HomePod Mini Likely Nearing Launch in Five More Countries

[MauiPa]

I feel like the development of Siri has stagnated years ago. Therefore rendering this product basically useless. With all that power Siri is not smart and very slow.

Says someone who hasn’t used Siri in years. Sorry, the facts contradict you

 

[dumastudetto]

There's nothing like HomePod, and it integrates seamlessly with all your other Apple devices and services. I'm happy that many more people will have the chance to take advantage of this technology that glues your Apple experience together.

 

[SurferPup]

I love my HomePods (the navy ones blend into the wall colour). If only Siri could have some synchronicity around the house...

... and, 'Fräulein SurferPup?' - 'That's not my name!'

 

[SurferPup]

I am so happy!
Yesterday, my non-minis greeted my new little blue 15.2 rascals with joy here in Europe.

Apple's transport logistics work like clockwork in Europe with everyone involved!

View attachment 1941014

Das heißt, deutsche Effizienz von seiner besten Seite.

 

[SurferPup]

Of course, Apple discussed your topic a long time ago.

Ask the Swiss (I'm not Swiss, but I know some): They attach great importance to Swiss German. And most would grumble if Siri didn't understand it. The dialects in Europe are very different, so it is a big challenge for Apple to inspire ALL consumers, not just those who somehow can speak English fluently like us.

In addition, if you set your language setting to English (as I always do), you can't request anything in other languages when selecting music locally with Siri. Siri simply can't understand that, because Apple has not yet implemented variable language recognition in Siri.
This is a Herculean task for future M-chips, which Androids can or know even less about, of course.

 

[SurferPup]

With Siri set to Australian English she does understand, 'Neunundneunzig Luftballons', 'Zaubertrick' and I have to think and pronoun the German artist, 'Lea' in German. Until recently Siri would play the band, 'Nena' however with the rise of a British? artist by the name of, 'Nina' Siri defaults to playing her music .

 

[BGPL]

If Siri wasn't horrendous, I would have these instead of my many dots throughout the house. I still can't bring myself to like Apple Music and still use mostly Spotify, so it works out better anyways. I resisted Alexa for so long, but the skills and general experience are just waaaay beyond Apple's Siri.

 

[applicious84]

I am so happy!
Yesterday, my non-minis greeted my new little blue 15.2 rascals with joy here in Europe.

Apple's transport logistics work like clockwork in Europe with everyone involved!

View attachment 1941014

Those buildings look like keyboards

 

[Macbookprodude]

Sadly Apple don’t give a f**k about our fourth National language! ?

Don't feel bad, the Russians are our enemies and I am Ukrainian.. yet they don't give a s*** about us Ukrainians. Always Russian this that. Russia is not a good country. I know because they invade us !

 

[chaicka]

Still no sign of release in Singapore despite it is released in Hong Kong and both locations are 'English' speaking. Have to import from Hong Kong which adds up overall cost (shipping isn't exactly cheap nowadays), hence lower penetration rate. Singapore has always been Apple's tier-1 launch country, why HomePod is only product excluded when all other products are available.

 

[chaicka]

That would be very sweet indeed. Have been using HomePods a couple years now but since they don’t officially support Swedish, the functionality has been limited. Hope to see this during first half of the year.


It’s always seemed weird to me why they’ve had this slow rollout of the HomePods. Only reason I can tell is due to having to add an additional language but Siri is already working fine in Swedish on other devices so curious what would make the HomePods so special.

Same here. Been puzzled over the years Siri works fine on all other devices, yet HomePods is the only product not available here.

 

[Abazigal]

Still no sign of release in Singapore despite it is released in Hong Kong and both locations are 'English' speaking. Have to import from Hong Kong which adds up overall cost (shipping isn't exactly cheap nowadays), hence lower penetration rate. Singapore has always been Apple's tier-1 launch country, why HomePod is only product excluded when all other products are available.

Not just the HomePods. Siri support for the Apple TV remote, fitness plus, news, we are missing a few services that have no reason to be geographically restricted (even Malaysia is getting fitness+ first!).

 

[tonyberinson]

they just aren't as good as the full size HomePod.

Shame they got rid of the old ones.

 

[citysnaps]

Still no sign of release in Singapore despite it is released in Hong Kong and both locations are 'English' speaking. Have to import from Hong Kong which adds up overall cost (shipping isn't exactly cheap nowadays), hence lower penetration rate. Singapore has always been Apple's tier-1 launch country, why HomePod is only product excluded when all other products are available.

Do you have Apple Music in Singapore?

 

[danmaldesign]

Every single marketing image of Apple’s HomePod minis deletes the unremovable connected usb-c wire. Why are they trying to make you believe that this is a “wireless” speaker when it needs to be plugged in at all times? If you want a TRUE wireless speaker with a lithium ion battery that you can move anywhere in your home then I suggest you give a listen to the much better sounding ULTIMATE EARS WONDERBOOM or MEGABOOM.

 

[citysnaps]

Every single marketing image of Apple’s HomePod minis deletes the unremovable connected usb-c wire. Why are they trying to make you believe that this is a “wireless” speaker when it needs to be plugged in at all times? If you want a TRUE wireless speaker with a lithium ion battery that you can move anywhere in your home then I suggest you give a listen to the much better sounding ULTIMATE EARS WONDERBOOM or MEGABOOM.

Does it play tunes from Apple Music via WiFi and accept commands via Siri? And can it be powered via a wall outlet?

 

[0924487]

Apple sure is slow with expanding HomePod to other countries. I remember reading that the original was finally launched in India in May 2020 just to be discontinued 10 months later in March 2021.

Because it’s a fringe product, so they will prioritize their primary markets.

>United States, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

 

[DakotaGuy]

At some point you will earn more money. Then you come back again. I also had a detour via Sonos once.

Bluetooth offers very limited transmission rate.
Its bandwidth makes Lossless and Atmos transmission or an active speaker tuning impossible, which is what Apple demands professionally. Of course, you won't hear that in most standard environments (e.g. in the car).

But in a good acoustic room you will definitely have the inkling to listen only cheap second class.

If you are so concerned about sound quality that you demand professional level lossless transmissions and design an acoustically proper listening room you aren‘t going to be using any small smart speaker.

 

[0924487]

“Flemish” should be “Dutch (Belgium)”, it is not a separate language.

Is it like some identity stuff like if Cantonese is a dialect of Chinese etc.?

 

[0924487]

Apple needs to realise that there are millions of people who don't live in an English speaking country, but speak and understand English (or other majority languages) just fine.

Seems silly that we have to wait for them to translate everything into the region's main language before we're allowed to even buy a HomePod Mini.

While we're at it, let me sign up for Apple Fitness+ - I promise I won't sit there looking at the screen like a confused caveman trying to work out what "ok now do a jumping jack" means.

That’s for legal reasons.

You can’t sell a product in China if it doesn’t support Mandarin, for example, and for Canada, in French.

 

[44267547]

There is loads of potential with the Mini, because I feel like consumers want something that is more ‘affordably friendly’ and really simple, which I feel like the regular size HomePod was overlooked, because people aren’t sure why they would want to spend that much money on a smart speaker, when the HomePod was everything but a smart speaker. That’s where the misconception was, the HomePod was primarily a music player first, and a smart speaker second, and the roles are reversed with the Mini.

 

[alfonsog]

The 3 new colors are still out of stock and unavailable most everywhere.

 

[svish]

Good to know. Product availability expansion is always good.

 

[xDKP]

Apple needs to realise that there are millions of people who don't live in an English speaking country, but speak and understand English (or other majority languages) just fine.

Seems silly that we have to wait for them to translate everything into the region's main language before we're allowed to even buy a HomePod Mini.

While we're at it, let me sign up for Apple Fitness+ - I promise I won't sit there looking at the screen like a confused caveman trying to work out what "ok now do a jumping jack" means.

This is a weird launch. I speak with Siri on a daily basis on my watch and iPhone (Primarily watch). What’s to keep the exact same dialog to go though a HomePod? Why this extreme slow rollout? Danish by the way

 

[whatta]

I am personally not interested in the HomePod BUT I really want to have Dutch in the iOS integrated translation. I do hope that we get Dutch to iOS translation when HomePod comes to BE/NL.