**Apple's HomePod OS 16.3 Released Early**

The HomePod has received an update to its operating system, HomePod OS 16.3. The new release comes ahead of schedule due to the recent announcement of new Apple products. With this update, users can now ask Siri for the locations of friends and family if they have shared it with them. Recurring home automations can also be set using just your voice. Furthermore, Siri's confirmation tone will now indicate when smart home requests are completed for accessories that may not visibly show a change or are located in a different room.

**Improved Audio Tuning**

Audio tuning has been optimized to provide even greater clarity on podcasts and spoken content. This is particularly noticeable with the HomePod 2 and HomePod 1, as well as the original HomePod. The update also includes improved volume controls that offer more granular adjustments at lower volumes. These changes are designed to enhance the overall listening experience for users.

**HomePod OS 16.3 Details**

HomePod OS 16.3 is now available for download and installation. While it may not introduce any significant performance improvements, the update still includes several notable features. According to Geekbench tests, the single-core score has dropped slightly from 1865 in HomePod OS 16.2 to 1865 in HomePod OS 16.3, while the multi-core score has also decreased from 5380 in HomePod OS 16.2 to 5380 in HomePod OS 16.3. However, these changes may not be noticeable in everyday use.

**Battery Life**

It's worth noting that there is no significant change expected in battery life with this update. If you have major battery drain issues, such as overnight draining, a bug fix may resolve the issue. Otherwise, normal users can expect similar battery performance. The HomePod OS 16.3 RC has already been tested by the author, and it appears that there will be no notable changes to battery life.

**What's Next for Apple**

The early release of HomePod OS 16.3 is likely due to the recent announcement of new Apple products. As a result, the company may have accelerated their development schedule. The next update, iOS 16.4, is expected to drop soon, followed by HomePod OS 16.4 and possibly an iOS 16.4.1 update before the final public release of 16.4. However, the exact timeline is subject to change.

**iOS 16.3 Release Date**

The iOS 16.3 beta has already been released, and it's expected that HomePod OS 16.3 will drop next week. This means that users can expect a new update to install on their devices soon. The release date for HomePod OS 16.3 is not yet confirmed but may be as early as the week of January 23rd.

**Future Updates**

The author expects iOS 16.4 beta 1 to drop next week, followed by an iOS 16.3.1 update and a final public release of iOS 16.4 in March. However, this is just a prediction, and the actual timeline may vary depending on Apple's development schedule.

**Conclusion**

HomePod OS 16.3 has been released early due to the recent announcement of new Apple products. The update includes several notable features, including improved Siri functionality and enhanced audio tuning. While there are no significant performance improvements, the update still offers a range of new features and refinements for users. As always, we'll be keeping an eye on the latest developments in iOS and HomePod OS to ensure that our readers stay up-to-date with the latest news and updates.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enafter only two betas Apple has just released the RC or release candidate build of iOS 16.3 just one week before the launch of the new Apple products and of course the public release so in this video we're going to discuss what's new and what to expect next now along with the release of iOS and iPad OS 16.3 RC we also got the RC release of iOS and iPad OS 15.7.3 Mac OS 13.2 watch OS 9.3 tbos 16.3 and homepod Os 16.3 all right so let's take a look at the size of this update and of course since we did go from a beta to a final release it is going to be a large update so 5.3 gigabytes on my iPhone 14 pro Max that size will vary depending on the version you're coming from but if you were on beta 2 that size is going to be pretty large so if you go and check out the build number of settings General about 16.3 we could see the new build number is 20D four seven and if we look a little bit further down the modem firmware also has an update it's 1.41.02 all right so now what's new here in the RC build of iOS 16.3 and the first thing is what you're looking at right now so we have a brand new wallpaper called Unity so this of course is for Black History Month so if we go into our settings and go to wallpaper and then to add new wallpaper and if we scroll down a little bit you will see we have a new section here for Unity and it says designed by black creatives and allies at Apple to honor black history and culture and we have two different wallpapers here so the first one is this one right here so you can see at the bottom we have unity and we can also change it to Black we have red orange green blue purple pink we have all these different colors we could choose from to kind of customize this to look exactly how we would like it to which is pretty neat now the other one is pretty cool as well because we have two different options here so we have three colors or four colors and you can see how the top of the time right there kind of changes as well so we have have kind of a two-tone time up top which is pretty cool I like this one a lot and this is what it looks like on my home screen right now and here's what it looks like on my lock screen you can see that kind of two-toned time up there so new wallpapers pretty cool and it's pretty interesting that Apple actually mentioned this in the release notes as well you know it's a pretty minor update when they literally mention a wallpaper as the first thing that's new in an updates iOS 16.3 RC also adds a support for the second generation homepod so the new 2nd gen homepod just got announced today and this ads this update adds support for that device now there's also a new UI for handoff from iPhone to homepod now this update also includes a new way to activate emergency SOS so in previous videos we talked about how there are multiple verbiage changes here on the emergency SOS settings page a lot of these have been renamed the descriptions have been changed and things like that but there's a new way to activate this as well so you can see in the release notes it says it now requires holding the side button with the up or down volume button and then releasing in order to prevent an advertent emergency calls so as long as you have this top toggle turned on basically you just do the same action as like if you were to turn off your phone but you hold it for a little bit longer and it will invoke that emergency SOS so I'll do it right here so you can see there you go I'm going to go ahead and cancel that just so it doesn't call Emergency Services but that is new here in 16.3 and then of course the biggest feature in iOS 16.3 is going to be the support for physical security keys to add another layer of security for your Apple ID accounts and you can see it says it has the strongest account security and replaces a Verification codes now keep in mind you do need two different security keys for this to work one as a primary and one as a backup but that's another reason I'm kind of surprised Apple released this so early this is such a major feature that I would think it would take more than two beta stages to you know get it right but I guess not so you know I would be careful with that I may not do that right away I mean not you know activate that right away just because it's it's just launched and you don't want any issues going on but that is a big new feature added here in 16.3 Advanced Data protection is now available to all users worldwide so this was limited to certain countries at first but now you're able to have Advanced Data protection turned on no matter where you are in the world and of course this will kind of just encrypt all of your data that was not encrypted before Apple also mentions quite a few bug fixes in this update so we have a fix for the black lock screen bug so that was a bug that I've talked about so many times on the channel where my lock screen would just turn black it would actually change the home screen as well and that has been fixed here in 16.3 I also just noticed by the way with this wallpaper with the always on display right here even when it's all black you can see that the time is yellow which is pretty neat we also have a fix for the issue where the horizontal lines May temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 pro Max so a lot of users thought this was a hardware issue but this is proof that it was just a software fix there's a fix for an issue where the home lock screen widget does not accurately display home app status so that is not something I have faced but if you did have that issue that has been resolved with this update we also have addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests so I've had this a few times where either it just plays the wrong song completely or it plays like the clean version when I wanted to play the normal version of the song we also have a fix for carplay so it says resolves issues where Siri requests and carplay may not be understood correctly and then we also have a fix for the new freeform application a bug in here so it says fixes an issue in free form where some drawing Strokes created with apple pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards there's also some nice changes to the home pod so first off the homepod mini now activates the hidden sensor and sound recognition feature so now you're able to ask basically what the temperature and what the humidity is in the room in your homepod mini will tell you so that of course has been added as like public information with the homepod 2 but the homepod minis had it all along you were just never able to actually access that information and ask Siri for that information until today with 16.3 we also have some other additions to homepod OS 16.3 so remastered ambient sounds are more immersive and can now be added to scenes automations and alarms and the home app we have find my on homepod now enables you to ask Siri for the locations of friends and family if they have shared it with you recurring home automations can be set using just your voice Siri confirmation tone will now plan to indicate when smart home requests are completed for accessories that may not visibly show a change or are located in a different room audio tuning optimizes spoken content such as podcasts for even greater Clarity on homepod 2 and homepod 1. and then also for the original homepod we have updated volume controls that give you more granular adjustments at lower volumes so quite a few nice changes to homepod OS 16.3 regardless of what homepod you have there's a little bit of something for every homepod and here here and of course there are other features in iOS 16.3 as well I'm just saving those for the final public release video I don't want to make a duplicate video next week when this gets launched to the public now as far as the performance goes I am going to run a quick geekbench test here but so far it feels about the same as beta 2 and honestly I'm not seeing a big jump from 16.2's performance so performance on 16.2 was fine for me there was a little bit of Stutter from time to time but I really never had any issues with performance I had some minor UI bugs and things like that but nothing related to just raw performance so we're going to see how those scores stack up to 16.2 alright so we scored in 1865 on the single core and a 5380 on the multi-core and you can see compared to 16.2 it is slightly lower in both the single core and at the multi-core but usually when it's that close that means there's really not a difference at all in terms of overall raw performance so don't expect any big jumps in performance with this update and same goes with the battery life I mean I don't really need it to say more about the battery life I did just install the RC so things could change and I will let you know if they do change but so far you know I would not expect really any change at all with the battery life either now unless you had major battery drain issues like if you had a big bug where your battery drained overnight that could be fixed with 16.3 but if you have just normal battery life you have normal usage don't expect a big Improvement here with this update all right so now let's talk about what to expect next for Apple so first off iOS 16.3 dropped early because of the Apple products that were announced this week which obviously we could not have predicted that everybody including Mark German thought that 16.3 was going to be coming in February or March but since Apple released these products maybe ahead of schedule maybe just you know caught people off guard that is the reason they have to release 16.3 to add support for these new devices and that's why we're going to see 16.3 next week the week of the 23rd it could even be right here on Monday the 23rd now of course since we are going to get ios 16.3 next week that means there is a not going to be a 16.2.1 update the only reason we even said a 16.2.1 could be released is because we weren't expecting 16.3 until February or March but of course now since we have 16.3 that takes kind of the place of 16.2.1 and includes all the fixes that would have been added in that update regardless so anyways we're going to be moving on to 16.4 the 16.4 betas very soon and likely a 16.3.1 before the final public release of 16.4 now as far as 16.4 beta 1 I would expect that next week as well so next week probably you know right after iOS 16.3 gets released next week is when we're going to see 16.4 beta 1 and again I would expect a 16.3.1 at some point most likely in February and then a 16.4 final release most likely sometime in March that of course is just my early prediction and things could change but anyways there you have it that is IOS 16.3 RC quite a few changes actually in the RC bill along with a lot of changes to the homepod and homepod Os so as always I hope you guys enjoyed this video if you did I would appreciate if you give it a thumbs up also make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a ton of content coming next week with new iOS versions and a lot of new Mac products as well but anyways guys thanks again for watching and I'll see you soon foreignafter only two betas Apple has just released the RC or release candidate build of iOS 16.3 just one week before the launch of the new Apple products and of course the public release so in this video we're going to discuss what's new and what to expect next now along with the release of iOS and iPad OS 16.3 RC we also got the RC release of iOS and iPad OS 15.7.3 Mac OS 13.2 watch OS 9.3 tbos 16.3 and homepod Os 16.3 all right so let's take a look at the size of this update and of course since we did go from a beta to a final release it is going to be a large update so 5.3 gigabytes on my iPhone 14 pro Max that size will vary depending on the version you're coming from but if you were on beta 2 that size is going to be pretty large so if you go and check out the build number of settings General about 16.3 we could see the new build number is 20D four seven and if we look a little bit further down the modem firmware also has an update it's 1.41.02 all right so now what's new here in the RC build of iOS 16.3 and the first thing is what you're looking at right now so we have a brand new wallpaper called Unity so this of course is for Black History Month so if we go into our settings and go to wallpaper and then to add new wallpaper and if we scroll down a little bit you will see we have a new section here for Unity and it says designed by black creatives and allies at Apple to honor black history and culture and we have two different wallpapers here so the first one is this one right here so you can see at the bottom we have unity and we can also change it to Black we have red orange green blue purple pink we have all these different colors we could choose from to kind of customize this to look exactly how we would like it to which is pretty neat now the other one is pretty cool as well because we have two different options here so we have three colors or four colors and you can see how the top of the time right there kind of changes as well so we have have kind of a two-tone time up top which is pretty cool I like this one a lot and this is what it looks like on my home screen right now and here's what it looks like on my lock screen you can see that kind of two-toned time up there so new wallpapers pretty cool and it's pretty interesting that Apple actually mentioned this in the release notes as well you know it's a pretty minor update when they literally mention a wallpaper as the first thing that's new in an updates iOS 16.3 RC also adds a support for the second generation homepod so the new 2nd gen homepod just got announced today and this ads this update adds support for that device now there's also a new UI for handoff from iPhone to homepod now this update also includes a new way to activate emergency SOS so in previous videos we talked about how there are multiple verbiage changes here on the emergency SOS settings page a lot of these have been renamed the descriptions have been changed and things like that but there's a new way to activate this as well so you can see in the release notes it says it now requires holding the side button with the up or down volume button and then releasing in order to prevent an advertent emergency calls so as long as you have this top toggle turned on basically you just do the same action as like if you were to turn off your phone but you hold it for a little bit longer and it will invoke that emergency SOS so I'll do it right here so you can see there you go I'm going to go ahead and cancel that just so it doesn't call Emergency Services but that is new here in 16.3 and then of course the biggest feature in iOS 16.3 is going to be the support for physical security keys to add another layer of security for your Apple ID accounts and you can see it says it has the strongest account security and replaces a Verification codes now keep in mind you do need two different security keys for this to work one as a primary and one as a backup but that's another reason I'm kind of surprised Apple released this so early this is such a major feature that I would think it would take more than two beta stages to you know get it right but I guess not so you know I would be careful with that I may not do that right away I mean not you know activate that right away just because it's it's just launched and you don't want any issues going on but that is a big new feature added here in 16.3 Advanced Data protection is now available to all users worldwide so this was limited to certain countries at first but now you're able to have Advanced Data protection turned on no matter where you are in the world and of course this will kind of just encrypt all of your data that was not encrypted before Apple also mentions quite a few bug fixes in this update so we have a fix for the black lock screen bug so that was a bug that I've talked about so many times on the channel where my lock screen would just turn black it would actually change the home screen as well and that has been fixed here in 16.3 I also just noticed by the way with this wallpaper with the always on display right here even when it's all black you can see that the time is yellow which is pretty neat we also have a fix for the issue where the horizontal lines May temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 pro Max so a lot of users thought this was a hardware issue but this is proof that it was just a software fix there's a fix for an issue where the home lock screen widget does not accurately display home app status so that is not something I have faced but if you did have that issue that has been resolved with this update we also have addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests so I've had this a few times where either it just plays the wrong song completely or it plays like the clean version when I wanted to play the normal version of the song we also have a fix for carplay so it says resolves issues where Siri requests and carplay may not be understood correctly and then we also have a fix for the new freeform application a bug in here so it says fixes an issue in free form where some drawing Strokes created with apple pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards there's also some nice changes to the home pod so first off the homepod mini now activates the hidden sensor and sound recognition feature so now you're able to ask basically what the temperature and what the humidity is in the room in your homepod mini will tell you so that of course has been added as like public information with the homepod 2 but the homepod minis had it all along you were just never able to actually access that information and ask Siri for that information until today with 16.3 we also have some other additions to homepod OS 16.3 so remastered ambient sounds are more immersive and can now be added to scenes automations and alarms and the home app we have find my on homepod now enables you to ask Siri for the locations of friends and family if they have shared it with you recurring home automations can be set using just your voice Siri confirmation tone will now plan to indicate when smart home requests are completed for accessories that may not visibly show a change or are located in a different room audio tuning optimizes spoken content such as podcasts for even greater Clarity on homepod 2 and homepod 1. and then also for the original homepod we have updated volume controls that give you more granular adjustments at lower volumes so quite a few nice changes to homepod OS 16.3 regardless of what homepod you have there's a little bit of something for every homepod and here here and of course there are other features in iOS 16.3 as well I'm just saving those for the final public release video I don't want to make a duplicate video next week when this gets launched to the public now as far as the performance goes I am going to run a quick geekbench test here but so far it feels about the same as beta 2 and honestly I'm not seeing a big jump from 16.2's performance so performance on 16.2 was fine for me there was a little bit of Stutter from time to time but I really never had any issues with performance I had some minor UI bugs and things like that but nothing related to just raw performance so we're going to see how those scores stack up to 16.2 alright so we scored in 1865 on the single core and a 5380 on the multi-core and you can see compared to 16.2 it is slightly lower in both the single core and at the multi-core but usually when it's that close that means there's really not a difference at all in terms of overall raw performance so don't expect any big jumps in performance with this update and same goes with the battery life I mean I don't really need it to say more about the battery life I did just install the RC so things could change and I will let you know if they do change but so far you know I would not expect really any change at all with the battery life either now unless you had major battery drain issues like if you had a big bug where your battery drained overnight that could be fixed with 16.3 but if you have just normal battery life you have normal usage don't expect a big Improvement here with this update all right so now let's talk about what to expect next for Apple so first off iOS 16.3 dropped early because of the Apple products that were announced this week which obviously we could not have predicted that everybody including Mark German thought that 16.3 was going to be coming in February or March but since Apple released these products maybe ahead of schedule maybe just you know caught people off guard that is the reason they have to release 16.3 to add support for these new devices and that's why we're going to see 16.3 next week the week of the 23rd it could even be right here on Monday the 23rd now of course since we are going to get ios 16.3 next week that means there is a not going to be a 16.2.1 update the only reason we even said a 16.2.1 could be released is because we weren't expecting 16.3 until February or March but of course now since we have 16.3 that takes kind of the place of 16.2.1 and includes all the fixes that would have been added in that update regardless so anyways we're going to be moving on to 16.4 the 16.4 betas very soon and likely a 16.3.1 before the final public release of 16.4 now as far as 16.4 beta 1 I would expect that next week as well so next week probably you know right after iOS 16.3 gets released next week is when we're going to see 16.4 beta 1 and again I would expect a 16.3.1 at some point most likely in February and then a 16.4 final release most likely sometime in March that of course is just my early prediction and things could change but anyways there you have it that is IOS 16.3 RC quite a few changes actually in the RC bill along with a lot of changes to the homepod and homepod Os so as always I hope you guys enjoyed this video if you did I would appreciate if you give it a thumbs up also make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a ton of content coming next week with new iOS versions and a lot of new Mac products as well but anyways guys thanks again for watching and I'll see you soon foreign\n"