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HomePod Launches February 9, Available to Order Starting Friday in United States, UK, and Australia
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Define "true stereo". As an audio engineer, I'd love to hear your technical explanation.
It's become a staple of Apple fans to complain about every little thing before a product is released, then buy the product, then tell everyone how amazing it is. Have we really not learned to just wait and try it before judging?
Inferior speaker of not Google assistant or Alexa don’t provide anything that Siri can’t do.
It’s marketed as a great sound speaker AND an assistant built in
So no it’s not the same at all
So am I understanding you correctly that it's not ok to be excited about a product and want to pre-order, and it's not ok to want some info and get some questions answered before doing so?
You can’t no
You can answer a call from your iPhone and use the HomePod to speak once answered
That is a very interesting point. Thus far, the most interesting post in this thread. I wonder if they have thought of this problem. There is a good solution no doubt, where the Siri enabled devices would talk to each other and the HomePod would override the others from activating.
Because....it is marketed as a smart speaker, with Siri integration. Sonos, Bose, etc are not marketed the same.
It may or may not have amazing sound, we will see, but the general public will see it as a smart speaker that cost a significant more than the amazon/google alternative, with an assitant that lags behind.
But....this is Apple, so the market will be more receptive than it would be to another company. So we will see. I am eager to hear how it sounds.
Due to free promotions, I have 3 seperate (google mini home, normal size, and a random insigna brand) in my house. They play together, and sound great.
But like I said, I will look forward to a review. For that price, Apple needs to match Sonos for me to consider it, and/or Siri needs to improve.
The real genius of the HomePod is that it uses the location of your iPhone in your pocket or your Apple Watch on your wrist to locate you as the listener in the room and adjust the beam forming on the fly to locate you into the sweet spot so that the sound always makes your position the best seat in the house. However what is more impressive is that the analytic algorithms within the HomePod software test for, determine, and adjust the sound for the flooring type in your space to reduce the poor acoustics that concrete or hardwoods often produce. Likewise the music settings in the accompanying app allow you to effectively remaster music on the fly to produce a live concert sound or add a vinyl and needle dimension (without the record skipping of course). These are the sort of features that will bring in the cursory audio enthusiasts but likely further alienate the true purists.
I don't know where you get this. I AM an audio engineer who has been an audiophile for over 45 years. I know more about speakers than you can imagine.
I believe in settings you can mute other devices when the HomePod is in certain range with your other devices
Have you ever used Google Assistant? Or Alexa? You'd probably know how bad Siri is in comparison if you had.
No, no, it's not the same at all. It just looks the same. And has similar features. And is aimed at the same market. But no, it's c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y different. And magical. lol.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Not sure what logic or fault you are addressing. The question was about can these be used for a real surround sound setup. Apple has said NOTHING about that capability, but the closet marketers that work really hard for free have strongly implied that buying 5+ of these could cover that base well.
I certainly question the pricing myself. I don't see this as HomePod vs. Sonos. I see this as (maybe) Deluxe Echo.
I have no sense of quality of sound because the only information we have about their sound is from Apple Marketing and hand-picked attendees to an Apple event where they all know the consequences of saying anything dramatically bad about Apple products. I assume these will sound great (for this kind of speaker) but no way to know today, other than however much faith one can have in Apple Marketing messaging being more true than spin.
Personally, the most important thing about HomePod through my lens is the potential for a significantly improved Siri... hopefully not locked to only being within this Apple product. Beyond that, a crowd that rationalized the headphone jack jettison on "good enough" music sound quality via Bluetooth should not be so quick to flip flop into audio quality connoisseurs now that we (believe we) have to try to help Apple sell this product (to each other).
We're also the same crowd that will bash Tidal to no end though it seems like the best streaming source match for a smart speaker hanging most of it's hat on superior sound quality. I'm no fan of Tidal either but we relentlessly bash it like audio quality doesn't matter, yet here we're rallying around the quality of sound from this speaker will be better than ALL other speakers.
Because if it was a serious speaker it would have 15" woofers and 10" tweeters not boasting about it's small surround image. And BTW people are only got Apple's say so that this thing sounds good.
Yes I do and nothing I ask Alexa Siri can’t do.
Depends what you ask it
Sport scores
Play my playlists
Switch from lights on or off at home
It does all the basic tasks the same. Is google assistant and Alexa smarter? Yes it is but I stopped asking certain things after day 1 after it got boring
The main two devices I use everyday. I workout and have a HomeKit smart house making these two devices very important to me.
Thought it was obvious, but I'm talking about the complainers. Those who aren't asking questions, just deciding that it's going to be like this or that, and it's not as good as this product or that product that they already own. Sure, they might be right, but at least wait for SOMEONE to buy it and post a review online before deciding it's going to be the worst product Apple ever released, the worst product in its class, etc.
People who are truly interested in the product that ask questions and maybe pre-order to give it a try are exactly the people I'm not talking about.
IF it can deliver quality sound at $350, I will be more than happy to purchase the speaker. For ME and MY needs, I see no value in having a virtual assistant. I am more interested in the speaker and its perceived capabilities.
i can stop you right there; "work really hard for free have strongly implied that buying 5+" How many of these thing are you going to buy? More than five? Apple's just rubbing it's hands over you.
Siri needs to be let loose! I understand why they are not letting her out, but at this point in time Siri is lacking in almost every aspect compared to GA and Alexa.
I can say, having had Alexa in my house, I didn't know how much I needed her!
LOL. Have you even read it?
[doublepost=1516726681][/doublepost]
Can you start a phone call with Siri? There you go then.
[doublepost=1516726747][/doublepost]Has the spec changed at all since it was announced? What's the reason for the delay?
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Oh brother. That sounds so amazing... even toward genius. And then you think, but what if ANYONE else is in the room too?
Certainly, there are such capabilities that could be built into this thing. Maybe the single, living alone crowd IS the market for this? But then again, won't those people have iPhones with AirPods where the sound is real stereo, especially engineered to precisely feed left & right audio sound into each ear? So does the single in the "sweet spot" actually need one of these?