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Apple HomePod speakers can now warn when your smoke alarm goes off
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Apple has rolled out the Sound Recognition feature for the HomePod 2 andHomePod minispeakers which, among other things, will warn your iPhone if a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm goes off inside your house.
The feature, which wasannouncedalongside theHomePod 2speaker in January, can be set up via the Apple Home app from today. There’s no need for the detectors to be smart in any way, as the feature works by simply recognising the distinct sounds they make. You know, those piercing and deafening ‘startle you awake in the middle of the night’ sounds.
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If the HomePods’ newfound ability to pick up the alarms from your in-home sensors is triggered, you’ll be notified on your Apple Watch or iPhone while you’re away from said home. The feature is end-to-end encrypted and the sound recognition takes place locally via the speaker rather than involving Apple’s cloud servers. This news was first reported byTechCrunch.
It’s a great way to provide a little added peace of mind for those who worry about leaving the stove on by accident when they leave the house, for example. Even more impressive is HomePod’s ability to leverage a connected smart home camera to show a feed of the home along with the smoke/carbon monoxide alarm warning so you can see what’s what.
It’s not a brand new feature, by any means, as both theAlex Guardand Nest Protect options both perform similar tasks. However for those rooted deeply in the Apple ecosystem, it’s good to see this feature rolling out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as if theoriginal, discontinued HomePodis included.
The HomePod 2 was a surprise release in early 2023 and didn’t really offer too much in the way of new features. There’s a slightly bigger top display, improved sound and support for the new Matter smart home standard, lacked by the original.
We gave the Siri-powered it a 4.5 star score out of a possible 5 and praised the fantastic sound with strong spatial audio representation, there’s also now a removable power cable, and a pleasing small and compact design.
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Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He’s based in South Florida, USA. …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
