I don’t want Apple Music so when I tried the home pod I just played music on my iphone, and Spotify. Pretty great sound. And love how fast it locks to my home kit accessories but yahhhh looking for a used one on eBay or Craigslist.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Deals: Apple's HomePod on Sale for $204.99 at OWC ($94 Off) [Updated]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I’m going to suggest to be really careful buying a used one of these off eBay. Mainly because it’s hard to distinguish these from a refurbished model, especially if someone tries to list it as ‘new’. Definitely make sure you achieve the serial number first, and follow up with Apple to make sure it’s not been refurb’d in their system. [Also, it’s really easy to re-shrink wrap those boxes, as they don’t use ‘pull-tabs’ on the outside like typical Apple products do.]
Personally, I just take advantage of this deal. How much could you possibly save off eBay? Another 15, maybe $20 for associated risks mentioned.
Last edited:
I'm not sure what difference it makes if it's an Apple refurb or not. In my experience, Apple refurbs are EQUAL to brand new at a lower price. I have zero issues buying an Apple refurb. The same can't be said about 3rd party "refurb" units.
But isn’t the point of the article purchasing a new discounted HomePod, if somebody wanted a refurbished product, that’s an option, but not the point I was indicating. But I’m willing to believe that the majority of readers in this article, want a new HomePod, not refurbished.
I use Spotify. I can ask Cortana to play any playlist from my Spotify account, or any artist, album, etc, and she'll play it. Even if my phone is lost, off, or being used.
I can connect any device with Bluetooth and listen that way, too. I'm pretty sure that I can use it as a stand-alone Skype phone too, although I've never tried.
And, to put it bluntly, those $10 Bluetooth speakers sound like scheisse.
So in the first comment, it's less about Bluetooth and more about the ability to play music from outside sources like Spotify. I think that's valid. I actually don't know the answer to this and maybe you do, but you can't request Siri to play Spotify on iPhone or HomePod?
The connect any device isn't really answering what I said though. Most of us have iPhones and iPads and use those. We are in the Apple ecosystem...we're not trying to use the Microsoft Surface with just a generic speaker. You buy into Apple for that closed ecosystem otherwise there are great Bose speakers that work with anything and everything.
[automerge]1588113605[/automerge]
This is maybe my misunderstanding, but if you play YouTube on your iPhone can't you set the output to be the HomePod? I am 99% sure you can. If I'm hearing this right Bluetooth is not a problem for any sizable group; it's the fact that folks can't natively ask Siri to play Youtube or Spotify. Unless you're saying something else?
you & I Both
A 10-100$ speaker will sound good in the shower since all those etch and fishy sounding highs would suit being in the shower. Not the demographic of song listeners that Apple is targeting in the market.
That's somewhat missing the point, I think.
This is the eternal Apple tension -- how do they balance better (but incompatible) solutions with older solutions.
Your complaint is absolutely no different in kind from "no floppy drive", "no CD drive", "no audio jack" and suchlike. It's a real complaint but it also misses the point; that
- Apple doesn't force you to buy these things; you buy them when they make sense for you.
- part of the reason for buying them is the superior experience enabled by a better technology solution
So in this case, the technological problem is that BT has limited bandwidth and limited range. Which makes it fine for headphones and similar such solutions, but less ideal in circumstances where battery life and size are not the most absolutely important things.
Now you can say that Apple should have provided backward compatibility anyway. People like you have said that since the (non-Apple II compatible) mac came out in 1984. If that's what matters to you, leave the Apple ecosystem now...
Otherwise, if you want your Android phone to be able to send audio to HomePod, well
- don't blame Apple for a proprietary protocol. Where's the standard WiFi audio protocol?
Apple was the one that saw this as a problem and solved it.
- third party vendors can support AirPlay2 if they want. LG TVs for example, support AirPlay2.
Ask your Android vendor to get an AirPlay2 Sender license...
Don’t like the switch of the packaging and the warranty. Besides the past two times this came up, Best Buy dropped their price to $250 a week or two after.
Yea, that gave me a little pause myself. When I’m told new I want new. The two I ordered will be delivered today so fingers crossed on condition.
There are fall-backs though. I can still plug a CD drive into a Mac. I can still plug a 3.5mm jack into a Mac. It may require a dongle or other advice, but there is a way.
Why can't bluetooth be the fallback? Anything that can Airplay goes that route and if it can't it accepts bluetooth.
Buyer Beware! OWC sent me a bricked, used HomePod that had already been named. I was unable to connect at all .. Airplay showed the device had previously been named ‘The HOLE’ however still unable to connect. Still waiting on a refund ...
Last edited:
The two I ordered during this sell showed up today. Both were in bulk packaging. One looked brand new, plastic still on it etc. The other was clearly used, finger prints on the top, cat hair etc.
They lied. Outright.
Best Buy had them for $199 for Black Friday and most of January.
I bet once Apple announces the HomePod 2s, the price will drop at Best Buy to $199 or even lower. But you'll have to be quick to get them if the price is $149 or less.
For the same reason that Apple doesn't include those other legacies. If you make the easy route doing the same old same old, then no company will ever bother with the new, better way of doing things.
This has happened repeatedly.
Believe it or not, APPLE drove the initial uptake of USB, not Intel. Because on Apple USB was the ONLY way to plug in keyboards or printers or whatever.
Look at wireless headphones. They were going nowhere till APPLE forced them to become mainstream.
Look t Bonjour, or AirPrint as more technical examples.
It doesn't always work. It didn't work with Firewire (though there were also strategically dumb decisions that were made there).
It's still 50-50 with HomeKit (and again, some absolutely insane strategic decisions being made by Apple, coupled with truly remarkable levels of f*****upness in Home.app and some choices in the HomeKit API).
But if Apple wants a rich Airplay2 ecosystem (which I imagine would eventually go beyond TVs and speakers to include things like cameras, maybe even musical instruments at some point?) this is how they have to do it; by not allowing any easy path for ecosystem participants because if easy is available it IS what will be chosen.
Airpods are bluetooth. They really didn't force anything there. If an Android user wanted a pair they could easily use them day one. They work with damn near everything.
HomePods don't have bluetooth enabled making it not OOTB to connect with Windows/Android.
Also, this very nacent Airplay 2 ecosystem can't even send data to a HomePod. So a user thinking their Airplay2 LG TV can export audio through a HomePod will be very disappointed. You need an AppleTV (the box, not the app) for that. So please use your AppleTV box to use the AppleTV app so you can get sound through your HomePod, don't use the local AppleTV app on your LG TV with Airplay2 and AppleTV.
Really just doesn't make sense unless but that is Apple these days.
HomePods are a massive fail and the main reasons are price and lack of bluetooth.
Apple showed that Bluetooth didn't have to suck. Look at everything that wasn't done well till Airpods:
Fast pairing. Easy charging with a nice case. Easy controls.
I had multiple BT headsets before AirPods. They SUCKED. Connectivity was a total PITA. Charging required pushing some fiddly micro-USB connector into the device -- and every day bcs no nice case. The controls were tiny buttons behind my head, impossible to actually use.
I had a similar experience. One looked new, plastic, etc. and works great, and then the second was lacking the plastic, has dust in the top of the speaker and fingerprints, and I am having problems with it.
Both of mine are working; just don’t like being lied to. I attempted to call them but no answer due to pandemic.
My Homepod arrived without the plastic, but did not have any signs of use. The Homepod did have a high amount of residue from the packaging though. Cleaned off just fine. I did have an issue setting it up for the first time. Everything worked as normal configuring it, but its state in the Home app stayed at "configuring device will be available soon" status for 20+ minutes. I had to reset that Homepod before it worked correctly. I am satisfied for the moment and hope OWC will honor their warranty if something goes wrong. I ended up paying $152 for this Homepod after using some of my CC reward points, not a bad price for a wonderful speaker!