I agree it should have been available when Apple Music launched. Even then I’m not sure how successful it would be.
Before I eat my own words, I don’t think this product will fly far. I think it will go the way of the Hi-Fi.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook: Hardware and Software Integration Will Set HomePod Apart From Competitors
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Before I eat my own words, I don’t think this product will fly far. I think it will go the way of the Hi-Fi.
I couldn't agree more. Just like all the photo's of the HomePod, only show it's sides and touch panel, and when it's 'In the home' those photos have it sat on a table or sideboard. Can you see a power cord? Nope, neither can I, the specs don't state it has one, so that is clearly misrepresentation of it's product.
Is the power port at the bottom, or on the back? Who knows! If they had thought harder, they might have considered having a battery, and building the unit with a glass bottom, so that it could wirelessly be charged. Then a nice table 'coaster' charging pad could have been designed to power/charge it!
While that sounds great - the power that size of a speaker would draw might not be feasible for a wireless charging solution. It still would need to be plugged in, no? Lol. Power source has to come from somewhere so you’ll still get a power cord somewhere.
The HomePod is as much an Apple Watch accessory as it is an iPhone accessory.
The way I see it, the HomePod, like the Apple Watch, will play towards Apple’s future wearables ecosystem.
It only seems like an overpriced speaker with a gimped digital assistant at the moment.
Here's the problem:
I believe Apple when they say the audio quality is great. But Apple's riding far too much on its software for it to be worthwhile. Lots of people already have a home speaker set up. Or a Sonos. And those have way better input options.
If you're going to hide away your 'amazing sounding' speaker with Apple-only integration, no Aux/Optical etc etc, your software had better be amazing so that I'm never yearning for the ability to plug something into the HomePod itself, or use a competitor product. But Siri is crap. Pure crap. Google Home is better for info, and Alexa has a better personality for being a home assistant.
Either Apple has a huge Siri update coming out soon, or this really is a just a closed-access-ecosystem circular speaker.
I believe Apple when they say the audio quality is great. But Apple's riding far too much on its software for it to be worthwhile. Lots of people already have a home speaker set up. Or a Sonos. And those have way better input options.
If you're going to hide away your 'amazing sounding' speaker with Apple-only integration, no Aux/Optical etc etc, your software had better be amazing so that I'm never yearning for the ability to plug something into the HomePod itself, or use a competitor product. But Siri is crap. Pure crap. Google Home is better for info, and Alexa has a better personality for being a home assistant.
Either Apple has a huge Siri update coming out soon, or this really is a just a closed-access-ecosystem circular speaker.
Your comment will be nominated for an award in the “Best and most accurate comment of the week” Category. You have a great chance to win.
I am slightly confused, the Apple zealots and cultists are blindly attacking anyone who dares compare the homepod to another product because the homepod is not out yet. Yet at the same time the zealots and cultists are raving about all aspects of a product that isn't out and they haven't used.
Oh and you should be embarrassed to actually have claimed EVERY reviewer who has heard both claims the home pod is much better sounding device when a simple google search show that to be a complete lie.
Until it's released and reviewed i NEVER count Apple out even with all comments about being late to the game and so on. The Airpods ended up being delayed and they are great i use mine everyday, if the HomePod is as good as the AirPods then i will be happy.
I'm afraid that Homepod will become another airport device! It will be supported for a while and then forgotten! I had their hifi speaker, airport expresses, time capsules! We all know one update it takes it to make that device absolete, useless and forgotten!
Off-topic, but I can reply to normal SMS messages from my Mac?
Won't even consider a HomePod until it gets Spotify support which I highly doubt is ever coming. More than happy with my Play:5 with voice control via a Chromecast Audio and Google Home (and hopefully native support using Google Assistant later this year).
There are early reviews from June at WWDC where a few people heard the HomePod.
https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/06/homepod-review-sound-quality-audio-quality-hifi/
When you say "reviewer", you mean the hand picked invitees to the Apple event? The same people who give a standing ovation to everything being said on stage. Yeah, no bias there.
Oh I understand exactly what he was implying. It ain't what you wrote. That was a clear "cuz Apple, so better... cuz profit" meme level implication.
Even if he was implying what you wrote, the logic wouldn't hold up under scrutiny, because the same company that has more research, more capital, and better access to components is also responsible for Siri and the "oops we painted ourself into a thermal corner and can't get out of it so we will just not upgrade our computer AND not say anything about it until customer climb in our bung" Mac Pro. I don't say that to slag on Apple. I say that to point out the theory doesn't work and there's no way humanly possible to discern what you wrote by looking at what was quoted.
Anyone know what time the preorder starts on Friday? Wasn’t sure if it was 12pm pacific time like iPhone is. Thanks!
Not really the only one but in the minority since the majority are watching Faux News and think the book 1984 by George Orwell is a manual for living.
I think the most legit complaint of the Cook era at Apple is the missing ‘why’ from product launches. We get the what and how but not the why. It’s easy to understand why the Echo and Google Home exist. But why does HomePod exist? Is it to drive more Apple Music subs and therefore increase Apple’s services revenues? Is Apple going to position it as the hub of their home automation efforts? Just saying it’s a speaker with breakthrough sound quality or whatever marketing superlatives they’re using doesn’t tell us why the product exists. Maybe it’s as simple as Apple execs thinking they need to play in the smart speaker space and know Siri isn’t good enough yet so they shifted the focus to high quality audio with some smarts. But that doesn’t seem like a big market to me.
Walk me through how you conflated "not a hardship" with "huge plus to the ecosystem. Answering a text on your phone is not a hardship. Just ain't.