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Here's How Apple's New HomePod Speaker and iMac Pro Look in Person

WatchFromAfar said:
It's 7", they mentioned the size at the keynote.
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Starting price
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I thought so, but wasn't 100% sure..

There is something about the iMac Pro that evokes a feeling of a modern interpretation of the NeXT workstation. I like to think that Steve would have been proud to announce it. I'm also sure that the Mac Pro coming 2018 will also have a similar concept to the famous cube!
 
sos47 said:
hoping it will be possible to disable the mics.
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You can unplug the power cable.

Seriously, Apple has a tiny chip that recognises "Hey Siri" and nothing else (that makes it possible for an iPhone in standby mode to listen for "Hey Siri" without draining your battery), and until you say these magic words, it's not listening. Saying "Hey Siri I slept with my brother's wife" is probably not a good idea, but still Apple says that would be anonymised and should not be traceable to you.
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craig1410 said:
It's a bit early to come to such a conclusion I'd say.

Sonos Play:1 = 6.36 x 4.69 in (1.85 Kg)
Apple HomePod = 6.80 x 5.60 in (2.50 Kg)

No reason from the size and weight to expect the HomePod to produce lesser sound than the Play:1. The Play:3 at 2.6Kg is probably more comparable but none of us will really know until we hear the HomePod in person.

As I've said above, I love the Sonos gear but the integration with iOS is not brilliant, lacking Airplay support. I'm definitely conflicted on this though and will be interested to see how it pans out. Keeping an open mind as much as possible.
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Remember they took the processor from the iPhone 6 to run Siri and control the sound and nothing else. Nobody can say how good this will be, but you can do a lot of sound improvement with that kind of processing power.
 
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Shanghaichica said:
Yes I'll be doing the same thing lol if the iPhone 8 come out in time it will be a late birthday present for me lol
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Going to be an expensive end to the year lol still undecided on if to go contract or sim free. The £1,000 price point makes me think to go with EE and just refresh each year with their 12 month deal then return the old phone
 
Kerber0s34 said:
Are there any pictures of the HomePod next to something for scale? I'm trying to figure out how big it is. So far I feel like its twice as big as Phil Schiller.
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...and there is some particular geometrical analogy either
 
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A $350 speaker. A single 4" driver and some tweeters and as of now, can only stream Apple Music. Yeah it's a pass for me. You can get some really really great speakers for $350 and hook up a Echo Dot for <$50 and stream Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc..
 
Swift said:
It is portable. It plugs in, but you can move it to any room. It needs to plug in, though. A good speaker with enough woofer needs some real power. I withhold judgment, but the idea of a Sonos-quality speaker with voice command and Siri 1 is interesting.
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That's how I feel. I'll probably get one just to test out the audio quality. The mediocre audio is why I was never interested in the Echo. I bought an Echo Dot bc it was cheap, small, and had a similar function.
 
squirrellydw said:
https://whyd.com
looks just like the Homepod and its a speaker
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Ahh, apparantly Apple considered this speaker maturely marketable...
Which is why they didn't choose to imitate, but to adopt it
MH01 said:
Gotta love this
http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple...gle-home-nothing-nice-to-say-2017-5?r=UK&IR=T

Schiller trashes the competition , while apple just copies them . Sad times where apple is copying what others have brought to markert, and the only innovation is the huge price mark up ..... while missing the biggest issue the speaker faces, Siri. People don't need a music speaker.....which was what the keynote was about, they want a home assistant, and here Amazon and google kick apple's butt. Heck, chrome audio provides much better audio for people with speakers already in the house. Fix Siri!!
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Schiller specifically trashes the lack of video feedback...that apparently also didn't make it on the HomePud
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TigerWoodsIV said:
That's how I feel. I'll probably get one just to test out the audio quality. The mediocre audio is why I was never interested in the Echo. I bought an Echo Dot bc it was cheap, small, and had a similar function.
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You could have opened it to feed its output into your home stereo...
 
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People are saying $350 is ridiculous for a brand new product that's "just a speaker" that they have not heard nor know anything about it's manufacturing complexity/cost.

That's like saying a Tesla is "just a car" and the price isn't justified :rolleyes:

edit: not saying they are wrong, I just prefer to withhold judgement until I have tangible facts/personal experience.
 
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This is $350 and it doesn't even have bluetooth are you kidding me. only Airplay. So that in 2018 they can say.

Today we are introducing a revolutionary feature on the HomePod 2 that your absolutely going to love. Bluetooth. Now you will be able to play your favorite music from any device.

THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS...
 
Swift said:
A good speaker with enough woofer needs some real power.
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The Bang & Olufsen Beosound 2 is an absolutely amazing sounding speaker and it does not need to be plugged in (all the time).

MikeySmiles said:
It's called "Home"pod, yet my "home" centers around my Apple TV. So can I "rock the house" when watching movies on AppleTV? Please tell me there's Apple TV integration? Please please please......
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I wish the TV had microphones. I don’t need a HomePod but HomeSiri would be nice. And buy the HomePod just to get that seems a bit of an overkill - and it’s yet another device in your home that doesn’t need to be there.
 
cracksoup said:
I always find it hilarious to read the comments on MR after an apple event. There were Macs, both laptops and real exteme pro hardware, there were updates for the ipads that the crowd have longed for, awesome ios 11 features and the HomePod that's set at an extremely competitive price. All you do is moan "it's still too expensive, i can't afford the iMac Pro, the macbook pro is still useless, where's my mac mini, etc etc etc". Apparently NOTHING is good enough and yet Apple was showing their good side at WWDC.
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Agreed, they are all top-presenters with above par skills.
But there is lost territory still to be recovered in all area's.
Most announcements - and the intonation of presenters - seemed to have a high "we fight to stay current"- proportion. Which is an improvement over the last few years, but not the victory that you pretend.
 
Medinarem said:
This is $350 and it doesn't even have bluetooth are you kidding me. only Airplay. So that in 2018 they can say.

Today we are introducing a revolutionary feature on the HomePod 2 that your absolutely going to love. Bluetooth. Now you will be able to play your favorite music from any device.

THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS...
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Wait, this thing seriously doesn't have bluetooth? LOL
 
People calling this high priced need to hear it first. I have headphones more expensive than two homepods. It will not be as good as my headphones, but it is probably at least as good as any other comparatively priced speaker.

Before anyone asks, I am not an apple fan boy. I built my own powerful PC and use an Android phone. I do have an iPad 2 and iPod nano 4th gen. My wife has an iPhone 6 plus.
 
dfs said:
Two comments:

a.) Monophonic. Ick. The appropriate Apple Store page says "Put another HomePid in the same roiom, and the two automatically detect and balance each other -- for sound that's even more lifelike." But evidently still monophonic. Once more, ick. If they automatically detected each other and turned into left and right stereo speakers we might be getting somewhere. b.) Amazon already lapped Apple with their announcement that the Echo is going to be made useful as a hands-free phone. That's something I could actually use. Maybe eighteen months from now Apple will catch up?
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I don't think you have any idea what can be achieved with 6 tiny speakers pointing into different directions, controlled by clever software. Doesn't matter what place the sound comes from, what matters is what your ears think of it. Wait until you heard it in real life before you complain.

And assuming that two speakers would be monophonic is daft. Apple's guys don't go on the stage with a speech saying "oh, we must make 100% sure that nobody could ever possibly misinterpret what we are saying".
 
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DocGRG said:
[doublepost=1496727386][/doublepost]I did not hear the words 'Mac Pro' mentioned. That iMac Pro is a powerful machine, but like my 2013 Mac Pro it's not easily upgradable and, maybe, not upgradable at all.
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Mention near the bottom of the iMac Pro page.
 
vipergts2207 said:
It's almost as if Apple has a huge following, including people with wildly different desires and needs. I agree with you though, this was an above average Apple event IMO. The greatest, no, but definitely a good one. That was clear from the get go when Tim said, no time for Apple business updates, let's get right to it.
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It was an above average event unless your main focus in the Mac which, as usual, felt like an afterthought. Spec bumps to a handful of machines, a couple of minor price reductions and a high-end iMac (still trying to fathom the logic behind that one) all adds up to a real disappointment. Apple is WAY overdue for a serious overhaul of their Macs. And they really need to start taking the Mini a little more seriously. It has so much potential that isn't being tapped.

I could go on, but as a Mac event, this was almost a joke.
 
Wait what?

No Bluetooth?

Huh?

I can't play my music on it from my phone?
 
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