$507.37 for me in Ontario after tax.. ugh. Went to jump plus and their unit wasn’t working.. LOL
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HomePod Now Available to Order in Canada, France, and Germany
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I ordered one today. Main reason for me was actually I do not trust Amazon or Google, so the only smart speaker is one from Apple. For me.
[doublepost=1529360154][/doublepost]I do not have any Apple Music subscription. I wonder if the only way will be streaming? I guess so..
[doublepost=1529360154][/doublepost]I do not have any Apple Music subscription. I wonder if the only way will be streaming? I guess so..
Same way Alexa and Google Assistant are able to - by naming the timer when you get into multiple.
“Hey Siri, set a pasta timer for 10 minutes”
“Hey Siri, set a chicken timer for 15 minutes”
...for early 2019 when the holiday return window closes and so very many of them get boxed up and taken back
The homepod sales would have been far better had it been available in more countries and had the features they promised on launch.
stereo pairing and air play 2 not being there likely played a big factor on sales fiqures.
This will be no different than the fools who called the apple watch a flop.
I’m curious what is Apple’s philosophy that you’re referring to? Moreover what better speakers have you listened to through a variety of music tracks and volumes and distance that matches the HomePod in both size and target market? The Play:1/One by Sonos??
If outside of the target market then of course many of as such heard better quality speakers.
You do realize Beats prior to Apple purchase released a very large portable speaker capable of being a subwoofer for small condos and apartments.
If AirPods is a major step into quality stereo headphones that are “in-ear”, along with HomePod being an experience not to compete with Sonos for the same living space ... then it’s quite possible we may see Apple get into the high luxury home entertainment space.
Key points:
Apple TV 4/4K
iTunes: music (purchase/streaming), movie rentals and purchases, photo library and sharing,
Investments in new TV series content and movies with huge major deals from writers to celebrities.
HomeKit
HomePod
Coming next is over the ear stereo wireless headphones for higher quality audio ... the. Will come subwoofer (completely new segment so different product marketing done here), and sound bar.
Apple loves simplicity, efficient design and thinness. They could’ve made HomePod bigger to ensure better, and more complete sound, but they go with as small package as possible to achieve that.
I’m using B&W set of theater speakers with floorstanding front, definitely above the league of Homepod, Sonos and whatnot. So I am used to speaker with dedicated midrange driver, and thus midrange frequency. So yeah, Homepod doesnt sound that great as far as speakers go.
Apple soundbar with separate subwoofer? Meeh they would make it in one small compact package, if ever.
I'm English, hence my confusion for as to why other countries need their own special versions of English. Just speak English, as the English do in England. Life's too short for pointless complexity.
Someone more knowledgeable than I might be able to answer this question. Why can't some human being sit down with a fairly comprehensive list of classical composers and verbally enter the pronunciation into the Siri programming? While I realize that there will always be variations in the way people ask Siri for a particular composer, (accent, language, human error), the numbers would pale in comparison to the number of people in any country who know and appreciate classical music who know how to properly pronounce the composer's name. And generally, the name sounds nearly the same in any language.
While there are too many pieces of classical music to catalog verbally, it might be that Siri could search first by composer, e.g., Sergei Rachmaninov (once she knows the proper pronunciation and can accurately identify), then the search for something like "Variation on a Theme of Corelli" should be fairly simple.
Of course I say "fairly simple" and there is probably someone who writes code screaming at me in cyberspace...........
Ordered mine 30 hours ago from Apple Germany. Still not shipped. Anyone experiences similar issues?
And yes: German Siri still does not understand English artists. This is very annoying.
Siri does not understand anything in a second language. How did the Green Bay Packers play last night? " Grün pay Bäckers?". Adding a second language would be great.
How the hell do you fit a big ass speaker and amp in your kitchen, office, bathroom, etc, you do know this speaker is used all over the house don't you. That those bigger speakers often sound good in the sweet spot and much crappier everywhere else. In most places where those speakers would be, you would not be close to the sweet spot. In difficult acoustic areas, the Homepod would be at a distinct advantage./
A bigger Homepod would be harder to fit everywhere and its already and many already call it expensive and niche. Tech like those speakers only come in very very expensive speakers.
BTW< The "it doesn't sound that great" makes me think you're trolling and not really offering a fair opinion.
Also, those bigger speakers might sound better in theory, considering how they're setup, especially in difficult places like the kitchen, that's never the case. Even in living rooms, bad acoustic and setup often prevails and you get substandard sound even with decent speakers.
HomePod sounds great for its size. But I’ve heard and own better speakers, and better sound than HomePod. Do you want me to unhear my "big ass" stereo setup playing music?
And I own 2 homepods paired as stereo for casual listening in my bedroom. You can think about my opinion all you want. Not gonna change my mind for a bit. Never say it's gonna be be a fair comparison. But my ears are spoiled. What do you want me to do?
Try to listen lots and lots heavyweight speaker and you might understand, and open your mind. I dont have acoustic problem with my theater setup, sweetspot is fine, and stereo separation is great across the room.
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I use products with other logos, except for Google, as I value my privacy too much to add to the Borg (I am blocking three trackers they are trying install on this web session right now
). But your entire paragraph failed to address the topic of this forum--the myth about the lead that Google and Amazon supposedly have in smart speakers capabilities, not Siri in general. Coincidentally, there's a new article on Macrumors today making my point, i.e., it turns out that HomePod already can do everything that the vast majority of people use their smart speakers for.I bought it yesterday in Germany. I am well within the Apple ecosystem so most of the limitations don't affect me. I'm so far quite impressed! The audio quality is great and the microphone technology seems almost magic to me...it answers to my "hey Siri" even when I'm in another room, while it plays music, while I have running water! This simple thing makes Siri already more usable than on the phone, because it understands what I say much much much more (and I'm not a native English speaker)! The answer to music request is also quite good.
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I don't understand the difficulty in implementing multi-language in Siri! They already allow you to change the language with one touch in message dictation, what's the problem in allowing you to ask "Hey Siri send a message IN ITALIAN to mom" and then allowing you to dictate in Italian?! Same for reading...they should just add a tag to a message that reports the language of the keyboard when it was written and then read it with that!!
This simple thing makes Siri already more usable than on the phone, because it understands what I say much much much more (and I'm not a native English speaker)! The answer to music request is also quite good.[doublepost=1529428684][/doublepost]
That's why I never moved away from Siri in English...it's much more useful for most stuff (provided that you try to use English in things like reminders, notes, calendar...). Of course there's the enormous problem of messages, but no Siri language would satisfy me, since I probably have messages spread about 50:40:10 between Italian:English:German.
I don't understand the difficulty in implementing multi-language in Siri! They already allow you to change the language with one touch in message dictation, what's the problem in allowing you to ask "Hey Siri send a message IN ITALIAN to mom" and then allowing you to dictate in Italian?! Same for reading...they should just add a tag to a message that reports the language of the keyboard when it was written and then read it with that!!
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His point still stands - American or Canadian price - it’s far too much for what it offers.
In your opinion, of course. Others (including myself) find excellent value in the device.
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The Canadian dollar is at about $0.75 US, so while it sucks, it’s not Apple’s fault. Stuff costs what it costs. This is simply a currency conversion issue.
Are these any good outside? I want something out by the pool. Can I airplay the music on my iPad or iPhone to the HomePod and is it loud enough for outside?
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I’m in france and mine is in English.
Of course, AirPlay 2 is about multiroom stream, as long as your speakers are Airplay 2 enabled, then you can stream any content, as long as you have iOS device.