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HomePod Launches in Japan and Taiwan [Updated]
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Bold statements for a product that is still basically hidden in the stores with zero marketing behind it. Check back in a year and see if the market share is any better than the abysmal percentage it is now.
It is a terrible value.
It is a terrible value.
Siri works great on my HomePod. I love it. I don't really need another digital assistant though, I'm here for the sound quality. HomePod sounds fantastic.
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That's what AirPlay is for.
I have two. One of them in the living room paired to the AppleTV. Let’s just say “it just works” is not a saying I have for it.
Just about every time we watch something I have to pair it back to the Apple TV and do this song and dance to get audio sync to work. It’s a great sounding speaker but it doesn’t just work.
Just about every time we watch something I have to pair it back to the Apple TV and do this song and dance to get audio sync to work. It’s a great sounding speaker but it doesn’t just work.
Can you explain more how Siri doesn’t work? Siri works great on mine, set up as a stereo pair in my office. I don’t use Spotify but any other streaming service I use (Radio.com and SiriusXM) work fine streaming to them via Airplay.
Im glad they're not here in Ireland yet or Id have jumped in and got one. At this stage, 2nd gen must be close and as usual 2nd gen apple stuff will be vastly superior Ive no doubt
Yes. single HomePod and stereo home pods. Stereo is a good audio experience for those wanting to get into a basic audio system. Its amazing they can take what would generally be multiple components and run them through a single processor. Im not sayings it better or worse then needing multiple components but its a different experience.
EQ, what for? Why not listen to the final mixed track as is?
It does, its called AirPlay
I love this thing. The sound really is that great - use it daily.
Bought a Bose Revolve+ for a camping trip. It has been used just about every evening at home since. It plays music and it's easy to use. It's crazy good playing stereo with two of them (ordered the second one about 15mins after hearing the first one). Wish Apple's Bluetooth was better. The music breaks up when backspacing in a text field on my MacBook?? (Like the one I'm typing in right now.) That part doesn't just work. Bose is screwing up big time on their software/firmware end with some products, and some of their products are harder to use than an iPad with a smashed screen, but they make nice sounds.
I have two. I love them. I’m going to get a 3rd.
I've got 8 across my house and use them in lieu of surround sound systems for theater like setup with front and rear. Volume is full and range broad for the setup, you just need a great wifi setup otherwise you'll see it lag at this scale.
But no regrets, sound is solid at this scale and minimal on wires. But some areas to expand, enable 5.1 from Apple TV, Allow 5.1 broadcast TVs so they can send it from say like an Xbox, and there is a lot of potential for home theater buyers too migrate away from home systems. Also, address false activations from Siri. Outsidee of this it's been good.
New features with ios13 will be great too with handoff
But no regrets, sound is solid at this scale and minimal on wires. But some areas to expand, enable 5.1 from Apple TV, Allow 5.1 broadcast TVs so they can send it from say like an Xbox, and there is a lot of potential for home theater buyers too migrate away from home systems. Also, address false activations from Siri. Outsidee of this it's been good.
New features with ios13 will be great too with handoff
Yes. I have two. They sound great in my living room and they’re more than capable for the admittedly few scenarios where I actually want to use voice commands to perform tasks.
Well the hardware is top notch. Anything else lacking can always be fixed with a software update.
Apple didn't give up on the butterfly keyboard either and the result has been such a success (I say sarcastically). Nobody ever said the watch would fail, on debut it was better than any other smart watch available hence it's the top seller although it wasn't without missteps like $10k gold & $2k ceramic versions. Homepod on the other hand is NOT the best smart speaker. It's overpriced & underwhelming hence its sales fizzle.
Are you sure that the HomePod doesn't tune to what Apple thinks is best?
I'm fairly certain the HomePod is not really playing the final mixed track as is. I have tried the HomePod, and it's similar to BOSE in tuning.
For a basic stereo audio system, is $600 to $700 (for two of them) a bit steep? I really have no idea, but was considering buying two to use as speakers for my Apple TV.
Agree. I bought it at launch in an attempt to replace my Sonos. The sound, while good, just wasn’t as good as my Sonos in my opinion. I really wish I could replace Sonos because the Siri feature was awesome on it. So nice to have the convenience of voice control with the security of Apple. Unfortunately the sound just wasn’t there for me.
They are going to have cut the price of the HomePod to compete with Alexa and other speaker offerings. Get it under $100 and they will sell well.
Most people are not looking for the best sound, just OK sound to play in the background while doing other things.
Most people are not looking for the best sound, just OK sound to play in the background while doing other things.
I have one in my kitchen and we use it every day. Admittedly, we don't ask too much of it. We have AppleMusic so we we play that or Airplay podcasts to it during cooking, cleaning, and meal-times. We set timers and reminders. Ask it the odd question. It sounds beautiful and looks pretty good. I used to use it to control all my hue lights, but honestly, I fell out with the idea of smart home lights; felt like a fad and wall switches are just faster. My family doesn't really live in macros. I don't know where they go from here though, other than lowering the price. I've seen the other smart speakers and there's not a lot that I'm seeing there that I want HomePod to adopt. Maybe I'm missing something?
So you spent $700 (maybe $600) for kitchen speakers? Wow, I'm doing bad at life apparently
*Sees Echo Plus* Ssshhh Alexa, I don't really mean it