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Deals: Second-Gen HomePod Sees First Ever Price Drop, Now Available for $279

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B&H Photo today has the first discount we've ever tracked on Apple's second generation HomePod. You can get the white model for $279.00, down from $299.00.

HomePod-2-White-and-Midnight-Feature-Purple-Orange.jpg
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with B&H Photo. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Only the white color is available at this new all-time low price, while midnight is on sale for $289.00 right now on B&H Photo. Delivery estimates are given for around May 10 with free expedited shipping to most residences in the United States.



Apple introduced the new HomePod this past January, and it features new temperature and humidity sensors, improved sound and microphone technology, and HomeKit and Matter support. Today's discount at B&H Photo is the first sale of any kind we've seen on the 2023 HomePod.

Be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

Article Link: Deals: Second-Gen HomePod Sees First Ever Price Drop, Now Available for $279
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/08/deals-second-gen-homepod-279/
burnout8488 said:
I'm swapping out our main unit in the kitchen to speed up Siri a bit. Starting to annoy my wife - the Minis are much faster these days. (In our house at least) The OG will go down to the basement where I'll pair it to the ATV.
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I hope it goes well. My experience with the HomePod and appleTv was terrible with constantly disconnecting and not being clear when to output sound. A generic sound bar replaced the HomePod and life got much better. HomePod still very nice for other things.
 
Ever notice that with electronic devices they seem to know when we have a little money ahead and then decide to die or wear out or something. AI seems to be nothing new around here. Last night we had a brief storm related power outage. Things went back on line, So this morning, the Homepod, the original model, is dead. I went through all the rituals to revive it. The wife said, "Get a new one." Now she interupts my music to have Siri add a column of numbers, and now she will need to use her iphone, ipad, mac, poor kid. So I had to order one. She says "don't be cheap, for 9 dollars they will deliver it right out." So much for me going out to the apple store and getting it and stopping by Auntie EMS for a pretzel. Yeah, if I had the time, I would have ordered it on line today, but I am confident the AI in the system made sure that my Apple Pay would not sit with nothing in it. Now excuse me, I am going to drink the cold coffee and scream for a bit.
 
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TigerNike23 said:
I don’t have Apple Music, and I’m trying to figure out a use case for me.

Siri is just not good enough, IMO.
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I do have Apple Music, the wife however, uses it to do her math on grading papers. We use it for a variety of things, that we could just go and look up ourselves, but it is nice having something doing it for us. In anycase, the price is coming down and my unit is dead as a weasel in the middle of the road. Sucks.
 
WeatherWeasel said:
Ever notice that with electronic devices they seem to know when we have a little money ahead and then decide to die or wear out or something. AI seems to be nothing new around here. Last night we had a brief storm related power outage. Things went back on line, So this morning, the Homepod, the original model, is dead. I went through all the rituals to revive it. The wife said, "Get a new one." Now she interupts my music to have Siri add a column of numbers, and now she will need to use her iphone, ipad, mac, poor kid. So I had to order one. She says "don't be cheap, for 9 dollars they will deliver it right out." So much for me going out to the apple store and getting it and stopping by Auntie EMS for a pretzel. Yeah, if I had the time, I would have ordered it on line today, but I am confident the AI in the system made sure that my Apple Pay would not sit with nothing in it. Now excuse me, I am going to drink the cold coffee and scream for a bit.
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Power surges are no joke. I had a relatively mild storm roll through my area a couple years ago and the surge traveled through my surge protector, all the way through my computer (which luckily has a very nice PSU) and fried my keyboard. Just my keyboard.

Mother Nature decided you were buying a new HomePod. Maybe you can call your wife an accomplice too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
WeatherWeasel said:
Ever notice that with electronic devices they seem to know when we have a little money ahead and then decide to die or wear out or something. AI seems to be nothing new around here. Last night we had a brief storm related power outage. Things went back on line, So this morning, the Homepod, the original model, is dead. I went through all the rituals to revive it. The wife said, "Get a new one." Now she interupts my music to have Siri add a column of numbers, and now she will need to use her iphone, ipad, mac, poor kid. So I had to order one. She says "don't be cheap, for 9 dollars they will deliver it right out." So much for me going out to the apple store and getting it and stopping by Auntie EMS for a pretzel. Yeah, if I had the time, I would have ordered it on line today, but I am confident the AI in the system made sure that my Apple Pay would not sit with nothing in it. Now excuse me, I am going to drink the cold coffee and scream for a bit.
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Do you have yours plugged into surge protectors? Those have saved my electronics from being fried many times. I still have my original HomePod going strong.
 
shadowbird423 said:
Power surges are no joke. I had a relatively mild storm roll through my area a couple years ago and the surge traveled through my surge protector, all the way through my computer (which luckily has a very nice PSU) and fried my keyboard. Just my keyboard.

Mother Nature decided you were buying a new HomePod. Maybe you can call your wife an accomplice too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Well, Apple delivered it. It is downloading something. I do have surge protectors,, on my computers (UPS to be exact. CyberPower 1500PGCLCD) and other stuff. Also a whole house surge protector which I am not confident about, but it is working still. I am big on having UPS devices as well as off site backups. So I guess I will continue with the goodies.
 
OG HomePods had either a materials or design defect which would lead to mortality of the device; it's been written about and I got to experience it first hand.

Only Apple knows a) the defect and b) the % of units that died from it (or could die from it).

Having said this, I love mine and I will eventually buy more HomePods. They are so so much better than the minis.

I do have Apple Music, and playing lossless through them is great.

No issues at all with ATV and HomePod integration either, or with Mac to HomePod integration (although here I need to set an audio differential in IINA to sync the audio to whatever I'm watching via Mac).
 
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smithrh said:
OG HomePods had either a materials or design defect which would lead to mortality of the device; it's been written about and I got to experience it first hand.

Only Apple knows a) the defect and b) the % of units that died from it (or could die from it).

Having said this, I love mine and I will eventually buy more HomePods. They are so so much better than the minis.

I do have Apple Music, and playing lossless through them is great.

No issues at all with ATV and HomePod integration either, or with Mac to HomePod integration (although here I need to set an audio differential in IINA to sync the audio to whatever I'm watching via Mac).
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Nic's Fix can repair the OG HomePods and even beef them up using better components. I sent mine to him and he repaired the issues, and upgraded the weak points. I don't think I spent more than $60-70 all-in, was really happy with the price and result.

Nic's Fix for HomePods

HomePod Repair Info, Service, and Parts, by Nic's Fix
track44.moe
 
I have three HomePod Minis. I also have an incredible 1GB+ internet connection. I have never experienced a product with less reliable performance and connection issues like these HomePod Mini devices. Especially when combined with Apple Music services. I wish Apple would fix the issues that so many of us are experiencing and reporting before knowingly creating and selling products that don't work properly. I will never buy another HomePod product unless they get these issues under control. I'm sure many of you will reply to this message with "I never have issues" comments, but if you Google "HomePod unreliable" you will get pages and pages of results.
 
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User 6502 said:
Probably it’s flopping again, it’s quite unusual to see big price drops so close to the release.
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Which anyone who followed the OG HomePods knew was going to happen. Nobody that didn’t buy the first-gen HomePod looked at the second-gen and thought to themselves, ahhhh NOW I should get one. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I have 4x OG HomePods, and they’re great, but the second gen isn’t answering any new questions.
 
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I already have a stereo pair HomePod minis for my Apple TV. I hope they enable surround with 2 HomePods in front and 2 minis in the back
 
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