When did little tutorial videos by companies become 'propaganda'?
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Apple Shares New Video on Getting the Most From HomePod
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When did little tutorial videos by companies become 'propaganda'?
It is yes but it depends what you want out of your speaker.
If you want basic tasks and a very good sound speaker that fits with your ecosystem then it’s a good buy. If you want a true smart assistant Alexa is the one to get.
Get both for best of both worlds
1. Its subjective.
2. Other reviews disagree.
3. Pogue's sheet in front of the speaker apparently made more of a difference than he assumed.
4. You're excluding "sound quality" from your definition of "functionality".
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You forgot to mention you can disable that.
I'm sorry but all this Siri thing is just pain to watch. I've tried to use Siri few times but it just doesn't do it for me. Siri is only good for alarms and that would be pretty much it for me. Often times he gave me results that I didn't want or it misunderstood me or it just took longer than if I would do it myself. Somehow, I really don't see the use and feel that these things are still useless and years away from any practical usage.
Homepod is probably just a great speaker for music but thats about it. Eventually I might get one if the sounds is really that amazing but the first thing I will do is to switch off all the things related to Siri etc. But perhaps I might find cheaper and better speaker for that so who knows.
Anyway, to those who use Siri they might be make the most out of this Homepod thing but I personally don't like Siri at all so for now I'll pass and later will see how that thing plays music
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Homepod is probably just a great speaker for music but thats about it. Eventually I might get one if the sounds is really that amazing but the first thing I will do is to switch off all the things related to Siri etc. But perhaps I might find cheaper and better speaker for that so who knows.
Anyway, to those who use Siri they might be make the most out of this Homepod thing but I personally don't like Siri at all so for now I'll pass and later will see how that thing plays music
)
I'm sorry but all this Siri thing is just pain to watch. I've tried to use Siri few times but it just doesn't do it for me. Siri is only good for alarms and that would be pretty much it for me. Often times he gave me results that I didn't want or it misunderstood me or it just took longer than if I would do it myself. Somehow, I really don't see the use and feel that these things are still useless and years away from any practical usage.
Homepod is probably just a great speaker for music but thats about it. Eventually I might get one if the sounds is really that amazing but the first thing I will do is to switch off all the things related to Siri etc. But perhaps I might find cheaper and better speaker for that so who knows.
Anyway, to those who use Siri they might be make the most out of this Homepod thing but I personally don't like Siri at all so for now I'll pass and later will see how that thing plays music
Well you can get an amazon Alexa for £49 so maybe use that for smart answers and HomePod for music and basic tasks
As really that’s all it can do currently. Guess depends what you want from your speaker
Me personally good sound and basic tasks is what I need my HomePod for and Apple Music
As far as I know Alexa and google don’t support Apple Music
Why do you discount the big difference of acting as a HomeKit hub and command center? Because you don’t use HomeKit? Many people do and in that case buying an Alexa or Google Assistant speaker would be a pretty stupid decision.
So your suggestion is to replace all of one’s HomeKit devices with ones compatible with Alexa or Google Assistant, all just to create a reason to buy one of their speakers over HomePod. Brilliant. I’m sure many of those additional Alexa compatible devices are also junk. Most best-in-class products are compatible with HomeKit (and often Alexa as well), i.e. Lutron, ecobee, Hue, etc. Thus, many people don’t really care if cheaper, but lower quality products exist for Alexa. To my knowledge, Alexa doesn’t even natively support automations and requires that devices be compatible with yet another third-party service like IFTTT. HomeKit has that all baked right in.
Huh? I’m not discounting anything. It was an honest question. I can control my home lights, temp etc, everything with Alexa. So I was asking what can I do with the HomePod, that I can’t already do with the echo tap I have or Sonos One?
Besides bringing up iOS stuff. It seems like there is no real advantage from the smart speaker side as of yet, maybe in the future.
A tutorial video generates multiple pages of frantic efforts to trash the HomePod? Must be a good product.
How to get the most from HomePod:
“Hey Siri, order an amazon echo.”
“Hey Siri, order an amazon echo.”
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I’m starting to believe that the Spotify users are just complaining because they feel left out, and otherwise would want a HomePod.
or they in fact do want one, but because they feel left out they’re reacting “well I don’t want you either!” or “Fine! I’ll get a Sonos!!”
———
I imagine that Spotify will try to seek legal action about Apple not making it fair for competitors, and then the Spotify users can stop whining. That is if Apple doesn’t enable a “media” domain for SiriKit first.
or they in fact do want one, but because they feel left out they’re reacting “well I don’t want you either!” or “Fine! I’ll get a Sonos!!”
———
I imagine that Spotify will try to seek legal action about Apple not making it fair for competitors, and then the Spotify users can stop whining. That is if Apple doesn’t enable a “media” domain for SiriKit first.
My post was specific to the Sonos. As I know you are aware, You can get a Sonos One and have access to Alexa, Google, Apple Music, Airplay 2 (soon), dozens of music services including tune-in, pandora and Spotify among plenty of others.....and pay half the price.....for a solid sounding speaker that when blind tested against the HomePod, listeners chose the Sonos.
But, to each his own.
But, to each his own.
[doublepost=1518876419][/doublepost]Yeah, I guess if anyone made the decision to jump into HomeKit (a poor decision in my opinion given the prices and product limitations), then overpaying for the HomePod is probably your only choice in a smart speaker.
Yeah - because people trust Apple - so they can get away with even more intrusive practices.
I don't really get the hate for the HomePod. Sure, it only works with the Apple Ecosystem - but does Alexa work without an Amazon account? Does the Google speaker work without a Google account? And how smart are these without uploading everything to the mother-ship?
I currently have no need for a home-speaker of any kind (I enjoy the silence at home after a day in a noisy city in a noisy office). But given the HomePods audio quality and the explicit lack of any tie-in to a retailer or an online-ad distributor, I'd probably be happy with it. I just hate subscription-services like Apple Music. Being able to sync playlists from iTunes to it so you can listen to them while the main Mac is offline would be great.
I simply want to own the stuff I pay for.
Which, BTW, I find very curious: people in the US hate renting houses or apartments, but have no problem leasing a car or subscribing to all sorts of services that ultimately are nothing more than "renting": At the end, you have nothing.
Maybe renting should be reclassified as "housing as-a-service" and it would take off like a rocket.
Bonus points for a tie-in with a blockchain/ICO scam...
Reliable voice-recognition and distinction between different persons may be harder than we think. The problem I can see is that false negatives (where the home-pod doesn't recognize your voice) would be very annoying.
Also, how can you mitigate replay-attacks on your voice (somebody recording you "Read my new messages") and then playing it in your absence? Maybe some challenge-response thing with the iPhone or the watch - but there's probably a lot of edge-cases...
Better just say "It does not work that way" right from the start rather than leaving people dissatisfied or below expectations.
I currently have no need for a home-speaker of any kind (I enjoy the silence at home after a day in a noisy city in a noisy office). But given the HomePods audio quality and the explicit lack of any tie-in to a retailer or an online-ad distributor, I'd probably be happy with it. I just hate subscription-services like Apple Music. Being able to sync playlists from iTunes to it so you can listen to them while the main Mac is offline would be great.
I simply want to own the stuff I pay for.
Which, BTW, I find very curious: people in the US hate renting houses or apartments, but have no problem leasing a car or subscribing to all sorts of services that ultimately are nothing more than "renting": At the end, you have nothing.
Maybe renting should be reclassified as "housing as-a-service" and it would take off like a rocket.
Bonus points for a tie-in with a blockchain/ICO scam...
Reliable voice-recognition and distinction between different persons may be harder than we think. The problem I can see is that false negatives (where the home-pod doesn't recognize your voice) would be very annoying.
Also, how can you mitigate replay-attacks on your voice (somebody recording you "Read my new messages") and then playing it in your absence? Maybe some challenge-response thing with the iPhone or the watch - but there's probably a lot of edge-cases...
Better just say "It does not work that way" right from the start rather than leaving people dissatisfied or below expectations.
You can’t stream Apple Music without another device sending, right? That was a major reason I bought the HomePod...along with not wanting Amazon or Google listening in. I have a thermostat with Alexa built in, but I’ve always had the feature disabled.
How is HomeKit a poor decision? As I already stated, HomeKit's functionality goes deeper than Alexa, which is really just voice control, not home automation. If you want to buy the cheap stuff have at it. The good Alexa compatible stuff will cost a lot too, as many times it's the same products that are HomeKit compatible.
And here's just one example where the Alexa product is more expensive. The Hunter models are both Alexa and HomeKit compatible, but the Alexa-only Haiku is a whopping $600, so pricing isn't even as black and white as you make it out to be.
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But I’m not really stuck in the wall gardened iOS. So my question was in general. It seems as a speaker it is very good. But it cannot beat the smart assistant functionality I get from my Sonos. And I can’t really get anyone on here to convince me that it’s a smarter speaker. Only argument seems to be is that it’s great to bring up iOS on the HomePod.
As I've said in another thread, I don't believe Apple's plan was to sell HomePods to the hundreds of people who are already invested in Sonos.
Apple will sell you Sonos.Good question. I wonder if there are plans to allow non-Apple devices to connect via bluetooth someday.
You make a $5K Apple gear spree sound like a bad thing.
Kidding aside, you forgot the part about going back to buy two more HomePods.
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As a Spotify subscriber I certainly don't feel left out and Spotify most likely will not sue. No need to as HomePod is basically DOA (sales out of the gate are weak and show no signs of picking up due to general lack of interest and less than stellar reviews) and as far as subscribers go Spotify leads the pack by miles. I'm an Apple brand loyalist and own ALL products that Apple puts out with the exception of this overpriced and underperforming dud. Further, if Apples EcoSystem was worthy (Siri is not there just yet and Apple Music has it's handicaps) many more people would be on board. Believe me I would LOVE to buy a HomePod that actually performed and I would also welcome Apple Music but I find the interface and platform to be down the food chain in comparison to its competitors. Some of the hating on this board at times is a bit much but in truth Apple has its flaws and some clear thinking customers are willing to call them out on it. Personally I believe that it's healthy for business and hopefully helps them to strengthen their R&D, rectify their mistakes and rely less on slick marketing hype. If some people find the HomePod worthy thats great! No disrespect if they feel their money is well spent.
FYI - Im not a Sono's fan either.....just waiting for the consummate "Smart Speaker" to hit the market.
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Well, ideally I would like homepod stripped from all the Siri nonsense and ideally no microphone inside that tech.
Just speaker and nothing else would be fine.
Well, yeah, that’s the point of it. It’s a smart speaker for the walled Apple garden.
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Apple Music has over double the growth rate and is expected to overtake Spotify by summer in the US.
Are you saying that Sonos is always on, always listening for a verbal command to play music? Like HomePod?
After waking up this morning, I walked to my family room, sat down, and without turning anything on, not engaging a computer or device, etc, simply said: "Hey Siri play Miles Davis."
And within a couple seconds I was listening to a nice mix of Miles Davis jazz on HomePod.
Can Sonos do that?
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I don't think people in America hate renting apartments or houses, plenty do. I think the issue is more the cost of purchasing a home in Europe compared to a typical home in the US.
Yes it can. The Sonos One is basically an Amazon Echo inside a Sonos speaker housing. So it works just just like the Echo. You would say, "Alexa play some music by Miles Davis"... and off you go.