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HomePod Features 272 x 340 Display and 1GB RAM
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Yes but will Siri work with any 3rd party music services? If not, you have to use your iPhone via Airplay in order to play music on HomePod. That erodes the "magic" of this product significantly. To me, Spotify is the no brainer since they have the most subscribers whereas Google Play, Amazon Prime Music already have dedicated hardware and smaller user bases.
If I had to use the stupid Alexa app for everything on my Echo I would throw it into the garbage.
This brought back memories. I definitely remember when Apple used the A5 to death:A8 is the new A5, I guess
iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad mini, Apple TV, and iPod Touch.
It seemed like the A5 would never die.
I will consider this device if I can use the voice activation to play music from my Home Shared library and not just Apple Music.
I'm fully invested in Apple hardware, but I don't and will never have Apple Music. Apple Music is already ruining the mobile music experience for me both in the car and walking around/working. Now they're going t make me not want to buy their hardware with AM/cloud/streaming constraints.
I'm fully invested in Apple hardware, but I don't and will never have Apple Music. Apple Music is already ruining the mobile music experience for me both in the car and walking around/working. Now they're going t make me not want to buy their hardware with AM/cloud/streaming constraints.
It's still an apple product. Wouldn't expect this
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Let's be real, part of the reason for this product's introduction is to "utilize" their
music platform
Siri's open architecture (API offered) solved that for app devs, but whether HomePod supports it and how a device with a poststamp-screen will activate that (and operate at all) seems mystery to me.
When Phil Schiller talked about visual feedback, I presumed he devised a slightly richer environment than Siri activation sinuses on an AppleWatch alike screen (even when OLED)...
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Yup, and now it's iPhone 6, 6 Plus, iPad mini 4, iPod touch 6th gen, Apple TV 4th gen, and Homepod.
A8 is the new A5, I guess
Yep. It's a damn good chip and now it must be extremely cheap for them to produce. My old iPhone 6 still works just fine and the ATV4 also is fast enough although it has an extra gig of ram.
I'm still not sold on the homepod since I play music at home through a 5.1 receiver either through AirPlay, a Sony Blu-ray player for CDs (s350 from '08) or connecting an older iPhone with a stereo RCA cable.
And the HomePod has no stereo! Stereo is stereo! Some music really needs that separation (think Hendrix!). I guess I'll have to demo it in person before making a decision.
Agreed, I have no interest in another subscription. Make the HomePod free.
I'm not sure what the point is of having a display on the top. Won't that be hard to see unless its below eye level? And when will that be? The Echo has a light ring that can be seen from just about any angle, and can display multiple colors. Just seems more thought out.
It's a speaker, when do you think a 2nd gen will happen....?
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Or it's for wireless distance charging.It's still an apple product. Wouldn't expect this
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Let's be real, part of the reason for this product's introduction is to "utilize" their
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The HomePod has a rounded top, the light will diffuse and be seen from a distance for knowledge that Siri is active, for anything else you'd need to be over it anyway.
3-5 years
You think they would launch this product and include a feature that won't be ready for at least 4-5 more years?
They found a warehouse full of old Zune displays. Meanwhile, they couldn't find any RAM chips <1GB, otherwise there would be less RAM.
"Though Apple's HomePod speaker won't launch until December, Apple on Friday released firmware for the device"
really, what an oversight? who needs this firmware - you would think a private group could test thing without spoiling the other products.
really, what an oversight? who needs this firmware - you would think a private group could test thing without spoiling the other products.
It likely won't require it but it will make it hard to use without it. I, too, hate AppleMusic. Messed up the iTunes and the best music player in the world.
It's impossible for Apple to stop a customer from using AirPlay (or potentially Bluetooth if it ships with that) from their smartphone or computer to stream Spotify or anything else to it. What it won't have is access to Spotify from the internet directly to the device, which is absolutely understandable. The device works best with Apple Music because Siri is integrated into it and Apple Music. Siri can play requested songs, etc. If you use Spotify then you'd have to stream to the HomePod via another device.
It's only going to be a brilliant thing once it's properly opened up and works with everything.
Pretty much everything that could be IOT'd has been (remotes to the front gate) - but hardly any of it will work with Siri. All of it works with my echo's though (I also have one in the car).
Hell, even Logitech Harmony doesn't work with it.
I want one for the family room and the master bedroom. In the master bedroom we have a Echo Dot connected to a very nice speaker system but it's not stereo and we've had it for over 10 years so we definitely would like an upgrade. I will probably buy the one for the master bedroom first and wait until generation 2 or 3 for the family room.