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

rmhop81 said:
not when you have to buy one for every single room of your house for home automation. It's absolutely insane lol
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I work in the industry, and $350 per room is actually pretty cheap for whole-house distributed audio... Regardless, I wasn't talking about that. I'm talking about for a high quality smart WiFi speaker, it's not in the same league as the Echo, so people need to stop with the $199 comparisons.
 
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B60boy said:
There smoking something at Apple. This is a miss. Too high price for what you get. Disappointing.
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I've been looking to get a good wireless speaker in the £300 price range. An extra £50 to be able use it as a home hub to control by smart appliances (lights/heating) etc. doesn't seem too bad. I'll buy it the day it's released if the sound quality is exceptional, my Seinheiser Momentum over ear headphones have turned me into a sound snob.
 
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never thought I would actually agree with the belief that Apple Fan boys defend anything Apple does, but this one takes the cake!!! it's just CRAZY...LMAO just admit that it's a dumb product and move one
 
imart1n said:
I'll just leave this here...

https://whyd.com

story_aesthetic@2x.jpg
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Slick.
 
See a lot of people complaining about price and comparing it to the Echo. I guess they all missed the part about Apple's priorities with this device. It's not simply a wireless speaker with a voice assistant. If that's what you want, get an Echo, you'll be much happier. If want one that prioritizes sound quality and will be used largely for playing music, that's where the HomePods will really shine over the competition.
 
Do we know for a fact that this won't support radio services? If I can't call up BBC radio stations, it's a no deal for me. Surely they'll open this up to developers?!
 
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JarScott said:
It did NEED to be $100 cheaper. Apple needed to swallow their pride with this one. But as others have said, it looks like they've put a lot of work into the audio quality of the device, plus it's an Apple product and so you have to add Apple tax.
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It made me laugh when Phil was going on and on about the speaker and showing the sound waves. I was thinking, "ok, i get it, it has great sound, let's move on," they are fluffing the sound aspect to give it a reason to own this over competitor's speakers.
 
This is a Major NO!. $350? Maybe if it was $50. Siri still sucks for general questions. Im not a sports guy, so Siri is pretty useless. Was hoping for a major siri upgrade today. But the HomePod will basically be "I found this on the web" but not have a screen to display Google results.
 
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Return Zero said:
I work in the industry, and $350 per room is actually pretty cheap for whole-house distributed audio... Regardless, I wasn't talking about that. I'm talking about for a high quality smart WiFi speaker, it's not in the same league as the Echo, so people need to stop with the $199 comparisons.
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this is how apple is wanting you to look at it, so they don't feel left behind. It's high quality speaker and as a bonus we add siri! So siri sucks and you can only use this with Apple Music, oh ok. What a deal!
 
BJMRamage said:
It made me laugh when Phil was going on and on about the speaker and showing the sound waves. I was thinking, "ok, i get it, it has great sound, let's move on," they are fluffing the sound aspect to give it a reason to own this over competitor's speakers.
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Sound is a pretty important aspect for a speaker. Some might even say the most important one.
 
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Most underwhelming WWDC e-v-e-r.

When you have to tell the public that you're reinventing something, chances are...you're not. It's a cool speaker and all - I may even buy one - but it's not going to "reinvent" the way anyone listens to music.
 
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jimothyGator said:
Sound is a pretty important aspect for a speaker. Some might even say the most important one.
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And that's what 99% of those commenting here are missing. This isn't simply an Echo replacement. Apple made that very clear. Being a music playing device is the first and foremost point of the HomePod. That it can do some voice assistant stuff is just the bonus.

This is far more a Sanos competitor than Echo. That point seems to be lost on most here who are crying because there are cheaper voice assistants with garbage audio quality.
 
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I don't have experience with any of the echo type devices. How do they support multiple users? If I ask to "add a calendar event" whose will it add to? Is there a way to specify?
 
Very expensive to get one in the bedroom, living room and kitchen. Especially as it's a copy of what the competition has , a cross hopefully of sonos level speaker (I doubt) with poor assistant that is Siri.

Be great for some .

For me 3xecho at $150 does the job.

And for a speaker, the excellent chrome audio into my existing speakers is far superior to this speaker.

Some how I expect this to go the way of apple hifi mark 2
 
WannaGoMac said:
Agreed its expensive. But aren't sonos speakers in the same range without the siri capability?
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This looks alot like a Play:1. Which would run you $199. I'm not sure if the Siri integration adds $150 but maybe it does.
 
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