Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
This is all they do...

Errr, I think you need to do a little more research into what Amazon does in the technology and technology services field. Granted, they are more a business services than consumers, but one of the biggest right now.
 
Errr, I think you need to do a little more research into what Amazon does in the technology and technology services field. Granted, they are more a business services than consumers, but one of the biggest right now.

I’m talking product wise. Their smart home is what they are all about. Their shopping products are awesome and I couldn’t live without amazon but when it comes to Alexa this is what they do.

They don’t make phones anymore, watches, computers, good tablets...so it’s not even comparable market wise to what apple produces.
 
I agree, Apple's premium price and slow Homekit adoption has hurt their ability to win this area. Most people I know have amazon devices. I have tried the HomePod and now Google's offering and really am tempted to test the waters with Amazon's to see if we like it better. The Google Home/ Home Max are great devices but are pricer compared to the Amazon offerings.

Has anyone else, tested those devices to see which is preferable?

I tested Amazon, Google and Sonos last Christmas... and ended up choosing Google. I now have a dual Google Home and Homekit system (every smart device I have works with both).

To me: Google Home is just "smarter". It understands better and infers better. It deals with multiple users better (automatically recognizing them by their voice... and even interacting with the correct Spotify accounts just by recognizing someone's voice)

I'm a _die hard_ Apple fan... and if the Homepod could have multiple users I would have probably gone with it. But since Apple refuses to have multiple users for any of their devices (I guess everyone that works at Apple is singe?!?) I'm not holding my breath...

One of the things I actually like about the dual Google/Homekit solution is that it's easier to address "the house" vs "my phone". I say "Ok Google" to do things in the house and I say "Hey Siri" when I want to interact with my phone. Having those two things separate is actually great. It would be annoying if Homepod picked up everytime I said "Hey Siri" when I really just want to do something on my phone...

EDIT: One more thing: one of the other large reasons I chose Google over Amazon is that Google is much more useful. I have a Google account with email/calendar/etc... so it's super useful to interact with Google. I can ask it things like: "What time is my flight tomorrow?" and it knows the answer just because it has access to my GMail. Also: it knows to reply with information from _my_ GMail because of my voice - which is great.

Why do I want to be linked to Amazon? For all the stuff I buy on Amazon (which is a lot) I've never thought: I wish I could have said out loud to buy that!
 
What type of handicap would prevent a person from setting the timer on a microwave but wouldn't prevent the same person from preparing the food item or getting it from the refrigerator, placing it in the microwave, and then getting it out of the microwave when it's done?
If you’re blind it’s very difficult to operate touch devices like microwaves, but easy to put things in and take them out.
[doublepost=1537481674][/doublepost]
You can't make this stuff up [sourced from this TechCrunch article - https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/20/a...ilding-alexa-skills-for-devices-with-screens/]...

“...Along with the launch of the all-new Echo Show, the Alexa-powered device with a screen, Amazon also introduced a new design language for developers who want to build voice skills that include multimedia experiences. Called Alexa Presentation Language, or APL, developers will be able to build voice-based apps…”

Seriously Amazon?!?! Did you have to call it APL? There was no other acronym you could come up with that wasn't the slightest bit derivative of any other tech company? Why not just call it Amazon Alexa Presentation Language, or AAPL, so it can be totally confused with the Apple stock symbol in every article that mentions it :D
I thought your your objection was going to be based on APL: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)
 
Talk about throwing everything possible at a wall and seeing what sticks. I wasn't happy with Alexa or the Echo products so I moved on to HomePod's, everything works perfectly now. I think big releases like this are a bit creepy and kind of desperate. Their battle with Google is certainly heating up though. Smart move by Apple is to probably sit this one out for now.
 
Meanwhile Apple is like we can’t fix Siri for you so here is an app to do it yourself even tho the point of those voice assistance is that you don’t have to do anything in my opinion
 
Meanwhile Apple is like we can’t fix Siri for you so here is an app to do it yourself even tho the point of those voice assistance is that you don’t have to do anything in my opinion

Siri works fine. It just can’t understand people who talk like you write.
 
I gotta confess, the cheap-o look of the original Echo’s is what kept me from getting a bunch. Industrial design is important, specially for something you have on display in your home.

Amazon has finally realized that. Bit too late though, HomePod now does everything I want it to. Shortcuts integration gave HomePod a quantum leap forward.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jamisonbaines
We have 4 Alexa devices (2 dots and 2 sonos) and we use them all the time for music, news and home automation (via Home Assistant), but I think Apple has them beat in at least 2 areas right now: Music selection and Home Automation software. Alexa is always asking me to clarify which thing I want to turn off, even though I've renamed the device to the exact thing I said. Siri is more accurate in that regard. The Home app isn't the greatest, but it's so much more intuitive than the Alexa app. The Siri Shortcuts app seems pretty useful for Home Automation, but it's not a mass-market kind of thing. Siri + Home is just more more pleasant, right now at least.

I prefer Alexa, I just use Spotify though. Interesting to hear an opinion on both systems from a user. I will look at the new security lights they’ve launched for Alexa.
 
You sure Sonos doesn't have anything to worry about? Apple is doing HomePod as a side project and they are already dominating the "high end" smart speaker market, which pretty much only includes Sonos. I wouldn't want to compete with Apple. The HomePod definitely sounds better and people with Apple products will probably choose HomePod at least 2:1.

Pretty sure. And pretty sure you didn’t read my post either. Just saw that one comment and dutifully jumped to Apple’s defense. Apple is not dominating the “high end” speaker market. Get back to me when Martin Logan, Sonance and others are quaking in their boots over a $350 smart speaker.

Apple might be dominating the upper end of the smart speaker market, but that has nothing to do with my comment. Apple simply doesn’t offer a product like the Sonos Connect or Amazon Echo Link. HomePod definitely does NOT sound better than the speakers of one’s choice. I’m not going to argue over which mediocre smart speaker sounds best. They all sound pretty average compared to a pair of high end speakers. And they all look like crap. But I don’t find speakers to be a thing of beauty anyway, which is probably why I opted for built-in speakers when I remodeled my house.

Amazon is now going head to head with Sonos in the one space where Sonos had an advantage, the high end market. The Sonos Connect products have been the best game in town for high end Multi-Room audio for well over a decade. Amazon’s Echo Link products are an existential threat. Amazon is already entrenched in the home automation space. Now they’re offering a first party home audio solution like Sonos but with (presumably) far better Alexa functionality.
[doublepost=1537489323][/doublepost]
In 20 years privacy will be dead and no one will care. Or so it seems.

It’s already dead among younger people. It’s a generational thing. Older folks get worked up over privacy issues. Younger people don’t get what all the fuss is about.
 
Last edited:
Pretty sure. And prettt sure you didn’t read my post either. Just saw that one comment and dutifully jumped to Apple’s defense. Apple is not dominating the “high end” speaker market. Get back to me when Martin Logan, Sonance and others are quaking in their boots over a $350 smart speaker.

Apple might be dominating the upper end of the smart speaker market, but that has nothing to do with my comment. Apple simply doesn’t offer a product like the Sonos Connect or Amazon Echo Link. HomePod definitely does NOT sound better than the speakers of one’s choice. I’m not going to argue over which mediocre smart speaker sounds best. They all sound pretty average compared to a pair of high end speakers.

Amazon is now going head to head with Sonos in the one space where Sonos had an advantage, the high end market. The Sonos Connect products have been the best game in town for high end Multi-Room audio for well over a decade. Amazon’s Echo Link products are an existential threat. Amazon is already entrenched in the home automation space. Now they’re offering a first party home audio solution like Sonos but with (presumably) far better Alexa functionality.
[doublepost=1537489323][/doublepost]

It’s already dead among younger people. It’s a generational thing. Older folks get worked up over privacy issues. Younger people don’t get what all the fuss is about.
Privacy is more of an age thing. Kids are stupid. They will realize privacy matters when they get older and those bikini try on videos they posted on YouTube are probably not the best idea.

Sonos competes with Apple in the high end smartspeaker market. I’m not talking about Klipsch, KEF, Martin Logan, and other speaker brands.

Apple has the advantage because they can do so much with the ecosystem, software, iPhone, Siri, and all their other hardware to make HomePod better. Sonos should stick to making regular speakers and sound bars.
 
Privacy is more of an age thing. Kids are stupid. They will realize privacy matters when they get older and those bikini try on videos they posted on YouTube are probably not the best idea.

Sonos competes with Apple in the high end smartspeaker market. I’m not talking about Klipsch, KEF, Martin Logan, and other speaker brands.

Apple has the advantage because they can do so much with the ecosystem, software, iPhone, Siri, and all their other hardware to make HomePod better. Sonos should stick to making regular speakers and sound bars.

Spoken like someone who knows nothing about Sonos. And Apple has no advantage whatsoever in the high end home market. I’m talking about people who own their homes and invest in home automation systems. I’m not talking about renters (or owners) who buy take-it-with-you products. I’m talking about people who spend money on audio, who want to choose their own speakers, etc. These are two completely different markets.

I know many home owners who have extensive Sonos systems. None of them own any of Sonos’s speakers, however, just Connect boxes. I own several Connect boxes myself. Again, Apple doesn’t compete here, so HomePod is irrelevant.

Sonos Connect has been a huge part of Sonos’s success. Back in the day, that was their only product. Go to any high end audio store and they will carry Sonos. Talk to people who design and install home automation systems and they pretty much always work with Sonos for audio. This is a completely different market from consumer smart speakers.

Until today Sonos was the only game in town. Now Amazon has a cheaper product with better Alexa functionality that does exactly what Sonos did (well not exactly since I doubt Amazon Echo Link supports Apple Music or Google, like Sonos does). This is going to hurt Sonos more than the HomePod (in its current form) ever could.
 
Incredibly hard if you have a handicap
That right there is the best reason for this.

I wonder if it hooks up to Alexa in the echo so it can give you a louder reminder than a “ding” when you are in a different room doing a bunch of stuff. Bonus if you have Alexa remind you after another few minutes >.>

Also wonder if you can do something like “defrost two pounds sliced turkey” and have it set the settings.
 
Privacy is more of an age thing. Kids are stupid. They will realize privacy matters when they get older and those bikini try on videos they posted on YouTube are probably not the best idea.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but since the HomePod can't differentiate between voices, don't you have to turn off many of the services that make it a smart speaker, else anyone would be able access your iCloud applications, like Mail, Reminders, iMessages, etc?
 
Sub is rather decently priced, but I wonder how good sounding it is. Sonos sub is pretty expensive, but sounds HELLA good. Seriously, it can shake the whole damn place apart and not even break a sweat doing it.

Not that I'd be caught dead bringing friggin' Alexa stuff into my home. Just gadget-curious, that's all... :)

Incredibly hard if you have a handicap
What sort of handicap do you have when you're capable of opening the freezer, grabbing food, moving over to the micro, opening the door and putting food inside, but then unable to simply punch in a few numbers on the keypad...? :p
 
Is it really that difficult to press a few buttons on a microwave? You want to make it smart, have it scan the food, know what it is and heat it properly without any user intervention. Just close the door and walk away.
 
Remember when Facebook started and the attraction of reconnecting with people from your past (as well as people you know currently) lubricated our grip on our privacy so that we willingly gave it all up? This is the extension of that. Inconspicuous looking dailly-use devices constantly absorbing our conversations, analysing them, spying on us, all for some greater evil purpose. They're also making us dumber and lazy.

Don't buy these things.
 
Spoken like someone who knows nothing about Sonos. And Apple has no advantage whatsoever in the high end home market. I’m talking about people who own their homes and invest in home automation systems. I’m not talking about renters (or owners) who buy take-it-with-you products. I’m talking about people who spend money on audio, who want to choose their own speakers, etc. These are two completely different markets.

I know many home owners who have extensive Sonos systems. None of them own any of Sonos’s speakers, however, just Connect boxes. I own several Connect boxes myself. Again, Apple doesn’t compete here, so HomePod is irrelevant.

Sonos Connect has been a huge part of Sonos’s success. Back in the day, that was their only product. Go to any high end audio store and they will carry Sonos. Talk to people who design and install home automation systems and they pretty much always work with Sonos for audio. This is a completely different market from consumer smart speakers.

Until today Sonos was the only game in town. Now Amazon has a cheaper product with better Alexa functionality that does exactly what Sonos did (well not exactly since I doubt Amazon Echo Link supports Apple Music or Google, like Sonos does). This is going to hurt Sonos more than the HomePod (in its current form) ever could.
Sonos is not as high end as you think it is. And I own my home, free and clear.

Just 1 of my subwoofers in my home theater setup costs more than any item on the Sonos website.

And Apple is going to eat Sonos’s lunch in this market.
 
The only thing that interests me is the sub. I hope an Airplay 2 subwoofer hits the market soon... HomePod can crush some serious bass, but not at loud volumes.


Let's get back to reality on this. Apple thinks the 3.5 mm headphone jack is legacy technology. Do you really think they're going to invest in a subwoofer?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Return Zero
Talk about throwing everything possible at a wall and seeing what sticks. I wasn't happy with Alexa or the Echo products so I moved on to HomePod's, everything works perfectly now. I think big releases like this are a bit creepy and kind of desperate. Their battle with Google is certainly heating up though. Smart move by Apple is to probably sit this one out for now.

This "sticks to wall" theme sounds like "talking points" big politicos receive from the powers that be to shape minds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DNichter
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.