AirPlay syncs everything up, audio and video. User interface sounds in real time from Apple TV come out of the TV speakers, but everything else is seamless.
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Apple Music to Launch on Amazon's Echo Devices the Week of December 17
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Exactly - this allows the Apple Music service to hit a wide user base at a fraction of the cost of HomePod. Smart move and little to no cannibalization of their hardware.
As soon as they add an Apple Music app for Roku, I’ll switch music subscription over AND buy a HomePod.
Until then...
Until then...
Right now it is still possible to reject this invasion into privacy. And while I agree that it might not mean anything right now, but in the future, if not rejected now, you will have no choice. Period, no choice that private information is kept or where it is kept or who as access to it.
The real problem is that once you do realize that it is a problem, it will not be changeable.
Interesting. Services have never been Apple's strength. Hardware was. This move somewhat undermines their hardware strategy (as far as higher prices are concerned). It's not obvious if they will be able to compete on the basis of services alone. It appears that they have realized that the current strategy has run its course and are trying to find a new one. We'll see how this goes.
Valid point. I'm simply very weary of AI at this point and the future. I understand Apple will never offer a $29 Siri solution with hardware. I simply would feel safer not having to interact with an Amazon device. I have plenty of grievances with Apple these days as well, but privacy and Amazon are like water and oil.
If it looks in sync to you I don't want to break that illusion for you
It wouldn't be acceptable for me, and I don't want the hassle different speaker systems for different applications
That's what AirPlay 2 does. There is a 2 second buffer, and the video is also buffered to sync with the audio. It's also why Airplay wireless headphones are much better than bluetooth wireless headphones at keeping both channels in sync.
It's a fudge that makes gaming impossible but basic non-interactive video playback can often look "fine", but IMO not worthy of a premium price and not a compromise worth making
That's a cliche that keeps getting repeated and simply isn't true.
Apple launched iTunes before they launched the iPod. The iPod was just an excuse to sell music downloads. iTunes went on to become the number one music service in the world, selling more music than retail stores and Amazon were selling CDs.
Now that streaming music has surpassed downloads, Apple is making moves in the streaming space.
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It certainly puts the nail in the $29 HomePod coffin that never was never going to exist. This move will help Apple Music to keep growing at a faster rate than Spotify.
HomePod works with my Apple TV and through that I can use it with movies, TV and YouTube.
I recently purchased the Echo Plus, and for my needs it's amazing. The sound audio quality is fantastic for those of us who are not audiophiles. And the $100 price tag on Cyber Monday was a steal. And dare I say, Alexa is superior to Siri. The use of Alexa Skills is pretty cool, too. I couldn't sleep the other night so I asked Alexa to play ambient sounds of thunderstorms - fell asleep within 20 mins.
I would love to see the numbers on how this impacts Apple and Amazon subscriptions. How many people are using Amazon music simply because Apple music is not an option (unless you pair over bluetooth).
It's a good move for Apple to increase their available market for Apple Music. It makes no difference when it comes to hardware though as I don't think anyone would buy a HomePod just for Apple Music. Completely different markets in my eyes.
I don't think this is desperation, but smart business.
Apple keeping all it's service exclusive to Apple only devices is a bad move if they're trying to expand into being considered a "service" company.
Tying services directly to your hardware means that if you have a dip in hardware sales, you potentially lose service customers too.
going platform agnostic means service revenues can continue to grow even if you lose hardware sales.
Its a smart move that Apple should have been doing earlier.
No, I have Spotify and Pandora. I never use Amazon Music (although I have Prime), and have tried and cancelled Apple Music twice. Apple Music is just a hot mess, and useless to me because you can't download for offline listening. Well, you can't download for offline listening unless you enable iCloud Music Library, and only a fool does that.
I'm on a 3 month free trial for amazon music and I also have apple music. However now that I can get Apple music on my echo devices there's no point in keeping amazon music. I've just ordered a few more dots upon hearing this news.
This shows that Apple is moving in the direction of being a service based company. I guess, with Steve Jobs, the real Apple hardware company was buried. Now we will see all apple applications on every devices.
Well now I have no need for a HomePod. I can have the Echo play Apple Music tracks and pipe the sound through one of the Bluetooth speakers I already have.
I still have a need for my 2 homepods as they are my main music system and I also use them as a sound bar for my apple TV. However I've no need to get any more homepods for the rest of my house.
