What? It’s sad that Apple shipped a product with so much overhead silicon (A8) available that it will receive updates for years and improve without needing replacement?
The nerve.
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Apple Cuts HomePod Orders After Sales Prove to Be Lackluster
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The nerve.
I meant the nonstop whining lol.
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It is ways listening locally, but will on activate when it hears "hey Siri" which is the main reason you can't just customize the activation word.
Maybe it was just the Home Max, but anytime I’d pause it for any real length of time it would de-sync from the video. So if you have to go to the bathroom. Disconnect, reconnect.
As I said, “everything wrong”.
This product isn’t Apple’s first dud. Remember Apple Hi-Fi?
Siri is barely adequate on the iPhone... so when they strip away the phone which enables workarounds to its shortcomings and put Siri into a speaker as a stand-alone feature, it’s a bad experience.
That’s ridiculous, would wind me up no end. Sounds like the Bluetooth is going into sleep or low power mode and dropping connection. Not very good no.
They should cut orders. Nobody wants to buy a speaker that all it does is play apple music (which no one uses) and is crazy expensive
It is the best Siri experience. Its microphones allow it to hear over music, barking dogs (speaking from experience), and other noise (which the Echo doesn't). It has a much better understanding of what you are saying, as well. It can understand the albums you are requesting better than any iOS device I have tried (better with specific albums than the Echo, as well). No, it doesn't have the ability to push you to a screen like the iPhone, but for music, weather, turning on an alarm, etc. it is accurate nearly every time.
The device isn't a dud after being released a couple months ago. It will never own the market share when compared to a bunch of typically discounted $50 products. Lets see the (estimated) profits after a year and then decide. Most articles had Amazon losing hundreds of millions year after year on the Echo. Apple is also selling this to hook people into their ecosystem and add them to Apple Music...which has been growing faster than ever since the HomePod's release.
Apple is late to the game. Amazon and Google will continue to own this market with superior software even if the hardware is subpar. Not surprising at all.
They have different goals. Apple wants to make a profit on hardware and add value to their ecosystem. At this point, they don't care about owning the market. Amazon owns the market right now. They want them in every home so it can be easier to sell you Amazon stuff. They don't need to make money on them. Google wants more and more of your information to add to their data banks. They make a ton of money on your personal information, so this just adds to it. Very different goals. As per usual, Apple isn't in it for market share or being a loss leader.
Sorry. What extra security does HomeKit provide by not providing any form of webhook or API to allow it to send commands to arbitrary hardware? Since Alexa and Google Assistant both do offer that functionality, where exactly is the vulnerability in those platforms introduced by the feature?
How is it on the manufacturer that Apple does not offer any API or way to access their service and will sue any commercial company who tries to use it without paying Apple their vigorish?
And you continue to twist everyone's words. He said it's basically useless. So you found a use for it. To me there is no use for it because I don't care for Apple music and have no iTunes purchased music. If it could connect to my TV (no, not Apple TV), game console, and play my ripped CD collection, I'd already own one.
Also, in tech, HP = Hewlett Packard. Referring to it as HP is just making it confusing what you're talking about and you're not going to steal the acronym from them. It's a HomePod, nobody at Apple calls it an HP.
I do have Apple TV and I do have Apple purchased music, but the fact that I can't use it for my TV or game console also makes me not want one.
Thin margins will make cutting price difficult.
https://www.slashgear.com/apple-homepod-build-cost-hints-at-thin-margins-14519606/
Apple HomePod build cost hints at thin margins - SlashGear
[doublepost=1523659501][/doublepost]Last Apple speaker had better margins and only lasted on the market for 18 months. How long until Apple bails?
Last one was also $350 but not $216 to make and require back end service.
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In all blind tests I have seen the Google home Max has come out on top.
Any where the HP had better sound?
I predict it will be both.
Apple owns the best customers (defined as those with a higher propensity to spend) by virtue of the iPhone. As such, I believe Apple will go on to dominate the high end of the smart speaker market and rake in the lion's share of the hardware profits. At the same time, if they can lock users into the Apple ecosystem (since you pretty much need an iPhone and be subscribed to Apple Music to make this work), all the better. Bonus if this converts a few spotify users to Apple Music as well.
Amazon and Google will dominate over everything else. They will earn through ad revenue and user data, while earning practically nothing from their hardware. The main user of an Amazon echo is a spotify user who doesn't mind interacting with Alexa. I don't think there is much overlap with Apple's target market in this regard.
The real losers will be the makers of "dumb" speakers who have no way of differentiating their products. Incorporating Alexa or Google assistant will simply mean they are slaves to another company. Not at all unlike the current iOS / Android duopoly of today.
In short, business as usual.
Every blind test I have seen the Max has better sound.
Do you have one where the HP has better sound?
First point. I might be the only odd one on this forum, but none of my friends, family, and extended friends/family have an Apple Music subscription. So I always find this tidbit rather interesting given people around me who cover a decent breadth of social culture aren't using Apple Music.
The second point is I am highly dubious that many users will use the HomePod as a reason for an Apple Music subscription. It seems most people that bought the HomePod either already had a Apple Music subscription or were just looking to see if it was what they were expecting. I'm sure there are people that have signed up, but I feel the sample is very small.
Replaced our Echo with Google homes. They are way smarter and far easier to interact with as for most things can say it however pops up in your head.
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Get the Google home max. Great sound and a much better assistant then Alexa.
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That is an execuse and not why.
Again.... groundbreaking. ::eye roll::
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For real. Why would any idiot pay for a speaker that only plays audio that Apple approves ? I’m beginning to see why everyone calls Apple fans sheeps. (Me being an Apple fan and only use Apple
Products)
Well I know in the UK people on EE get apple music free for 6 months so I bet a large amount have taken this on. I bought the homepod knowing about it's limitations. I got it for sound and to use with all my homekit plus listening to podcasts. Siri isn't at the level it needs to be at. Hopefully it does improve as now apple are in the smart speaker game it needs to be at that google home level.
I actually haven’t seen any tests where the Google Home Max came out on top nor have I seen any real scientific blind tests... only a few amateur attempts like the one done by Twit that isn’t worth considering cos even a slight difference in volume will influence the listener.
What I do know for a fact is that Google Home Max distorts and can’t pick up voice commands as it approaches max volume, making it flawed out of the gate. I also know that audio quality will fall off dramatically if I stand next to or behind the Google Home Max, unlike HP.
Also, it’s big and bulky, lacks the design aesthetics and elegance of HP, and doesn’t deliver any new tech yet costs $50 more.
So when taking in all those factors, I still stand by my assertion that HomePod is the best value in speakers today.
If someone disagrees, I’m ok with that since sound quality is subjective.
40 million customers subscribe to Apple Music. So yeah there is a market and this will catch on; if not caught on yet.
Good point. I was disappointed when I found out my HomePod didn’t have a real touchscreen display on top. You know; a display that maybe one day, after a firmware upgrade, I could interact with to view album artwork, names, artists, etc - like an old-school iPod.
Because while a sound-only UI may sound superficially ideal for a sound-generating device, it became frustrating when I wanted to play a particular version of a song (live, remix, acoustic, duet with ‘artist-xyz’) and I couldn’t remember exactly how that track was named in my library. Huge design miss on Apple’s part.