HomePod Mini Shipping Times Slip into January Across Europe as Global Stocks Dwindle

[noanker]

Ordered two Space Gray Minis on release day and received them on 18 November. I'm not an audiophile and as I've grown older, have lost interest in tweaking an equalizer on my audio products. If a device can dynamically adjust the sound, then good. So when ordering these, I knew that due to the size, I shouldn't expect too much from them audio-wise and also acknowledged that Siri is still a work in progress.

I was pleasantly surprised on the audio quality, it suits my expectations whereas I've read it has underwhelmed the expectations of others. But everyone has their own preferences. I like the computational audio and would love to learn more about exactly how it manages this.

I'd even prefer to see iPad and iPhone come with user selectable computational audio. Not sure if that can be efficiently offloaded as a software feature or if it can be handled by the device's SoC?

As others have posted, I find Siri to be far too quiet on this device and would love it if Apple could make Siri's audio a separately configurable option. Siri has had some issues when asking to play some of my Pandora stations, playing things other than what I had requested. For some reason when I request it to play Baroque music on Pandora, I get anything but that genre. Might one say that feature is 'baroquen?' Ok, ok, bad Dad joke there🙄

Overall, given the price point, I'm pleased with them and hope Apple continues to refine, add and enhances its features over the coming years. If they were priced at $85, they'd be Google Nest killers, save for Siri's shortcomings.

 

[RobArtLyn]

I was so happy to replace my google homes with 4 of these. Then I found the shortcomings of Siri I have my entire home with philips hue lighting. Google could turn and entire room on and off or just a group/scene again on or off.......that’s where the trouble begins. Ex I have a feeling fan with 4 lights in it I would ask google to turn on/off living room fan (scene) Siri can’t do that first of all it can only turn it on by saying set living room fan!!!! What that’s not natural speech and forget about turning off the same scene it can’t your only option is to turn one light off at a time or every light in the room. Sadly I now have a google home and HomePod mini in every room :-/ I’m disappointed

Setting a scene (or mood) is definitely natural speech. To turn off a scene, you have to create a second scene with all the same devices with their state set to off. ”Hey Siri, set living room on” “Hey Siri, set living room off” where “Living Room On” and “Living Room Off” are the scene names.

 

[cub4bearin]

They suck. Had two of them and sent them back the same day. $218 with taxes of mediocre sound. Keeping my Sonos!

 

[RobArtLyn]

Yes rooms are all setup Properly I did Google it and apparently Siri is not capable of turning a scene off a.k.a. a group of lights. The only way to turn a group of lights off is to turn in entire room off but I only want to turn one group of lights off not the entire room At this point I can ask Google to turn the ceiling fan off a scene and it works fine

You turn off a scene by creating a second scene that sets those lights to off and telling Siri to set it.

 

[PickUrPoison]

What? Are you kidding? Apple selling a product without any in stock, say it isn’t so! Guess they had no faith in it

No faith? Hmm, could be. Or maybe word of mouth about how great they are caused demand to go through the roof! Who can know 🤷‍♂️

Others say Apple’s just brilliantly holding back on purpose, creating hype, I guess getting rich by not selling the product they don’t have, but making people want it.

 

[PickUrPoison]

They suck. Had two of them and sent them back the same day. $218 with taxes of mediocre sound. Keeping my Sonos!

I didn’t even realize Sonos had small smart speakers like the HomePod mini. The echo dot and Google mini sound pretty bad to me, but I’m sure the Sonos one(s) sound great, as great as something under a $100 can sound anyway!

 

[George Dawes]

I bought 2 , they're fantastic

John Lewis have stock

 

[sundialsoft]

You can get the white one in the Liverpool store now otherwise it's 15 January for white and 7 January for grey in the UK.
I was going to buy a grey one as I seemed to have spare cash but I will just wait for them to be available.

All the reviews seem to be great so what's not to like.

 

[sundialsoft]

perhaps a more factual review would have helped. If you already had a Sonos system them it seems odd you bought two mini's. Post a receipt please.

 

[twyles]

I ordered two on 6th November - same order. I got an update to say they would be shipped separately.

The current delivery status for one is 'Arriving Soon' with a tracking number. This was actually delivered on 20th. The other is showing 'Arriving Today' and has been for a few days. Was due to arrive yesterday but didn't. No tracking number. Royal Mail here has this bizarre system where you get a trackng number but doesn't update its status until they've actually delivered the item. Useful, huh.

 

[honglong1976]

I wanted one but ended up with a new Echo and Fire TV 4K instead for the same price (both connected and using Dolby Digitial plus). I also have the echo studio and fire TV upstairs for Dolby Atmos.

As much as I like Apple (I have a watch, iPhone, iPad, macbook, etc), Apple TV seems very expensive compared to the Fire TV.

 

[zinned]

No, but you’re in the overall minority.

Siri is Straight garbage if you think otherwise I don’t know what to tell you but it’s flat out the truth.

As I said in my original post, home pod mini is for people who can’t afford a full sonos system for sound.

I’d compare it more to the Amazon echo Dot which is far more capable than the home pod with 3rd party integration.

Minority or not, these options are not available on the Sonos speakers are therefore a worthless comparison.

Yes rooms are all setup Properly I did Google it and apparently Siri is not capable of turning a scene off a.k.a. a group of lights. The only way to turn a group of lights off is to turn in entire room off but I only want to turn one group of lights off not the entire room At this point I can ask Google to turn the ceiling fan off a scene and it works fine

That's not how a scene works. A scene only set the determined states on the accessories when activated, it has no way to reverse the process. You'll need to activate another scene to turn them off.

Annoying! Given the fact that the Berlin area has got approx. 4M inhabitants. Not to mention that there is ONLY ONE Apple store in Berlin. Yea community you heard it right, one ...

Well, Sweden as a whole only has three Apple Stores. That's in a country of 11M inhabitants in a country that stretches appr. 1600 km from north to south

Thanks for the laugh. 😂 25 minutes is like a hundred years in day-of-release terms.

Irrelevant, it shouldn't be like that. A company of Apples magnitude should never allow such a bad customer experience.

 

[The Game 161]

I bought 2 , they're fantastic

John Lewis have stock

interesting thought they had none.

 

[dnlklr]

damn why are these homepods so thicc?

 

[CarlJ]

Irrelevant, it shouldn't be like that. A company of Apples magnitude should never allow such a bad customer experience.

Please cite which companies of Apple’s magnitude have had releases of much-desired new products where availability was plentiful after the release.

The sales interest for things like this always start with substantial pent-up demand. They always end up in constrained supply immediately after release.

The alternative would be that they run the factory for another 3 months before the release, delaying the release and filling up vast warehouses with unsold products (all that unsold inventory, and storage cost, doesn’t come for free - that means the prices go up), or that they build a factory that’s 3 times bigger than necessary, and then leave 2/3rds of it sitting abandoned after that initial rush. All so that you don’t have to worry about being late to the party. Or, you could just be patient if you can’t get it right away, like everyone else. This is all pretty straightforward and well known.

Getting frustrated that you missed the opening wave is entirely understandable. Getting all outraged and looking for sympathy because you waited a while to order is comical. Going on and on about “25 M-I-N-U-T-E-S” (oh noes!) which just highlights that you didn’t try very hard, is completely laughable.

 

[CarlJ]

I didn’t even realize Sonos had small smart speakers like the HomePod mini. The echo dot and Google mini sound pretty bad to me, but I’m sure the Sonos one(s) sound great, as great as something under a $100 can sound anyway!

Sonos’ smallest smart speaker, the One, is much more akin to a regular HomePod, not a mini - it’s roughly the size of a HomePod and retails for $199. They sound quite good, but I’ve never had the opportunity to do a head-to-head comparison. It’s a much more traditional front-facing woofer/tweeter arrangement. They can do Alexa or Google Home, and theoretically the voice processing is completely off if you don’t install one or the other of the voice assistant clients (as well, the microphone, the microphone mute switch, and microphone mute LED are said to be hard wired together so that the microphone can’t be on if you mute it - I expect Sonos is telling the truth for these claims, but it’s not something I can independently verify).

Anyway, the comment you responded to was not presenting a fair comparison in a number of ways. (I own Sonos speakers specifically because Apple hasn’t deigned to do a proper home theater setup - and no, two HomePods doing Atmos - only for AppleTV output - isn’t a proper home theater setup.)

 

[CarlJ]

perhaps a more factual review would have helped. If you already had a Sonos system them it seems odd you bought two mini's. Post a receipt please.

Well, I already have a Sonos system, and bought two HomePod Mini’s (no, I’m not going to show receipts - ordered one moments after they launched, liked it enough to pick up a second one for a different room - curbside delivery two hours after ordering it, this past Sunday, though that did involve driving 30 miles to a further away Best Buy - the local Apple Store had it for in-store pickup, but I haven’t stepped foot in a store in nearly 8 months, and I’m not going to change that now). Oh, and both of the HomePod Minis are white, by choice - I think the black ones are prettier on their own, but white blended better where they’re stationed. It looked like availability for the white one was generally better. Lucky for me I guess.

The Mini sounds nice for its size. It doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as Sonos’ smallest speaker, but that’s okay, because Sonos’ smallest speaker costs twice as much and is closer to the full-size HomePod in size. I like the HomePods because talking to Siri is useful for controlling lights, setting reminders, and listening to podcasts in the shower. If I want to listen to music, I use the Sonos speakers.

If it’s something from Apple Music, I can ask the HomePod Mini to stream it on the Sonos system, and they engage in AirPlay properly - which is nice, because then I can continue to ask Siri to play / pause / skip / change volume, etc. (I wish I could ask Siri to stream arbitrary URLs, or play playlists containing such, but that’s not in the cards, yet).

I was pleased to find that Siri has some limited control over the Apple TV - I can, for instance, use “Hey Siri, pause” to pause a YouTube video when I walk out of the room for a moment. I could do some of this with Alexa or Google Home if I cared to turn on the clients in my Sonos speakers, and they’d do some things better than Siri, but I’m not willing to give Amazon or Google a 24/7 live mic in my house, because they have lots of creepy reasons to want to listen, while Apple has other clear funding models and distinct reasons for not wanting to listen.

So, HomePod Mini wins for convenience and control, Sonos wins for sound. The full size HomePod doesn’t enter into the picture - I’m persuaded they sound great (I’ve only been able to hear them in large stores, which don’t match a home environment at all), but they don’t offer a proper home theater solution (and no, two HomePods doing Atmos is not a proper solution - maybe in a couple years Apple will get there).

 

[iGeek2019]

Mine unexpectedly arrived twenty minutes ago!

For what I want to use it for it’ll be more than adequate for my own needs-can’t get over how small it is (that’s what she said too 😉😂)

 

[PickUrPoison]

Sonos’ smallest smart speaker, the One, is much more akin to a regular HomePod, not a mini - it’s roughly the size of a HomePod and retails for $199. They sound quite good, but I’ve never had the opportunity to do a head-to-head comparison. It’s a much more traditional front-facing woofer/tweeter arrangement. They can do Alexa or Google Home, and theoretically the voice processing is completely off if you don’t install one or the other of the voice assistant clients (as well, the microphone, the microphone mute switch, and microphone mute LED are said to be hard wired together so that the microphone can’t be on if you mute it - I expect Sonos is telling the truth for these claims, but it’s not something I can independently verify).

Anyway, the comment you responded to was not presenting a fair comparison in a number of ways. (I own Sonos speakers specifically because Apple hasn’t deigned to do a proper home theater setup - and no, two HomePods doing Atmos - only for AppleTV output - isn’t a proper home theater setup.)

Apple’s pretty close to that proper home theater setup. Missing pieces include a true sub (with sufficient clean power and plenty of extension), and a sound bar form factor too.

But then they have to care enough to make everything “just work” together “magically”. There are quite a little things that need to be done right if they’re going to Apple-fy home theater.

 

[CarlJ]

Apple’s pretty close to that proper home theater setup. Missing pieces include a true sub (with sufficient clean power and plenty of extension), and a sound bar form factor too.

But then they have to care enough to make everything “just work” together “magically”. There are quite a little things that need to be done right if they’re going to Apple-fy home theater.

So close and yet so far. They could release a “HomePod Home Theater” unit that played the role of either a sound bar (L/C/R) or a center channel, and, eventually a Sub. And let people use a couple (or a handful) of Mini’s for real surround (as opposed to bank shots off the walls). Full-size HomePods for front L/R, if they go with a special center channel unit. No doubt if they did it in proper Apple style it could sound fabulous.

There’s also the problem of getting audio signals in (assuming they don’t make it AppleTV only). The most common avenue is HDMI-ARC, but not every TV does ARC properly, and you can’t get Atmos over that (well, lossy Atmos wrapped in DD+). So then you’re looking at eARC, to make it all Just Work, which only a handful of TVs support thus far.

The Atmos support for a pair of (full-size) HomePods is a start, but I’m sort of expecting they’re going to stop there. Of all the companies people bandy about Apple buying, I’d halfway like to see them buy Sonos (if they agree to keep the Android controller app and the plethora of streaming service interfaces). Let it work semi-autonomously, like Beats, but put Siri in the speakers that have facilities for a voice assistant client. And slowly start merging the HomePod and Sonos tech.

 

[mpetrides]

Ordered two the minute they went live on US Apple Store. Liked them enough to want a third for my bedroom but when I tried to order another (on the day I got the original pair), it wouldn’t come until Dec 8 so ended up having to get one from Best Buy. The sound quality is amazing for its size and I really like the intimacy of having them close to my head while working on my desk. I also have several OG HomePods. They serve different functions. The OG HomePods are great for surround sound for watching movies on Apple TV 4K, listening from across the room. The minis are for more intimate listening IMHO, although they certainly CAN fill the room if you want them too; the sound quality just isn’t the same as the OG HomePod when used this way (surprise, surprise, they are 1/3 the price and about a third the size, too).

 

[twyles]

This has been my worst experience of buying anything from Apple over the past 25 years. As per my earlier post I ordered two minis in the same order, to be delivered to the same address on 6th November.

One was delivered on Friday 20th November and the second on Tuesday 1st December. Having a split order was fine - I put it down to limited supply but trying to work out when or if the second would ever turn up was impossible.

The status of the order according to the Apple website, as of 2nd December 21:21:36 is shown below. It has been the same since at least 20th November.

Trying to get hold of anyone at Apple was impossible. Their Twitter support account pointed me to their website, the website pointed me to a phone number whose automated response was unable to put me through to a person. It did however email my shipping information. When I clicked on the link in the email I got a "Something went wrong" message. You don't say!?!

Luckily they're relatively cheap products and non-essential so I wasn't overly stressed just really annoyed but had it been something more substantial it would have been a different story.

 

[k1121j]

Setting a scene (or mood) is definitely natural speech. To turn off a scene, you have to create a second scene with all the same devices with their state set to off. ”Hey Siri, set living room on” “Hey Siri, set living room off” where “Living Room On” and “Living Room Off” are the scene names.

And they can’t have the same name so I can’t say for instance turn the ceiling lights on and then say turn the ceilings lights off (google has no problem doing this already). Now I have a million scenes for each group of lights filling my hone app. In the home app I can tap on one scene to turn it on and off so again why can’t Siri!!! Not east of use to make two scenes to make one light fixture turn on and off.

 

[k1121j]

Minority or not, these options are not available on the Sonos speakers are therefore a worthless comparison.



That's not how a scene works. A scene only set the determined states on the accessories when activated, it has no way to reverse the process. You'll need to activate another scene to turn them off.



Well, Sweden as a whole only has three Apple Stores. That's in a country of 11M inhabitants in a country that stretches appr. 1600 km from north to south



Irrelevant, it shouldn't be like that. A company of Apples magnitude should never allow such a bad customer experience.

It works that way using the home app? I can tap one scene to turn it on and off?

 

[RobArtLyn]

And they can’t have the same name so I can’t say for instance turn the ceiling lights on and then say turn the ceilings lights off (google has no problem doing this already). Now I have a million scenes for each group of lights filling my hone app. In the home app I can tap on one scene to turn it on and off so again why can’t Siri!!! Not east of use to make two scenes to make one light fixture turn on and off.

You do not have to have a milion scenes. Just twice as many as you would like to have and it is a job you have to do exactly once, then get on with your life. If it is really important to say the words on and off, then just make them part of the scene name, which is helpful in identifying which is which. However you actually do not need to say all of the words. I have two scenes defined for my living room. One is called “Living Room On” and the other is called “Living Room Off”. Guess what they do. The cool part is the only thing I have to say is “Hey Siri, Living Room” and it does a partial match of what I said against the defined scenes and then sets the scene that is not currently set. It becomes a toggle. I walk in and say “Hey Siri, Living Room” and it turns stuff on. As I walk out I say “Hey Siri, Living Room” and it turns stuff off. Easy peasy.