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HomePod Launches February 9, Available to Order Starting Friday in United States, UK, and Australia
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No thanks. I’m excited about HomePod. Your not going to convince me otherwise with fiction.
Nice try though. Try to turn someone else against Apple. Won’t work with me.
I like or love probably most of Apple's products, but it's crazy to me that people are jumping to Apple's defense on the audio quality for a speaker they've never heard. Apple has a history of exaggerating the audio quality for their consumer products and underperforming in that regard in general. Their DAC's have been great but apart from that, the relatively unused ALAC format, and the market failure iPod Hifi, they've been very realistic about the audio quality people want - and that is just barely good enough.
Audiophiles who know their hardware are unbelievably rare and wouldn't even approach a product like this - they would want much more granular control, matching amp to speaker, etc. I believe the underlying technology is cool. It's just going for a weird segment - people who aren't really audiophiles, but either love all things Apple enough to buy one, or people who distrust competitor smart speakers but really want to buy one. This is a really limited product right now. I hope firmware updates come quickly for everyone who jumps in.
Audiophiles who know their hardware are unbelievably rare and wouldn't even approach a product like this - they would want much more granular control, matching amp to speaker, etc. I believe the underlying technology is cool. It's just going for a weird segment - people who aren't really audiophiles, but either love all things Apple enough to buy one, or people who distrust competitor smart speakers but really want to buy one. This is a really limited product right now. I hope firmware updates come quickly for everyone who jumps in.
Watch it, you can get in a lot of trouble here by having a reasonable point of view backed by coherent thinking.
I’m not expecting “audiophile” quality sound from a HomePod. I’m expecting decent sound though. We have Bose Sound Touch speakers around our house that do a pretty decent job for the size. I also have Google Home in the Kitchen because I wanted to try it and the sound out of it is OK but far from “really good.”
On this very web-site following the Keynote where HomePod was announced I read reviews by writers who did get a chance to listen to a HomePod following the Keynote and the reviews were all quite favourable in reference to the sound quality.
The truth will be in the ear of the beholder. What some of the people on here will call “crap” or “garbage” will probably sound just great to a lot of other people who are less critical.
I would NOT agree that Smartwatches are still in th early stage of their life cycle ... as SonyEricsson shipped the worlds first watch that would connect to a phone (using Bluetooth) over 10yrs ago (Bluetooth, Alerts, silence phone this before they had a smartphone btw, and answer and reject calls). Sony shipped the first smartwatch to allow for 3rd party apps to be created and installed (pushed by Google Play; prior to the Android Wear platform), yet gave Google and others their major start Android Wear.
SonyEricsson debuted the MBW-100 (partnered with Fossil) in 2006!
Sony Debuted their smartwatches in 2012 at CES.
Sony SmartWatch 2 debuted in May 2013
Refinement:
MBW-100
MBW-150
MBW-200
You can clearly see a HINT, if very small about how smartwatches, like Apple Watch was doing and should be done ... using size, and leather, metal link straps, fashionable and using Bluetooth. (Considering SonyEricsson created Bluetooth this is no small feet for future implementations we're using today).
Apple Watch is the top selling watch globally!
An epic accomplishment!
I cannot wait to see just how far fitness & health implementations go with it in the future!
I don’t remember the magazine, or the exact quote, but a discussion I read in the early 80’s basically said if it sounds good to you then go for it. At the time the argument was CD’s vs 1/2 speed mastered vinyl.
I haven’t seen confirmation regarding Apple TV but surely this thing will work, I’ve attached a picture of my current set up, small echo.connected to Bowers Wilkins wireless speaker.
The sound is okay but, i’d like something more grand.
PS
the echo .is excellent
The sound is okay but, i’d like something more grand.
PS
the echo .is excellent
I mean, I get that it’s better and has a better speaker. But I just don’t know if enough people care. Apple always says Apple TV is a hobby but I see this thing selling far fewer units. Most normal people will just go for an Amazon Echo Dot which costs about 10 times less during one of their frequent sales.
As for multiple devices, the way it works now is Apple somehow calculates which device is closer to you when responding. I wonder if HomePod will just override anything else in the room. I also want to know if my voice is my passcode. For instance, could my kid just start having Siri read my texts with my wife? Or modify HomeKit systems in our house when I’m not around? I mean, I trust my kids, but they’re young and some times mischievous. I also don’t trust Siri to not start spouting off personal info when I have family over since it ties into my account. I guess they made scenes to help with that, but I’ll never remember to do that every time.
I think what Apple has a knack for is getting the core experience right. Airpods don’t boast particularly good sound quality, but the other conveniences more than make up for it. The end result is a product that makes people want to use them, not despite their limitations, but rather, because of it.
I’m not saying HomePod is a guaranteed success. But I am of the opinion that there is a much bigger, more established market for great-sounding home stereo equipment than there is for “smart” home appliances. And in that world, $350 is actually quite the steal.
Plus I am quite interested to see how the HomePod integrates with the Apple ecosystem, of which I am deeply entrenched in.
Audiophiles who "know their hardware" also have kitchens and bathrooms, where matching a SET to a particular Tekton speaker is not practical or necessary. We save the tweaky stuff for the listening room. The HomePod has plenty of uses, even for the discriminating audiophile.
GREAT Summary ... very effective!
Sonos I can pre-program an alarm and select a song for waking up to ... but ONLY within the Sonos App. Siri cannot control Sonos ... completely stupid in my mind.
Furthermore, AirPlay does allow you to play a videos audio that is on your iPhone/iPad or AppleTV through the HomePod (when AirPlay Support debuts) ... So I think Apple is getting into the Home Theatre arena yet slowly.
On your setup ... can you ask Google to "save this song to *specific playlist*" ??
That would be great.
Right now I want to KICK Federighi and the others involved with Siri in the ding ding and force them not to get any pay until they light up Siri with intelligence not guessing crap like it's been doing.
Siri was supposed to be an AI yet she's really only been a digital PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). That's worlds apart!
AppleTV is great since the 4th iteration. A TV doesn't really do much and with SmartTV's and AppleTV and Roku etc it's not going to do do much more anyway. Nobody should be hating on AppleTV except for improving the remote.
Watch is fantastic as what it does and has room to grow!
HomePod ... should NOT have been shown off at all!
Siri should've been vastly improved and tested internally, then Beta for 6mths then publicly for another 6mths before even THINKING of showing off HomePod out of the design room!
Oooooh, name dropping a studio and speaker model. Is that what qualifies for technical knowledge on a subject?
Where did I say the HomePods would sound as good as a high end speaker? Oh right, I didn’t.
In the 70’s and 80’s the NRC (National Research Council) in Canada did significant research on acoustics and psychoacoustics headed by Dr. Floyd Toole. This research literally put several Canadian speaker companies on the map literally overnight as producers of some of the finest “audiophile” speakers you can buy.
Please explain how this is possible, since you claim a new entrant (like Apple) can’t possibly compete with audio companies that have 50+ years of experience. Yet I can name numerous Canadian speaker manufacturers who all accomplished that very feat.
For marketing purposes is obvious that Apple wants you to buy 2 of them...
I still have this at home (not mine though) sound was pretty good...
Always wanted one of those, along with the U2 iPod 2nd Gen.
Seems without AirPlay 2, Home Sharing is not possible. The more we find out about HomePod the more HomeS**T it's becoming.
Seems HomePod is to boost Apple Music subscription ONLY!
I most definitely fall into the audiophile category. I have a fairly expensive system in my theatre/listening room.
What I DON’T have is a full-blown audio system in every single room in my house. Something like the HomePod or Sonos is an ideal product for me to add reasonably good sound to any room I want with minimal effort.
I don’t know why people think audiophiles will ONLY listen to high-end gear.
According to a chat representative from Apple this is correct.
But who knows how well those are informed?
HT @domhoenig
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I’ve been in Abbey Road Studio 2 pretty recently. Didn’t notice the speaker models but was pretty obsessed with the Pianos Paul played on Lady Madonna and Hey Jude plus the old 4 track tape machines. It was pretty surreal.
Sorry, back to topic now. Could not resist.
I was kidding. I thought that my series of somewhat outrageous claims were obviously a farce. I hope people didn't believe me. I was just having a bit of fun with the really long technical post.
They didn’t answer the last question which is what I’m most interested in. Can I use Siri on the HomePod to control my Apple TV. So for example can I say Siri play fresh off the boat on my Apple TV and will it start playing on my TV.
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Maybe the general public don’t want them but I find my Apple watches and I iPads very useful.
So what were the three most surprising things you discovered about Apple?
I mean, the most surprising thing I discovered was that they were surprised that the privacy policy page on Apple's website isn't on a secure server. Crikey!