HomePod’s first jailbreak opens the door to unofficial features
Apple’s HomePod smart speaker hasn’t been a target for jailbreakers like the iPhone or iPad, but it’s now more of a priority. As 9to5Mac reports, coder L1ngL1ng and the Checkra1n team have jailbroken the original HomePod for the first time. It’s currently “partial” support limited to the command line, but it could have ramifications for HomePod enthusiasts.
Jailbreaks could let hobbyists add music, smart home and voice services Apple doesn’t officially support, for instance. They could also extend the Bluetooth functionality to let you use the HomePod as a simple wireless speaker for Android and other platforms that are generally off-limits right now.
There are unsurprisingly caveats. This doesn’t cover the HomePod mini, of course. And like with any jailbreak, you’re stepping outside of warrantied support if something goes wrong. There’s also the cat-and-mouse game with Apple to consider. Jailbreaks work by exploiting security holes that device makers like Apple are eager to fix. There’s no guarantee a jailbreak will work with later HomePod software, so you may be stuck with a given feature set until (and unless) there’s a jailbreak for the more recent code. As many possibilities as there are, you might want to stick with unmodified software if you’d rather not take any risks.
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