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Deals: HomePod Mini Sees First Discount, Available for $89 at Expercom ($10 Off)

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Apple reseller Expercom is offering the first straight cash discount we've ever seen on HomePod mini, priced at $89.00, down from $99.00. This is a new HomePod mini in Space Gray (White currently isn't on sale), and it has an estimated delivery in 3-7 business days.

homepod-mini-sale.jpg
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Expercom. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Ever since the HomePod mini was announced last October, all Apple resellers - and Apple itself - have continued to offer the miniature speaker at its expected retail price of $99.00. So far, no other retailers have followed suit, and only Expercom has a discount on the HomePod mini.

Expercom offers free shipping for most orders over $90, so you'll either need to add something else to the order to qualify, or pay $9 in shipping.



With the discontinuation of the original HomePod, right now the HomePod mini is the only first-party Apple speaker available on the market. We track the best deals on HomePod every week, so be sure to bookmark our guide if you're on the hunt for solid HomePod discounts.

Article Link: Deals: HomePod Mini Sees First Discount, Available for $89 at Expercom ($10 Off)
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/13/deals-homepod-mini-first-discount/
Last edited:
Curious how these are selling. Siri is inferior to other smart assistants. I have one. It’s barely used, mostly for “hey Siri where’s my phone”. If I’m going to listen to music I have superior options. Maybe I’ll find more use in the future.
 
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i have 2 of these, and genuinely: i have to say they are absolutely sub-par in terms of functionality.

audio is pretty good, especially in stereo. but this is...when it works.

something that isnt made super clear, to start: your homepod minis must be on a network together in order to use their stereo function. you cannot somehow do this over bluetooth, or the UWB they can communicate over. remove from wifi and suddenly you can only use one at a time, in spite of the ability to say, share audio between two different sets of headphones. this is an obnoxious limitation considering the homepod minis COULD be portable if paired with a good USB-C battery pack.

the rest of the time...by god they are annoying to maintain connected. i have them setup in the kitchen, and most of the time try to use them with the latest ipad air. sometimes when trying to stereo pair, both will connect but only one will play audio. sometimes they'll play both as monaural so you get this odd echo. often the audio will just drop entirely yet they'll still be "connected".

these issues plagues us with the latest iphone 12 pro max, as well as the aforementioned latest ipad air. my home network is robust, and quarterbacking it is a powerful wifi-6e enabled router. (yes, i am aware these devices will not take advantage of the 6ghz band or 6e protocol, this was a point of reference to note that my network hardware is not old or cheap.)

i have tried unplugging/replugging. disconnecting/reconnecting from wifi. factory reset, etc. turn off/on the ipad/iphone. all of these devices are running their latest software updates.

probably the absolute most irritating aspect of this is how long it can take at time for the devices to switch between audio outputs. especially when the homepods stop playing audio, i've become disinterested in spending any further troubleshooting time so i'll try to switch to the device's speakers. only to be met with the spinning wheel for upwards of 10s at times. for the apple magic, this is absurd. why does it take any additional time to switch back to onboard audio? windows PCs do not suffer from this problem. if you want to swap audio devices, indicate this and bam, Win 10 accomplishes this *immediately.*

i hope others with the product do not suffer from this problem, but i cannot recommend these at all, even on sale.
 
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Military gets 10% off Apple branded products, free shipping, plus additional 3% if one has Apple Card. Awesome.
 
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Eorlas said:
i have 2 of these, and genuinely: i have to say they are absolutely sub-par in terms of functionality.

audio is pretty good, especially in stereo. but this is...when it works.

something that isnt made super clear, to start: your homepod minis must be on a network together in order to use their stereo function. you cannot somehow do this over bluetooth, or the UWB they can communicate over. remove from wifi and suddenly you can only use one at a time, in spite of the ability to say, share audio between two different sets of headphones. this is an obnoxious limitation considering the homepod minis COULD be portable if paired with a good USB-C battery pack.

the rest of the time...by god they are annoying to maintain connected. i have them setup in the kitchen, and most of the time try to use them with the latest ipad air. sometimes when trying to stereo pair, both will connect but only one will play audio. sometimes they'll play both as monaural so you get this odd echo. often the audio will just drop entirely yet they'll still be "connected".

these issues plagues us with the latest iphone 12 pro max, as well as the aforementioned latest ipad air. my home network is robust, and quarterbacking it is a powerful wifi-6e enabled router. (yes, i am aware these devices will not take advantage of the 6ghz band or 6e protocol, this was a point of reference to note that my network hardware is not old or cheap.)

i have tried unplugging/replugging. disconnecting/reconnecting from wifi. factory reset, etc. turn off/on the ipad/iphone. all of these devices are running their latest software updates.

probably the absolute most irritating aspect of this is how long it can take at time for the devices to switch between audio outputs. especially when the homepods stop playing audio, i've become disinterested in spending any further troubleshooting time so i'll try to switch to the device's speakers. only to be met with the spinning wheel for upwards of 10s at times. for the apple magic, this is absurd. why does it take any additional time to switch back to onboard audio? windows PCs do not suffer from this problem. if you want to swap audio devices, indicate this and bam, Win 10 accomplishes this *immediately.*

i hope others with the product do not suffer from this problem, but i cannot recommend these at all, even on sale.
Click to expand...
Wow. That sucks. I have none of these problems and my network sucks and is slow. I actually can’t buy more since my network only supports 10 WiFi devices at once. Between iPads, computers, phones, I have to disconnect something to get things to work sometimes but the homepods are quick to respond and always in sync. I have 3 minis and a og HomePod. They even work together flawlessly. As long as my phone is on the network.

The only frustration I’ve had is that they will play music separately from my phone. Sometimes I start the music on my phone, I’m doing other things on My phone and I try to adjust volume but it only adjusts the phones volume. I have to switch outputs and adjust etc etc. or I can ask Siri to turn it down which works, but I generally prefer using my phone. Took a while to figure out why I couldn’t adjust volume.
 
This has already been £79 in the U.K. around a week ago, still not really tempted, I want a couple full sized ones.. wonder if we will get an announcement next week.
 
the homepod mini should be sold for £50... watch them fly off their inventory.
 
Deliro said:
Curious how these are selling. Siri is inferior to other smart assistants. I have one. It’s barely used, mostly for “hey Siri where’s my phone”. If I’m going to listen to music I have superior options. Maybe I’ll find more use in the future.
Click to expand...
I use my stereo pair everyday in the living room to listen to music or my AppleTV. And my minis open me up to use my original HomePod more too. Bummer that you can’t find a use for them, you have two weeks to return them.
 
Eorlas said:
i have 2 of these, and genuinely: i have to say they are absolutely sub-par in terms of functionality.

audio is pretty good, especially in stereo. but this is...when it works.

something that isnt made super clear, to start: your homepod minis must be on a network together in order to use their stereo function. you cannot somehow do this over bluetooth, or the UWB they can communicate over. remove from wifi and suddenly you can only use one at a time, in spite of the ability to say, share audio between two different sets of headphones. this is an obnoxious limitation considering the homepod minis COULD be portable if paired with a good USB-C battery pack.

the rest of the time...by god they are annoying to maintain connected. i have them setup in the kitchen, and most of the time try to use them with the latest ipad air. sometimes when trying to stereo pair, both will connect but only one will play audio. sometimes they'll play both as monaural so you get this odd echo. often the audio will just drop entirely yet they'll still be "connected".

these issues plagues us with the latest iphone 12 pro max, as well as the aforementioned latest ipad air. my home network is robust, and quarterbacking it is a powerful wifi-6e enabled router. (yes, i am aware these devices will not take advantage of the 6ghz band or 6e protocol, this was a point of reference to note that my network hardware is not old or cheap.)

i have tried unplugging/replugging. disconnecting/reconnecting from wifi. factory reset, etc. turn off/on the ipad/iphone. all of these devices are running their latest software updates.

probably the absolute most irritating aspect of this is how long it can take at time for the devices to switch between audio outputs. especially when the homepods stop playing audio, i've become disinterested in spending any further troubleshooting time so i'll try to switch to the device's speakers. only to be met with the spinning wheel for upwards of 10s at times. for the apple magic, this is absurd. why does it take any additional time to switch back to onboard audio? windows PCs do not suffer from this problem. if you want to swap audio devices, indicate this and bam, Win 10 accomplishes this *immediately.*

i hope others with the product do not suffer from this problem, but i cannot recommend these at all, even on sale.
Click to expand...
Maybe you have an old WiFi signal. Do you know what version your router is broadcasting?
 
I’ve found my homepod’s reliability to be disappointing too. Sonos much more reliable and that’s over Airplay which you’d think an apple device would be good at.
 
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