Your phone could listen to you at any time. You are already monitored and everything you say could be recorded, if needed.
We have long went past a point where privacy matters.
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Canalys Predicts 2018 Will Be 'Defining Year' for Smart Speaker Growth
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Your phone could listen to you at any time. You are already monitored and everything you say could be recorded, if needed.
We have long went past a point where privacy matters.
There's a lot of BS out there, such as claims that Google and Amazon devices are recording all your conversations, which is absolutely false of course. The amount of processing power and storage that would be required is stupidly high.
Yes, the devices are listening all the time, but thats it - just listening for the keywords to start an interaction session, ie.., "hey google", or "Alexa", and only then is content uploaded for speech analysis.
Yeah just like that Apple HIFI. You're probably too young to remember that though.
Smart Speakers are pretty useless. I know several owners who stop using them after a couple of months.
Check again... Google and Amazon are back to full price following the holiday price war they had. My estimate is that by the end of 2018 Apple will be hard pressed to reach 10% market share based on units. They may do it based on revenue because as usual they are overpriced. But this is pretty much the same with all Apple products... they peak out at 15% market share and have enormous profits.
I'm pretty happy with my three Amazon Echos, and will probably pick up a couple more when there is another sale. I will have spent less than the cost of one of Apple's. I thought these things were stupid until I tried one, and now I'm hooked.
Apple Losing Out As Consumers Reject The New MacBook Pro
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewansp...book-customer-satisfaction-fall/#59e65be16e0d
Mac sales continue decline in Q3, Apple drops to 5th place worldwide
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17...line-in-q3-apple-drops-to-5th-place-worldwide
I don’t know, call me paranoid, but IMO I’m supposed to be listening to my speaker, my speaker isn’t supposed to listen to me...
I still don't see the point of spending 50-300$ on a speaker that does the same things my smartphone already does better.
These things need personality. Just having a cylinder or block sitting there and forcing users to repeat phrases has limited appeal. Sometimes I’m half way through a question with Siri and the damn thing says ‘Sorry I didn’t catch that.’ even though I haven’t finished.
Siri and Home app won’t interact with my Philips Hue 2.0 anymore either. One day it decided to give up for no damn reason and there are many online with the same problem. If I delete the Hue app it can detect my hub but not control the lights. If I install the Hue app then Home can’t detect anything. Garbage. It’s 2018 and we have garbage.
After 6 years Siri hasn’t noticeably improved and I enjoyed it more on day one. The competition is no better.
They need to look like (be) droids, like the lampshade iMac did. They need to be animated so that users know that they paying attention in a human way. I’m not spending $150+ bucks on a boring speaker that may or may not frustrate me with its inability to understand me or give me sensible answers.
Siri and Home app won’t interact with my Philips Hue 2.0 anymore either. One day it decided to give up for no damn reason and there are many online with the same problem. If I delete the Hue app it can detect my hub but not control the lights. If I install the Hue app then Home can’t detect anything. Garbage. It’s 2018 and we have garbage.
After 6 years Siri hasn’t noticeably improved and I enjoyed it more on day one. The competition is no better.
They need to look like (be) droids, like the lampshade iMac did. They need to be animated so that users know that they paying attention in a human way. I’m not spending $150+ bucks on a boring speaker that may or may not frustrate me with its inability to understand me or give me sensible answers.
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The HiFi was a solid product, but not a technology platform. Didn't really have much to differentiate it from competitors or advance technology unique to Apple. HomePod appears to be much better at providing those things.
We bought a few Amazon Echo Dots at $40 and use them as an intercom system to tell my kids it's time to eat dinner, etc. We use the one in the kitchen for a timer as we cook, and to check the weather. The ones in the bedrooms are used as alarm clocks for the kids too.
My family room AV receiver is Bluetooth so I connected the Echo Dot in the kitchen to that receiver to play my Amazon Prime membership songs over the stereo. No need to fire up the Apple TV anymore.
At some point, I'll start buying the lights and a smart thermostat.
I'm not really sure what Apple's waiting for.
My family room AV receiver is Bluetooth so I connected the Echo Dot in the kitchen to that receiver to play my Amazon Prime membership songs over the stereo. No need to fire up the Apple TV anymore.
At some point, I'll start buying the lights and a smart thermostat.
I'm not really sure what Apple's waiting for.
Sorry if this is rambling, but the topic is so large it is impossible to address in a post. It really needs a full article somewhere.
I hate to say it, but I believe this is going to net out in the pretty near future as Apple's biggest blunder.
This market is already huge and Apple is too late to the game with the wrong product. I already own 8 Echo devices and 3 google Home devices and I am so deep into the Apple ecosystem it is ridiculous. I gave out Echo dots as Christmas presents to everyone in my family. At $29 they were so cheap it was a simple go to gift that everyone wanted and was excited about. Anyone I know that is even slightly tech savvy already has an Echo or a Home device. Echo devices are Amazon's biggest sellers out of all products they sell.
Home automation is going to be an enormous market in the next few years and unfortunately, Siri is awful, Homekit is awful, Homekit doesn't have enough device support (but virtually all devices work with Echo and Home) and Homepod is too expensive. If I'm an audio aficionado, I already own a stereo, why don't I just play my music through that via an Echo dot (for example)? If I'm not an audio aficionado, why would I spend $349 on a speaker?
Apple has no internal infrastructure to handle many of the tasks required to make Homepod more than a music player. Am I going to have to ask Siri to search Google for answers like I have to do on my phone if I want any reliable search results?
Apple should have been focused on creating a line of their own connected hardware under the apple brand and kept it within their ecosystem and rolled it out over the last few years. Apple branded smart locks, security cams, lighting and outlets that set up as easily as Airpods would have been a game changer and they could have charged a massive premium. (There is still time for that if they somehow have this secretly in the works, but that window will be closing very soon). How did they not build an AppleTV with a small speaker and voice recognition built in?
Ugh, this post lacks coherency, but suffice it to say, I think apple has lost their way in many areas (the recent battery thing and what I now consider to be bottom of class customer service when it come to phone and iPad repairs for example) and for the first time in 10 years, I am seriously considering dipping my toes into other ecosystems beyond just educating myself.
I hate to say it, but I believe this is going to net out in the pretty near future as Apple's biggest blunder.
This market is already huge and Apple is too late to the game with the wrong product. I already own 8 Echo devices and 3 google Home devices and I am so deep into the Apple ecosystem it is ridiculous. I gave out Echo dots as Christmas presents to everyone in my family. At $29 they were so cheap it was a simple go to gift that everyone wanted and was excited about. Anyone I know that is even slightly tech savvy already has an Echo or a Home device. Echo devices are Amazon's biggest sellers out of all products they sell.
Home automation is going to be an enormous market in the next few years and unfortunately, Siri is awful, Homekit is awful, Homekit doesn't have enough device support (but virtually all devices work with Echo and Home) and Homepod is too expensive. If I'm an audio aficionado, I already own a stereo, why don't I just play my music through that via an Echo dot (for example)? If I'm not an audio aficionado, why would I spend $349 on a speaker?
Apple has no internal infrastructure to handle many of the tasks required to make Homepod more than a music player. Am I going to have to ask Siri to search Google for answers like I have to do on my phone if I want any reliable search results?
Apple should have been focused on creating a line of their own connected hardware under the apple brand and kept it within their ecosystem and rolled it out over the last few years. Apple branded smart locks, security cams, lighting and outlets that set up as easily as Airpods would have been a game changer and they could have charged a massive premium. (There is still time for that if they somehow have this secretly in the works, but that window will be closing very soon). How did they not build an AppleTV with a small speaker and voice recognition built in?
Ugh, this post lacks coherency, but suffice it to say, I think apple has lost their way in many areas (the recent battery thing and what I now consider to be bottom of class customer service when it come to phone and iPad repairs for example) and for the first time in 10 years, I am seriously considering dipping my toes into other ecosystems beyond just educating myself.
Having used Alexa and Google Home, I don't get this issue. Both are superior IMO to Siri. Google Home has way more integrations that Apple does.
How much are you prepared to pay for an animated, engaged animatronic speaker?...and what form do you see this taking?
I have it disabled. I’m aware there are a lot of things watching/listening, I’m just not going to actively add an always on ear to my environment.
I contemplated the Sonos One but online I couldn’t find any information about how I could use it as a general system speaker that I can use with either my Mac and PC. It seems like it can only interact with music apps on all the devices.
As mentioned in another post of mine, I have disabled Siri. It was annoying and not very good. I just don’t want to be “monitored”.
I agree with the comments that Apple is too late to this market. I have three Echos and love them. I would have no interest in adding an Apple device that isn’t as functional and costs much more.
Turn off/on lights, adjust a Nest, stuff like that. Only uses I have so far with my echo.
i think 2017 was the peak, now its steady growth.
Apple is not going to make a dent as they missed the point of a smart speaker, it's all about being affordable, as one per room and excellent voice assistant. Apple is far too expensive and Siri is so far behind the game
Apple is not going to make a dent as they missed the point of a smart speaker, it's all about being affordable, as one per room and excellent voice assistant. Apple is far too expensive and Siri is so far behind the game
Do you intend to live on your own all your life?
Or only share your home with deaf people, who can never hear what you say and pas that information onto someone else?
Or you woke up one day in the future and refused to ever share a room with robots/androids which were then commonplace.
Very lonely to live like that, and never speak to anyone.
