I’m a bit disappointed at this HomePod release. It seems the only additional features are a newer SoC and a U1 chip that enables handoff. I’m assuming it also has Thread and is supported as a Matter hub, which the OG HomePod cannot do. The most disappointing is the price. $299 was too high for any demand for the OG HomePod, so I don’t quite understand why Apple would release nearly the same product for the same unpalatable price. If this operated as a dock for an iPad or something like that, it would be a killer device, but it seems this is pretty much HomePod 1.1, not really a 2.0. There’s absolutely nothing this thing has that would make this sell any better.
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Apple Announces New HomePod for $299 With Full-Size Design, S7 Chip, and More
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Uhmppfff why Apple, why? The first one was a bust. Why do you think releasing a new one that’s worse is going to make it sell better?
What a wasted opportunity to lower the price AND improve sound quality and add in Bluetooth support for android users
What a wasted opportunity to lower the price AND improve sound quality and add in Bluetooth support for android users
Wow, two less tweeters, a smaller size, less microphones, and a useless new chip to sense humidity and temperature. Sorry, Im keeping the original!
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No it's not. It's a lot for a mediocre speaker. It's nothing for a *great* speaker. Too bad Apple hasn't built one yet. My current speaker set cost ~6500USD and I don't think they were too expensive. They were a bargain for that quality.
I did purchase two 2nd gen Homepod minis just to see if they improved any from the original ones. Still meh. Considering using them only for my home automation system's voice communication but the problem is that they're so stupid. They can handle only a fraction of the commands my iPhone handles without issues, and that is a huge problem for me. I'd got with some other brand but Siri is the only voice assistant that understands Finnish. I've got a few Echo dots etc but can't be arsed to use them because I don't want to speak murican to them.
I just played a high-resolution file (24/96) that was in the Files app directly to my og HomePod. Hope that helps answer the question ✌️
Not likely. Folks with trained ears love the original HomePods enough that there has always been very solid used demand. If these new ones do as good a job as the original HP they will succeed. The originals failed because of lousy marketing not because of bad product.
P.S. I will add a pair to my existing pair of original HPs.
I won’t believe the fewer microphones and fewer speakers work as well or better until it’s proven.
Also because of a high pricepoint, at least they slashed $50 off that but I personally doubt itll sell like hotcakes at $299.
If we see a lot of sales like we do with the minis and with airpod pros that drop the price substantially from places like amazon, costco, and as someone else mentioned best buy that may make it more palatable.
APPs sell new from Apple at $249 but sat at the $180 pricepoint on amazon for most of the past couple years (I assume the new ones will hit that too soon).
If this regularly hits $199 the same way that’ll sell a lot I think. At $199 I’ll pick up one, just speaking personally, $299 is too much for me.
The original HP product was not unpalatable (not even the price), it was mis-marketed directly against cheapo crap Echos. Hopefully this time around Apple markets the larger HP to folks who will pay for good sound like I will. The HomePod Mini exists now, so the full size has no need to go low.
Folks who will "pick up one" for $199 may not need this product. The $299 is justified for the good sound, but it is really $598 because good sound requires stereo (why we have two ears).
I think it was their propensity for getting bricked.
As an original owner of 2 OGs, one of which bricked (and was abandoned by Apple), I won’t be buying another.
The bass was never up to scratch for music with a high dynamic range. Maybe great for bands, but crap for electronic.
Less powerful processor, less tweeters and mics.
You can bet it doesn't sound as good as the original.
You can bet it doesn't sound as good as the original.
I agree the product wasn’t unpalatable. I have two of them myself, attached as a pair on my AppleTV. I didn’t pay full price on either of them, getting both on deep discount at different times. The price was unpalatable to most people. If it were properly priced, Apple wouldn’t have discontinued the OG. But this one is barely different from the OG for the same price.
Already updates have been reported to brick original HomePods. I do not update them.
The problem with the original HP was that it was mis-marketed directly against the $99 Echo. Today that role is filled by the Mini. The great sounding larger size can be larger price.
I have a hypothesis: people bought the mini in droves and (among folks I know anyway) really love it. My guess is that a good percentage of mini owners will upgrade now that they've been exposed to a pretty decent plug and play audio solution that just works with their iPhone. For that crowd this really is an upgrade over the mini (if the difference in sound between the original HP and mini holds, something we can only assume) and it's no longer an entry level product.
I'd liken it to people who buy premium whiskey. They started with Evan Williams or whatever and liked it so they started exploring upwards. $80 for a bottle doesn't seem so out of line if you already know you're going to enjoy it.
Looks like we lose mu-mimo on the 2nd gen.
someone correct me if I’m wrong, the OG had .ac (Wi-Fi 6) WITH mu-mimo
someone correct me if I’m wrong, the OG had .ac (Wi-Fi 6) WITH mu-mimo
I’m glad to see they resurrected the device. I love the original and since my wife and I live in the Apple ecosystem including HomeKit, a family subscription to Apple Music and multiple Apple TV it made perfect sense for us but I’m concerned that $299 is still too much for most users to keep this iteration alive which is why they should’ve included support for Bluetooth and/or an audio input jack.
My original HomePod still works well so I won’t be replacing that anytime soon. The question is will we see a nice price drop for a like new original HomePod
on eBay now?
When they were discontinued it became hard to find them for their original price. I was considering buying one to create a stereo pair for use with the Apple TV in our living room but ultimately decided against it in hopes they’d release another version plus it didn’t make a lot of sense to spend that much on a device of that age with a discontinued status.
Now that hey have a new one but it won’t pair with the original the question is does the price drop enough on the used market to snap up a like new original for a seriously significant cost savings or does it make sense to buy two of these new HomePods for that and move the original HomePod somewhere else in the house where we’ve got a single HomePod mini presently?
My original HomePod still works well so I won’t be replacing that anytime soon. The question is will we see a nice price drop for a like new original HomePod
on eBay now?
When they were discontinued it became hard to find them for their original price. I was considering buying one to create a stereo pair for use with the Apple TV in our living room but ultimately decided against it in hopes they’d release another version plus it didn’t make a lot of sense to spend that much on a device of that age with a discontinued status.
Now that hey have a new one but it won’t pair with the original the question is does the price drop enough on the used market to snap up a like new original for a seriously significant cost savings or does it make sense to buy two of these new HomePods for that and move the original HomePod somewhere else in the house where we’ve got a single HomePod mini presently?
So tell me, what are they doing different now? Other than rerealising a 3 year old product for the same price
Good catch on this. 802.11ac is actually WiFi 5, but looking at the specs page, Apple downgraded this new HomePod to WiFi 4, aka 802.11n