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HomePod Firmware Reveals Further Details on Apple's Smart Speaker

X--X said:
I would agree with that, but in interviews Cook compares it to iPod and iPhone. Saying we don't need to be first, when we are the best. But this isn't the best
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I Think the problem you have with Apple, is their core standards don't meet your narrative of the Apple you used to know during the Steve Jobs era. That era is dead and Apple has changed, and they are not the same company they were 20 years ago and it's expected they change along with technology and the times.

And Tim Cook is correct, Apple doesn't need to be the first on the market to put out a product over their competitors. They do make the best products. It's just Apple products in today's age don't match your liking under Cooks leadership. Based on your comments, I think you have more animosity towards Tim Cook than you do Apple products.
 
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Relentless Power said:
I think you have more animosity towards Tim Cook than you do Apple products.
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I wouldn't call it animosity, I don't know the man personally, I'm sure he's a really nice guy, way nicer than Steve Jobs ever was.

But unfortunately he sucks as CEO of Apple.

Or to say it with the words of a former Apple engineer: "Tim Cook has turned Apple from a dynamic change-maker into a boring operations company. Executives aren't competing with each other any more. And, Tim's message was loud and clear: Don't bring me conflict. The result is the conflict is pushed lower in the organization. The proportion of middle managers has exploded."
 
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Relentless Power said:
on Tim Cook [...] I couldn't disagree with you more and he is doing a *good* job with Apple.
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What has he done, really? He's approaching 10 years as CEO.

Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 brought it back from the dead, came out with the iMac, the iPod, "created" OS X from scratch and introduced the iPhone by 2007. All in just 10 years and that doesn't even include things like the iBook, the first mainstream portable with integrated wireless and so on.

Hit after hit.

What has Tim Cook done in his soon to be 10 years. 1 failing product. Oh and milking every dollar out of existing products. Not a great record. Those are the facts.
 
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Relentless Power said:
Feel free to spin your narrative anyway you want on Tim Cook, but I couldn't disagree with you more and he is doing a job with Apple.
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no he's not. he's made it a boys club and the boys are jaded and out of touch rich men. Eddy Cue? Really? Ugh. Apple software has gone so downhill it's as if they don't even use it themselves, or all of it would be fixed and/or at least not released in beta form. Photos/iWork/and the still extremely buggy Apple Music are horrible. Steve would never have let these out like this. I will give kudos to Final Cut though.
 
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I really really really can't wait to have one! But Jesus christ that display is terrible...
 
X--X said:
What has he done, really? He's approaching 10 years as CEO.

Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 brought it back from the dead, came out with the iMac, the iPod, "created" OS X from scratch and introduced the iPhone by 2007. All in just 10 years and that doesn't even include things like the iBook, the first mainstream portable with integrated wireless and so on.

Hit after hit.

What has Tim Cook done in his soon to be 10 years. 1 failing product. Oh and milking every dollar out of existing products. Not a great record. Those are the facts.
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You seem very fixated on focusing on The failures of Apple over there successes. And you're making it sound like this company is in the ruins, when they are far from it. Again, your views don't align with theirs. But yet you won't acknowledge Apples successfulness either.

Furthermore, I think s you keep comparing Jobs to Cook, as if they should have the same qualities and traits. While they share similar Company values, they are completely opposite of each other. You Seem to be stuck in the Steve Jobs era and as I already mentioned, Apple isn't the same company they were 20 years ago.
 
X--X said:
What has he done, really? He's approaching 10 years as CEO.

Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 brought it back from the dead, came out with the iMac, the iPod, "created" OS X from scratch and introduced the iPhone by 2007. All in just 10 years and that doesn't even include things like the iBook, the first mainstream portable with integrated wireless and so on.

Hit after hit.

What has Tim Cook done in his soon to be 10 years. 1 failing product. Oh and milking every dollar out of existing products. Not a great record. Those are the facts.
Click to expand...

Closer to six years actually. He took over in 2011.

https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2016/12/6/milking-the-iphone

In his years as CEO, Tim Cook has achieved the following milestones as of end of last year.

The iPhone installed base has grown by 500M users.
The iPad installed base has grown by 175M users.
The Mac installed base has grown by 50M users.
Apple introduced Apple Watch, the company's first wearable product. Approximately 18M Apple Watches, a device positioned as an iPhone accessory, have been sold to date.
Apple is earning more than $6B per year of revenue through app sales via the App Store.
Apple successfully made the difficult jump from a paid music download model to streaming and is approaching 20M paying Apple Music subscribers.
Apple continues to push forward with Apple TV. The company is approaching 10M units sold since the device was updated in 2015.
Apple continues to develop key services including Apple Pay, Messages, and Maps.

Those are the facts.
 
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X--X said:
As a consumer I have no interest in purely financial success. I want to be impressed and unfortunately I haven't been in quite some time.
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You don't have any interest in their financial success, yet you have interest in their downfalls as a company to make known. Again, your disappointment as a consumer is your preference, but you Consistently trot like Apple is on its way out, when they're not. You just see a one-sided argument and want to be myopic about their success as a company.
 
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Relentless Power said:
You don't have any interest in their financial success, yet you have interest in their downfalls as a company
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Exactly the opposite, I want Apple back in the innovation game, succeeding, exciting, not just making money hand over fist with old stuff.

Back in the day, i couldn't sleep the day before the Keynote.

They STILL have the best designed products (for the most part), but NOT the best technology anymore.

That was the magic of Apple (under Jobs) that they gave you both, the technology and the design. They where not just a fashion brand offering gold laptops.
 
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Abazigal said:
Apple always has a plan, and one underestimates Apple to their own detriment.
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I'm not sure they always had a plan with their pro laptops and their desktops in recent years, but one thing became clear in the past year that my husband and I explored the competition, even when Apple seems to be coasting, their products are surprisingly competitive. I guess that's a sad commentary on how poorly the competition has their own stuff together.

I think with the completion of the Apple Campus at hand, we are going to see less coasting. There are signs the bear has been poked awake.
 
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JeffyTheQuik said:
I think I'll wait for the Retina HomePod.

:D

Seriously though, why 32x32, when 256x256 would make it more of a classy device?
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Probably not literally 32x32 grid, just an equivalent (iOS dev could offer more info here, might be mappings are common). If you look at photos the display isn't even exposed anyway, seems to shine through the plastic.
 
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X--X said:
It's a Steve Jobs product which has seen almost no improvements in 10 years. the only difference in terms of software (which means actual use) in 10 years is now we have sort of a baby drag and drop. That's it.

And it is not "highly successful" either, sales have gone down for iPad every year. Because they didn't continue to innovate on it with Cook as CEO, as they should have.
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“Baby drag and drop” is more advanced than what was on macOS, and WAY more advanced than in Windows and Linux it’s not even funny!

It’s not being successful because PC manufacturers have been throwing everything they have to convince people they can’t do with an iPad, and the “need” a craptop full of viruses and bloatware at 1366x768
 
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I think they made a huge mistake locking the speaker down to Apple music and focus mainly on sound quality. Others (Amazon) have a huge advantage when it comes to AI functionality (Like alexa).

All amazon has to do is to create a better sounding Alexa and there is close to no justification for the homepod.
 
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Hasn't been true in years, but still keeps getting parroted here.

Relentless Power said:
Also, does that, shock you that Apple has not released their product first or others? It shouldn't. It Shouldn't be about being the first on the market, it should be about releasing the better product. They always are the last, but they always seem to put out the products that have more unique features. That's what makes Apple products stand out.
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X--X said:
Apple doesn't have clear strategies with products anymore.

Everything that Cook releases is vague, just like Apple Watch where they completely changed the interface, the marketing and targeting multiple times and they will do the same with HomePod. They're not thought out products.

It's more like, let's realease it and see what happens.

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PLUS it feels like they are already behind, right from the start. Everybody is going to screens to display additional information. Just a music speaker that only works with Apple Music and with no real display for 349 plus taxes, I don't see it being a big hit.

We'll see.
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- There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item.

Well hello there, Steve Ballmer.
 
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The iPhone was better than anything on the market, this is not.
When I saw the first presentation of the iPhone I almost got a heart attack I was so excited.

Sorry, the HomePod is not an iPhone or iPod in any way.

It revolutionizes nothing.
 
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Wiesenlooser said:
I think they made a huge mistake locking the speaker down to Apple music and focus mainly on sound quality. Others (Amazon) have a huge advantage when it comes to AI functionality (Like alexa).

All amazon has to do is to create a better sounding Alexa and there is close to no justification for the homepod.
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You make it sound like good sound quality is something the competition can achieve simply by the wave of a hand.

I think people will care more about better sound quality than they will about better AI. And Apple Music is something Apple can control and thus integrate more closely with their software and other services, compared to third party offerings like Spotify.

Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be this tendency to undervalue everything that Apple does, while simultaneously overvaluing everything the competition does, even when the latter ends up going nowhere.
 
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Abazigal said:
You make it sound like good sound quality is something the competition can achieve simply by the wave of a hand.

I think people will care more about better sound quality than they will about better AI. And Apple Music is something Apple can control and thus integrate more closely with their software and other services, compared to third party offerings like Spotify.

Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be this tendency to undervalue everything that Apple does, while simultaneously overvaluing everything the competition does, even when the latter ends up going nowhere.
Click to expand...

I think yes - good sound quality is achievable. There are lots of companies out there, that have done it. Good sound is essentially a price and size matter. Make the echo bigger and more expensive, and you will be able to ger comparable sound.
 
X--X said:
Apple doesn't have clear strategies with products anymore.

Everything that Cook releases is vague, just like Apple Watch where they completely changed the interface, the marketing and targeting multiple times and they will do the same with HomePod. They're not thought out products.

It's more like, let's realease it and see what happens.

----

PLUS it feels like they are already behind, right from the start. Everybody is going to screens to display additional information. Just a music speaker that only works with Apple Music and with no real display for 349 plus taxes, I don't see it being a big hit.

We'll see.
Click to expand...
It's priceless that you believe the teams of highly intelligent people working at Apple don't think products through. Absolutely priceless.


The reason it doesn't have a display:

It is the smaller of two Home devices Apple will release. This one charges devices at 3-feet range. In late 2018 or 2019 Apple will release a much larger device with many more features called 'Apple Home'. This device will be capable of 15-feet distance charging. In 2022 Apple will replace the Lightning Port with a Smart Connector successor thanks to wireless distance charging. The Lightning Port and SIM card tray are the last two major internal space takers which can go. When these go, Apple gets considerable internal space they can make the device far better from.
 
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