Then you want some nice speakers, not a smart speaker. I have a $15,000 home theater and most of it is in speakers that are basically magnets and wood. Sound quality is incredible though.
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Apple Receives FCC Approval for HomePod, Suggesting a Launch Could Come Soon
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I had to watch the keynote again. Hopefully this lives up to the ‘Break thru home speaker’ and ‘Reinventing home music’.
In order to do that, it needs to blow away the sound of any Alexa enabled speaker out there. And Siri needs to be as good or better than Alexa. I'm not currently using Alexa, so I don't know if Siri will be better any time soon. But Siri leaves A LOT to be desired so far. And we'll all have to wait in regards to sound quality on the HomePod. Based on what I know today, there are better options out there, unless you MUST have Homekit and Apple Music. Long story short, I'm waiting to decide. But I'm going to have a hard time rationalizing $350 for this in my own use case.
Bought 3 google minis during black friday for $12 net after $25 Walmart Google Express gift cards. That's two days of lunch.
i don't own any of these home speaker devices, probably because i want my AI a little more like JARVIS and less like "play Kenny Loggins". when I can say "add a to-do to busycal to buy ketchup at the market this friday" or "search wikipedia for 'union iron works san francisco' and message me the link" then it has my money first day out.
If the speakers ship with Siri, people are going to use it as an assistant.
If you look on HomePod page, there’s a large section just taking about Siri integration and how it can Eli day to day.
If you look on HomePod page, there’s a large section just taking about Siri integration and how it can Eli day to day.
Well of course who knows how well it sounds. From what they say it should be great but who knows.
For me I only use apple music so It for that wouldn't bother me. As long as it allows for podcasts through apps like pocketcast thats what I would use it for mainly
HomePods don't have any physical audio input as far as I know, so there's no way to link them to your TV.
BIG MISTAKE. Until some company market an Airplay TV..., yea, dream on.
BIG MISTAKE. Until some company market an Airplay TV..., yea, dream on.
Whatever works for Google and Amazon [shrug]. They have plenty of takers despite that. Besides, do you honestly stay off of Google, other Google products, and Amazon's various intrusions as well? It's possible to live a "vegan tech life" free of them, but most users still simply don't care.
I have a nice home theater system too. Not $15k nice, but nicer than most folks and a good start (Denon AVR-X1300W, 2x Pioneer SP-FS52, Pioneer SP-C22, might get a sub soon).
There is something appealing about having audio in every room coming out of a relatively small box that sounds good enough. I'm not going to get a proper amp and stereo speakers for every room - they take up too much space; cost too much; and streaming music to them can be a pain. These wireless speakers are appealing to me because they sound better than pretty much any bluetooth speaker (bluetooth sound quality is terrible as you know), but still have a small footprint and an affordable price.
It seems I can get 2x Sonos Play:1 and 2x Sonos Play:5 on ebay (good condition, used) for under $1000. That's listening to quality tunes everywhere I go in the house, no hassle. With the home theater always there for tv and movie watching, of course.
I take it you don't own one? I am a die hard Apple fan and the Echo, for $79 is a fantastic product - and using Alexa is infinitely better than Siri, thats for sure. Walking in from work and saying "Alexa, turn on the downstairs lights" and having them all come on is amazing. There is a reason they fly off the shelves.
Its 6.8" tall, and 5.6 wide, I'm skeptical of just how 'room filling' the sound can really be with one. I hope I'm proved wrong and it sounds amazing.
Siri is not only worse than Alexa , Siri is worse of them all. Also HomeKit is years behind other smart home competitors. Apple needs to fix these two components before this overpriced speaker can ever truly be a contender.
Yes! 700$ well spent to hear in stereo mode when someone can do better than that with chromecast for much much less!
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In that case you don't know why people buy echo. Nobody bought echo to listen music.
Agree. My only complaint about my system is that is an ordeal to turn everything on, set it up, choose your effects, etc. so many adjustments can be made that it’s never just turn it on and listen for a few minutes.
If you are looking for a sub, look no further.
PowerSoundAudio
There's no reason you can't say "Hey Siri, turn on the downstairs lights" - they work pretty much the same if you have HomeKit-enabled devices.
I'm really not sure why people keep insisting that Siri is worse than Alexa - they are both pretty bad compared to Google Assistant. There's very little that I can do on Alexa that I can't do on Siri. I use all three of them regularly.
Guess it depends what you need from homekit
If it's just to control a few lights and outdoor lights then really for me thats enough. I can't say I would use google assistant or alexa any different than I do with siri
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Will be interesting if they just release it like they did with the air pods or announce release date for the homepod and air power together
Absolutely. If they don’t allow Spotify, there is zero use for me. Would seem crazy to thumb their noses at that part of the market.
I think Apple missed an opportunity to have the HomePod act like a sound bar for TV’s too.
Unless (hopefully) they delayed it to add such functionality!
Unless (hopefully) they delayed it to add such functionality!
Some people keep saying that the HomePod isn’t trying to compete with Amazon and Google in the personal assistant market, but better than half of the people posting are comparing HomePod to those units anyway. And when HomePod is released and tech sites review it they will compare it to Google and Amazon. There is a balance point for most people between sound quality and price, and in most instances that balance favors low price more than quality sound. Unless HomePod is capable of coordinating with other units and playing 5.1 to 7.1 surround sound, most high end listeners will be willing to spend more for even better sound with the ability to connect to more devices, like tv, cd/dvd, blue ray and turntables.
And finally, a lot of people have said that Homepods true competitor isn’t Echo or Google Home, but Sonos. And Sonos just announced Alexa home assistant compatibility.
And finally, a lot of people have said that Homepods true competitor isn’t Echo or Google Home, but Sonos. And Sonos just announced Alexa home assistant compatibility.
When I saw the little echo ball thing with a screen I was really excited and thought it would make the perfect bedside clock/alexa. Then I realized they put a camera in the ****ing thing. Either Amazon engineers are morons who actually thought people would want to video chat on that tiny screen or they are disgustingly using it to spy on people's bedrooms. I don't personally trust amazon (or any company) with that kind of access to my life.
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The problem is the only way for Siri and homekit to really get better requires apple to collect more data on you than they are willing to. I am glad they arent willing to and accept that as a result my AI isnt as good. I hope someday I can trust companies to give me a really amazing AI without worrying they are handing everything I say and all the video of what im doing over to whatever government tells them to. Right now Apple is the only one I trust and its only because they have made it nearly impossible to know very much about me.
I agree with your assessment of Apple vs Google/Amazon security but we are definitely in the minority there. Most people really don't care.