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HomePod is Now Widely Available at Apple Stores
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If you think Apple is the main disrupter of technology in Silicon Valley you need to get out more. SV views Apple as the old, stodgy man of the industry these days. Go to Y Combinator to see what's really happening!
Who are those people?
With respect to listening environments, I have never found a noisier space than an Apple Store, usually with (lime)stone back walls, soaring glass panels for the front and sides, and glass ceilings. Far, far different than a typical home cocktail party with a dozen people.
It's difficult to even think in those stores when they're loaded with customers. That's not something HomePod, or any other speaker can deal with, other than out powering the background noise. Perhaps a hundred watts would help - just don't get too close.
I will say my HomePod, so far, sounds great in my more modest challenging environment.
For those that have listening environments similar to a customer-loaded Apple Store, HomePod is not for you.
Let's not have any false modesty here, that's not going to be the typical listening experience for somebody judging a HomePod based on a flurry of customers talking in a noisy, hectic store, amongst all the other audibles occurring. Most who are truly interested in the HomePod, will purchase it and exercise the 14 day return policy based on how they deem the sound in their own environment, not judging JUST judging by how it sounds in a store. How many customers are actually purchasing this without even hearing it first? I would say a large majority. Anyone here knows to fully appreciate the HomePod, you're going to use it in an environment where you can judge it based on what it sounds like in your home, how you have it positioned, in a much more controlled and less noisy environment than a packed Apple Store. It's simple logic, I think your drastically overthinking this.
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Got mine a couple of hours ago and tried them out. The installation experience was great. It basically did the installation itself. The sound is pretty decent for what it is. But of course it can't compare to pricier hifi speakers. But I didn't expect it to. But the sound is much better than Amazons Alexa.
Siri works pretty good and you can actually speak to it from a distance. It understand my commands better than my phone in my opinion. I bought three of them and I feel like I'm going to keep them and maybe buy some more. But my primary use is going to be to control my Homekit controlled house. Its big och pretty bulky. I wouldn't mind if it was smaller and more discreet.
I really wish it had a Line Out like the small Alexa unit so I could connect it to my main hifi system. Then I would be able to "order" music from Siri to get it to play thru my normal speakers which have a much higher quality then the HomePod.
Listening to music; I will continue to use my hifi system. But if you are used to listen to music thru your computer, this is a big step up. But I feel that all the fantastic reviews about the sound quality is over rated. But for the low price it sounds good. Good product for what it is and worth the money it cost.
Siri works pretty good and you can actually speak to it from a distance. It understand my commands better than my phone in my opinion. I bought three of them and I feel like I'm going to keep them and maybe buy some more. But my primary use is going to be to control my Homekit controlled house. Its big och pretty bulky. I wouldn't mind if it was smaller and more discreet.
I really wish it had a Line Out like the small Alexa unit so I could connect it to my main hifi system. Then I would be able to "order" music from Siri to get it to play thru my normal speakers which have a much higher quality then the HomePod.
Listening to music; I will continue to use my hifi system. But if you are used to listen to music thru your computer, this is a big step up. But I feel that all the fantastic reviews about the sound quality is over rated. But for the low price it sounds good. Good product for what it is and worth the money it cost.
This is the first Apple product that had me getting a competitors product. I bought a sonos.
This was too high of a price for the features. It would have been nice but price was too high.
I own an iMac
I own a Macbook
iPhone X
Apple watch
Money does not bother me....but for features on this one...I walked.
This was too high of a price for the features. It would have been nice but price was too high.
I own an iMac
I own a Macbook
iPhone X
Apple watch
Money does not bother me....but for features on this one...I walked.
Apparently these sound really, really good. A really nice pair of shelf speakers goes for $2,000 ($1,000 each) so this connected speaker is a bargain.
Apple wins. Every single day. They might very well be the first $1 trillion company. Believe me, they win all the time. Don't feel sorry for them.
Just got off the phone with Apple. They think there's a bug involving inability to connect to mesh networks (there are apparently multiple complaints coming in, just like mine, from people with mesh Wifi who can't set up their HomePods.) It's been escalated to the engineers and hopefully they will jump on it. It's very annoying to wait so long for a product and then have it fail inexplicably.
Pretty amazing one little speaker can replace a $1000+ of dedicated 5.1 equipment to fill a room with sound.
Believe me HomePod is an amazing product. Apple products are always on the top of other competitors’ products especially security wise.
Then you’re missing out - it’s an awesome bit of kit.
It’s clearly going to be my most used apple product, measured by hours of use.
I think this is the most balanced and objective post yet.
I wouldn't expect this to blow away my Klipsch Heresy speakers. But if you don't have a decent stereo system this should be great for you.
Still think it's too expensive though. You deserve stereo, and then it's double the price...
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Hardly the same thing. A poor comparison.
I'm talking about emoji, water jugs that have Bluetooth, and video apps that only save 7 seconds of video.
We have had amazing hi-fidelity systems for decades and - gasp - we lived without beamforming.
To be fair, those speakers still utterly demolish most speakers in this space, and then some. And I only say "most" because I haven't listened to stuff like the Paradigm PW 600/800, or the Naim Mu-so. Connected speakers really fall into the "budget" category for me when it comes to audio quality. You can get good budget speakers, but there is quite a bit of room for improvement if that's your thing.
And really, once you breach 350-400$, you enter a realm where a good pair of active speakers plus a wireless dongle of your choice isn't much more, and will get you better sound. But the flip side is you don't get any connected features beyond AirPlay/Chomecast that way, and the larger footprint as many of these active monitors are running 5" woofers with deeper cabinets. So you do give up the smaller package and other connected features to get that better audio quality.
Yeah, the HomePod is good for what it is, but I wouldn't call it a bargin. Not when I can have a pair of Paradigm A2s for 500$ (or 250$ for a mono setup), and get clearly better audio out of them with more detail and nuance than Apple's processing is so far able to provide. And so far, I'm actually leaning towards keeping mine, when I wasn't terribly impressed at the announcement last year. So consider that.
$50 speaker can fill the room with sound, the quality of the sound is a totally different matter. As far as sound bars are concerned, they serve totally different purpose and they will do much better job for TV/movies.
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But what's the competitor in this case. Alexa and Google speakers are home assistants first and foremost. They are not competitors. HomePod is not good for TV (not even stereo). It's not good for serious music listening (again, not even stereo). It might be leading in the class of below $400 speakers for casual music listening in the background (like Sonos 1s)
I got two delivered today. Having gotten to the point where we now use Apple Music/Apple TV exclusively, we are selling the Onyko amp and Kef speakers we had used up until now. That makes us a 100% perfect use-case. My first impressions for anyone that’s interested:
Overall, I have a strong feeling Apple have got another hit on its hands. Not an AirPods sort of hit but a slow, steady one like Apple Watch. I can’t wait to try it out even more over the weekend.
- It manages to be simultaneously bigger and smaller than I thought. I can’t explain it - it’s like an optical illusion or something. Looks great on a small Ikea stool!
- Setup ridiculously easy.
- We were actually pretty underwhelmed at the first piece of music we played. It was a 'radio station' that Siri suggested - a classic song from Stevie Wonder. My wife and I looked at each other and I almost put it right back in the box to return it. It sounded extremely flat. After that I tried a Radiohead song and turned it up loud, and that’s when we heard its full potential. Why did it sound crap initially? Perhaps because we’re used to the Kef speaker setup? Maybe it hadn’t calibrated yet? Maybe it’s just the particular song wasn’t great quality? Subsequently we’ve played TV through it and a few other songs and it’s clearly an excellent speaker. I don’t feel it really ‘fills the room’ like some reviews suggest but I bet it’ll really be amazing when it can be paired with the other one.
- I haven’t tried a movie yet. Realistically, it’s one speaker so can’t compete with a 5.1+ setup but I think convenience will win in the end. It’s going to be so liberating selling the old amp and speakers.
- I’m actually the most surprised at how good Siri is. I usually just use Siri for setting timers on the phone/watch but I can see myself using Siri much more with HomePod. It does feel like Siri’s natural home. Saying “Hey Siri, turn it up a bit” with a normal voice while it’s playing loud music really is amazing.
Overall, I have a strong feeling Apple have got another hit on its hands. Not an AirPods sort of hit but a slow, steady one like Apple Watch. I can’t wait to try it out even more over the weekend.
You don't have to drop $2000 on bookshelves to get better sound than one or even two HomePods. That's not meant as a knock on the HomePod, just as a point of fact.
No, it means "widely available". Nothing more, nothing less.
Today is HomePod launch day in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and as promised, the speaker is now on display and available to purchase at most of Apple's retail stores in each of those countries.
HomePod has already received rave reviews for its sound quality from both the media and early adopters, but customers who prefer their own listening demo can now visit one of Apple's stores to hear it for themselves. Of course, customers can also take advantage of Apple's 14-day return policy and try it at home.
Most if not all of Apple's retail locations currently have plentiful stock of the speaker in both Space Gray and White, but we recommend calling ahead before making the trip. To check availability in your area: go to the HomePod order page, click on the link under the "Pickup" section, and enter your ZIP or postal code.
HomePod orders placed online today are estimated for delivery by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, so if you didn't pre-order the speaker, visiting an Apple Store is the only option to get one in your hands this weekend. Some resellers like Best Buy may also have limited in-store availability.
Meanwhile, deliveries are beginning to arrive to customers who did pre-order the HomePod a few weeks ago. If you've received yours already, be sure to share your thoughts in the MacRumors discussion forums.
Article Link: HomePod is Now Widely Available at Apple Stores
Been burned by the AppleTV that never got Siri despite being technically fully capable in my country. Seeing how the reviews are already mixed regarding Siri integration in a country were it’s officially supported, the homepod is really just a glorified speaker. I have my HiFi for that.
Siri is just plain dumb. Wanted it to look up a shop nearby. Didn’t understand what I wanted and kept suggesting shops 6000 miles from here. Asked were I was and it put me right at home. So asked what the nearest shop of that name was. Suggests a place in California again. I’m in Switzerland. Too dumb to be of any use.
Siri is just plain dumb. Wanted it to look up a shop nearby. Didn’t understand what I wanted and kept suggesting shops 6000 miles from here. Asked were I was and it put me right at home. So asked what the nearest shop of that name was. Suggests a place in California again. I’m in Switzerland. Too dumb to be of any use.