours, followed by North America. Apple Stores in all three countries are opening up right around 8:00 a.m. to allow customers to make HomePod purchases.
Throughout the pre-ordering process, which kicked off on January 26, Apple had ample HomePod stock for customers. Shipping estimates and in-store availability only began slipping earlier this week, likely due to Apple's preparations for launch day. Orders placed online for a HomePod will ship out early next week.
In the United States, the first HomePod deliveries will take place on the east coast starting at 8:00 a.m. The HomePod is priced at $349 in the United States, GBP319 in the UK, $499 in Australia.
Make sure to stay tuned to MacRumors both tomorrow and throughout next week, because we'll have plenty of HomePod coverage to share.
Plugable, a company that offers a range of hubs, docking stations, storage solutions, and other accessories for Mac and Windows machines this week launched a new external NVME SSD that offers 480GB and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity for incredibly fast transfer speeds.
The Plugable TBT3-NVME480 SSD is designed for Thunderbolt machines like Apple's latest line of MacBook Pro models, and it offers transfer speeds of up to 2400MB/s read and 1200MB/s write.
Design
Design wise, the palm-sized Plugable Thunderbolt 3 SSD is unremarkable. It's made from a solid black brushed aluminum with a ridged design at the sides, and a single LED light on the front that lets you know when it's connected and receiving power.
There's an integrated Thunderbolt 3 cable at the top, and a rather large and highly visible printed Pluable logo, which cheapens the look of the device just a bit. It's smaller than an iPhone X and similar in size to a deck of cards, so it's portable enough to stick in a bag or even a pocket if so desired.
As with most SSDs, your MacBook provides power to the SSD, so there's no extra power cable to deal with.
With continual usage, I've noticed that Plugable's SSD can get fairly warm, but that's not unusual and it does not appear to impact performance.
Source code for iBoot, a core component of the iPhone's operating system leaked on GitHub yesterday, raising concerns that the hackers and security researchers could dig into the code to find iOS vulnerabilities.
In a statement issued to MacRumors this morning, Apple confirmed the authenticity of the code but emphasized that it's for iOS 9, a three-year-old operating system that's been replaced with iOS 11 and is in use on only a small number of devices.
"Old source code from three years ago appears to have been leaked, but by design the security of our products doesn't depend on the secrecy of our source code. There are many layers of hardware and software protections built into our products, and we always encourage customers to update to the newest software releases to benefit from the latest protections."
Based on data from Apple's App Store support page for developers, iOS 11 is installed on 65 percent of devices, iOS 10 is installed on 28 percent of devices, and earlier versions of iOS, such as iOS 9, are installed on just seven percent of devices.
In addition to acknowledging that the leak contained real source code, Apple this morning also sent a DMCA takedown notice to GitHub this morning, successfully getting the code removed from the site.
The data that was shared on GitHub was incomplete so the iBoot code was not able to be compiled, but it did include a documents directory that offered up additional information relevant to iBoot, and combined, the data leak could make it easier to locate vulnerabilities to create new jailbreaks.
Average users should not need to be concerned about the leak, however, as Apple has many layers of protection in place, like the Secure Enclave, and does not rely on source code secrecy alone as a way to keep its users safe.
Security researcher Will Strafach, who spoke to TechCrunch, echoed what Apple had to say. He believes the source code is compelling because it provides an inside look into the inner workings of the bootloader, but ultimately, "Apple does not use security through obscurity," so there is nothing risky in the code.
Apple has picked up a new TV show called "Little America," a half-hour anthology series written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, the duo behind popular movie "The Big Sick," and Lee Eisenberg, who produced comedy series "SMILF" and will serve as showrunner.
According to Deadline, "Little America" is based on a series of true stories featured in Epic Magazine that paint a portrait of America's immigrants. From the magazine description:
Everyone here came from somewhere else. Even Native Americans crossed the Bering Strait at some point. This is the basic American idea -- an identity open to all -- but it can be easy to forget from inside. And that's when politics can turn ugly, as it has recently, with our political narrative becoming a story of blame and fear. "Little America" is meant to counter that narrative with a fuller portrait of our most recent arrivals. Here we present just a few stories.
You'll meet a woman who kissed a car for 50 hours. A man who escaped communism via zip-line. A Hindu Mayor of a small Kansas town. These stories are a small, collective portrait of America's immigrants. And thereby a portrait of America itself.
The show will reportedly look at "the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring, and unexpected lives of immigrants in America." Nanjiani and Gordon will executive produce, alongside Alan Yang, "Master of None" co-creator, and Eisenberg.
"The Big Sick," written by Nanjiani and Gordon, won multiple award nominations and was the highest-grossing indie movie of 2017. Nanjiani is also known for his work on "Silicon Valley."
"Little America," alongside Apple's "Are You Sleeping" drama starring Octavia Spencer, are two projects that are being developed for straight-to-series consideration.
Hulu on Reddit this week announced that it will begin rolling out support for 60 frames per second live streams on its "Hulu With Live TV" cord-cutting service, launching in time for viewers to stream the Olympics and March Madness. Hulu said it was aware that 60fps streaming was "one of the most-requested features" by its viewers, leading to this week's announcement (via Cord Cutters News).
The company explained that the update will see a launch in phases, and began yesterday with Phase 1, including the following channels now supporting 60fps on Hulu With Live TV: CNN, CNN International, HLN, TNT, TBS, TCM, TruTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, all SHOWTIME channels, "about half" of available FOX affiliates, all NBC affiliates, and New England Channel News.
Due to the dependencies required to enable 60fps, we’ll be rolling it out in phases to get you these higher-quality streams as quickly as possible. By offering our live streams at this frame rate, our goal is to provide a significantly more immersive viewing experience for Live TV. You’ll notice the difference most when watching sports or news, so we’re excited to have this in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics and March Madness (NBC and Turner channels, respectively).
Hulu noted that individual affiliates "may temporarily revert back" to 30fps streams when adjusting for internet speeds, giving viewers a more stable experience. Phase 1 will include Hulu apps on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Xbox One, Fire TV, Samsung Tizen TV, and Nintendo Switch.
The company hasn't yet indicated when Phase 2 will begin, or what channels/devices will be part of that rollout. Later this year, Hulu will also be launching a redesigned user interface across its on-demand and live services, including a new Live TV guide. For the Live TV section of Hulu, the latest numbers put the service at 450,000 paid subscribers, beating out YouTube TV (300,000), but still trailing DirecTV Now (1 million) and Sling TV (nearly 2 million).
Yesterday Snapchat announced its first-ever live television event coverage, aimed at key highlights coming out of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Today, the company is revealing an enhanced version of its custom Geofilters with a new paid "Create Your Own Lens" studio that lets users build and edit their own personalized selfie Lenses for major events and parties.
Snapchat's "Create Your Own Lens" on iOS
Available today in the iOS app and on the web, the new section of Snapchat will allow users to create their own custom selfie Lenses and Filters, which friends and family members within a designated location will then be able to use in their own Snapchat apps. The studio includes over 150 templates at launch, amassed from Snapchat's well-known selfie Lenses and Filters that have previously appeared in the camera section of the app.
"Create Your Own Lens" on the web
Users will be able to navigate to "Settings" in the iOS app, select "Filters and Lenses," choose their desired Filter or Lens, customize it with text, enter the time of the event with the location, and checkout at least three hours before the event begins. The company said that prices for each creation start at $9.99, and vary due to factors like location size and duration. As of now, Snapchat is keeping the Create Your Own Lens studio aimed at consumers only, and noted that brands trying to use it for advertising purposes will not get their submissions approved.
In the same update, Snapchat users on both iOS and Android will begin seeing new caption styles today and a new user interface to go along with them. Previously, Snapchat had two styles -- a bar of text and resizable text -- but now users will gain access to Brush, Italic, Glow, Gradient, Rainbow, Fancy, Old English, and more. Caption styles will now be located under the text entry field in a horizontal bar that users can swipe through to choose their preferred text option, and two different styles can be placed on the same Snap.
Snapchat's series of updates this week come after the company announced that it increased to 187 million daily active users in the fourth quarter of 2017, up from 178 million during the third quarter. Snapchat has been fighting to gain new users after rival Instagram introduced its own Stories format in 2016, and in September 2017 Instagram reached 500 million daily active users (for both traditional posts and Stories).
iOS users should start seeing the new update rolling out to the Snapchat app [Direct Link] throughout the day.
Apple News will be a go-to source for coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which officially begin with Friday's opening ceremony, although some competition is already underway.
A new section devoted to the Winter Olympics is now available within the "For You" tab of Apple News in the United States, and it will feature articles, videos, and other coverage of the games over the next two weeks.
Apple has partnered with NBC for the new section, but coverage will be provided from a variety of sources, according to Ingrid Lunden at TechCrunch. Live streams and full replays of specific events will link directly to the NBC Sports app, while clips from events will be viewable within Apple News itself.
The portal will also feature a planner for viewers to figure out when specific events are scheduled, and it will allow users to add events they want to watch to their calendars. There will also be a medal tracker and daily roundups given a 14-hour-plus time difference between South Korea and the United States.
Nintendo last week announced that its next mobile game will be "Mario Kart Tour," but with a launch date aimed at any time before the company's fiscal year ending March 2019, not much information is known about the game. Today, DeNA CEO Isao Moriyasu was reported as saying that Mario Kart Tour will be free-to-start (via TouchArcade and The Wall Street Journal).
The "free-to-start" terminology is somewhat vague, but when compared to Nintendo's previous use of the phrase it could suggest where Mario Kart Tour is headed. For example, Nintendo currently describes Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp as free-to-start on the game's website, while Super Mario Run's website explains that "you can download and enjoy a portion of Super Mario Run for free."
DeNA CEO said "Mario Kart Tour," a Nintendo-DeNA smartphone game planned for FY18, will be free-to-start.
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) February 8, 2018
While far from a definitive answer, this suggests Nintendo might lean towards its recent trend and make Mario Kart Tour a game that's free to play, with in-app purchases that help with certain tasks. Out of Nintendo's four mobile games so far, three have followed this model (Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp), while only Super Mario Run has used the pay-once price tier.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
