Apple's Phil Schiller on HomePod: We Want to Create a New Kind of Music Experience in the Home That Sounds Incredible

[HobeSoundDarryl]

That’s smaller than I thought it’d be. Interesting. Actually seems a little too small to be honest; I could easily see something like this being up to 12” around, especially if it would allow for a punchier bass for a home audio solution in the living room.

Yes, if you break out the tape measure, especially a roll of paper towels is a great way to fake one for the purposes of getting a sense of it's size within your rooms. Just saw that paper towel roll off at 6.8" high, remove enough sheets to get it to the 5.6" wide and you've got the presence of HP's size. It IS SMALL!

Normally, SMALL is bad for bass. So the gushing praise from the demo attendees does lend itself toward being some kind of breakthrough if it sounds so very good. My own ears have got to hear competing devices in friend's homes. In general, I think they sound pretty good for tiny-sized speakers. Friends bring various smallish speakers to the community pool on the weekend and "throw" sound to them from phones, tablets & iPods (remember those?) and lots of little speakers- some under $100- can sound pretty good too.

So the potential here is dazzling if the sound is as great as implied by demo attendees- especially coming from such a smallish package. Some of the demos have explicitly complimented the bass which adds to the dazzle if that plays out when these things are in the wild.

Apple can be very impressive and they sure are pushing the ONE dominant message of best quality sound. Objective ears need to be ready to hear these for ourselves. I'm keeping an open mind... but waiting for a variety of real reviews and then going to hear them for myself.

 

[now i see it]

Sound quality I'm sure is amazing (for the tiny little speaker that it is). That's the catch. No doubt it will be the best sounding tiny mono speaker around.

 

[JTR555]

I get that Apple likes music....but I cannot stream my home library to the Homepod unless I have iTunes Match. I get that Apple likes TV but Siri cannot locate anything on my NAS let alone play it. I get that Apple wants to make money via iTunes but allow us to at least play our music on your device without having to pay Apple money. There is no way Siri cannot read the metadata on my NAS to catalog and play my movies. It used to be "it just works" with Apple, now it is "it just works with your credit card only."

rant over.

THIS! I still don’t have an answer on if I can stream my iTunes library over HomePod or just the songs I purchased from Apple. I know I can stream my entire iTunes library on my Amazon Echo using the My Media skill.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Hahaha. Great example.
[doublepost=1517359970][/doublepost]

My point still stands. Apple has absolutely nothing to gain from giving a HomePod to an audio-focused review site because the people that read those sites are not their target market. At most they'd gain nothing from a positive review (I've seen what people on those sites are saying and nothing could make them want the HomePod because in their mind it could never be a decent product), and at very worst, big news sites like Fast Company or CNN would pick up on negative coverage and it would lower sales.

Nothing to gain from allowing those sites to review it, which is exactly why they haven't bothered to allow them to do so.

Well as was previously pointed out, no one has reviewed it. Macrumors is posting a demo impressions which are not a review...

 

[DanBig]

Wake me when it offers stereo and is controllable by different people.

 

[gnasher729]

99% of listeners don't care. For the vast majority of users, a normal 128bit MP3 is perfectly fine.

Apple markets to the average user. They're the largest percentage of the market and the largest potential to make money.

Since you replied to a post claiming "no Hi Fi through Apple Music" - any music coming from Apple is 256 KBit AAC. 128 KBit/sec mp3 is fine for people who are sitting on their ears. 256 Kbit/sec AAC, that's perfectly fine for the vast majority of users.

But the Schiller talked about "removing compression artefacts" or something like that. So maybe the HomePod _does_ try to improve these 128 Kbit/sec mp3s...

 

[Act3]

$700 for a pair of speakers if you want stereo. How big are these speakers ?

 

[superduperultra]

Phil Schiller just discovered warm water and is telling everyone how awesome it is.

 

[gnasher729]

The marketing guy? Why not ask, you know, the actual developers and engineers?

Developers and engineers can create great things. Marketing guys can tell the world that the developers and engineers created great things.

 

[artfossil]

And I just love Phil's notion that people are actually using the iPad at work. Those wacky multimillionaires! So insulated, so out of touch. They just crack me up.

Sounds to me as if you’re the one out of touch.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

THIS! I still don’t have an answer on if I can stream my iTunes library over HomePod or just the songs I purchased from Apple. I know I can stream my entire iTunes library on my Amazon Echo using the My Media skill.

You definitely can via airplay, but then YOU are the "smarts" part there (not Siri).

If you mean can Siri access your ripped library of songs from CDs, there is still no definitive answer. The working rumor is that if you buy iTunes Match, probably-to-likely (but not definitively certain yet- best I know). My best guess based on all I've read is that if you have your ripped music Matched, Siri should be able to "see it" but- again my guess- it probably plays the copy in the cloud instead of the ripped copy on your own hard drive. HOWEVER, THAT's BEST GUESSES that could be completely wrong. Many of us remain very hungry for solid factual answers to many functionality questions. Absolute answers remain elusive.

Along with "overview", "tech specs" and "order" tabs, I'd like to see a "FAQ" tab on the Apple site for this product and most of the Q's dedicated to functionality questions like those. Instead, it appears we have to wait for real reviews if we carry a lot of interest in the "smarts" side of this product.

 

[symphony]

So, basically, Sonos.

But Sonos sucks, you have to use a controller app, another unnecessary app that is another music player. Also you can’t stream your own stuff, only services. You’ll have to work with workarounds and third party services which you will have to hope will last reliably.

We got AirPlay, soon to be upgraded soon too. While we can still individually stream stuff independently as of right now.

 

[citysnaps]

I love how some here are characterizing Apple's audience as not caring, never having heard good sound, not fussy etc.

I think that says a lot about people making such claims. Seems they are worried that Apple may hit a home run and some justification is needed to take that sting off.

 

[gnasher729]

I get that Apple likes music....but I cannot stream my home library to the Homepod unless I have iTunes Match.

How often again... You can play all of your music on the HomePod. You just can't use Siri on the HomePod to pick the music.

 

[EdT]

99% of listeners don't care. For the vast majority of users, a normal 128bit MP3 is perfectly fine.

Apple markets to the average user. They're the largest percentage of the market and the largest potential to make money.

Just look at how going after hi-fi audio has worked out for Tidal.

But a high percentage will SAY they care, and may buy a product just because it’s advertised as premium sound.

 

[DakotaGuy]

They must have built a lot of these because unlike other hot new Apple products it’s still available for launch day.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

How often again... You can play all of your music on the HomePod. You just can't use Siri on the HomePod to pick the music.

And again, you can do the very same thing with ANY Airplay speaker, including Airplaying through an TV to probably the best speakers anyone already owns. I think the point of a "smart speaker" is to make the most of both the "smarts" and the "speaker." As soon as it becomes just a speaker, there are thousands of alternatives available.

Personally, I'm hoping Apple has significantly upgraded the "smarts" side of this. If so, those very same smarts should then distribute to everything else that works with Siri. That's a big win whether one buys a HP or not. I hope that proves out.

 

[Pirate!]

But Sonos sucks, you have to use a controller app, another unnecessary app that is another music player. Also you can’t stream your own stuff, only services. You’ll have to work with workarounds and third party services which you will have to hope will last reliably.

We got AirPlay, soon to be upgraded soon too. While we can still individually stream stuff independently as of right now.

I almost never use the controller app. If I have to use an app at all, it's Spotify as I can select the Sonos speakers to play music from in that app. Most of the time, however, I just ask alexa to play something (from Spotify or Amazon).

Also, I have not tried the skill mentioned below, but it sounds like it's worth a look:

THIS! I still don’t have an answer on if I can stream my iTunes library over HomePod or just the songs I purchased from Apple. I know I can stream my entire iTunes library on my Amazon Echo using the My Media skill.

Edit: This is all relating to the Sonos One smart speaker, as that's the comparable product.

 

[harami]

Alexa! wake me up when this dead on arrival HomePod is laid to rest.
Done - your reminder is set for 5 minutes.

 

[redmac]

Ummmmm, perhaps you should reread how Apple is marketing this product. Best quality sound hardware begs for best quality sound software. Or, at the other extreme, garbage in: garbage out.

If Apple made a million dollar HP Magical Deluxe Speaker, the quality of it's sound will be limited by what it is fed.

OR, if "99% listeners don't care about audio quality," won't they be happy to save money and buy just about anyone else's much cheaper smart speaker? If they "don't care about quality," why pay more?

A home speaker can be $350 and can also have the best sound quality for speakers under $500. It doesn't mean it will compete against audiophile sound systems that cost somewhere between four and six digit numbers. I never paid anything less than $250 or more than $1000 for my speakers and I am excited about HomePod. I think I am within the target audience for Apple. Those who are willing to buy something better than those mediocre speakers from Amazon and Google, and also a large enough portion of the market.

 

[anthogag]

Sound is definitely affected by everything in a space. Adjusting the speaker for the room it's in is a good HomePod feature.

I put a high value on sound quality. If this HomePod is really good Apple could make a "big one", maybe 2 feet (60 cm) tall...\o/...

 

[scfxmac]

I fear that Apple was late to the game on this one. As if the price weren't enough of a deterrent, Siri still has not proven to be capable of anything meaningful in my day to day life (not to mention the fact that it rarely understands what I'm saying). Also, the lack of Spotify integration is a huge turn off. I'll stick w/ Sonos and Echo.

 

[genovelle]

Article quote:

"Every time you move HomePod, it uses the built-in accelerometer to detect a change in its location and continues to make sure the music sounds great and is consistent, wherever it's placed."

This is good information, didn't realize the HomePod had this potential. Given the late release, it would have been beneficial to have more product information long before the launch.

It would have tipped their hand to the competition. Every month counts. Why let them try to one up them with some thrown together Solution and claim they had it first.

 

[Val3nty]

Anyone else hoping for a HomePod Mini?

 

[RickInHouston]

Phil the Shill tap dancing to his own beat.

Hey, I said that once about him and it got me wrist-slapped.