Apple Releases New 13.3.1 Software for HomePod

Waiting for the Brave to confirm this doesn't brick the homepod.
I cannot afford to have it bricked since I moved temporarily to Hungary and Apple support here is abysmal.

Seeing that Sonos just bricked perfectly fine speakers if you wanted to upgrade makes me feel uncomfortable owning any smart speaker knowing they can be remotely bricked or just left without updates and just stop working. Since the HomePod has not a single input you can’t use them with anything else once Apple decides for you to abandon them.

I get it - Sonos bad. Maybe you could help educate me, I am not aware of Apple (who has been in business for many years longer than Sonos) of ever intentionally bricking devices (yes that oops moment with a bad software update on HomePod, but they replaced those and it was a mistake). Maybe you can send links to articles where this has happened, I'm not finding any.

Typically as an Apple product ages and does not have adequate hardware to keep up with new OS features, you can still keep using them on the old OS's, nothing lost, just lack of unsupported new features. Never heard of them bricking devices though

I just wish they would update it to allow adjustments to the bass. It’s too bass-y for my apartment and I begrudgingly had to return it. But I’ll totally re-buy it as soon as the sound becomes customize-able!

I just wish they would update it to allow adjustments to the bass. It’s too bass-y for my apartment and I begrudgingly had to return it. But I’ll totally re-buy it as soon as the sound becomes customize-able!

That’s interesting because there was an early update that reduced the bass. I preferred that sound signature.

Totally agree, we need the ability to adjust sound settings.

This better fix stereo pairing + connecting to the Apple TV.

At this point, I've basically paid $700 for a pair of lumps that have really only worked at various points on iOS 12.

This better fix stereo pairing + connecting to the Apple TV.

At this point, I've basically paid $700 for a pair of lumps that have really only worked at various points on iOS 12.

I'm curious, what issues are you having? I am using a stereo pair for my living room TV... I've had a few small bugs, but it has worked fairly well overall.

Hi,
I own three HomePod and they are terrible.
Some examples:
- I asked HomePod to play the album 'Sleep' by Max Richter.
Instead of playing the first title of that album it starts in the middle (Path 3 (7676) [Pt. 3]).
Before you ask: No. It's not set to random play. Background noise is around 35 dB. So it should be able to understand correctly.
-Similar issue with Radio Stations. One example: Asking Siri to play radio station ‘Radio Veseljak’ Siri answers ‘Ich kann damit keinen Radiosender erstellen’ (I can’t crate a radio station.). But that one exists on TuneIn and I can choose it directly in Apple Music on my iPad to play on HomePod. When I ask HomePod which radio station it’s playing, it answers exactly with that name and pronunciation. So there’s no issue with my pronunciation. Very very seldom it works. But it’s not reliable. That is the case with lot’s of other stations that we’ve tried out so far. Impression is that it usually works with standard radio stations. Rarely chosen ones are not known to Siri.
- Sound: Meanwhile we’re using HomePod mainly for background music with low volume up to level 16.
Higher volumes lead to way too heavy bass that one can sense even outside the flat.
We’re still waiting for an option to reduce bass to an acceptable level.
Till then we’re using our Sonos play 3, AV receiver and direct output on iPads. The latter with bad sound but still better than HomePod.
- Siri pronunciation on HomePod: Sometimes we’re using HomePod for entertainment during Parties.
Not because of the good music or sound but because of the funny pronunciation.
Everybody laughs about HomePod when it’s trying to tell what’s playing (E.g. ‘Bed gee’ instead of ‘bad guy’ or you need to try on your own ‚Everyone Else’ by ‚Lilly among clouds‘). ?
It’s funny but really bad reputation for Apple. None of our friends that experienced this would ever buy a HomePod.(Language is set to 'German').
- Very often Siri on HomePod doesn't understand my wife or just ignores her.
- If you ask HomePod to play non mainstream music it usually doesn't understand. Or it plays just 'something'.

I own several Apple products and I’m an Apple fanboy. But for sure to me HomePod is the worst Apple product so far. I don’t like amazon products. But I have to admit that Alexa and Echo handle those things much better.

I'm in contact with Apple Support to sort out the issues. But I don't expect any solution.
Andy

Every update seems to make my HomePod pair buggier and buggier. Sometimes it so frustrating that I start screaming at Siri. But when they work smoothly they sound great.

Hey Siri...what is the Apple stock price. "Hmm...I can't seem to find that, give me a moment...hmm...I'm still looking...hmmm....would you like me to play a song from ChuChuTV?...." And then it begins. /s (somewhat)

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I hope this fixes multi user support. My fiancé has not been recognized even tho she has it set

This better fix stereo pairing + connecting to the Apple TV.

At this point, I've basically paid $700 for a pair of lumps that have really only worked at various points on iOS 12.

Really? Mine work great. I use them in stereo all the time. The only way they don't work is from Spotify on Mac, because Spotify is too cheap to hire good programmers to write their app. Apple Music works great, AppleTV pairing works great.