Apple has hired a new engineer, Afrooz Family, to lead software efforts for its HomePod smart speaker, aiming to turn the product into a bigger hit.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Family worked at Apple from 2012 to 2016 before leaving to co-found audio startup Syng with former Apple industrial designer Christopher Stringer. Family left the startup earlier this year after helping develop the company’s product, the Cell Alpha.
Jason Harrison, who had overseen HomePod software, left Apple last year for Airbnb Inc.
Syng… developed its speaker as a high-end alternative to the HomePod, coming in at $1,800. It provides what the startup calls “triphonic sound” — audio that comes from three different directions. But the device was a challenge to develop and manufacture, and its price makes it more of a niche product.
Family has plenty of experience with smart speakers. Prior to Syng, he was an audio engineer at Apple and worked on the original HomePod.
MacDailyNews Take: As usual, the issue is Siri. Apple’s personal assistant is even further handicapped than usual on HomePod with every third response being “I can’t do that on HomePod” or “If you ask Siri on your iPhone, I can tell you that.”
Go ahead, ask your HomePod or HomePod mini, “Het Siri, play me [artist]’s most popular song.” You’d expect Siri to be able to accomplish that much, at least, in 2021, wouldn’t you? But, Siri can’t even manage that simple request. Siri fails at a painfully obvious use case. Your HomePod will play a song by that artist, but not their most popular song, unless it’s by a lucky coincidence, happening at random, even though Apple Music has that data. Siri seems, as always, oblivious and incapable.
And, by the way, having one product called “HomePod mini” is stupid. It leads a potential customer to ask, “Well, where’s the real HomePod?” You know, for every “mini” Apple product there’s at least one big brother (Mac mini, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13 mini).
“So, where’s the real HomePod?”
“Oh, that? “It failed.”
That’s not a huge confidence boost for “HomePod mini.” A prospective buyer might rightly wonder, “Hmm, for how long is Apple going to remain committed to this ‘mini’ product if its parent is already canceled?”
Hint to Apple: If that’s the only HomePod you currently have to offer, at least change its name. Duh.
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