That seems like a business decision. Not a clinical "obsession". I suppose Apple's business decision could fail (some of them have), but if you're saying that Apple's default apps decision is a failure, reality disagrees with you so far.
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HomePod Launches February 9, Available to Order Starting Friday in United States, UK, and Australia
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I look forward to reading the reviews and owners comments on this. I had wanted one but it didn’t come out in time for Christmas and meanwhile my husband filled the house with Echos and our two free Google Home minis arrived. It’s hard to beat Alexa for verbal control over our music library.
Wow, that marketing blurb is so deja-vu inducing. I think Phil or someone else at Apple wrote a template for product release announcements and they just fill in the blanks at this point.
I loved Siri once a long time ago. But she doesn’t hear me well any more and doesn’t give me enough time to complete text dictation or commands. It’s like talking to someone who doesn’t really want to listen to you but can’t wait to interrupt to tell you about their day. So I’m extremely eager and curious to find out from Mac Rumors how well Siri works on a device that I hope has been designed from the ground up to take in voice input.
Wow, that marketing blurb is so deja-vu inducing. I think Phil or someone else at Apple wrote a template for product release announcements and they just fill in the blanks at this point.
I loved Siri once a long time ago. But she doesn’t hear me well any more and doesn’t give me enough time to complete text dictation or commands. It’s like talking to someone who doesn’t really want to listen to you but can’t wait to interrupt to tell you about their day. So I’m extremely eager and curious to find out from Mac Rumors how well Siri works on a device that I hope has been designed from the ground up to take in voice input.
It can be simulated but you need two speakers for true stereo. Even Apple are saying that.
Exactly. I remember when the first iPod and iPhone were released, and then subsequently trashed. Too little, too late, too expensive, buh blah, buh blah, buh blah. And here we are...
I have questions....
1. Will it tie in to an AppleTV, such that I can watch a movie and have the sound come through the HomePod? and will that be wired, or WiFi?
2. Will we be able to Airplay from our phones, to listen to Pandora, Spotify, and the like?
3. Will it support multiple voices for families?
4. How will it handle guest voices?
1. Will it tie in to an AppleTV, such that I can watch a movie and have the sound come through the HomePod? and will that be wired, or WiFi?
2. Will we be able to Airplay from our phones, to listen to Pandora, Spotify, and the like?
3. Will it support multiple voices for families?
4. How will it handle guest voices?
Doesn't make much sense to compare speakers purely on price. There are speakers that cost $10 and some that cost $100k.
According to Apple's site, you need 2 for stereo sound (and that's only available later this year as already mentioned)
Apple doesn’t seem to focus around giving their products all the features at once.
To me version 1 is to introduce a product, getting it into the hands of the user.
Version two is to look at the customers usage, then refine and introduce a few high desired features with a couple obscure features to plant future concepts.
Third revision bam, what we hoped for in the first release.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
So you already have one such that you can speak so factually about the quality of sound superiority?
Otherwise, you are just spinning anything & everything to help Apple sell this product (and they really don't need people like us working so hard for free to help them sell their products). So far, all we know is Apple Marketing saying it has superior sound... + hand-picked (say nice things or no more invites to Apple events) guests getting a few minutes to hear these in an Apple-controlled environment playing Apple-selected content.
If this is a Ferrari at $349, what car analogy fits speakers at 2X, 3X, 10X as much? Let me guess, ALL other speakers are hereafter inferior, regardless of price, brand, guts, experience & focus. Only this one speaker from Apple is NOT made of "cheap nasty with poor quality component" parts.
At least you are consistent. In every thread, Apple's offering is perfection in every way- all competing options are inferior junk. Apparently here- before you've even had a chance to hear or use one of these- it's already crowned the King.
Looks like we have our definitions of stereo crossed. I consider stereo as two tracks on the audio file, but it seems others are interpreting it as those two tracks coming from different locations.
I guess the reason I see it the way I do, is when I was growing up, this was a stereo, and it's technically two tracks coming from one source.
It’s a streaming speaker. You have an iPhone with Spotify that can stream to the speaker. Problem solved.
Technically, each track is coming from a separate speaker - aka stereo.Looks like we have our definitions of stereo crossed. I consider stereo as two tracks on the audio file, but it seems others are interpreting it as those two tracks coming from different locations.
I guess the reason I see it the way I do, is when I was growing up, this was a stereo, and it's technically two tracks coming from one source.
Wait a min... they sold us on this feature when it was first announced. It’s not as if this is a feature Apple is holding off to version two.
Even though I’m not in the market to buy one... I’m disappointed in the omission by Apple. If they delayed it for the Holidays at least make it “ready” when released. Instead delay it for the holiday season and when released, let’s make customers wait for a highly sought after feature.
Not a good way to start off the New Year.
For me, this is more of a competitor to Sonos than Echo as Sonos also emphasises the quality of its sound. I've got a lot of Sonos devices (several Play:1 pairs, a Sonos:5, Sonos:3 and a soundbar) and they sound absolutely fantastic (particularly when playing FLAC files).
The HomePod is going to have to be a seriously good bit of kit for me to consider junking my $2K+ investment in Sonos and it's also going to have to support multi-room, stereo pairing and FLAC (or ALAC) files from a local network share to have feature parity on the audio side. Because of this, I'll wait until later in the year when the software for the first 2 has been released and maybe take a look then
The HomePod is going to have to be a seriously good bit of kit for me to consider junking my $2K+ investment in Sonos and it's also going to have to support multi-room, stereo pairing and FLAC (or ALAC) files from a local network share to have feature parity on the audio side. Because of this, I'll wait until later in the year when the software for the first 2 has been released and maybe take a look then