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What did you buy it for that it doesn’t do?

Siri doesn’t understand me well. It also gets a lot of false triggers from conversations (going ‘a ha’) when not even invoked giving an embarassing big brother feeling. When I use my iPhone to pick a song for streaming to the homepod I can’t use the iPhone to listen to any other audio on the phone, e.g. trying to watch a YouTube video on the phone will pause the song and play the video’s audio instead.
 
Why is this thing not available everywhere already? It's not like Siri actually works anyway...

With the hardware and software inside, I was hoping it would be able to rival the best Atmos systems when you had maybe 4 of them in each corner of the room. I have a small 20 yr old Sony music system that sits on my shelf and actually still beats it, just as a comparison. The design is lovely, like most Apple stuff - but just feels a me too device rather than anything groundbreaking.
 
There are other speakers that are almost 50% more afforable and it is not like Siri actually works great...

Apple has almost run out of people willing to pay more to get less.
 
Its a good product but if you are not an american or british or from any other country that its language is supported you are in trouble.It wont understand what you say or ask most of the time.The sound is also nice but too much bass, wish there was some way to adjust that.Use it everyday for music, homekit devices and thats it.
 
Same applies to Home Pod. It's crap and always will be, no matter how many software updates it gets. Maybe in three years or so they'll release a better one, we'll see. But the current one is hopeless.

How long have you owned your HomePod?

I've had mine since launch (more than 1 1/2 years) and listen to it 3-4 hours a day, every day. Sounds great, works great.

What makes your HomePod crap?
 
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Actually the article ignores sales tax in Japan. Currently at 8%, increasing to 10% in October.
So the current price is ¥35,424 not ¥32,800.

The article is using the US and Canada convention of not including tax in the price. This convention is because the tax varies significantly by city/county/state/province/territory, from 0% to over 10% in the US.
 
The original Apple watch was crap and its critics were right. It received many software updates and it's still crap. The ones they released later on are better, but the series 0 is and always has been almost unusable and next to useless.

Same applies to Home Pod. It's crap and always will be, no matter how many software updates it gets. Maybe in three years or so they'll release a better one, we'll see. But the current one is hopeless.

Your analogy doesn’t make any sense. There’s nothing wrong with the HomePod hardware. The sounds is unbelievable for something this small, the microphone array are state of the art, they can hear you speaking to it in conversational volume with the music playing and from another room. The processor is way overpowered for what it needs to do, giving it a long upgrade life ahead.

If anything, the hardware is too good which accounts for its price.

Most of its shortcomings at launch have been addressed in recent software updates and improvements will also come with future software updates. Unlike the Watch Series 0, it doesn’t need new hardware — at all.

But you would know that if you had one right? Nobody is going to take your criticism seriously if you haven’t even used the damn thing in person in your life day to day.
 
There are other speakers that are almost 50% more afforable and it is not like Siri actually works great...

Apple has almost run out of people willing to pay more to get less.


No, the fact is that the installed base keeps increasing, and more people switching from Android to iOS than the other way around.

The other fact is that all the studies show that Siri is more accurate than Alexa and Cortana and closing in on GA. On the HomePod Siri is even more accurate as it has more mics, and more advanced ones, to pick up your voice; that's why it is the best by far in hearing you without having to shout over your music. People are puzzled as to why Apple isn't selling the HomePod immediately in every country, but the HomePod is another level experience in audio quality and a central piece in most people's homes such that they are enhancing Siri on the HomePod for each of the world's major languages before they sell it in those regions. Th
 
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That would be ideal. But unfortunately its not as simple as that. The quality of tracks on Apple Music can be very good, but it can be dreadful. Often the track thats available on Apple Music already has heavy EQ applied to it - and is nothing like the final miaxed track that the artist intented.

So EQ would sometimes be handy to revert a track back to more like it should sound.

I'm not sure how it wuold work in practice though - as it woudld have to be done on a track by track basis...

Do you have any sources that Apple Music tracks are different then the intention of the artist?

I recommend reading Apple's Digital Masters document: https://www.apple.com/itunes/docs/apple-digital-masters.pdf
 
Nope as an audiophile - it’s great at the price but I do *wish* it was 199

Apple and Best Buy sold it at that price recently. I picked up a couple as Christmas presents, but don't know if I will be able to resist adding them to my house as the HomePods I have have been such a great convenience and listening experience.;)
 
I sure wish they'd freakin' launch one with an EQ in the US so I could replace my Sonos...

(Aside from those trash presets nested in Settings.)

is something wrong with your ears that you need EQ? Music is meant to be heard as recorded, not doctored. cheap speakers need EQ cause, well they are cheap. all the professional reviews using actual measuring equipment have concluded that the HomePod is very accurate and hence no need for EQ. However some people have hearing issues that need boosting in certain frequency ranges, that is a valid reason, but other than that, just give me accurate speakers, like the HomePod.
 
A trustworthy review then.
I always said "I'm not an audiophile, but...", however, I must admit I nearing that title. Having said that, the sound quality is superb. It can SATURATE a medium-sized bedroom with sound and a crisp, shaking bass. For a living room, it can't possibly saturate it due to its size, but it will sound fantastic nonetheless. I have a high-end Klipsch reference system in the same room and opt for HomePod 70% of the time over it due to the convenience of being always and it being "good enough" unless I'm in a mood to piss off the neighbors and jam out on the Klipsch.
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Shouldn’t version 2 of the HomePod be coming out soon??

This was released in January 2018..
There will always be something better coming out. If you want one, just buy it now. If a new one is released in 6 months, it will still be a fantastic speaker that sounds amazing. It won't sound worse when the 2.0 comes out. That said, I really don't think a speaker needs an annual refresh. But we said that with the Watch when it first came out, too.
 
No, the fact is that the installed base keeps increasing, and more people switching from Android to iOS than the other way around.

The other fact is that all the studies show that Siri is more accurate than Alexa and Cortana and closing in on GA. On the HomePod Siri is even more accurate as it has more mics, and more advanced ones, to pick up your voice; that's why it is the best by far in hearing you without having to shout over your music. People are puzzled as to why Apple isn't selling the HomePod immediately in every country, but the HomePod is another level experience in audio quality and a central piece in most people's homes such that they are enhancing Siri on the HomePod for each of the world's major languages before they sell it in those regions. Th
That is your experience.
My experience is that Siri is pathetic and have much better luck with my son's Alexa.
If you have a little bit of an accent, Siri is useless.
And I rather own a regular bluetooth speaker that are less than half the cost.
 
That is your experience.
My experience is that Siri is pathetic and have much better luck with my son's Alexa.
If you have a little bit of an accent, Siri is useless.
And I rather own a regular bluetooth speaker that are less than half the cost.
It probably depends on the accent. My girlfriend has a Polish accent and hates Alexa because it never understands her. She prefers Siri.

The other issue with Alexa, and I have 3 Dots and a Spot, is that the mics are awful compared to the HomePod. Good luck getting Alexa to understand you when music is playing. If you aren't right next to it, you literally have to scream for it to hear you. HomePod can hear you in a normal voice even when music is blasting.
 
eh, not available here so not really of interest. Then again they cant even get siri on appletv working, so likely its in the too hard basket.
 
I dont understand what the problem is with Siri. I have a HomePod but it doesn’t understand my language (Dutch) and an Appple TV where Siri is disabled on the Remote if I set my country to Belgium. Still, on iOS my language and country are fully supported.

It’s not like Siri is especially customised to my country or language. Far from it. So why are the struggling so much with an international rollout?
 
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