Why would I buy a new homepod from Apple when my old OG started heating up, popping sounds. and finally a burning smell and Apple didn’t replace it?
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Apple Announces New HomePod for $299 With Full-Size Design, S7 Chip, and More
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Same, but surprised and disappointed that you left out espresso machine.
"Joking" aside, I'm excited to hear this. I wonder what the upside is versus buying two HomePod minis and saving $!00.
And that’s perfectly fine… but a proper understanding of who is preventing this should be a minimum requirement. Maybe, even, that same energy should be given in reverse… to a service that doesn’t work with your speaker system of choice… by their choice, as it happens. And a choice made to serve a campaign they’re running; unsuccessfully.
I really didn't expect that the hands down worst thing about getting old is remembering that Apple's after sales support didn't use to be like this. I used to hold my head high when I worked for retail because I knew we would always do the right thing by the customer. It's like remembering a different era. It was only 2012!
Does it have Bluetooth?
Apple today announced a second-generation full-size HomePod, available to order starting today for $299 in white and midnight color options. In-store availability and deliveries to customers will begin Friday, February 3 in select countries.
The second-generation HomePod features a virtually identical design as the full-size HomePod that was discontinued in March 2021, with a backlit touch surface and mesh fabric exterior. It features a four-inch high-excursion woofer, five tweeters, four microphones, an S7 chip for computational audio, a U1 chip for Ultra Wideband features like handing off music from an iPhone, and support for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. The speaker also has Siri integration and Matter support for HomeKit and other smart home accessories.
The new HomePod is 6.6-inches tall and weighs 5.1 pounds, compared to 6.8-inches and 5.5 pounds for the first-generation model, while both models are 5.6 inches wide. The new HomePod also has two fewer tweeters and microphones compared to the original model. The original HomePod was equipped with the A8 chip from the iPhone 6, while the new model has the S7 chip from the Apple Watch Series 7.
A new sensor in the HomePod can measure temperature and humidity in indoor environments, and this feature is also being enabled on the existing HomePod mini.
Apple will be expanding its Sound Recognition feature to the new HomePod with a software update this spring, allowing the speaker to listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and send a notification directly to a user's iPhone if a sound is identified.
Two second-generation HomePods can be paired for stereo sound, but one second-generation HomePod and one first-generation HomePod cannot.
At launch, the new HomePod will be available in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and 11 other countries, according to Apple. It is compatible with the iPhone 8 and later, any iPad Pro, the fifth-generation iPad and later, the third-generation iPad Air and later, and the fifth-generation iPad mini and later running iOS 16.3 or iPadOS 16.3 or later.
"Leveraging our audio expertise and innovations, the new HomePod delivers rich, deep bass, natural mid-range, and clear, detailed highs," said Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak. "With the popularity of HomePod mini, we've seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We're thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world."
Apple continues to sell the HomePod mini for $99.
Article Link: Apple Announces New HomePod for $299 With Full-Size Design, S7 Chip, and More
Why does it need a new design? My mini is not powerful enough and it was already too late for me when the OG was discontinued. This is great news. I am not sure why it needs to be redesigned. It’s a speaker.
EDIT: My post here was based on a misunderstanding on my part, and should be disregarded, but I will leave it here for context:
Apple today announced a second-generation full-size HomePod, available to order starting today for $299 in white and midnight color options. In-store availability and deliveries to customers will begin Friday, February 3 in select countries.
The second-generation HomePod features a virtually identical design as the full-size HomePod that was discontinued in March 2021, with a backlit touch surface and mesh fabric exterior. It features a four-inch high-excursion woofer, five tweeters, four microphones, an S7 chip for computational audio, a U1 chip for Ultra Wideband features like handing off music from an iPhone, and support for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. The speaker also has Siri integration and Matter support for HomeKit and other smart home accessories.
The new HomePod is 6.6-inches tall and weighs 5.1 pounds, compared to 6.8-inches and 5.5 pounds for the first-generation model, while both models are 5.6 inches wide. The new HomePod also has two fewer tweeters and microphones compared to the original model. The original HomePod was equipped with the A8 chip from the iPhone 6, while the new model has the S7 chip from the Apple Watch Series 7.
A new sensor in the HomePod can measure temperature and humidity in indoor environments, and this feature is also being enabled on the existing HomePod mini.
Apple will be expanding its Sound Recognition feature to the new HomePod with a software update this spring, allowing the speaker to listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and send a notification directly to a user's iPhone if a sound is identified.
Two second-generation HomePods can be paired for stereo sound, but one second-generation HomePod and one first-generation HomePod cannot.
At launch, the new HomePod will be available in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and 11 other countries, according to Apple. It is compatible with the iPhone 8 and later, any iPad Pro, the fifth-generation iPad and later, the third-generation iPad Air and later, and the fifth-generation iPad mini and later running iOS 16.3 or iPadOS 16.3 or later.
"Leveraging our audio expertise and innovations, the new HomePod delivers rich, deep bass, natural mid-range, and clear, detailed highs," said Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak. "With the popularity of HomePod mini, we've seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We're thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world."
Apple continues to sell the HomePod mini for $99.
Article Link: Apple Announces New HomePod for $299 With Full-Size Design, S7 Chip, and More
Price was never the issue, although every tech journalist seems to believe so. The race to zero has ended. Average selling price of soundbars are moving upwards, not downwards. The issue, which neither the tech media nor Apple itself seems to understand is that Homepod is an Airplay only device. It's also not that it lacks Bluetooth - cutting off Android and Windows is unlikely to be an issue to most prospective buyers. But no way to connect your TV? HDMI/ARC, optical or even analogue. That's a dealbreaker for anyone interested in putting this in their living room. It's essentially an Apple TV speaker. How many users exclusively use Apple TV? I'd guess not many. I do consider myself an Apple TV exclusive user - I watch all TV via Apple TV, and I don't have a physical disc player. But, without a way for the kids to get sound from the Nintendo? No deal.
The "Apple Tax" doesn't stop people buying almost all other Apple products in spades - because they are actually useful products, designed really nicely, at a premium price. Homepod is a useless product, designed really nicely, at a premium price.
Homepod Mini makes more sense, because it is essentially a voice controlled egg-timer at 99 dollars.
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Clarifying, yes, useless to you.
So the difference between useless or not is a few bucks? Strange logic, but ok.
Airplay 2 - Lag
Bluetooth 5.0 (not for audio, if it was, it would be SBC or AAC, basically lag city)
Never use Ultra wideband (ever)
SIRI sucks!
We routinely take ours outside during the summer. It’s nice that it (usually) recalibrates adequately after each move.
All the HomePods have Bluetooth. It's just not enabled for audio. If it was, it would be SBC/AAC (lag).
Sure, it would be great as a status thing to say, hey, I have a HomePod, I am in the cool crowd! But honestly, it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as the Bose and, the speaker is too tall for my location.
I tried the homepod (decent sound for the size, not really any deep bass, SIRI a bit useless).
I also had 2 homepod minis. Stereo seperation was great! But, sound was lacking in any bass, so pretty useless for watching movies.
But, after having an Amazon Echo Studio and 4th Gen one, both the HomePods sound much better.
Compared to the Bose though, no comparison.
My hope is that the used market will finally adjust and the prices come down. I have an og HomePod I want to pair.
Useless to the majority of the audience, which is proven by the failure of the original. I did take the time to provide context. I guess it was faster to delete my context than to provide your own counter argument.
And two-thirds of the price is not "a few bucks". Obviously if the large Homepod was 99 dollars, it would be just as useful as the Homepod Mini. 99 dollars for "a voice controlled egg-timer" is fine - on the high side, but it's Apple. 299 is not fine unless you provide more usability, regardless of the difference in sound. The large Homepod Mini sounds good enough to be most people's living room system. But Apple chose not to provide that option. So now it is a 299 dollar kitchen speaker.
On second thought, I don’t want downgraded Speakers, Wi-Fi and mics.
Airplay is slow on my stereo pair AS IS.
Need to listen and check out reviews to see if audio quality has improved (doesn’t seem likely).
I understand, but still find it strange that they discontinued a product, only to release a slightly upgraded version just two years later. Why? Suddenly it will start selling well? Suddenly it is worth releasing a new version? Is it due to change in market strategy? Who knows...
Obviously not a failure.
I guess I didn’t buy the original argument or think it was the crux of what needed response to.
No. Your putting a dollar amount in “useless” or not.
If the iPhone pro max was $99 they wouldnt be able to keep it in stock either.
I like my og HomePod. But what you are saying is getting an Amazon echo mini for free, which is a terrible speaker is ok?
It sounds good for it’s size, but the OG HomePod is far better in terms of sound.
Yes, it’s a terrific $299 speaker and of course as with everything the price to value ratio is always debated.
My first generation is dead after a OS update. Not sure if I trust Apple again
You can? In that case, I stand corrected! I did not know that (I use a projector setup so no ARC for me, but that’s an edge case).
Does this only work for Homepod, or for all Airplay speakers?
It seems the premise for my answer was wrong, so no point in continuing the argument, which I wasn’t going to do anyway since you cut my post to pieces.
The HomePod has no local files, but if you are using Music on a Mac it can play local files to the HomePod over Airplay and you can use Siri on the Mac to control that.
I had the same issue and ended up buying a second one anyway when they went on sale prior to discontinuing them. For my space, there just wasn’t another product out there that had a speaker that sounded as good with this footprint with the speakers projecting a 360 degree pattern and with voice control. The bigger issue for me was for it to be able to hear me over music and which none of my echo dots can without screaming at them. Also, this can be controlled with the watch which is nice when i am working in the kitchen or eating at the table.
Still not happy that first one died ( easily the shortest lived product I have from Apple…
my 2nd Gen IPod still works!), but I got a couple years of use out of it and we used it pretty much every day.
Very exciting news! I’m thinking about picking up 2 to do the stereo paring.
I don’t get this one. Seems like they cheapened it up, maybe made some software advancements, and charge the same price (while the previous one kind of flopped in their eyes). They didn’t even fix the lack of audio inputs, correct? Hopefully this one won’t break after a couple of years!