HomePod Software 26 to Support OG HomePod

[whitby]

This is extraordinarily good news. I have 7 of the OG HomePods and 1 of the later generation. I had two die on me and Nicsfix.com repaired and upgraded them for a very reasonable fee. He is amazing. You can even watch him on YouTube as he fixes your HomePod.

HomePods are one of the best sounding self powered speakers you can buy (certainly better than my Sonos ERA 100 and ERA 300s ) and are only challenged by the likes of my NAIM MuSo which costs around 4 x the price. Now as for Siri, that is another issue but I mostly just stream to my HomePods using Airplay 2, which is the ONLY way to get to them which is their major shortcoming.

 

[svish]

If true, it will be nice that all the models are supported in the new version. Waiting to see what will happen!

 

[Shanghaichica]

Amazing. I have had mine since 2018 and it’s nice to see them still being updated.

 

[Shanghaichica]

All four of my original HomePods are still going strong. We use them every day.

Yeah I have a stereo pair that I bought in 2018. Both still going strong and used daily.

 

[whitby]

Mine, too are used every day. I have them set up as 3 stereo pairs and 2 as fill ins in various parts of the house. Love them.

 

[dabirdwell]

Same setup in my house. I know (over the years) that if it does not work initially it helps to go around the house a power down and then power up every homepod. Once it does work be sure to control the music from the same device which originated the whole-house play (same homepod or same iPhone/pad/Mac). First Pause before changing a song, then let the system be for ten seconds or so. Only after this pause resume play. There can be lags after "stop" and "play" which can adjust if other commands are not put on top. If things get out of sync pause the music, then resume after 10 seconds.

"Play everywhere" definitely worked much better when it was first introduced. The recent OS "upgrades" have made this feature much harder to make working. I wish Apple would do more work/testing on this use case. . .

Are you playing directly from a device, and creating speaker groupings that are directly controlled by that device (Kitchen iPad for example.) playing to the speakers, or are you choosing “Control Other Speakers and TVs,” where the speakers themselves initiate and maintain the connection through the home hub?

Thanks for the information about your use experience.

 

[ignatius345]

I had two die on me and Nicsfix.com repaired and upgraded them for a very reasonable fee. He is amazing. You can even watch him on YouTube as he fixes your HomePod.

Thanks for this tip. One of my 1st Gen HomePods has started flashing its volume lights and won't fully reset. Oddly it continues to play and function normally otherwise, though the top panel is unreponsive. The Nic's Fix site has some reset steps and I'm going to give them a shot at some point.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Please tell me you switched from a base iPhone 13 to a base iPhone 14…

Base model? Psh. Never. I always go for the highest end model.