Dan Riccio - We took the old trash can Mac Pro and made it a speaker.
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Apple Shares First Series of HomePod Ads With Focus on Music
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Dan Riccio - We took the old trash can Mac Pro and made it a speaker.
At least no one is responding with 'what's a speaker'.
Basically it's a low quality speaker (no speaker of that size can be high quality) overpriced and without the AI skills of the other smart speakers out there. It's going to be a success…
Was just coming on here to write almost exactly the same thing. The only thing I can think is that because - as you say - people don’t generally know what smart speakers are and what they can do or why they’d need them (same with voice assistants and smart home devices) - maybe Apples thinking is that everyone knows what a speaker is, so they can bring people in in that way they’re more comfortable with.
Kirk McElhearn confirms that HomePod can only natively play music you’ve purchased vis iTunes or from Apple Music. So if you have ripped music in iCloud Music Library the only way to play it is using AirPlay from another device. He claims it’s a Siri limitation.
https://t.co/dP3pcDarLX
https://t.co/dP3pcDarLX
I think once people get them and I expect rave about them then they’ll sell our. AirPods were a so what st first then people got them and said how great they are and they sold out
I’d like one but will wait to see how they’re received first
From the ads Apple are emphasising their point of difference is the music quality-
I’d like one but will wait to see how they’re received first
From the ads Apple are emphasising their point of difference is the music quality-
Airplay will certainly be one component of the HomePod that I will use extensively. I also look forward to having access to Siri without having an iPhone, iPad, or Mac nearby. I will also explore its capabilities in terms of being a HomeKit hub. I am sure there will other features as the HomePod's firmware evolves much like other Apple devices have.
High quality speaker (allegedly) with OS integration. Your welcome.
That's an interesting question. I am not sure you're right. I appreciate high quality sound when I listen to music or hear soundtracks on video; thus, I went through the hassle and expense of setting up one room in my house with a relatively nice, fairly expensive, surround sound system. I love the sound, but I am never going to go through that again, nor would most people to duplicate that effort and expense in other areas of my house. That's why I am excited, based on initial reviews, that I am going to be able to purchase two or three of the Homepods for other living areas and have excellent sound at a fraction of the cost, with the only hassle being taking out and plugging it in. The added bonus is that I have Siri with six mics instead of the tiny one or two on my iOS devices.
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No one read past "low quality speaker." You've got to save those silly comments until the end of your post. I'd repost and put that at the end, in case you had something interesting to say you wanted folks to read.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say I am pretty sure Apple, you, and everyone who orders one these things would be severely disappointed if distortion was one of the things the HomePod delivered with it's bass and equalization. Distortion is not a desired quality of music... which is why the name of the ad is all the more confusing.
True, however As mentioned, One of the HomePod advertisements in the article is a video labeled "Distortion". That's what I was referring to, but I can see where the confusion would be configuring a product that is based primarily on sound with a video Ad using the word distortion seems unfitting.
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I have a significant amount of my own music that I have imported into iTunes but truth be told Apple's music library is vast making my personal collection a mere blip in the music universe. If and when I need to listen to my personal music it will as simple as using iTunes via Airplay. Hardly a dealbreaker. Besides who knows what additional features and capabilities future firmware will bring.
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A speaker that size can be high quality for its size and provide better sound than an alternative of similar size. For most, this will be enough as the general public thinks Bose makes great sounding speakers and Beats are great headphones.
And how do you know it's a "low quality speaker"? What other speakers "out there" have superior AI "skills"? Have you actually heard a HomePod? Didn't think so. We won't know how good it sounds until it gets in the wild. But I would venture to say the vast majority will be very pleased with the quality that the HomePod will produce.
send messages? I wonder if it is only imessages. Hopefully it can be sms and whatapp as well. Most of the world is on whatsapp now.
Best case for messages would be using Messages and just like on a tablet or Mac, it could do SMS texting via your iPhone I suspect. I doubt support for WhatsApp will be there
None of these ads explain what the hell it does or why someone would want it.
Precisely. These ads are sending a clear message that it’s a banging speaker all about music, and follow up ads will show what else it can do. For people who didn’t know what a HomePod was before, chances of them looking it up after seeing one of these ads are high.
Some more hands-on feedback
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7t51a2/nda_is_up_what_can_i_tell_you_guys_about_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7t51a2/nda_is_up_what_can_i_tell_you_guys_about_the/
Because the doomsday and naysayers always do that it was the same with the AirPods and the Apple Watch before it and so on. Some people just like to see Apple as a failing company.
Two HomePods can support stereo by just turning all the advanced features off, and one HomePod plays the left channel, one plays the right channel. Just like any ordinary speaker you buy can do. So there's no question that it will support stereo.
Combining stereo AND beam forming is a bit harder, but I don't think it would be that much harder. The speakers can easily figure out where they are relative to each other.
Not sure, 9to5Mac confirmed the purchased music works but Apple are only pushing the Apple Music angle and said anything about it yet.