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Apple Unveils $349 HomePod Smart Speaker to be Available in December

gcmexico said:
the screen is for video calls...you can still talk to it from across the room, but to know you have the ability to walk to it and say video call so and so, and it instantly does that, is pretty sweet
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Personally I can't see getting up, walking over, and standing in front of where the camera's aiming to have a video call when my iPhone's always in my pocket. Nor do I see myself appreciating being anchored to the camera's focal point if I need to go somewhere else in my house, nor do I see myself carrying around a smart speaker with screen. Again, iPhone. Nor to these things need a screen for input; voice interaction is the whole point. Maaaaybe to confirm a photo of what you're shipping for, but hats all I can think of. Shopping, media playback, home control, sure. Screen? Meh.
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Winni said:
Actually, it does much LESS than an Echo does: There is no third party integration, there's no free software development for this thing, it only understands English.

The Echo... Also supports Spotify, TuneIn, multiple "real" radio station (as in actual Radio Stations that also have streams on the web), it has "skills" for a daily growing amount of non-music related other services (I can, for example, plan my train rides with the Deutsche Bahn with it). Yeah, and Alexa is fluent in German. And she can read eBooks to me in German and English as well.

The HomePod, on the other hand, is a 350 bucks, voice enabled speaker for Apple Music.

Apple Music customers will buy this speaker, sure, so it will be a commercial success and will probably serve that specific target audience quite well. Outside the realm of Apple Music, however, there is zero reason to buy HomePod and people are better off with a device with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or even Microsoft Cortana in it.
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Don't forget it's also supposed to be a HomeKit hub.
 
I had to smile with the MASSIVE 4" Bass Driver type comment :)

4" is the size of a moderate mid-range speaker.

1" for a tweeter
4" for mid range
8"+ for the Bass.

I'm sure it sounds fine, but how can you move a LOT of air slowly to get deep notes from 4" ?
 
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mdriftmeyer said:
I'll take that bet. This paired with 1 or 3 others will replace all sorts of home theater configurations. The amount of research they've done guarantees this will be a huge hit.
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"will replace all sorts of home theater configurations" — How so? Unless your entire home theater is an Apple TV. Some of us have Xbox, cable box, etc.
 
Kabeyun said:
Personally I can't see getting up, walking over, and standing in front of where the camera's aiming to have a video call when my iPhone's always in my pocket. Nor do I see myself appreciating being anchored to the camera's focal point if I need to go somewhere else in my house, nor do I see myself carrying around a smart speaker with screen. Again, iPhone. Nor to these things need a screen for input; voice interaction is the whole point. Maaaaybe to confirm a photo of what you're shipping for, but hats all I can think of. Shopping, media playback, home control, sure. Screen? Meh.
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Don't forget it's also supposed to be a HomeKit hub.
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No, it is not.





According to some poster here.
 
alexgowers said:
This is apple putting too much tech into a product that only needs simple speakers and a chip they can fab for next to nothing. Price is actually outrageous for a speaker system.
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No denying it's over-engineered and very expensive. I have an Origin by Zagg connected to my Echo Dot. Total cost was combined was $150. It also works great. Not seeing the benefit spending double the money.

$199 is doable. Anything more than that is egregious.
 
Guess we can't really judge it until we hear it. Love the waveform simulation. Really made me feel like I was "there". I could definitely hear the difference....

As usual overpriced and late for the party.
 
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the homepod worked with my friend "zonga" app that he has on it...so this mean it supports some others app than apple music?
 
This is one heck of an audio upgrade. ... I will buy two, and use them for the audio from my apple TV. Dynamic room filling audio to go with my flat screen. ... I do not that people do feel the need to pan something before they really even think about what possibilities could come from a collaborative ecosystem of inter-cooperative Mac hardware and Mac systems.
 
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A Bose Soundtouch is $200, an Echo Dot $50. So this gadget is $100 more than two other separate things, plus it's integrated and works with Apples ecosystem. I think the price is not out of line, even if I'd prefer $300.

More puzzling to me is that this won't ship until December. That's just crazy. Why did they even bother announcing it now? This could have waited until the iPhone event in September.
 
Was really excited until I found out:

1. Sucky Siri
2. No Spotify

No thanks.
 
iLoveDeveloping said:
Yuck. No thanks. I'll wait about 2 years and get this for $50 second hand. Dam, Steve Jobs really is gone from this company. No soul left, they even took every crappy thing about the music app (which they destroyed in iOS10) and added it the App Store. Now that's ruined too. Really wish I could slap Tim Cook. NO. STOP. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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You mean Steve Jobs of the tissue box computer? Steve Jobs of "Next" computers? Or Steve Jobs "you're holding the phone wrong if you can't hear phone calls..." ? :rolleyes: Just sayin' St. Steve may have touted products brilliantly, but not all of them hit it out of the park either. I think Apple is having the same hit-miss as when Steve was around. But that's difficult to see if you're intent on canonizing Steve and demonizing Tim.

And you do understand that Ives is still alive and working for Apple...right?
 
Verdict is in, Macrumors forum members have predicted a fail. Along with the last 8 new product announcements. Lol, the negativity around here is ridiculous. You have people saying a product is trash, can't sound that great and will fail without any type of hands on with it. Apple should just hire everyone here for the R&D team. Problem solved.
 
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Relentless Power said:
My point was, for $350, that's a fairly steep price point for something that better deliver exceptional results.
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The Bose SoundLink series speakers have been very popular within a $200-$300 price range and those don't include any of the Siri capabilities, home hub capabilities, or things like beam forming speakers or ability to automatically adjust to placement in the room. There are quite a few extras in there. It's not really a bad price at all.
 
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Technarchy said:
No denying it's over-engineered and very expensive. I have an Origin by Zagg connected to my Echo Dot. Total cost was combined was $150. It also works great. Not seeing the benefit spending double the money.

$199 is doable. Anything more than that is egregious.
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if you are comparing to it a Home Assistant market (Echo, Google Home), but I believe Apple is targeting from the home Speaker/theatre market side of things (the Music/entertainment side).

.
 
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Winni said:
The Echo is using Alexa, which, unlike Siri, is an open PLATFORM that can be used and enhanced by anybody who wants to write code for it or build a device for it. That is the main reason why Echo is the better device -- even though it is deeply integrated into Amazon's services, it also plays well with others.
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That's essentially been the argument against other successful Apple products for decades, yet here we are. Sure, at this point, we all understand both the positives and negatives of an open platform??
 
B60boy said:
There smoking something at Apple. This is a miss. Too high price for what you get. Disappointing.
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If it were just an Echo clone, I would agree with you. But it's pretty emphatically not.

What you get is a device that combines the features of both an Echo ($179.99) and Sonos PLAY:3 ($299) for $349.

With the caveats at that, yes, for best sound quality you're better off with a decent amp and pair of quality speakers, and not having heard it, there's only speculation to be had on its audio performance, but the up-firing woofer, 7-tweeter array and built-in "room IQ" should put it will ahead, in terms of audio performance, of Echo devices and the (pretty awful, and overpriced) Sonos PLAY:1.

It's may be too high a price for people deciding between an Echo and Google Home, but that also not the only base the device covers.
 
WTF is wrong with you guys with the price hating here? This is not an Amazon Echo rival ($180). It's positioned as a speaker with Siri.

Has anybody here ever been in the market for a premium speaker system? Premium/design speakers from Bowers & Wilkins, Bang & Olufsen or Sonos (with which this competes) start at that price point. HiFi speakers start at $1,000, without backend. When you go for sound, you don't go "oh yeah $3 headphones also make music play" or "this amazon thing can also play music". High-end speakers are insanely expensive and incremental sound quality increases cost big $. This thing will have to measure up by sound quality, not competitive pricing, and Apple claims they found some clever new technologies for speakers which may be true considering their acquisition of beats and their skills, but sound quality ultimately is where the price will have to measure up to.

I actually was surprised at that price and expected something more like $500 but then again I am an audiophile and have early on bought $200 headphones and an expensive HiFi so I know this stuff is expensive.
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Aaaah yes, because Apple has been known to be the low priced option in which market ever? Maybe the original home computer market in the '80s but that's about it.

The Mac was never the cheapest home computer. The iPod was never the cheapest MP3 player. The iPhone was never the cheapest smartphone. The iPad was never the cheapest tablet. The Apple Watch was never the cheapest smartwatch.
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Exactly. At this point, are we really contemplating the value of great design and "curated" options in a closed system? That's what Apple IS.
 
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