I put the bar at the unit that I currently own and my daughter has swiped for her dorm. Will prob get a HomePod for $249
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Apple Now Selling Refurbished HomePod for $299
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I don't think it's fair calling this device a speaker since it's uses are so locked down
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Wrong. It's about listening to Apple Music, or music played from an AirPlay-enabled Apple device.
Agreed. Compared to most speakers produced in the last 50+ years, the lifespan of the HomePod, as a speaker, will be very short.
Maybe, but I'd guess that a Gen1 HomePod would be incompatible with new Apple hardware/software within 5 years.
Which is much less time than the lifetime of a decently made speaker.
Case in point: I recently got rid of a pair of decent Bose I'd had for going on 20 years. I got them used, and in just the time I had them, they went from carrying sound played off vinyl to CD to sound streamed via AirPlay from my Mac or iPhone. And when I got an A/V receiver they started doing double-duty playing the sound going out of my DVD player and then, later, the sound part of what came out of my Apple TV. One pair of speakers, several generations of input signals and devices.
Until there's a very good reason not to, I can't imagine why I wouldn't keep my speakers decoupled from whatever devices play through them.
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Exactly. And that's the slippery slope of starting to rely on proprietary wireless standards and whatnot versus (as in the case of my stereo above) something standards-based that can plug into any new input signal as it becomes available.
I would imagine if you took your AV movie set up to where you listened to the HomePod “on display”, it wouldn’t sound so hot either...
lol nonsense. It's not like apple devices in the next 5 years aren't going to be backwards compatible with wireless AC and BT 5.0. And that's the only future proof concern with the hardware.
Software wise the Homepod is a micro-computer so it can be reprogrammed/updated.
Plus the two devices have different purposes. HomePod's latency makes it unsuitable for video.
Apple just dropped support for the pencil they were selling a month ago. HomePod doesn't support bluetooth audio.
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Hmmm, I never really thought about that.
How do competing voice assistant speakers support multiple users? A different wake phrase for each user?
strawman argument. No one argued the Homepod is never going to have its support dropped because no other Apple product has ever had its support dropped in under 5 years. And no said Homepod supports BT audio either.
What I said was, "it's not like apple devices in the next 5 years aren't going to be backwards compatible with wireless AC and BT 5.0. And that's the only future proof concern with the hardware.
Software wise the Homepod is a micro-computer so it can be reprogrammed/updated."
Google and Amazon can recognize unique voices.
https://support.google.com/googlehome/answer/7323910?hl=en
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202199440
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Like so many have already said, it’s priced too high. The other thing that occurred to me while I was waiting around in an Apple store to have the battery in my phone replaced is, Apple seems to have dropped the ball on presentation. I’ve heard a lot about how Apple invests so much in designing and arranging their stores, and yet it appears as if little thought was given to how they presented HomePods in the store. Assuming that the tables on which the HomePod was displayed did have people around it, there’s not a really good way to experience or test a sound system (without headphones) in a crowded store. It’s one thing to advertise a powerful DAC — people can test that with headphones, but an Apple store doesn’t seem designed to cater to selling this kind of product — it’s all designed for tactile and visual presentations.
Sure, for whatever length of time Apple chooses to do so.
How about 10 years out? Will Apple be supporting it then or do you throw it in landfill because it’s not practical to use because it has zero physical inputs?
Unfortunately when you have competition like the Alexa range from Amazon the entry price is just too high for most people to take a gamble on. I think it might have worked better if they had released lower priced one for people to try out the features on first like Amazon have but also offer the homepod as the 'pro' version.
On a side note techradar has this to say about the Homepod / google max and Echo:
On a side note techradar has this to say about the Homepod / google max and Echo:
- Amazon’s Echo Plus does not stack up well next to the Home Max or HomePod. They are several leagues ahead, justifying their higher prices.
- The Home Max is the loudest speaker, with much greater volume on tap than the HomePod.
- Apple’s HomePod provides 360-degree sound. The Home Max has conventional front-loaded drivers so you need to be more careful about placement.
- The Home Max has better bass depth.
- The Apple HomePod has great clarity, and the sound quality of the Max and HomePod are generally comparable.
A surround sound system sounds great in almost any room or display area even open plan malls, but Apple was touting the amazingness of this device at sounding great in any room.
Its the same kind of thing as a soundbar which won't work on open plan spaces, which is what my house is incidentally.
It’s a device i can use to listen to audio, therefore its a speaker. Genuinely no idea what you mean by saying its not...
As to the lifespan of it, its always going to support airplay of some sort, so I’m happy with that.
You can listen to some audio that Apple permits. Not even "audio" either. Music only. No AppleTV support.
I’m curious on do own one....I use it with Apple Music from my macs, ipads, iphones, Apple TV, verbally walking through the house. And for Home, nothing like saying turn off the kitchen lights while I’m halfway down the steps and the HomePod is all the way in the living room or when I’m leaving and say turn off all the lights. The atv is a hub and one iPad is so when I’m nearing home it triggers my living room lights on...coupling it with ifttt and hue opened up more doors and i love how the kids walk through and turn on their own bedroom lights and all 3 kids under the age of 10. Even simple things like if we’re watching something on YouTube airplay 2 I can send the audio to output to the HomePod
It is designed to be a speaker for music. It is not designed to be a speaker for TV or do surround sound.
I have more than one person in my house. Works just fine. If you are just using it to listen to music and basic smart home requests it works perfectly no matter how many people are talking to it. Isn't this argument the same for every smart assistant though? Google and Amazon tie themselves to someones Amazon account too.
How many speakers of this nature (Sonos, Google Max, etc) are repairable?
For the setup and smart options. For audio you can just make it a discoverable bluetooth speaker. Can't do that with HomePod.