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

I posted this on another thread....NO BLUETOOTH....

This is $350 and it doesn't even have bluetooth are you kidding me. only Airplay. So that in 2018 they can say.

Today we are introducing a revolutionary feature on the HomePod 2 that your absolutely going to love. Bluetooth. Now you will be able to play your favorite music from any device.

THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS...
 
This was also going to "reinvent" the way you listened to music for the same low price of $349.
ipodhifiside.jpg
 
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Medinarem said:
I posted this on another thread....NO BLUETOOTH....

This is $350 and it doesn't even have bluetooth are you kidding me. only Airplay. So that in 2018 they can say.

Today we are introducing a revolutionary feature on the HomePod 2 that your absolutely going to love. Bluetooth. Now you will be able to play your favorite music from any device.

THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS...
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Is this confirmed? Where did you see this?
 
chr1s60 said:
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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IMHO, the engineering team did their job with great design and attention to detail. (The enclosure notwithstanding.) The product management team failed miserably with their requirement specifications for the product (market, features, price, etc.).
 
The world was waiting for Apple to address the AI-powered virtual assistant market dominated by Amazon and to a lesser extent, Google. Because they are way behind with these technologies (Siri, iCloud), their marketing strategy was to focus on audio quality, which is perceived by some as a weakness with the Echo and Google Home. Their target is Amazon and Google, not Sonos or Bose. Those sales are incidental.

Since they were late to market and the virtual assistant feature set is weak by comparison, many expected a much lower price point. However they're in it for the long haul and time will tell if their strategy is valid. IMHO, they've been much too conservative with AppleTV, HomeKit, and now HomePod and many of the Apple faithful are tired of waiting for them to catch up.
 
too many Macs said:
The world was waiting for Apple to address the AI-powered virtual assistant market dominated by Amazon and to a lesser extent, Google. Because they are way behind with these technologies (Siri, iCloud), their marketing strategy was to focus on audio quality, which is perceived by some as a weakness with the Echo and Google Home. Their target is Amazon and Google, not Sonos or Bose. Those sales are incidental.

Since they were late to market and the virtual assistant feature set is weak by comparison, many expected a much lower price point. However they're in it for the long haul and time will tell if their strategy is valid. IMHO, they've been much too conservative with AppleTV, HomeKit, and now HomePod and many of the Apple faithful are tired of waiting for them to catch up.
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I don't know about this. People were saying the same about smartwatches back when Samsung and Motorola were releasing smartwatches and Apple's watch was no where to be found. iPods weren't the first portable mp3 players and iPhones weren't the first smart phones. Smart assistent speakers are an immature market. It's not even clear that such devices will be anything more than a nice accessory, and it's certainly not clear that Amazon or Google have built any kind of defensive ecosystem here. Check out this survey data:
Screen-Shot-2016-06-05-at-10.27.51-PM.png

The top seven smart speaker use cases have nothing to do with anything specific to the Google or Amazon's ecosystem that you would lose by buying a HomePod. I don't think releasing a speaker two years later puts Apple at a signifiant disadvantage here. If there is an ecosystem advantage to be had here, it may even be in Apple's favor due to their valuable iPhone install base, as it was with the watch.
 
samcraig said:
Is this different than Amazon or Google?
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No, identical claims. However, at least IMHO, Apple has a much better track record of hardwiring security and privacy like this in rather than bolting it on. With Amazon/Google, there is software which gets enabled to start streaming audio up, which software might be hackable by agencies like the NSA. The NSA likely has exploits to significantly loosen "trigger word recognition" as well as to completely bypass trigger words and simply start the streaming process. I hope (obviously unverified, but much more likely given Cook's record on this) that the Apple device is hard-coded to listen for "Hey Siri" and can not be adjusted in software.

The downside to a privacy-first approach is that the trigger-word recognition can never be significantly improved (without opening the door of an exploit which make "Good morning" qualify as "Hey Siri") beyond the hardware recognition the device ships with, unless there is some heavy local machine learning processing happening (which IMHO would need more than an A8 chip, but maybe there is specialized hardware for that).
 
ggibson913 said:
It isn't really competition for them either, if they were attempting to compete with Sonos or Bose they would offer the ability to connect to more music services. Not everyone wants to pay 9.99 per month for Apple Music and even those who do may actually prefer another service.
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This DOES play music other than Apple Music. It's just that Siri only works with Apple Music.

The Echo doesn't support Apple Music. It does support Spotify, Pandora, etc. and HomePods will as well when these services are added. Remember, it took Echo over a year to add Pandora and Spotify support.
 
DualShock said:
OMG this thing is so behind the Amazon Echo Show, and it comes out in December!

They must have **** their pants when Amazon announced the Echo Show, that has a screen, when they knew this was all they had for WWDC.
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It's funny, the same reaction was had to the AirPods by many around here. They were very wrong.

Also funny, the Echo Show was announced AFTER Tim Cook commented on how putting screens on these things was a waste of time - they were probably laughing about it.
 
lordofthereef said:
The deal is the many consumers don't care. My wife is manager st Best Buy and their best selling speakers are soundbars. They stand in front of the sound bars and it sounds great. Of course it does. It's more than the crappy little built in tv speaker they'd been listening to. It's easy to slap in front of the tv or even on the wall. Required just one cable. SOLD!!!!

We have a 7.1 klispche reference set up and even SHE was trying to sell me on a sound bar. I'd maybe have considered that before wiring everything through the walls properly just for convenience alone. But nah. It's not going to give the same experience as a true 5.1/7.1 setup would. Im sure it sounds great for what it is though.
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That's the thing. People like us who have had quality audio equipment and heard audio through it, we're not going to be sold by the whole PR nonsense. It's flat out insulting.

I would rather these guys (and any other companies doing this) talk about how much better Homepod will sound compared to your iPhone or iPad's speakers. It's truthful, it's believable and not deceptive. But when they use terminology like "can rock most any room", that's when I take offense. A speaker that size couldn't rock much more than a closet or small bathroom.
 
kdarling said:
Speakers are a dime a dozen. The whole point of a combined device is the verbal assistance.

But Apple knows they're weak in that part, so they hide behind the speaker instead. It's like lipstick on a pig.



Which device does that? My Echoes don't.
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Speakers are a dime a dozen only if you don't care about sound quality.

Lipstick on a pig is calling something smart that's actually pretty stupid. That's Echo. And Siri. And Google.

Like I posted long ago, if Echo had a decent speaker, I would've kept it just for that. I'm sure all the people who are now calling their Echo the most expensive alarm clock they've ever owned would feel the same.

That's why Apple is smart to focus on sound quality. AI still has a long ways to go.
 
Medinarem said:
I posted this on another thread....NO BLUETOOTH....

This is $350 and it doesn't even have bluetooth are you kidding me. only Airplay. So that in 2018 they can say.

Today we are introducing a revolutionary feature on the HomePod 2 that your absolutely going to love. Bluetooth. Now you will be able to play your favorite music from any device.

THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS...
Click to expand...
If I'm paying for a $350 for a speaker, it better not use bluetooth. Bluetooth audio is terrible.
 
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Medinarem said:
I posted this on another thread....NO BLUETOOTH....

This is $350 and it doesn't even have bluetooth are you kidding me. only Airplay. So that in 2018 they can say.

Today we are introducing a revolutionary feature on the HomePod 2 that your absolutely going to love. Bluetooth. Now you will be able to play your favorite music from any device.

THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS...
Click to expand...


Why on earth would you even want bluetooth on this thing? It's not meant as a portable speaker, it has no batteries so it will be stationary at home. Why would you in such a scenario ever use bluetooth over AirPlay to begin with? Why limit your range, bandwidth, get only single-user access and lower quality when you can use AirPlay?
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RodoBobJon said:
Ouch. AirPlay will handle most use cases for iOS-centric households, but not being able to stream audio from an Android device is an annoying limitation.
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But it's directly connected to audio services, just like Sonos. You don't need to "stream" from your device to the HomePod as it can directly access services like Apple Music.

So anyone without a iOS-device can still just use their voice and tell the HomePod to play whatever they feel like. It's not like they are completely locked out of using it. Apple Music on Android is also supporting AirPlay so you have various ways to deal with it.

Of course, if you rely heavily on Android devices it won't be ideal, but why would you ever consider getting the Apple HomePod to begin with?
 
Medinarem said:
I posted this on another thread....NO BLUETOOTH....

This is $350 and it doesn't even have bluetooth are you kidding me. only Airplay. So that in 2018 they can say.

Today we are introducing a revolutionary feature on the HomePod 2 that your absolutely going to love. Bluetooth. Now you will be able to play your favorite music from any device.

THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS...
Click to expand...

Isn't AirPlay just Bluetooth + wifi?
 
Why are people complaining about the price of the HomePod?

The iPod Hi-Fi was $350 (what's that today, > $400?). I don't think it sold well. I never bought one as it was too big, sort of an eyesore.

The HomePod will work out if the sound is good, because you can connect several in a mesh network, and in particular if Apple have improved SIRI to the point where is really useful in a home environment (they wouldn't release the HomePod otherwise).

Why December though? On time for the holiday shopping season and to built up hype, but thats seems awfully far off even by Apple standards, no?

Does anyone have the updated list of domains Siri is capable of working with now? I read her voice is much much improved.
[doublepost=1496855671][/doublepost]The lack of Bluetooth connectivity has some people all worked up.

People criticize SONOS for the same.

But in reality, not only did these companies looked at it and rejected it but the way they have you use their product, you won't need Bluetooth.

If you want a Bluetooth speakers, I have a Apple exclusive Bronze JAWBONE Jambox in brand new condition for sale. :)
 
Corrode said:
Clearly you've only heard of fabric covers. Allow me to enlighten you.
system.jpg
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Not a one has a metal cover. How do you think the sound would get out with a metal cover? You realize what does wscape will sound fine? It is the material around the speaker that creates the tone. Keep your metal please.
 
Any word on the displacement of that tiny woofer?
It'd take a 6 to 7 fold increase in linear movement to match an old school 12 inch woofer.
That be a fairly amazing tech advancement, but I doubt it's in there.
 
gbc204 said:
My immediate interest in this was exactly that, as a possible sound bar for a secondary tv room where I just have an Apple TV and no cable/satellite. If it's usable as a sound bar, I think $350 will be worth it.
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That would be $700 - you'll need two for stereo and to not block your view of the telly.
[doublepost=1496882523][/doublepost]
BMox said:
Well I'm getting one in December.

Just need to decide on what colour to get.
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It doesn't come in any colours. ;)
[doublepost=1496883109][/doublepost]
paul4339 said:
I think multiple-zones (rooms) .. it's basically something that Sonos (and Google Chromecast, i think) had for years and a feature that people really like.
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Been available with Airplay on the Mac for years.
[doublepost=1496884297][/doublepost]
TimWillz said:
Does it have a battery?
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No. It's for Wi-Fi use only.
 
I kind of wonder if they're going to phase out the Beats brand eventually, given that they are marketing homepod on its audio quality.
 
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