HomePod - page 3

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: iOS 16 makes our year-old iPhones feel fresh again. And the various “hidden” features flying under the radar make the iOS 16 experience even more impressive.

Also on The CultCast:

• We can’t wait for our first trip to the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island.
• Is the iPhone 14/iPhone 14 Plus really a failure? (Even Steve Jobs’ daughter is dissing this year’s “upgrade” to Apple’s midrange iPhones.)
• What to expect at Apple’s October event.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

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The long-anticipated Apple early fall event is just around the corner. On September 7, executives will take to the stage at Apple Park to unveil an array of new products.

Here’s everything we’re expecting at the “Far Out” event, plus the devices we’ll likely have to wait until later in the year to see.

Say you’re in the kitchen and you hear an alarm going off on the iPad in your bedroom. Rather than walking across the house to to deactivate it, you can use Siri on your iPhone or HomePod to shut off the alarm. This method also works with timers (and a variety of devices, too).

Here’s how to do this trick on devices running iOS 16, which is out in beta now and coming soon to an iPhone near you.

Apple has said many times it won’t produce a touch-screen Mac because that’s what iPads are for. But Sidecar functionality can make an iPad a touch-screen extension of a Mac, where you can drag and drop elements and work with them using Apple Pencil or your fingertips.

Today’s featured MacBook Pro setup mounts a big 5K display and an iPad Pro right next to each other. In the photograph, you can see the desktop wallpaper running right onto the tablet’s display through Sidecar (more on that below).

And who doesn’t love an all-Apple audio arsenal? This setup rocks paired OG HomePods, AirPods Max on a cool charging stand and AirPods, too.

A replacement for the original, full-size HomePod is reportedly in development. The smart speaker is expected to provide better audio performance than the current HomePod mini.

And it might debut as early as fall 2022.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: We’re taking a long look (and listen) at all the hottest new features coming in iOS 16, including the return of the battery percentage indicator. Some of the impending changes look (and sound) great. Others … not so much.

We want two big tweaks: a polished version of the battery percentage indicator, and an iPhone ping that doesn’t sound like garbage. (The existing one is great, and the proposed one is definitely not an upgrade.)

But, hey, there’s still time for Tim Cook’s team of tweakers to bring things up to snuff. In fact, somebody already did the heavy lifting for them on that battery icon (see below)!

With so many people working from home these days, a whole lot of them spend much of their life in one room — wherever the computer setup is, that is. And that’s all the more the case in apartments and small homes. So improving the setup can have a pretty big impact.

In today’s featured Mac Studio setup, swapping out two smaller displays for one bigger one, adding a desk shelf and making a few other changes made quite a difference in enhancing the workspace.

Some older iMacs are being shown the door, giving way to newer Macs paired with Studio Displays. That’s the case with today’s featured computer setup. In it, an iMac gave way recently to a plenty-powerful M1 MacBook Pro paired with a brilliant Studio Display.

And the attractively spare setup, well placed in a beautiful coastal setting, is nearly all Apple — down to the input devices and audio gear.

Apple is working on a new HomePod that could launch next year with a new S8 chip. The smart speaker reportedly will be similar in size to the original HomePod rather than the HomePod mini.

Apple is also working on a powerful new Apple TV with an A14 chip and more RAM.

We see plenty of paired HomePod minis in our travels online among computer setups, but not many stereo twosomes of the OG HomePods, the big ones Apple discontinued that may one day return in some form.

So today’s featured M1 MacBook Air setup is not only super-clean, it rocks that killer sound system and boasts a pricey 5K monitor that rivals Apple’s Studio Display.

And it’s the first setup we’ve come across where someone hates on the wildly popular Logitech MX Master 3 wireless mouse.

Folks noticed Monday that the new iOS 16 beta for developers contains a tantalizing clue about an unknown, unreleased HomePod.

Could it be a new version of the discontinued large HomePod Apple dropped in favor of the better-selling HomePod mini?

Apple’s share of the global smart speaker market grew considerably as HomePod shipments increased by almost 30% year over year.

HomePod, which once had only a tiny sliver of this market, has gained considerably on Amazon and Google.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: After eyeballing the latest iPhone 14 Pro renders from John Prosser and Ian Zelbo, we’re left with two big impressions. One, that iPhone looks awfully familiar. Two … purple? Really?!?

Also on The CultCast:

• Please let the latest cryptic HomePod rumor be true.
• Can your eyes handle the even-fancier Studio Display that’s supposedly coming soon? And can your wallet?
• This week’s giveaway features a mophie 3-in-1 travel charger that makes us wish we could enter. (Don’t worry. You can, and we’ll try to hid our jealousy.)
• Erfon’s got a bit of a crush on Soundcore Frames, the Bluetooth sunglasses you can hear.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

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Apple plans to produce an updated version of the HomePod as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022 or the first quarter of 2023, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Friday.

As reliable as Kuo can be, little other information exists beyond speculation. But that’s part of the fun.

A lot of folks are jonesing for an Apple smart speaker that goes beyond the HomePod mini. The original HomePod, while much more expensive, earned a great reputation for sound quality before Apple killed it in 2021. So naturally, Apple fans are interested in a successor, possibly with new features.

Smart home accessory specialist Ecobee unveiled two new smart thermostats Tuesday. Smart Thermostat Premium and Smart Thermostat Enhanced offer larger displays than before, a redesigned interface, HomeKit integration and more.

There are two types of people in the world. There’s the person who happily tosses a bunch of mismatched gear on a desk and calls it a setup. Then there’s the person with properly placed objects, minimal-to-no cable clutter and careful color choices — down to the charging-pad-and-braided-cable level.

Today’s featured setup clearly belongs to the second type of person.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: It sounds like Apple is planning nearly a dozen new Macs with a next-gen M2 processor. The question is, just how big of a speed bump will that new chip bring? And then there’s iPhone 14, which sounds like it might come with a very big bump indeed — and not the kind you might be hoping for.

Also on The CultCast:

• The original HomePod never ceases to surprise.
• iPhone 14 could be the ultimate smartphone for narcissists.
• Apple might be prepping an ingenious hybrid device to take over your living room.
• When you’re tired of wearing earbuds, you’ve got options. Very strange options.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like what you hear.) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

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Citing lackluster sales, Apple discontinued the original HomePod — the big one — in March 2021. Cupertino chose to focus on the HomePod mini. But now the original version is appreciating in value in online marketplaces, showing surprising resilience.

Most of the time, discontinued gadgets end up in the bargain bin — if they’re sold at all.

The next HomePod reportedly won’t be a replacement for the full-size smart speaker. Apple is instead working on a combination Apple TV, HomePod and FaceTime camera.

The device supposedly will be the heart of Apple’s smart home strategy.

We’ve written about storing a Mac mini in an upright rather than a flat position to save space. It’s OK to do if the machine’s intake and exhaust vents are not blocked. But what about using your Mac mini as a stand for a display, as in today’s featured computer setup?

It’s not necessarily quite as cut-and-dried as the upright mini question. Whether it’s totally fine or a little risky depends a little more on the specific Mac mini and the kind of monitor you use.

We haven’t seen a tremendous number of computer setups centered on powerhouse 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pros — much less such workstations featuring both dual displays and paired original HomePods!

But today’s featured setup is an exception. It boasts those impressive characteristics as well as a useful lesson about not judging a book by its cover as well as striving to be kind online.

Apple has discontinued the Beats Pill+ wireless speaker — one of the first brand-new products it launched after acquiring Beats in 2014. It was the only speaker available under the Beats brand, and there is no replacement.

You can still buy a Pill+ from third-party retailers while stocks last. However, you won’t find one in the Apple Store.

It’s Christmas Eve, and all we want for the holiday is a Porsche 911. It could be a gleaming new one, with a base price of a mere $99,200. It could be super-cool vintage one. Or it could even be a Lego one like the one featured in today’s MacBook Pro and iPad Pro-driven setup.

OK, given our paltry income, who are we kidding — we’d even take a die-cast 911, like the Matchbox cars of our youth.

The debut of HomePod mini brought a big jump in sales that continues almost a year later. Shipments of Apple’s smart speakers increased a whopping 92% last quarter when compared to the same period of 2020.

And HomePod mini was the second best selling smart speaker globally.

Apple hired Sam Jadallah in February 2019 to lead its smart home initiatives as head of the Home Services department. Last week, he posted word of his departure on LinkedIn.

Neither Jadallah nor Apple has given a reason for the departure. After two years and nine months on the job, Jadallah wrote:

That’s a wrap with Apple. I’m so grateful for the friendships that will endure and the opportunity to shape and create new capabilities for people and homes around the world. As a corporate exec, investor and entrepreneur, it was a treat to be an entrepreneur within Apple and to create products at scale.