Apple’s HomePod puts sound above intelligence — and that’s the smartest thing it could do

THE Apple HomePod might be playing catch up when it comes to intelligence but on the most important aspect of all, it leads the pack.

WHEN it comes to home gadgets, the tech world’s latest battle has smart speakers at the centre of it.

Mainstream adoption of AI-powered smart speakers has been taking off recently but what’s the point of a speaker unless it sounds really great?

Amazon’s Echo speaker — dubbed Alexa — was the first to market in the US and quickly defined the genre while Google Home was the first to launch in Australia when it debuted in mid 2017.

Apple was a bit late to the party, coming to the Aussie market with its HomePod speaker in February this year. Since then it has updated the HomePod software and given it new capabilities as well as compatibility with other stereo brands.

The speaker itself is slightly larger than its aforementioned rivals, and it’s certainly more expensive — but for very good reason. When it comes to sound quality, it blows them out of the water.

RELATED: The rise of voice technology is here

You can get yourself an Amazon Echo for as little as $149, or a Google Home for $130. The Apple HomePod will set you back more than three times that at $499 but for audiophiles, or anyone who plans to listen to a lot of music, it’s totally worth it.

The HomePod doesn’t match the artificial intelligence skills of Alexa or the Google Assistant but I just want to listen to good sounding music.

CAPABILITY

HomePod is designed to be a helpful home assistant, operating as a hub that lets you control your Apple HomeKit accessories with just your voice. So if you have Smart Home accessories like smart light bulbs, fans, airconditioning, locks or home cameras, you can control them through the HomePod.

But when it comes to smarts, the HomePod is playing catch up.

With iOS 11.4, Apple finally added calendar support for Siri on the device which is a very useful addition.

You’ll need to make sure the HomePod’s software is up to date (just turn on automatic downloads) and you’ll also need to make sure your device is sharing its location. To grant the HomePod access to your calendar, go into the Apple Home app and turn off personal requests.

Once you’ve done that you can ask Siri about your upcoming events and get a run down of what you’ve got on that day.

The HomePod is useful for simple Siri-related tasks like setting a timer, which is great in the kitchen. Often my one job when my partner is cooking is to set timers so I’m thrilled to have outsourced this to the HomePod.

You can send text messages through HomePod. The speaker will read your dictation back to you before sending the message and its listening skills are super accurate. For someone keen to spend less time looking at their phone screen, I love this feature. And when you receive a text, you can ask the speaker to read it out.

If you want a quick hit of news, you can ask the HomePod to “give me the latest headlines”

and you get a five minute news bulletin of the top headlines of the day. The default is ABC News but you can also switch to Seven News or SBS.

The HomePod is useful for basic queries like the weather, the news, stock prices, traffic conditions, measurement conversions and simple stuff like that but don’t expect it to answer too much else.

For instance, if you ask, “When do the Sydney Swans play next?”, you’re out of luck. “Sorry I don’t know about Australian football,” Siri HomePod told me.

SORRY SPOTIFY LOVERS

You can use voice control to access Apple apps like the Podcast app and it syncs with your device so you can seamlessly switch back and forth between the HomePod and your iPhone without losing your spot in the episode.

However, the HomePod is a way of driving music lovers to Apple Music, the company’s subscription music streaming service. As such there is no Siri voice control capability if you’re listening to Spotify and you’ll have to control the speaker through your phone.

With the recent AirPlay 2 update, you can link HomePod speakers together for a really great stereo experience. You can play the same music everywhere, or play a different song in every room by simply asking.

I was lucky enough to trial two HomePods and linking them up was great for a quality immersive sound experience but once you start adding HomePods it does get expensive and at that point it’s worth looking at other speaker options at the same price.

The speaker requires you to have an iOS device to use it but in a recent update, Apple has made the HomePod compatible with stereo maker Sonos so you can link it up with your existing home music equipment and use the HomePod as a voice controlled interface.

Apple's HomePod speaker rests on display at the company's retail store in San Francisco, California, February 9, 2018. Picture: Noah Berger

SOUND

When you ask Siri to turn up to the max volume, she replies with a bit of sass: “That’s very loud, are you sure?”

While I don’t need that sort of insolence from my speaker, she has a point. The device can pack a serious sonic punch for its 18cm tall size and it still sounds great without any noticeable distortion.

It achieves this by using seven tweeters pointed in all directions and a high-excursion woofer that moves a lot of air around to create deep and satisfying bass sounds.

The speaker has spatial awareness so it will automatically sense its location in a room, then analyse and adjust the audio it pushes out accordingly. So if your HomePod is up against a wall it will account for the sound bouncing off the nearby surface and recalibrate. For example, it will bounce background vocals off the flat surface and deliver the vocal track directly out front. The range of so-called “audio innovations” are powered by the powerful Apple-designed A8 chip.

Again, this is where the product excels.

Apple has carved out a different, more expensive, section of the smart speaker market.

DESIGN

The speaker is wrapped in a mesh fabric that looks really nice and is designed with performance in mind.

It comes in two colours — white and black — and is devoid of any knobs or buttons giving it a sleek and stylish look.

On the top is a touch-sensitive panel and light that will sparkle with the familiar colours when Siri is engaged.

Six microphones are positioned around HomePod to let you speak to it from anywhere in the room and beamforming or spatial filtering ability means it will always hear you say, “Hey Siri” even if you’re blasting tunes so loud the neighbours will be annoyed.

VERDICT

The HomePod really only makes sense if you have an iPhone and are already happily in Apple’s walled garden, particularly so if you’re an Apple Music subscriber.

The device doesn’t match the artificial intelligence skills of Alexa or Google Home but at the end of the day, it’s a speaker system and you want it to sound great.

They’re not exactly cheap at $499 a pop, but for someone like me who primarily wants to use it for listening to loud music and doesn’t need to pepper it with abstract questions I can simply google, it’s the only smart speaker that makes sense.