Ever found yourself turning down the radio so you can focus on finding a parking spot? Music didn’t stop you seeing, but it was taking up some tangible mental resources. But what if you had a way to immediately make the music more calming? Or to change…
The best wireless earbuds for 2023
Companies continue to find new ways to impress with true wireless earbuds. There’s no doubt the popularity of Apple’s AirPods helped make them a mainstay, but plenty of others offer reliable connectivity, great sound and active noise cancellation (ANC)…
The best wireless earbuds for 2023
Companies continue to find new ways to impress with true wireless earbuds. There’s no doubt the popularity of Apple’s AirPods helped make them a mainstay, but plenty of others offer reliable connectivity, great sound and active noise cancellation (ANC)…
Apple HomePod (2nd gen) review: A smarter smart speaker
When Apple debuted the HomePod in 2018, it was already late to the smart speaker game. Sure, the company has never been worried about tardiness, choosing instead to focus on being the best. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with its first attempt. The HomePod sounded good, but lacked a lot of the basic functionality and voice assistant smarts the likes of Amazon and Google offered. Apple has spent the last five years improving both HomePod and HomePod mini, adding features like multi-room audio, multi-user support and an intercom tool.
In 2021, Apple discontinued the original model in favor of the $99 HomePod mini. But now, the larger version is back with a familiar look, but lots of changes on the inside. Like the first, the new HomePod ($299) is best suited for those who’ve committed to Apple’s ecosystem. So if that’s not you, I understand if you don’t want to go any further. If it is, just know that the company has given its speaker a lot more tools than it had at launch five years ago, including more capable assistance from Siri and more smart home abilities. Plus, the second-generation HomePod is $50 cheaper than the original was at launch.
A familiar design updated on the inside
If you were hoping for a wholesale redesign with the new HomePod, Apple undoubtedly disappointed you. However, there are some noticeable changes upon close inspection. First, the speaker’s touch panel is now slightly recessed like the HomePod mini. On the original version, that panel sits flush with the top rim. When you trigger Siri, lighting for that panel now goes all the way to the edge too. Next, the power cord is now detachable. This means if you have an issue with that very necessary component, it should be easier to get a replacement (via Apple Care). If you have excellent vision, you might also be able to discern the 2023 model is 0.2-inches shorter at 6.6-inches tall (vs. 6.8 inches) if they’re sitting side by side.
On the inside though, Apple made a host of changes. Both versions have an upward facing woofer with a group of tweeters around the bottom. For the second-generation, Apple reduced the number of tweeters from seven to five, angling them slightly upward where previously they were almost perfectly side-firing. The company also cut the number of voice microphones from six down to four. And perhaps the most important change internally, Apple swapped the iPhone 6’s A8 chip for the much more modern S7 – the silicon that powers the Apple Watch series 7.
Software and setup
Despite the lack of changes on the outside, the second-gen HomePod is a better speaker because Apple has been improving it and the HomePod mini over time. The company added stereo pairing and multi-room audio alongside AirPlay 2 a few months after launch of the first generation model. Multi-user support and audio handoffs were added in 2019 and the intercom feature arrived ahead of the HomePod mini in 2020. And in 2021, HomePod gained the ability to play any TV audio via an Apple TV 4K over eARC and both spatial audio and Apple Music lossless streaming. So many of the key features Apple is chatting up on the new HomePod are things it has been slowly adding since 2018. And many of which, I’d argue, should’ve been there from there from the start.
Everything you need to set up and control the HomePod is found in Apple’s Home app. First, you’ll need to add a new speaker like you would any other smart home device with this software, including assigning it a room or location in your home. The app allows you to set up Automations and Scenes along with configuring how you’d like to interact with Siri.
Billy Steele/Engadget
You have the ability to disable voice cues or the long press on the HomePod’s touch panel in order to activate the assistant (both are enabled by default). You can also have the speaker light up and play a sound when using Siri – or do one or neither. The Home app will let you use Siri for Personal Requests too, where the speaker can recognize your voice for things like messages, calls and reminders so long as your iPhone is close by. The software allows you to disable the HomePod’s intercom feature as well, should you prefer not to use that tool.
Like the first HomePod, the 2023 model is equipped with room calibration. This detects reflections off of walls and other surfaces to configure the sound for the best performance. The HomePod does this the first time you play music, but it isn’t constant monitoring. Instead, like it did on the previous generation, the setup leverages an accelerometer to determine when it has been moved. If it has, the speaker will then reinitiate the room sensing process when music is played.
A smart home with Siri
Billy Steele/Engadget
When we reviewed the original HomePod in 2018, one of our biggest gripes was with Siri’s limited abilities. Sure the speaker sounded good, but the lack of polish with the voice assistant made it seem like a work in progress. Apple has done a lot to improve Siri over the last five years, so a lot of those issues with the original have been fixed.
First, the HomePod, like Siri on your iPhone, is capable of recognizing multiple users. Personal Requests can allow it to peek at your Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Messages, Find My and more when you ask. Plus, HomePod can give each member of your family (up to six people) their unique responses from certain iPhone apps. What’s more, Siri can create recurring home automations without you having to pick up your phone and swipe over to the appropriate app.
Even with fewer microphones to pick up your voice, the new HomePod doesn’t suffer any performance setbacks. It’s just as capable as ever at picking out your voice even in a noisy room. And, while playing music with voice commands used to be limited to Apple Music, services like Pandora, Deezer and several others can now be controlled via Siri.
HomePod is also a smart home hub, easily pairing with HomeKit and Matter accessories. The new model is equipped with temperature and humidity sensing, and that info is displayed prominently in the Home app. Of course, you can use that data to create automations with other smart home devices. I don’t have a compatible smart thermostat, but I was able to successfully trigger a smart plug once the HomePod detected a certain temperature in my living room.
Sound Recognition is arguably the most notable new feature that Apple is debuting with the new HomePod, but it’s not ready yet. It can listen for smoke or carbon monoxide alarms and send a notification to an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. What’s more, you’ll be able to “check in” on what’s happening via an audio feed or camera. Sound Recognition won’t arrive until later this spring, so we’ll have to wait to test it.
Sound quality
Billy Steele/Engadget
Audio quality wasn’t an issue with the first-gen HomePod and it’s still great here. But like the first version, Apple’s choice for tuning won’t appease everyone. There’s a continued emphasis on voice, so things like vocals in music or dialog on a TV show or movie take center stage. At times it’s fine though, with some genres and content, it leads to a rather subpar experience.
Don’t get me wrong, for the most part HomePod sounds outstanding, especially when you put it up against other smart speakers. The fact is many of those don’t sound very good at all, so Apple continues its track record for making a device that has serious audio chops and smart features. RTJ4 has ample bass for its bombastic hip-hop beats while Sylvan Esso’s No Rules Sandy gets enough low-end for its synth-heavy rhythms. Thanks to the HomePod’s excellent clarity, detailed styles like bluegrass and jazz shine. Sometimes the bass is a little too subdued for metal (Underoath’s Voyuerist) or full-band country (Zach Bryan’s 2022 live album), and the vocals too forward, but overall, it sets the standard for smart speaker sound. And the HomePod only shines brighter as a stereo pair.
When you add the second HomePod in the Home app, the software asks you if you want to use them together. Once you tell it which side the additional unit is on (left or right), the app completes the setup for you, assigning the appropriate channel to each speaker. Now everywhere you previously saw a single HomePod icon, you’ll see two, constantly reminding you of the stereo arrangement. The double speaker option is great for music. On Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart, the two-speaker arrangement adds a lot of dimensionality to each track. There was already a spatial element to the tunes, but dual HomePods heightens the sensation, making it seem like you’re in the middle of the musicians while they record each song.
Billy Steele/Engadget
When you select a HomePod for use with the Apple TV you still need to deselect your TV speakers. Those aren’t disabled just because you’ve asked the streaming box to also send audio to a HomePod or two. TV audio with stereo pair is fine, but I can’t see using a single unit for the same purpose. In a multi-room setup you might want to send the sound from a live event like the Super Bowl to a solo speaker, but having just one as your lone living room audio from a TV isn’t a great experience. While the HomePod beams sound in all directions, with a single speaker it’s clear the sound is coming from a fixed location – something that’s a lot less noticeable with a pair or with a soundbar.
As is the case with vocals, dialog takes prominence with a HomePod and Apple TV. At times it can seem slightly muffled when watching things like live sports. Otherwise, there’s good clarity, nice bass and great dimensional audio when streaming Formula 1: Drive to Survive or Slow Horses. But, honestly, if you’re looking to improve your living room audio, a soundbar and sub is a better option. The driver arrangement in those speakers does a better job of filling a room completely and evenly. Plus, most companies give you the ability to use adjustments or presets to dial in how much you want those speakers to focus on dialog so you can fine-tune things to your liking.
The competition
Billy Steele/Engadget
Because the HomePod is best suited to people who have married themselves to Apple’s ecosystem, the best alternative to the second-gen HomePod is the cheaper HomePod mini. If all you’re after is some Siri assistance with your smart home and a speaker that’s good enough for casual listening and podcasts, the $99 option will work well for you. Plus, Apple just unlocked the smaller speaker’s inactive temperature and humidity sensor and it’s due to get Sound Recognition.
Wrap-up
Apple has been preparing for a new HomePod for five years, constantly improving both the original version and the HomePod mini. And the fact that the company has made Siri a more capable companion certainly helps. Plus, there’s more smart home abilities than before. Apple hasn’t strayed from its emphasis on the spoken (or sung) word for HomePod’s sound profile, but that’s okay. It’s clear that the company is focused on expanding the toolbox for its smart speakers after their debut, so I’d expect that much like the original HomePod, this is just the beginning for the second generation.
The US government is reportedly cracking down harder on exports to Huawei
The United States government has reportedly stopped issuing licenses that allow companies in the country to export to Huawei, according to The Financial Times. If you’ll recall, the Trump administration added the company to the “entity list,” making it ineligible from receiving exports from the US without a license. The US commerce department issued some companies like Qualcomm licenses to provide Huawei with American tech unrelated to 5G networks since then — Qualcomm, for instance, supplies Huawei with 4G chips for smartphones. But the government is reportedly looking to impose a total ban on the sale of American tech to the Chinese firm, and this expanded restriction is a step towards making that happen.
The US government adds companies to the entity list if it believes they are involved in or “pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved in, activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” It has previously accused Huawei of having deep ties with the Chinese government and warned allies that the 5G equipment it makes could be used to spy on other countries and companies. Huawei has repeatedly denied the accusation.
It’s not entirely clear why the US government is moving towards a total ban, if this report is indeed true, but the Biden administration seems to be taking a tougher stance on China compared to its predecessor. Last year, it introduced new rules that prohibit the export of powerful semiconductors that could be repurposed for military use, as well as chipmaking equipment, to China and Russia. One possible reason is that Huawei, The Times says, is backing projects that aim to build a semiconductor supply chain in its country that doesn’t rely on imports. A former CIA official also told the publication that the government is probably looking to expand the existing export ban, because Huawei is a totally different company from when it was added to the entity list.
Huawei’s focus back then was on 5G technology, but it has since changed gears to prioritize its enterprise and government businesses, including a cloud service, to survive the trade ban. Being added to the blacklist had a huge impact on Huawei’s revenues in 2021, but company executive Eric Xu said the manufacturer was able to pull itself “out of crisis mode” in 2022 and expects to go back to “business as usual” this year. A total ban could very well put Huawei back into crisis mode, and it would likely affect the revenues of its US suppliers, as well. That said, the Chinese company might have some time to prepare, depending on when the export licenses that had already been issued will expire.
A commerce department spokesperson didn’t confirm whether it has truly stopped issuing licenses to American firms, telling The Times that it “continually assess[es] its policies and regulations.” A source told Reuters, however, that US officials are in the midst of crafting new policies that would prohibit shipments to Huawei below the 5G level. The new restrictions would reportedly cover products and components related to 4G, WiFi 6 and 7, AI, as well as cloud and high-performance computing.
Spotify reaches 205 million Premium subscribers as losses mount
Spotify just released its Q4 earnings and announced that it now has 205 million premium subscribers, up 10 million from last quarter. It also made €3.17 billion ($3.43 billion) in revenue, so it exceeded expectations in both subscriber count and sales. It now counts nearly 500 million monthly active users including ad-supported and paid subscriber tiers.
However, its losses continued with €270 million ($292 million) in red ink compared to €39 million in the same period last year, due to moves that chief executive Daniel Ek called “too ambitious.” For all of 2022, the company reported a net €430 million loss ($466 million) on revenue of €11.7 billion ($12.7 billion).
Spotify said that the losses were due to “higher personnel costs primarily due to headcount growth and higher advertising costs,” along with currency fluctuations. That helps explain the company’s actions last week, when it announced that it was laying off 6 percent of its workforce as part of a company-wide restructuring.
As part of that, chief content officer Dawn Ostroff stepped down and Ek said that the company would “fundamentally change how we operate at the top,” including his own role. At the time, Ek said that “in hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth.” Looking ahead to the next quarter, Spotify forecasts that it’ll hit a half-billion monthly active users and see a modest boost to 207 million premium subscribers.
The Morning After: TikTok’s CEO will testify before a congressional committee
The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23rd. Chew will discuss the app’s privacy and data security measures, its impact on kids and ties to China (where parent company ByteDance is headquartered). This is Chew’s first appearance in front of a congressional panel. TikTok’s security and relationship with Chinese authorities have drawn the attention of US officials over the last few years. However, as CNBC reported, discussions between the US and TikTok appear to have stalled.
The relationship has been a precarious one for several years. The company has tried to assuage concerns by storing US user data on domestic Oracle servers and deleting such data from its own servers in the US and Singapore. However, other stories, like TikTok having to fire four employees (two each in China and the US) who accessed the data of several journalists, aren’t helping. They were said to be looking for the sources of leaks to reporters.
Also in December, a mammoth spending bill passed by lawmakers included a ban of TikTok from federal government-owned devices. However, the relationship has thawed since its nadir during the Trump administration, when the president pushed for the social network to shed its US assets. That, of course, never happened.
– Mat Smith
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Samsung’s profits plunged in 2022 due to weak smartphone demand
Chip sales were down, too.
Samsung has revealed a sharp decline in profit for 2022, mainly due to the weak demand for its chips and smartphones, the company’s main moneymakers. The Korean tech giant has posted KRW 302.23 trillion (US$245.4 billion) in annual revenue, which is a new record high for the company, in its latest earnings report. Its operating profit, however, was down KRW 8.5 trillion (US$6.9 billion) from the year before. Sales for Samsung’s more affordable phones went down, and while flagship sales held up to market expectations, they’re still lower than in previous quarters. The company expects demand for mass-market smartphones to weaken even further in 2023 “due to persistent macroeconomic conditions.” That’s not great news when the company is holding its first Unpacked event of 2023 tomorrow.
Nothing Phone 2 to launch in US later this year
Carl Pei says the upcoming flagship will be “more premium” than the Phone 1.
Engadget
Nothing’s Carl Pei has confirmed the company’s second phone will launch in the US later this year. He described the 2023 flagship as “more premium” than the Nothing Phone 1, which probably means it’ll be more expensive, too. In an interview with Inverse, Pei said the Phone 2’s US launch would be Nothing’s top priority this year. Pei added that American carrier demands (“red tape”) were the main reason Nothing didn’t launch the Phone 1 in the US.
China’s biggest search engine may launch a ChatGPT rival in March
Baidu’s service will allow users to get conversation-like search results.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Chinese search giant Baidu aims to introduce a ChatGPT-like AI service that gives users conversational results, according to a Bloomberg report. Open AI’s ChatGPT has taken the tech world by storm, thanks to its ability to answer fact-based questions, write in a human-like way and even create code. Microsoft invested $1 billion in Open AI back in 2019, and reportedly plans to incorporate aspects of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. It’s the big thing – even Google reportedly sees the technology as a threat to its search business and plans to accelerate the development of its own conversational AI technology.
Apple’s latest iPad Air models are $99 off right now
It’s a good time to pick up one of Apple’s latest M1-equipped iPad Air models, as they’ve dropped back down to all-time low prices. The 64GB WiFi model is now on sale for just $500, or $99 (17 percent) off, while the 256GB is available for $650, also $…
US labor regulator says Apple violated employee rights with restrictive work rules
The National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) has determined that Apple’s rules around leaks violate workers’ rights, Bloomberg has reported. Apple’s actions and statements from executives “tend to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees” from exercising their rights, a spokesperson said in a statement.
The decision stems from complaints by former employees Cher Scarlett and Ashley Gjøvik. Scarlett alleged that Apple work rules “prohibit employees from discussing wages, hours or other terms or conditions of employment,” in violation of labor laws. Gjøvik, meanwhile, complained that an email sent by CEO Tim Cook vowing to punish leakers violated federal laws. Apple’s policies prohibiting staff from disclosing business information, talking to reporters and other actions were also illegal, Gjøvik alleged.
In the email in question, Cook wrote that “we do not tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it’s product IP or the details of a confidential meeting… people who leak confidential information do not belong here.” That was in response to the leak of a company-wide meeting that was effectively tweeted live by a journalist, as TechCrunch noted.
The NLRB will issue a complaint against Apple unless the company settles, the spokesperson said. Apple has yet to comment, but a company attorney previously said, “Apple fosters an open and inclusive work environment whereby employees are not just permitted, but encouraged, to share their feelings and thoughts on a range of issues, from social justice topics to pay equity to anything else that they feel is an important cause to promote in the workplace.”
Gjøvik was fired by Apple in 2021 for leaking confidential information and told TechCrunch she believes she was let go in retaliation after filing an EPA report about toxic fumes in her office. She complained to the NLRB that she was let go illegally, but the board has yet to issue a ruling on that subject.
The NLRB recently found that Apple violated federal law with anti-union meetings in Atlanta. Earlier this month, Apple agreed to review its labor practices, saying in an SEC filing that it would assess its “efforts to comply with its Human Rights Policy as it relates to workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in the United States by the end of calendar year 2023.”
A new AI voice tool is already being abused to deepfake celebrity audio clips
A few days ago, speech AI startup ElevenLabs launched a beta version of its platform that gives users the power to create entirely new synthetic voices for text-to-speech audio or to clone somebody’s voice. Well, it only took the internet a few days to start using the latter for vile purposes. The company has revealed on Twitter that it’s seeing an “increasing number of voice cloning misuse cases” and that it’s thinking of a way to address the problem by “implementing additional safeguards.”
While ElevenLabs didn’t elaborate on what it meant by “misuse cases,” Motherboard found 4chan posts with clips featuring generated voices that sound like celebrities reading or saying something questionable. One clip, for instance, reportedly featured a voice that sounded like Emma Watson reading a part of Mein Kampf. Users also posted voice clips that feature homophobic, transphobic, violent and racist sentiments. It’s not entirely clear if all the clips used ElevenLab’s technology, but a post with a wide collection of the voice files on 4chan included a link to the startup’s platform.
Perhaps this emergence of “deepfake” audio clips shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing as a few years ago, we’d seen a similar phenomenon take place. Advances in AI and machine learning had led to a rise in deepfake videos, specifically deepfake pornography, wherein existing pornographic materials are altered to use the faces of celebrities. And, yes, people used Emma Watson’s face for some of those videos.
ElevenLabs is now gathering feedback on how to prevent users from abusing its technology. At the moment, its current ideas include adding more layers to its account verification to enable voice cloning, such as requiring users to enter payment info or an ID. It’s also considering having users verify copyright ownership of the voice they want to clone, such as getting them to submit a sample with prompted text. Finally, the company is thinking of dropping its Voice Lab tool altogether and having users submit voice cloning requests that it has to manually verify.
Crazy weekend – thank you to everyone for trying out our Beta platform. While we see our tech being overwhelmingly applied to positive use, we also see an increasing number of voice cloning misuse cases. We want to reach out to Twitter community for thoughts and feedback!
— ElevenLabs (@elevenlabsio) January 30, 2023