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

silroc said:
Wait what?

No Bluetooth?

Huh?

I can't play my music on it from my phone?
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Yes you can, with Airplay. For the first time you'll even be able to play to multiple speakers in your house at the same time (similar to what you can now already do from within iTunes).

I'm not sure Bluetooth will not be on the device though. Apple uses that for Handoff and Continuity and I expect HomePod to support that to avoid that all your devices respond to "Hey Siri".
 
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Will the $5K iMac Pro require the customer to pay $30 extra to get the keyboard W/ numeric keypad?
 
inkswamp said:
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.
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They just overhauled the MBP and they're launching iMac Pro this year. We also already know they're working on a new Mac Pro as well. What does that leave, the Mac mini and regular MacBook? Are one of those two systems on your want to buy list?
 
steveOooo said:
8k iMac with 32" will probably be gen 2 or 3 of the iMac Pro
8k at 32 will be retina
5k at 30-32 won't be retina apparently
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I've never cared about pixel count, just their color accuracy.

Until I see the full specs and prices I can't say anything with certainty about these, but I do know I won't pay ten grand for a disposable computer.
 
killr_b said:
What excites me most about today's release is the picture of that full-sized wireless keyboard. Yay! Finally
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I know, right? If it has a fixed, rechargeable battery, I hope the plug for it is in the back. The wireless mouse has the port on the bottom, which makes the whole thing useless while it charges.
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steveOooo said:
8k iMac with 32" will probably be gen 2 or 3 of the iMac Pro

8k at 32 will be retina
5k at 30-32 won't be retina apparently
Click to expand...

Considering the current 27" iMac is 5K, I half expect them to go 10K instead of of 8K. This way, it's an easy doubling. HDMI 2.1 seems to support 10K at 120 Hz, although DisplayPort doesn't support that resolution at that refresh rate. Even if it did, that's a few years off still, I think, plus I doubt Apple will put in a GPU powerful enough to push all those pixels in the near future.

I watched the keynote, and checked the Apple site, but couldn't find an answer: do the new iMacs support ProMotion, like the new iPads? I wouldn't mind 120 Hz refresh rate on a desktop Mac.
 
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Looks interesting, but what I was really looking forward to was an updated HomeKit hub/Siri. I've already got great speakers, so spending $349 for something I don't need doesn't thrill me. A speaker good enough to interact with Siri would suit me fine and be cheaper, too. I'll listen to music on my big speakers. Maybe Apple will release a new Apple TV/Homekit Hub this year?
 
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HeinoM said:
Looks interesting, but what I was really looking forward to was an updated HomeKit hub/Siri. I've already got great speakers, so spending $349 for something I don't need doesn't thrill me. A speaker good enough to interact with Siri would suit me fine and be cheaper, too. I'll listen to music on my big speakers. Maybe Apple will release a new Apple TV/Homekit Hub this year?
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I'd almost guarantee that will be the case. Apple needs to bring 4K and HDR support to Apple TV if they want to continue being taken seriously on that front.
 
I don't see Home Pod becoming a smash hit. It's true that the improvement in speaker quality puts Home Pod in a slightly different category than its competitors, but that distinction is unlikely to convince the majority of potential customers that the considerably higher investment is worth making. The lack of support for Android and music services other than Apple Music, while not surprising, won't help. More discerning customers will likely lament the absence of Bluetooth support. Those who are devoted to an Apple ecosystem will capably bolster the first few months of Home Pod sales, but I think it'll need a revision or two before the masses embrace it.

As for iMac Pro ... I'm conflicted. It definitely looks like a nice package, but many true "Pro" users will likely balk at paying upwards of $5,000 (and in some cases, a lot more) for a machine with no apparent modularity and a built-in display (especially if that display can't be hardware-calibrated). Also, you have to wonder whether this move will be enough to "win back" disenfranchised Pro users who've moved on to something else during the last few years.

Kudos to Apple for such an ambitious refresh/launch cycle. Wish I could say I'll be a customer, but I'll probably stick with my 2013 MacBook Pro for the time being (though my partner is considering a new iPad Pro).
 
I don't have that big of a house, but I have two rooms upstairs and two areas downstairs with a garage I work in a lot. I carry my iPhone with me, but I'm not going to move this Home Pod. I would rather they have seven small tweeters that can be placed throughout my house to connect back to a central Home Pod/AppleTV device. I also have an ecobee3 thermostat (that I recommend) that needs home kit to work right with the iPhone and Siri. It appears that this will check that box, but I will say it again, I wish that there was a local Siri on these devices to handle the basic commands in real time and even with flaky internet connections. The ecobee 3 was $200 and actually performs a great function, and saves me money though. These Home Pod/AppleTV/Siri devices need to improve more before they are required in my house.

And then Siri needs to advance quite a bit to be more like a real person with how it communicates and monitors my schedule and things going on. Maybe not to the level of the AI in the movie Her, but it should have advanced more in the past year or two. The translation feature is a good first step though.
 
Atlantico said:
It's been years, probably a decade since I was genuinely wowed by an Apple event. All those new Macs! Pro Macs coming.. with real GPUs.. It was like back when I was a youngling (sniff)

Awesome event, look forward to the iMac Pro and Mac Pro.
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I'm actually blown away by the amount of negativity in the comments to the various articles on this site.

Anyone who was disappointed at Monday's keynote is probably impossible to please. With a few notable exceptions (MacMini, and next-year's MacPro), useful upgrades pretty much across the board, coupled with promising upcoming software updates.

With all the updated hardware announcements and coming software features, count me as pleasantly surprised also.
 
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macs4nw said:
I'm actually blown away by the amount of negativity in the comments to the various articles on this site.

Anyone who was disappointed at Monday's keynote is probably impossible to please. With a few notable exceptions (MacMini, and next-year's MacPro), useful upgrades pretty much across the board, coupled with promising upcoming software features.

I for one am also quite pleased with all the new hardware announcements and coming software features.
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Not me.. I guess just unlucky for me.

Got a new Macbook Pro and got burnt by the announcement.
Waiting for iPad mini refresh.. got none.
Waiting for low power server Mac mini got none.
My Mac Pro is collecting dust like a dust bin.. now they want us to double down the iMac pro instead.

Sorry for the negativity, but every hw announcement is like an insult on me.

Software wise, its kinda exciting thou, finally a file manager, just need to wait 8 more years for a pointer support.
 
Now was this BoomBox blatantly stolen from whyd, or did the whyd market now "mature" and they should be proud that Apple decided to "adopt" their design.
Or worse, did whyd recklessly copy Joni's "design language" in advance (offering too many color variations) ?

Time for some spindocters to wake up, I presume.
https://whyd.com
facebook_share.jpg
 
I wouldn't have minded charging this on the up shot u can place it "anywhere u like" after. Hopefully more colors will follow.
 
Oberhorst said:
Yep, in black. It’s awesome. I wonder if all three of them (black keyboard, mouse and trackpad) will be available separately or only white, so that the black versions would be exclusively for the iMac Pro?
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They said the Black keyboard mouse and trackpad won't be sold separately.
 
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Chopper9 said:
The problem is you're comparing a $349 Apple speaker to the $199 Play:1.

The Play:3 is $50 less and boomin Play:5 is only $50 more... and they will no doubt crush it in comparison. I don't mind paying a premium for the Apple integration, but make a real speaker - not a little toy. I'm sure its fine for a kitchen or small bedroom, but I would imagine most arent looking for a Bluetooth size speaker. All they had to do was revamp the B&W A7.
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Perhaps you should wait until you can review it yourself before you conclude it will be crushed! :oops:
Or if you can't wait until December, at least listen to the views of those who HAVE reviewed the HomePod. Sounds pretty good to me (pardon the pun)! Note, I am also a SONOS customer with Playbar and two Play:1 units.

Mashable noted that Apple had in-room comparisons with its competitors, including Sonos Play:3 and Amazon Echo, and that the HomePod easily beat the two other speakers in pure music playback quality.

By contrast, the in-room Sonos Play:3 and Echo didn't sound so good, They were sometimes flat or muddied or sounded tinny, at least as compared to the HomePod in that setting.​

Sources:
http://mashable.com/2017/06/05/apple-homepod-hands-on-sound/#zDEZtNaessqZ
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/06/homepod-first-impressions/
 
Bacillus said:
Now was this BoomBox blatantly stolen from whyd, or did the whyd market now "mature" and they should be proud that Apple decided to "adopt" their design.
Or worse, did whyd recklessly copy Joni's "design language" in advance (offering too many color variations) ?

Time for some spindocters to wake up, I presume.
https://whyd.com
facebook_share.jpg
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I guarantee that Apple will offer multiple colors next year. Man that is a blatant rip-off. Right down to the internals ...

ts_audio.jpg
 
Mac 128 said:
More importantly, can the speaker grille be removed and washed? This thing is a dust magnet ...
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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. In my overly dusty house, pet hair and kids, this is deff a problem magnet.
I have the dumb Sonos Play 1's that look a lot better than this lump of cloth! :eek:
 
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