Deals: HomePod Returns to Its Low Price of $199.99 in Best Buy's New Sale

[MrMacintoshIII]

This is a good price on a product that I've been going back and forth on for a while. I'd like to pick up one of these before the only version we can get has reduced sound quality. But, current HomePod owners, please answer this question: Can the HomePod play live radio stations without the involvement of one's iPhone - as in, all by itself while connected to your home wifi network with your iPhone turned off? I've read about such functionality being added late last year, but details since then have been very murky - with the subject mentioned only in passing.

Im surprised nobody has taken the time to answer yet! I'll test now, powering off all my devices except the HomePods.

Yes, it worked.

 

[DiceMoney]

So I'll repeat me question/issue from the Belkin speaker thread here for the wider audience. How do you all think Apple/Google/Amazon are doing to handle "smart speakers" in terms of the end of support or end of life cycle. I would be furious if I bought a Homepod and in 5 years it cannot accept any more updates. This is why the entire segment confuses me, by all means spend money on quality speakers but why would you want to gamble on a short life span from the "smarts" portion of the device when your phone can easily perform the same functions. Most of us upgrade our phones every 2-3 years so that hardware will never age but it is not unreasonable to want to keep quality speakers for 10 years + and I doubt Apple/Google/Amazon are going to support these devices that long.

My HomePod randomly “bricked” itself for no apparent reason, though I do suspect that an update could have been the culprit. These apparently “smart“ speakers, are more susceptible to randomly dying, do that the software is always changing.

 

[scaramoosh]

But the Homepod sucks, it needs Bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack for Rev 2 and be $250 at launch.

 

[MrMacintoshIII]

But the Homepod sucks, it needs Bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack for Rev 2 and be $250 at launch.

as long as they give us this without sacrificing audio quality that sounds good to me. First and foremost though I think most Homepod buyers actually value music and sound. No I mean ACTUALLY value music and sound above any and every other feature. I know I do.

In example, a $250 homepod with the features you’ve stated that has worse sound than the original Homepods will never be a buy from me. Let me be clear actually. Any compromise in audio quality whatsoever will be met with a no-buy from me. I’m not interested in smart speakers as much as I am interested in an amazing speaker first and foremost that also is smart as an afterthought.

idk I just don’t care for Alexa or Google and the way those assistants function. Sure, they’re smarter than Siri, because they harvest your data more too and because the point of Alexa and Google speakers is mainly to figure out what you’re buying first, and secondly to be a smart speaker.

That’s the feeling I get as a crafty consumer anyway.

For the record I ignored Homepod until the price was dropped so low I could no longer. Then I took a chance on one new for $199 from Best Buy. Bought my 2nd Homepod at $199 the same day.

Now that the price has gone this low but the sound quality has remained at that $349-level, I think they’ll have a hard time converting people like me to HomePod 2 if it only comes in a smaller and cheaper form that has worse sound, but if they sell a bigger Homepod 2 at $349 again, I won’t get that either as it’s too expensive. It will be interesting if we see an announcement re: Homepod this WWDC.