- [Andy] What's up guys? It's your guy, Andy Feliciotti
and today we're gonna be checking out the Apple HomePod.
Yeah, let's just get right into it.
(sighs)
It's kinda heavy, I will admit.
Little pull tab here.
I have to admit I hate unboxing,
so let's just get right into this.
Wow, this thing is way tinier than I expected.
Also, I will note the power chord,
doesn't seem to come out of the unit,
so if you break that I guess you can't replace it,
which seems a bit odd, but whatever, it's Apple.
It does feel really juicy, though.
So we'll be testing out the sound quality.
The assistant capabilities,
and some of the home enabled features.
I have to admit this wire is pretty short,
especially cause you can't replace it, it seems.
Maybe you can unscrew this, but I don't know.
Let's plug it in.
(sighs)
Okay, the wire is too short to plug in.
This is what it's come to.
(power chime)
Woo.
You know, whatever.
For the sake of this video we're just going to go with it.
So setting up the HomePod is as easy as tapping your phone,
and this little prompt will pop up.
Then you hit setup.
Made a test house for this.
We'll use the living room.
Okay, so it looks like you can take notes,
do reminders and text messages,
We'll just turn this on for now.
(HomePod chimes)
So, one downside is if you set the thing up to read
or send text messages,
anybody in the house that has access to your HomePod
can just say anything and send any text that they want.
Not saying you shouldn't trust everybody in your house,
but, that could be a problem.
- [HomePod] Welcome to HomePod.
To get my attention, say Hey Siri.
Let's try it.
- [Andy] Hey Siri, what's the weather?
- [HomePod] It's currently partly cloudy,
and 41 degrees in Washington.
Expect mostly cloudy skies starting in the afternoon.
Today's high will be 44 degrees,
and the low will be 39.
- [Andy] Wow, I'm actually really impressed that it doesn't
you don't have to wait for a prompt or anything.
Let me see if it'll have a prompt if I ask it.
Hey Siri
(HomePod chimes)
What time is it?
- [Siri] The time is 12:27 PM.
- [Andy] Hey Siri what time is it?
- [Siri] It's 12:27 PM.
- [Andy] I guess cuz the phone is out of my pocket,
but let me try putting the phone right here
and turn it off.
Hey Siri, what time is it?
- [HomePod] The time is 12:27 PM
- [Andy] So I guess it tries to determine
which you're trying to use.
I guess, cause my phone was unlocked,
it was using the phone primarily.
Hey Siri, DJ for me.
- [HomePod] Okay, here's a personal radio station
built just for you starting with Cascade.
Remember, anytime you have a question
just say, hey Siri.
(synthpop music)
- [Andy] Looks like a volume thing
showed up on the top here.
Siri, stop.
(music stops)
I gotta say, using the microphone on the HomePod
is way better than the phone.
Just seems way quicker.
Just for the sake of comparison,
I'm going to pull up Google Assistant,
just to see what kind of questions I can ask this
versus the Google Assistant.
Hey Siri, when does The Bachelor come on?
- [HomePod] I found a few movies for you to choose from.
The Bachelor.
The Bachelor and the Bobby's next five...
- [Andy] Stop.
Okay Google, when does The Bachelor come on?
- [Google] The Bachelor was released November 3rd 1999.
- [Andy] So it looks like, at least,
on Google the information shows up on when it's on TV.
If you're getting this, you're not probably
getting it for all of the assistant features.
It mainly focuses on audio quality right now,
and the audio sounds pretty good.
I'm going to play a few more songs.
What do you think?
Okay, I guess he's done listening.
Hey Siri, play Toro y Moi.
- [HomePod] Okay, here's some Toro y Moi..
- [Andy] Took a little while.
(music plays)
- Hey Siri, next.
(music stops)
(chillwave music)
Siri stop.
(music stops)
- [Andy] So that actually worked when I yelled
the command from the other room which is pretty good.
Hmm, I think under the size, the Sonos Play:1
is the most comparable in terms of size.
I know it's kind of an unfair comparison
because the Play:1 is about half the price of the HomePod
but, you know, whatever.
Okay, the Bachelor is just an example,
I know that's like a popular show,
it's nothing I'm looking forward, nothing I'm watching.
Hey Siri, play beats one.
- [HomePod] Now tuning in to beats one.
My favorite radio station on earth.
(upbeat music)
- [Andy] Okay, so this is playing on the Play:1 now.
(music starts)
I will note the Play:1 has a speaker facing forward
while the HomePod has speakers facing everyway.
(music stops) Hey Siri, play Rockstar.
- [HomePod] Now playing Rockstar
featuring 21 Savage single by Post Malone.
(Rockstar plays)
- [Andy] Oh, tapping, it pauses it, okay.
(Rockstar playing)
- [Andy] I also have a Sonos Play:5 in the room,
that I'm just gonna cut the audio real quick.
The bass on that definitely,
I think sounds better than this.
(Rockstar plays)
Hey Siri, stop. (music stops)
I also have a Sonos Play bar in the room
so I'm just gonna play a little clip on that, like a pair.
(Rockstar plays)
Okay, actually, the more I listen to it,
this thing does sound great. (chuckles)
Hmm, yeah, just feels very full
even though it's so little compared to those
other two speakers, they're massive
so this is actually pretty impressive.
And the one cool thing is the integration to iOS
so you can actually see here, I can force touch here.
And it shows what's on the HomePod
so I can control the volume.
Okay, this thing is actually
really impressive on that front.
It also works as a airplay device,
so you just tap on the airplay button
and the benefit of this is that you can play songs
from Spotify or Apple Music or any device that you want.
So the speech part is only really for Apply Music,
that's kind of a down side,
maybe they'll add Spotify in the future
but if you don't have Apple Music,
I really wouldn't recommend getting this.
If you do have Apple Music, this thing is amazing.
I've only spent a few minutes with it
and I can tell I'm gonna love it.
Let see if we can play a YouTube audio on it.
(YouTube video plays)
That's probably a bad example
but you can play audio from YouTube to the HomePod.
So I guess that acts just like a airplay item.
(hip hop music)
Hey Siri, send a text message
to Philip Berard, how you're doing?
- [HomePod] Your message to Philip Berard says,
"How you doing?" Ready to send it?
- [Andy] Yes.
- [HomePod] I'll send your message.
- [Andy] So it looks like you can actually setup
alarms in the HomePod, so I guess if you have it
in your bedroom, that's a good thing to have.
One thing I noticed is that the personalization
like reading my text messages and stuff like that
isn't available in this option menu.
Hey Siri, stop reading my text messages.
- [HomePod] Just a moment.
Two new messages sent to the group
Hop Boys Incorporated Fire.
- [Andy] Hey Siri, stop. - [HomePod] And three new..
- [Andy] Hey Siri, play some bedtime music.
- [HomePod] Okay, here's meditative music
picked just for you.
- [Andy] It's pretty good.
(meditative music)
Hey Siri, play rainforest music.
(music stops)
- [HomePod] Now playing, Rain Forest by Paul Hardcastle.
- [Andy] It's playing on both devices.
I'm still looking up how to disable
personalization on the HomePod.
It's not in the HomePod settings which is blowing my mind.
It's not in iCloud settings.
Okay, I can't seem to find the setting
to turn off personalization but I would recommend
keeping that off until HomePod has the ability
to detect different people's voices.
Let me see if it will actually do a call.
Hey Siri, call Megan Estep.
- [HomePod] I wish I could but I can't help you make..
- [Andy] So no calls right now.
Hey Siri, play Cars 3 on the TV.
- [HomePod] I can't get info about TV Shows on HomePod.
Sorry about that.
- [Andy] Yeah, looks like there's probably
some improvements they can make, later this year
there's an update coming out that will allow
multiple speakers and multiple speakers
to interact and things like that.
And I think the update is going to allow apps
like Spotify actually add to your queue,
so somebody from Apple Music and somebody from Spotify
can add to the same queue on a HomePod.
But right now, that ability is not there.
Primarily, I would only recommend getting this
if you have Apple Music and are in the Apple Ecosystem.
Obviously if you have a Spotify, you can airplay
your music to it and then you can say, Siri next song
or Siri pause, which is pretty good but
other smart speakers will offer you the full experience
with Spotify or other music service,
luckily, I use Apple Music so
this thing is pretty good for me.
Now, is it worth $350? I think so.
I think if you're a music lover, hmm,
and if you have things that are on, running on home kit,
it's definitely worth the investment
to have this is your house.
Plus, Apple stands on security, I trust this speaker
more than any other speaker to be in my house.
And remember, as usual, remember to like and subscribe
if you enjoyed this video and check me out on Instagram,
my username is @someguy.
Hmm, yeah, I'll see you around next time.
Hey Siri, max volume.
- [HomePod] That's very loud. Are you sure?
- [Andy] Hell yeah.
(hip hop music)
Hey Siri, play the Serial podcast.
- [HomePod] Okay, Serial podcast coming up.
- [Podcast] Hello Serial listeners. Sarah Koenig here.
For the quick message..
- [Andy] Hey Siri, pause.
- [Podcast] .. the episode, which is at..
- [Andy] I will note, when music was playing
and Siri was replying, it did like a tinny effect
which was pretty cool.
Yeah, so there's definitely some improvements
they can make to Serial quests on their own Pod.
They're definitely working on that, I assume.
But the audio quality is definitely where it needs to be.
Hey Siri, play.
♪ Honestly if feels the same ♪
♪ I need to touch the ground ♪
♪ I need to hit the town ♪ ♪