Apple Hosting Live HomePod Question-and-Answer Event on July 25

[nt5672]

Isn’t it ironic that you have to ask human beings about how to use a device powered by artificial intelligence.

Excellent comment! Maybe they'll use the QA to train Siri? Nope, I forgot, it's Apple and this is strictly a marketing ploy.
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HomePod is only going to get better with time as Siri improves with updates. I love the sound on my HomePod and does the job that’s required. It’s not the final product and needs time to improve with software updates.

I think this is not necessarily true. Apple moves the development team on to the next big thing for all products that are not iPhones. There is a risk that the HomePod does not improve before Apple decides to move most of its team to something else. That's how Apple works.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Excellent comment! Maybe they'll use the QA to train Siri? Nope, I forgot, it's Apple and this is strictly a marketing ploy.
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I think this is not necessarily true. Apple moves the development team on to the next big thing for all products that are not iPhones. There is a risk that the HomePod does not improve before Apple decides to move most of its team to something else. That's how Apple works.

They will continue to improve Siri even if it’s not the big update we all want. Any improvements to Siri will will be improvements for the HomePod.

 

[Traverse]

[doublepost=1532257276][/doublepost]I also have 2, stereo paired.

But what annoys me is that I alway have to go back to my Apple TV settings to make a movie play through both devices, after I may have used the two HP’s to broadcast an Apple Music channel or Podcast.

Surely iOS should be able the learn that given we have multiple devices - and we come into the HP space it should automatically understand that any device that is of priority, sends audio via HP.

But no! Every time, you must go to ATV and change to HP.

How do you set HP as default?

Right now I have one in my bedroom and one in my office. Last weekend I put the bedroom one in the office for a stereo pair because I had a full day of work and it was phenomenal...but I want one in my room.

Right now they’re separate again and I’m fighting the urge to get another. I’d really like a HomePod mini. My bedroom is small and much of the HomePodks sound prowess is wasted in that room. A $199 mini with less, but still good, sound would be perfect.

 

[MarkB786]

What in the world is Apple thinking? Is Homepod that difficult to use? Or are sales so bad that they have to try just about anything to get people to "love" this ugly, under-performing, expensive thing?

 

[Tapiture]

Which ways are those?

Better bang for your buck, easy to use and functional iOS app, support for every streaming service and radio under the sun, even has an AMP which you can use to control other kinds of speakers with the Sonos system. Added bonus: you aren’t bugging your house with a microphone (unless you get the Alexa-enabled ones).

 

[HMFIC03]

I’d just like to wake up to music with it. Why the hell that is not a function is beyond my comprehension. If someone knows a way, please let me know.

 

[Bswails]

Why can't Siri understand foreign artists names? So much for a musicologist....

It struggles with American artist also

 

[Cesar Battistini]

What in the world is Apple thinking? Is Homepod that difficult to use? Or are sales so bad that they have to try just about anything to get people to "love" this ugly, under-performing, expensive thing?

Where is it underperforming?

iOS 12 will help Siri a lot.

And it sounds great!

 

[Bswails]

HomePod is only going to get better with time as Siri improves with updates. I love the sound on my HomePod and does the job that’s required. It’s not the final product and needs time to improve with software updates.

I do hope the “speaker first” statement made when the HomePod was introduced was apples way of saying this version and not the HomePod 3 will be capable of improving its smarts.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I’d just like to wake up to music with it. Why the hell that is not a function is beyond my comprehension. If someone knows a way, please let me know.

Maybe you can set a shortcut for that with iOS 12?
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I do hope the “speaker first” statement made when the HomePod was introduced was apples way of saying this version and not the HomePod 3 will be capable of improving its smarts.

Well it shouldn’t need more hardware to improve as Siri is software based. They should be able to improve it with software updates.

 

[Arran]

Who's the intended audience?

Wednesday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m isn't very practical if you have a day job.

 

[KGBguy]

Have a question about the HomePod?

Apple announced that it will be hosting a HomePod live event in its Support Communities on Wednesday, July 25, providing customers with an opportunity to ask Apple support representatives questions about the Siri-enabled speaker.

Specialists will be on hand between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Pacific Time, answering questions about a variety of topics in real time:To participate in the event when it goes live, head to the HomePod Community on the Apple Support Communities, sign in to or create an Apple ID account, click Post > Discussion in the upper-right corner, and submit a question.

Specialists already monitor the Apple Support Communities, and occasionally answer questions, but this event should lead to faster answers.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

Article Link: Apple Hosting Live HomePod Question-and-Answer Event on July 25

Not even an event like this will save Apple from its disaster named Siri

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

Have a question about the HomePod?...

"How can Siri grow a [stereo] pair"?/s

 

[Piggie]

Bixby isn’t too bad, at least in what it tries to do. However I just think it’s not needed when people have google assistant on their phones which is a lot better. I did try it out but it just stopped responding to me after a few days and kept saying it couldn’t understand me. It got disabled on the S8 plus and I’ve done the same on the S9 plus. I disabled it as soon as I set the phone up. It’s a bit better than S voice but that’s not saying much because S voice was a pile of crap. Siri is a hundred times better than Bixby.

Samsung are trying to build an ecosystem so that’s why they are insisting with bixby. However it’s too late in the day even if it were any good which at the moment it’s not.

Why do you think the Management at Samsung simply cannot understand this?
Do you feel they are delusional ?

Everyone knows this will fail, except apparently them.
5 years ago+ they may have stood a chance, but not now.

Yet they are still going to make it. It's funny isn't it that they can't accept that time has moved on and they are wasting their time trying with this.
Unless of course, by some miracle of Chinese cleverness Bixby became the super AI no one else has managed yet

 

[Edsel]

This is kind'a like Apple opening their front doors to the masses. I'm confident Apple HomePod specialists will have amusing stories to tell after this adventure. They are probably a little nervous about the prospects as well.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Why do you think the Management at Samsung simply cannot understand this?
Do you feel they are delusional ?

Everyone knows this will fail, except apparently them.
5 years ago+ they may have stood a chance, but not now.

Yet they are still going to make it. It's funny isn't it that they can't accept that time has moved on and they are wasting their time trying with this.
Unless of course, by some miracle of Chinese cleverness Bixby became the super AI no one else has managed yet

We're way off topic here, but what the heck...

Yes, it may be too late for Samsung, but considering the size of their market share in many consumer product categories, it's probably not a futile attempt. Unlike Google, which depends almost entirely on other makers' hardware, Samsung can sell its customers on an entire ecosystem. They're in enough product segments that it's a very short step to the fully-connected home - refrigerators, washers and dryers, ovens, air conditioners, TV/home cinema, etc. They have more ways to be sticky than Apple, with control of more smart device segments than just about anyone else.

 

[Keirasplace]

We're way off topic here, but what the heck...

Yes, it may be too late for Samsung, but considering the size of their market share in many consumer product categories, it's probably not a futile attempt. Unlike Google, which depends almost entirely on other makers' hardware, Samsung can sell its customers on an entire ecosystem. They're in enough product segments that it's a very short step to the fully-connected home - refrigerators, washers and dryers, ovens, air conditioners, TV/home cinema, etc. They have more ways to be sticky than Apple, with control of more smart device segments than just about anyone else.

You think people will buy all Samsung Appliances + TV + ... ? That's the problem with the way Samsung are trying to run things. And what if the module with the "smart thing" breaks, become obsolete, they still don't do proper updates on TV's Blue Rays and you think they'll do right on big ticket items. Running the home from those things is a recepie for pain long term. Appliances are meant to be bought for a decade.

Ideally, there should be an open protocol to communicate with all devices in the house and people could just buy / upgrade / fix modules as needed. The fridge and the like should concentrate on sensors to provide the data. The appliances could have a basic functionality using those modules when people just buy them.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Why do you think the Management at Samsung simply cannot understand this?
Do you feel they are delusional ?

Everyone knows this will fail, except apparently them.
5 years ago+ they may have stood a chance, but not now.

Yet they are still going to make it. It's funny isn't it that they can't accept that time has moved on and they are wasting their time trying with this.
Unless of course, by some miracle of Chinese cleverness Bixby became the super AI no one else has managed yet

They are Korean.

 

[Nuvi]

It’s somewhat funny that Apple came out with HomePod when there are already many good products out there. I would get it if Apple had plethora of products from low end devices to state of the art workstations but as we know there are only few devices available and some of them a screaming for an update. Then for some strange reason they release HomePod, a device which can’t claim leapfrogging anything else except the objectivity of its designers.

 

[ipponrg]

Why do you think the Management at Samsung simply cannot understand this?
Do you feel they are delusional ?

Everyone knows this will fail, except apparently them.
5 years ago+ they may have stood a chance, but not now.

Yet they are still going to make it. It's funny isn't it that they can't accept that time has moved on and they are wasting their time trying with this.
Unless of course, by some miracle of Chinese cleverness Bixby became the super AI no one else has managed yet

What is amusing about this is that we are looking at it from a different perspective. Having worked with Samsung in Korea on projects, I assure you that there are some culture differences that causes them to think this way.

Are they wrong? Not necessarily. Perhaps just as close minded as we are in our bubble

 

[bbednarz]

Better bang for your buck, easy to use and functional iOS app, support for every streaming service and radio under the sun, even has an AMP which you can use to control other kinds of speakers with the Sonos system. Added bonus: you aren’t bugging your house with a microphone (unless you get the Alexa-enabled ones).

Better bang for your buck seems pretty subjective. Most reports put HomePod in the same realm of a Sonos Play:3 or two Sonos Ones paired together. Add in Siri functionality and it isn't all that wild of a price.
Controlling the HomePod with your phone is rather easy and does not require a secondary app. Just select Airplay and then the HomePod as your audio source. This will work with any streaming service or sound that comes from your phone. You can even control Sonos products with AirPlay 2. Your house is already "bugged" with microphones in your phones. I'm not saying Sonos is a bad product, in fact I plan to get a number of their speakers to compliment the HomePod throughout the house. I just fail to see how it is "inferior to Sonos in almost every way". By saying that it sounds like you are just hating on the HomePod or don't fully understand how it works.

 

[philpalmiero]

Sounds desperate.

 

[Tapiture]

Better bang for your buck seems pretty subjective. Most reports put HomePod in the same realm of a Sonos Play:3 or two Sonos Ones paired together. Add in Siri functionality and it isn't all that wild of a price.
Controlling the HomePod with your phone is rather easy and does not require a secondary app. Just select Airplay and then the HomePod as your audio source. This will work with any streaming service or sound that comes from your phone. You can even control Sonos products with AirPlay 2. Your house is already "bugged" with microphones in your phones. I'm not saying Sonos is a bad product, in fact I plan to get a number of their speakers to compliment the HomePod throughout the house. I just fail to see how it is "inferior to Sonos in almost every way". By saying that it sounds like you are just hating on the HomePod or don't fully understand how it works.

Ah yes, you can play anything using Airplay 2, as long as you have an Apple device running iOS 11.4 or later. At that point, what’s the purpose of even having Siri on it? If you’re not an Apple Music subscriber you can’t ask it to play a song or playlist. And let’s be honest, that’s all Siri’s good for, it’s pretty dumb about everything else. With Sonos, I can ask my Echo Dot to play Spotify or Amazon Music or NPR in any room in the house. Also, on the Sonos app I can make playlists combining songs from my Google Play, Spotify, Amazon Music, songs from iTunes on my device or even audio files on my desktop computer.

I suppose if I was completely integrated with Apple then the HomePod would work for me. But, Sonos would STILL work just as well or better!

 

[philpalmiero]

Ah yes, you can play anything using Airplay 2, as long as you have an Apple device running iOS 11.4 or later. At that point, what’s the purpose of even having Siri on it? If you’re not an Apple Music subscriber you can’t ask it to play a song or playlist. And let’s be honest, that’s all Siri’s good for, it’s pretty dumb about everything else. With Sonos, I can ask my Echo Dot to play Spotify or Amazon Music or NPR in any room in the house. Also, on the Sonos app I can make playlists combining songs from my Google Play, Spotify, Amazon Music, songs from iTunes on my device or even audio files on my desktop computer.

I suppose if I was completely integrated with Apple then the HomePod would work for me. But, Sonos would STILL work just as well or better!

I thught all you needed was an Apple Music account and then tell Siri what you want to listen too.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Maybe they can finally answer why my HomePod disappears on all my devices as an AirPlay option and the only thing that fixes it is unplugging it and replugging it back in. I've messed with the router settings. Apple gave me a new unit and everything and I cannot figure it out for the life of me and it's SOURING the experience that every day I have to unplug it and replug it back in just to AirPlay.

My Google Home does this too. Actually the only assistant that has never done it is my Echo.