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HomePod Early Hands-On Reviews: 'Seamless' Siri Commands and Audio Quality 'Feels Like You're at a Live Performance'
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Should we ignore the 15 or 20 reviews from those who have heard it?
But I don’t make decisions based on reviews by others. I’ve heard a lot of good systems, and I know good sound when I hear it. I’ll get one, listen to it at home with my favorite music and decide for myself.
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You do raise an interesting point about these smart speakers. We know that Amazon sold a ton of them last year, but what about the follow up? How many people are still using them in any meaningful capacity today? How many will still be using them at all months or a year from today?
People like to rag on Siri and claim that nobody uses it, but you all make it sound like in contrast, consumers are talking to google assistance and Alexa every chance they get.
It’s like the whole ios vs android argument all over again. Android phones supposedly sold a ton more than iPhones, yet iOS continues to dominate usage statistics in the US such as online web purchases and web usage.
Market share vs usage share.
I want to both thank you and shake my fist at you, seeing as how you might just have me blow $700.
I've had some really good mid-fi stereo systems in my lifetime (audiophile speak for not selling kidneys to finance a truly high end system.
I've subsequently have to get along with some really nice headphone amplifiers/and DAC's. Considering today's lifestyle of listening to music on the move even Bluetooth headphones sound pretty decent.
However, I do think there are new generations that will never have the chance to enjoy a system like described above. I remember have ProAc stereo speakers where if set up right, sounded heavenly. In fact I could close my eyes and place where on the stage people were singing or playing instruments. It was magic. Of course such systems cost an arm and a leg, need a good amount of space, and are not mobile.
In the end buy what you can afford, but don't miss a chance to listen to a high end stereo system. I don't eat gourmet food every day, but you owe it to yourself to at least give it a try.
But from the linked article:
We couldn’t confirm whether iTunes Match content via iCloud Music Library will work natively on HomePod.
So, no -- the question remains unanswered, for now. If you rip your CDs and use match to add those songs to your iTunes library, it may yet work.
My guess is the homepod will stream anything it can via the cloud, rather from libraries on the other devices on your network (home sharing) in v1. I'd further expect that Apple will release a software update adding home sharing.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Yes, she's evolving the article as she gets new information. If you look in the thread where MR announces this as a feature, I'm praising it as very good news in post #15.
So it's still not completely clear- I even ask a new question about it in that same post #15- but it is looking much more favorable than it was looking when I wrote that Thank you note.
So it's still not completely clear- I even ask a new question about it in that same post #15- but it is looking much more favorable than it was looking when I wrote that Thank you note.
Did you hear that in response to the HomePod that Amazon will be offering new voice options to Alexa? How exciting!
You and I will have to disagree on Siri vs. Alexa. As I said before (and many here on these forums and elsewhere have stated) I much prefer the privacy and security model of Siri versus the creepy always listening approach of Alexa devices. I simply value privacy and security above all else. Besides Siri's integration with HomeKit is more than satisfactory in my experience. If that makes me an Apple zealot so be it.
That's a reasonable attitude about it. I really don't think the high end is going away, however. It's always been a pretty small niche market.
What's different that a lot of people seem to misunderstand is that the low end is getting way better. There seems to always be a tendency to compare the current mass-market stuff with the high-end from the good old days, and then lament how everything is going downhill. The truth is that when you compare current mass market audio gear now with mass market audio from the olden days, it has vastly improved. Streaming something from Apple Music through an iPhone to a pair of EarPods results in a vastly better listening experience than a couple of decades ago when the same person would've been listening to a cassette or CD in a walkman through some pretty crappy lightweight headphones, or maybe a dirty, mass-pressed vinyl LP on a sound rack from K-mart.
As for the HomePod, its $350 price point adjusted back to 1985 is $152.06. Back then, that might've gotten you that rack system from K-Mart, but not with a CD player. Maybe it would've bought a decent boom-box. So with cassettes, FM radio or mass-pressed LPs as the source, and a boom box or middling rack system to play them through, HomePods represent a huge improvement in consumer-level audio. Plus, the family rate for Apple Music works out to about the price of one album in 1985, which means for the price of one LP or cassette per month, the whole family now has access to more music than even what the nerdiest record collector could accumulate back in the day. So I'm less worried about what future generations will be able to listen to.
Pure FUD. https://www.techworld.com/security/does-amazon-alexa-listen-to-my-conversations-3661967/
You can also go read their statements direct on their site as well. What makes you an Apple zealot is when you act like Apple has no flaws in their product and it is impossible for another product to work better.
I love Apple's overall story. However, in some key areas (in this case AI assistant and home automation) there is a lot to be desired. I hope one day I can ditch the echo dots which btw were cheap as dirt so I won't care. But until Apple revs Siri a few times and gets more serious with HomeKit, it just isn't going to happen.
Pure FUD? Wishful thinking on your part? Just a couple of articles of many many out there: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/20...you-say-and-might-share-that-with-developers/ and www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/08/01/amazon-echo-can-used-eavesdrop-conversations-hackers-reveal/
Listen in my world I have to work with a vast variety of hardware, software, OSes, etc. At the end of the day I simply want to live with an ecosystem that is reliable, safe and feature rich. HomePod will be, by all accounts, a nice addition to my setup. If it doesn't live up to the hype I will send them back and refund. Of course in all my years of using all sorts of Apple gear, I have only returned one gadget (an iPod that just didn't meet my expectations). Compare that to the numerous Hewett Packards, Dells, Lenovos, etc that were DOA or simply awful that were promptly returned in some cases with painful return procedure. Of course Apple is perfect, I never said that but in my experience its the option out there. If makes me an Apple zealot so be it.
The least I can do is save you $350 then: you don’t need 2 HomePods. My Harman Kardon Aura sits to the right of my TV. I can’t tell where the sound comes from. I don’t know if watching the correlating moving images on the TV tricks my brain into thinking the sound is coming from point blank centre or if it’s the speaker itself that bounces sound off the walls and makes it appear to come from everywhere.
I figured I'd flank my couch with them (once stereo is working, that is). You're saying there's no need?
So, I don't use M/L, but I've put actual (i.e. not smart assistants with speakers) speakers in every room I regularly listen in because, in some aspects, and in some ways sadly, once you've experienced better sound than the average sound bar, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Sonos, Bose, Beats, etc. it's hard going back to anything else. I won't say I won't listen to anything else if I don't have a choice, but if I have the choice and financial means to I will certainly choose to get something I will actually enjoy listening to. It's a personal preference. Some people just want convenience and to be able to have some music on, and don't necessarily know or care what it sounds like to some degree and that's OK. Others wants a more true-to-sound experience, and that's OK too.
Looking forward to reading actual user reviews after HomePod has been in use in peoples’s homes and offices for six months or so.
I’m excited about for this reason also and the price can’t be beat for the way it integrates with the Apple ecosystem and the privacy access works for ME.
I know it may not work for others and that’s fine but at the end of the day I’m not buying for others I am buying for me
Seeing that the HomePod is failing, as predicted, Apple was late to the party and priced itself out of the consumer price point. I suppose Beam-forming wasn't as hyped up as some here believed.
Home Pod = Apple HiFi all over again
The title of this thread is probably the biggest joke i have ever heard.
Having owned two Homepods and returned them both i can honestly say that Siri is definitely not seamless and the sound is absolutely nothing like you are at a concert, the sound quality is average at best.
Its threads like this that made me buy a HP in the first place, wish i had never read them now and wasted a load of time and effort.
Having owned two Homepods and returned them both i can honestly say that Siri is definitely not seamless and the sound is absolutely nothing like you are at a concert, the sound quality is average at best.
Its threads like this that made me buy a HP in the first place, wish i had never read them now and wasted a load of time and effort.
Other than speculative articles and prediction, what exactly has told you HomePod is failing? Was it the 2M Apple Music subsribers they added in less than a month after release? That is literally the only official number.
"Supply checks" and "estimates" are consistently wrong with Apple, proven time and time again.
You also have no idea how many they planned to make or planned to sell. No one knows except Apple, so let's cool it with the HomePod is doomed thesis. It's impossible to know and the same has been said about a lot of products that are now killing it like Watch, AirPods, and even the original iPhone.
"500 dollars? Fully subsidized? With a plan? I said that is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard. Which makes it not a very good email machine."
Wrong. The timing of it’s release was the only major thing that kept it back from selling like it’s hot.