Agreed. I’ve never found a discount as steep as this one either. Most discounts seem to range like 5% off, which wouldn’t even cover the tax. $20 off the Mini is what these would sell used.
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Deals: HomePod Mini Drops to $79.99 at Simply Mac ($19 Off)
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I didn’t try YouTube or Netflix. But video conferencing was a no go. I was kind of disgusted with the fact that Apple didn’t fix the delay once they introduced the stereo-pair feature for HomePods. Prior to macOS 11.3, you couldn’t even play from macOS to both HomePods at the same time, so they weren’t really meant as computer speakers. You could choose one HomePod or the other as the speaker from macOS, but not both of them. The only application in macOS that could use HomePods as stereo speakers was Music.
Once Apple enabled HomePods to be used as a stereo pair in macOS 11.3, one would think they should have eliminated the 2-second lag, but they did not.
I was debating on color options for the different rooms and missed out on the Space Grey. Had it in my cart then it was sold out 😩
I guess that makes the decision easier lol - Picked up 2, though! For the people who are deep in the Amazon Voice Assistants... I was too. But having all of your homekit stuff in one area is very nice. This is a good price to slowly start getting out of it. Get one and see if you like it! The sound quality is uncomparable in my opinion. This little thing blows the new echo dot out of the water.
I guess that makes the decision easier lol - Picked up 2, though! For the people who are deep in the Amazon Voice Assistants... I was too. But having all of your homekit stuff in one area is very nice. This is a good price to slowly start getting out of it. Get one and see if you like it! The sound quality is uncomparable in my opinion. This little thing blows the new echo dot out of the water.
I purchased one to compare against my Alexa devices, particularly Siri. Obviously Alexa is better, but for me I’m not a power user, so Siri gets a good enough. I had 4 Devices 3 echo 3rd gen, one show 2nd gen. Sound quality is better on the Mini, source material makes a big difference. what flipped me was I discovered that Amazon had turned on sidewalk on all my Ring devices and Alexa. a bucket of water held my echos nicely while I chanted😎. its been a few weeks and I have noticed an unexpected side effect. My spam email, texts, and telemarketing calls have decreased dramatically after killing Alexa, coincidental no clue. Had it not been for the sidewalk deception I probably wouldn’t have switched. Glad I did, yeah I can’t start my car, or do some other cool convenience actions.
There is no real privacy with Alexa, in my opinion. I don't see their privacy statement getting better.
I rarely use Siri. I use homepods and minis for music and as TV speakers. Much better sound than Echos. And tighter integration with the rest of my apple products.
Check out an app called AirFoil by Rogue Amoeba. You can control every speaker in your home and adjust the audio delay on them until it’s perfect from your computer. Pretty solid.
I’d snap one up if you’re curious to try it. If you like it and want better sound get two to play things in stereo. My wife and I love our HomePod but didn’t want to spend the money to get a second one at the time we bought it, sight unseen. We were going to purchase a second had they not been discontinued.
We got a mini when they first came out for our bedroom that my wife uses when she’s getting ready. It does everything the original could but doesn’t sound as good. It’s perfect for a kitchen, bedroom or low cost speaker for your living room but you really do need to subscribe to Apple Music to get the most from it and play just about any thing at any time. It can play your library if you don’t subscribe to Apple Music but use the feature that lets you match your music to Apple Music and upload what Apple Music doesn’t have to the cloud. It used to be called iTunes Match but I forget what they call it now. I think that’s only $25 a year. I had a huge existing library so when iTunes Match came out I jumped at it and have never stopped using it. They are good speakers for the Apple TV as well if you don’t have an existing sound system or sound bar. It can also act as a HomeKit hub if you want to dip your toes into HomeKit.
I do miss the quality of the sound of the original though. I hope they end up coming up with something around the $199 price point for those of us willing to pay for better sound quality. At that price I’d have two of those in the living room with a mini in the bedroom and kitchen. They have to be planning something or they wouldn’t have left “Mini” as a part of its name when they discontinued the original.
We got a mini when they first came out for our bedroom that my wife uses when she’s getting ready. It does everything the original could but doesn’t sound as good. It’s perfect for a kitchen, bedroom or low cost speaker for your living room but you really do need to subscribe to Apple Music to get the most from it and play just about any thing at any time. It can play your library if you don’t subscribe to Apple Music but use the feature that lets you match your music to Apple Music and upload what Apple Music doesn’t have to the cloud. It used to be called iTunes Match but I forget what they call it now. I think that’s only $25 a year. I had a huge existing library so when iTunes Match came out I jumped at it and have never stopped using it. They are good speakers for the Apple TV as well if you don’t have an existing sound system or sound bar. It can also act as a HomeKit hub if you want to dip your toes into HomeKit.
I do miss the quality of the sound of the original though. I hope they end up coming up with something around the $199 price point for those of us willing to pay for better sound quality. At that price I’d have two of those in the living room with a mini in the bedroom and kitchen. They have to be planning something or they wouldn’t have left “Mini” as a part of its name when they discontinued the original.
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It can actually adjust the audio delay for live content? Like it can actually go back in time?
IMO get a Sonos then you can use Alexa but have the best sound quality (and design)
The original HomePod sounds better than the Sonos and it has a better design. I also I prefer Siri over Alexa, which is buggy.
I also have the 2 second delay when using the mini as an iMac speaker (just like there is a 1-2 second delay using my pair of original HomePods on my Apple TV). It is slightly annoying but I still think the quality of auto makes up for it. Bottom line is it is very personal use case decision. I don't listen to that much music on my iMac so I just switched back to using the built in iMac speaker but I keep using my big HomePods on my Apple TV because it sounds so great (the sound of the explosions in the movie Greyhound and the gun fights in Lone Survivor are truly amazing).
The HomePod mini hasn't got the booming bass of the dearly departed HomePod, but makes up for it to some degree by working as a Thread hub. With the coffee-can iPod, if I asked Siri to change the lighting, coordinated over four different fixtures, the result would sort of dribble in in the space of five or so seconds. With Thread, it's much quicker and commands are less likely to get lost in the ether.
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Blind tests disagree with you. And are you really opining that Siri is less buggy than Alexa? You can't be serious with that one.