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

[Mr. Donahue]

The "home pod." A new music speaker for your home. With A8chip and It has Siri. You don't have to be near it. It can hear you across the room. And doesn't need a direct command it can interpret what you're saying. It's everything I never knew I wanted. Lol
I was interested until it said it had a mic. Of course. So they can listen to you. Invading your privacy just like amazon echo. They want to hear everything you talk about. What you like. They chip your card now they know what you buy what you eat where you spend your money.
They put that selfie camera so they can look at you.
Wake up people! Don't buy into this garbage.

 

[whsbuss]

Looks like the UE Wonderboom without the volume controls

 

[Crazy Badger]

A mono speaker? How hi-fi..

You can buy two and they'll work together I think my affair with Alexa and Amazon Music Unlimited will continue for some time....

 

[goobot]

Should have had battery power too so people can take it on the go to the beach and such.

 

[McScooby]

Doubtful it's high res capable, but open it up to Plex etc (again on launch doubtful) & maybe, but 256kb streaming, maybe not!

 

[GermanSuplex]

I hate to be a cynic, but this was quite disappointing. The MAC hardware seemed decent, but iOS 11 and the HomePod were huge letdowns. It's basically just a nice wireless speaker. If I had money to burn I may consider it, but it offers little in the way of a nice wireless speaker and Siri capabilities, which I already have on 4 different devices.

 

[alexgowers]

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.

 

[sunapple]

First comments here seem to be missing the whole Wi-Fi speaker point. This replaces both Sonos and an Echo, which makes 349$ not a bad price actually. I imagine a lot of people who don't have decent audio, but do use Apple Music who would want a speaker like this.

Siri makes for a great addition to listening audio, at least when I compare it to the somewhat cumbersome way of playing music through my regular wired speakers from my Mac like I do now. I'd love to try one out, shame it's going to be another 6+ months or so.

 

[cariacou]

This needs to be price matching the echo. You can't come late to the game and expect people to overpay.

Echo is very advanced. Nothing like when the iPod was competing with other MP3 players.

 

[satinsilverem2]

I wonder if it will be able to airplay to other speakers in the house. Or am I going to have have to buy several of these things.

 

[EM2013]

LOL let's see how many people still buy this

 

[trainwrecka]

$349? iPod Hi-Fi 2.

 

[Return Zero]

The success of this product completely hinges on the improvements to Siri.

 

[Corrode]

I thought the design would be cooler. And metal, not fabric.

 

[jdclifford]

Same - I was telling myself $200 was the highest and would compete strongly with Alexa. But this is wayyy to expensive for a 1st generation product, especially as Siri is still half broken.

But it has 1 billion chips blah blah blah. It has the best this and the greatest that. IT'S A SPEAKER! Give it up Phil the Shill. Maybe Apple will sell them in a 2-pack for $679? Bargain.

 

[MacManTexas56]

man, how disappointing. I used to be the biggest apple fan. $350 is flat out just ridiculous and greedy.

 

[doelcm82]

Sound quality aside, isn't the Echo a better device?

Yep, if you don't care about sound quality.

 

[b1wils1]

wonder if there is an optical line-in so you can play audio from your tv/home entertainment center. if not.....

 

[CrAkD]

Wayyyy too expensive. I was hoping for $99 or $149. I don't use Siri anyway but maybe I would've bitten at that price. And Phil made that comment about using 2 of them. $700? Ya right.

 

[whsbuss]

Stocks will take another dive after today's WWDC

 

[pvmacguy]

Can't polish a turd. $350 is crack pipe pricing if I've ever seen.

 

[AVEGA]

Seems pointless and expensive. I don't use HomeKit , am not subscribed to Apple Music and Siri works for me for about half the time . They should have included an input into an Apple TV so it controls TV functions too ! I have zero interest in this , but honestly I never found a point to owning an Echo either

 

[Mactendo]

The least exciting Apple product in the last 20 years... dull and boring desing.

 

[nt5672]

Can't play my own music, not interested!

 

[8281]

The name makes me cringe more than the price, which isn't that unreasonable if the speaker is really good. You're looking at at least $100 for any decent sounding bluetooth speaker anyway.