Apple HomePod jailbreak shows a whole bunch of unofficial features

Jailbreaking the HomePod allows you to add music, smart home and voice services Apple doesn’t support otherwise.

Apple HomePod is priced at ₹19,900 in India.  (Apple newsroom)

After jailbreaking iPhones and iPads, hackers have now turned their focus to Apple's HomePods. According to a report in 9to5Mac, coder L1ngL1ng and the Checkra1n team have jailbroken the original HomePod for the first time ever. It is “currently in partial support limited to the command line, but it could have ramifications for HomePod enthusiasts”.

Hello Homepod, meet checkra1n.

Huge thanks to @DanyL931 for helping to get this running. pic.twitter.com/FjH7253RFR

— L1ngL1ng (@_L1ngL1ng_) November 19, 2020

Jailbroken HomePods could let hobbyists and music lovers add music, smart home and voice services that Apple does not officially support. You could also extend Bluetooth functionality to use the HomePod as a simple wireless speaker for Android and platforms that are off-limits otherwise.

Of course, there are caveats.

The jailbreak revelations do not cover the HomePod mini. And like is the case with any jailbreak, you will lose warranty support if something goes wrong. There is also a “cat-and-mouse game with Apple” because jailbreaks work by exploiting security flaws that companies like Apple are eager to fix. 

So, there is no guarantee that a jailbreak will work with HomePod software after this, so you might be stuck with a certain set of features until someone manages to jailbreak a more recent code.

But a jailbreak is always a risk, so keep that in mind.