Mike Peterson
Apple's HomePod operating system is now reportedly based on tvOS instead of iOS, according to a recent analysis of the firmware's code.
The 13.4 operating system update for HomePod was released in March, alongside new versions of iOS, iPadOS and tvOS. At the time, release notes claimed performance improvements and bug fixes, but it appears Apple made a larger change to HomePod's OS that escaped notice until now.
While the HomePod 13.4 software update contained no major user-facing features, 9to5Mac found that the firmware now runs on Apple's tvOS operating system instead of iOS.
Both tvOS and the software that runs on HomePod are variants of iOS, so while there are small differences, the underlying core of the operating systems are the same.
Word of the transition to tvOS arrives after Bloomberg on Monday reported that Apple was working on a new HomePod model that would be about half the size of the original and is expected to retail for a lower price.
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20 Comments
This might explain why my TV 4K finally connects to my HomePod every time now. It was driving me nuts before.
So, in that case, it's good! Might be coincidence, but it never worked right before.
or maybe there's a HomePod Video on the horizon ... to go up against the Echo Show.
You’re going to be able to pair them with Apple TV as left and right channel like Roku’s speakers (can you not do this already?) and they’ll sell a bunch. I just hope it’s not exclusive to the yet-to-be-released Apple TV upgrade.
They should add a mesh router.
I hope not having an AppleTV in now way affects updates, or that Apple sloughs off on Siri and music applications.
iOS HomeKit Siri sucked. I have no hope that it will get better on tvOS for us non-tvOS people, or at least not worse, if that's even possible.