Apple today updated its HomePod product page with new details about the speaker's gesture controls for Siri and audio playback.
Apple has confirmed that users can tap the top of the HomePod to play, pause, skip a song, or adjust the volume, or touch and hold to talk to Siri. A colorful, animated LED waveform will appear when Siri is listening.
A single tap plays or pauses music, a double tap skips to the next track, and a triple trap returns to the previous track. Tapping and holding the digital plus or minus sign raises or lowers the speaker's volume respectively.
The touch and hold gesture to invoke Siri is in addition to the "Hey Siri" voice command that can be said from anywhere in a room.
Apple today announced that the HomePod will be available to order starting Friday, January 26, with in-store availability and orders arriving to customers starting Friday, February 9, in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Wednesday September 23, 2026 10:04 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple's smarter, more capable version of Siri is expanding to the HomePod, according to details found by code sleuth pdfu. According to pdfu, HomePod Software 27 includes the system behind Siri AI, called "Linwood," along with new status lights in the Siri AI colors.
Since HomePod Software 27 is out and Siri AI isn't available on existing HomePods, it's possible support will be limited to...
Monday October 19, 2026 1:31 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple's latest software update for the HomePod brings a new Sound Glow feature to the HomePod, HomePod mini, and HomePod mini 2. Apple introduced Sound Glow as a HomePod mini 2 feature, but it's available for the second-generation HomePod and the original HomePod mini too.
HomePod Software 27.2 is available as a release candidate update for developers and public beta testers, but it should...
Tuesday October 13, 2026 9:29 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
As was rumored prior to today's announcements, the new Apple TV 4K can connect to up to four HomePods in front-left, front-right, rear-left, and rear-right positions, enabling an all-Apple surround sound system for home theater setups.
You can connect four of the new HomePod mini 2 speakers to the new Apple TV 4K, or you can mix and match pairs of HomePod mini 2 and full-sized HomePod 2...
Do they expect me to always get up and go to HomePod to interact with it? I thought it was all about voice?
Exactly. Plus multiroom sometime later this year? They needed this to come out before Christmas and since they delayed it, they needed a product that was all around ahead of where Amazon Echo and Google Home are now. Other than quality of the speaker, I don’t get the impression they accomplished that. I’m glad I broke down and got Echoes and Echo Dots earlier this month.
Earlier today I asked Siri to make a calendar entry for 1:25pm. Siri interpreted this as 1 20 5 PM and spat out her dummy.
And that’s the reason I could never spend £319 on this, regardless of the sound quality.
Siri needs a lot of work. I work on a college campus. Yesterday I asked Siri to "remind me to go to room three hundred one" at a certain time. She had "300 one". I mean, sure, I knew what she meant. And the reminder was good enough to remind me. But....
Earlier today I asked Siri to make a calendar entry for 1:25pm. Siri interpreted this as 1 20 5 PM and spat out her dummy.
And that’s the reason I could never spend £319 on this, regardless of the sound quality.
I ask siri to take me to the nearest Target and even though I'm heading towards one that is 4 miles away on the freeway in the direction I'm traveling - while using AppleMaps - she tries to tell me the nearest one to me is 17 miles to it and in the opposite direction of what I'm traveling.
Siri and suck it. She pushes me closer to getting off the apple train and that's someone who is deep in the sandbox with the watch, the phone, the tv, a laptop, and all my accounts synced in between and what have you.
I'm extremely skeptical she'll work better than where she is currently at which seems to some how have taken two steps backwards and five steps diagonally. The Amazon Echo can hear me in a room where people are talking and the TV is on, but Siri can barely do Hey siri in a quiet room if someone else is talking.
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.
