Not me. This is not going to be a mobile device. So no risk of physical damage. And any manufacturing defects should be detected in standard warranty period. Besides, HomePod 2 will be out about the time warranty expires!!! :-D
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
HomePod preordering
- Thread starter Mrsemexter
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I completely had forgotten about it today, I've been sick and slept in quite a while.
Didn't remember the pre-order until I was checking email and went "oh sh*t"
Went to the website, ordered and still have the 9th delivery date. I didn't order until almot 11:30CST.
Space Gray.
Didn't remember the pre-order until I was checking email and went "oh sh*t"
Went to the website, ordered and still have the 9th delivery date. I didn't order until almot 11:30CST.
Space Gray.
Ordered this morning around 9:30 AM EST. Used App and shipping shows ETA of Feb 9th. Chose Space Gray as I have multiple cats and did not want to see cat hair stuck to the white mesh of the speaker.
The HomePod is probably enough of a niche product that it won't get the volume of orders that are typical for other Apple products when they're first released.
Now that I've ordered two of these, I'm going to be very anxious for Apple to release the software update to support stereo sound!
Now that I've ordered two of these, I'm going to be very anxious for Apple to release the software update to support stereo sound!
I just bought a second Space Gray w/AC+ as well. This one will go upstairs. Will be curious to see how they handle a Family Apple Music account with separate playlists, etc for me and Mrs JF64k.
I'm also hoping for an eventual HomePod "Dot"...something to throw in an underused bedroom, etc just to have Siri at the ready without having to blow $400+, haha!!
BTW: Still got a 02/09 delivery date at 12:40PM PST
I'm also hoping for an eventual HomePod "Dot"...something to throw in an underused bedroom, etc just to have Siri at the ready without having to blow $400+, haha!!
BTW: Still got a 02/09 delivery date at 12:40PM PST
Apple Watch, then you can have Siri with you even in the smallest room in the house.
I bet few houses have Alexa in their bathroom. (Although the way some people l-o-v-e their Echoes, they probably want to!)
I was just looking at the 'Roundup' here on MacRumors, for the HomePod.
The statement is made: "Without an Apple Music subscription, HomePod is able to play content that's been purchased from iTunes along with Beats 1 radio content and podcasts. HomePod will only be able to play content that's been directly purchased using iTunes, rather than any music in an iTunes library."
Is this correct? If so, it means that I will not be able to use my HomePod to play the CDs that I have ripped into my iTunes library. it seems that this is directly contradictory to a number of statements made by various posters here in these discussions - that, for example, the HomePod can be used like any AirPlay speaker.
My desire is just that - to use the HomePod as a remote speaker for my iTunes, throughout my home. If that is not possible then I'm going to cancel my order because it won't be of much use to me. But I'm skeptical that this statement is correct.
The statement is made: "Without an Apple Music subscription, HomePod is able to play content that's been purchased from iTunes along with Beats 1 radio content and podcasts. HomePod will only be able to play content that's been directly purchased using iTunes, rather than any music in an iTunes library."
Is this correct? If so, it means that I will not be able to use my HomePod to play the CDs that I have ripped into my iTunes library. it seems that this is directly contradictory to a number of statements made by various posters here in these discussions - that, for example, the HomePod can be used like any AirPlay speaker.
My desire is just that - to use the HomePod as a remote speaker for my iTunes, throughout my home. If that is not possible then I'm going to cancel my order because it won't be of much use to me. But I'm skeptical that this statement is correct.
I’ve got the watch (every model since Series “0” haha!!) but don’t always wear it, especially around the house.
I’ve got an Echo, and ALMOST bought some Dots, but held out for the HomePod, in particular for Apple Music integration.
What I dislike about the Echo, besides the terrible sound quality, is that you have to yell “Alexa!!” if the music is playing at an even moderate level. I’m encouraged by the early 1-hour reviews of the HP...apparently Siri can pickup “Hey Siri” even playing music at 90% volume.
https://www.imore.com/homepod-vs-amazon-echo-vs-google-home-max-vs-sonos-one-speaker-showdown
Last edited:
I’ve read that too, and considering it true when making my decision to buy the Hompepod or not. I never buy anything before I know that it can do what I need it to do. It would be silly to buy something without researching it first.
[doublepost=1517018618][/doublepost]
don't hold your breath for Airplay 2.
I want it to come out because I have the impression that Sonos speakers will get Airplay at the same time.
in going to hold onto them ( play 5 and play 1's) since they will eventually get Airplay
I would buy it if I planned to keep the thing in my kitchen or garage. Risk of spills or being knocked over could be high. Or temptation of people with messy hands to touch the controls and make a mess of the internals. Also if I kept it in a place that had high dust or similar issues...
But as my current plan has it on top of a shelf out of everyone's reach in a living room, I think I'll pass as well.
[doublepost=1517024877][/doublepost]
Opposed to using Apple Music? If you subscribed, all your ripped music would be imported into the account and made playable. There are some rare exceptions but out of my 30k songs, only 30 fail to import and it's because they are tiny super low bitrate/oddly encoded sound bites. I'd forgotten I even put them in my music library.
That said, I would not expect the HomePod to connect to home sharing libraries directly. My experience with home sharing is that it is too unreliable and slow to sync on new connections for a good user experience here. However, conversely, I would not be surprised if—after AirPlay 2 is implemented—the HomePod could be a target device for an Apple TV or iTunes app instance.
With respect to Apple Music, my interest is classical music and the majority of recordings I own are not available on Apple Music.
With respect to the HomePod not playing music from an iTunes Library, I'm wondering about the following specification for HomePod:
Audio Formats
- HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, and FLAC
Back to the music library question
Whether or not Apple will back off of this position and connect the Homepod to homesharing is anyone's guess right now. The most convincing argument that I've read is that if Apple gets a lot of new Apple Music subscriptions this way then they won't change it. If it doesn't work out, they'll back out.
Companies back out all of the time. Microsoft's Xbox One's original requirement to always be online to play games, even single player, which was met by a huge negative backlash. They reason they did it was to allow users to trade / sell game licenses , but the general consensus was that feature wasn't worth the trade-off. Microsoft realized that it was beaten and gave in by removing the requirement.
If you add music to your home iTunes library that was not acquired through a purchase, HomePod will not be able to access it. It appears HomePod doesn’t have Home Sharing, which would enable that kind of feature.
This is from Apple's Homepod literature. Now, even though you will no have access to your library without a subscription, you can use Airplay to stream music to it.
Whether or not Apple will back off of this position and connect the Homepod to homesharing is anyone's guess right now. The most convincing argument that I've read is that if Apple gets a lot of new Apple Music subscriptions this way then they won't change it. If it doesn't work out, they'll back out.
Companies back out all of the time. Microsoft's Xbox One's original requirement to always be online to play games, even single player, which was met by a huge negative backlash. They reason they did it was to allow users to trade / sell game licenses , but the general consensus was that feature wasn't worth the trade-off. Microsoft realized that it was beaten and gave in by removing the requirement.
Last edited:
Perhaps it's compatible with iTunes Match and the uploaded music that wasn't matched will be streamable to HomePod regardless.
With respect to whether or not HomePod can be used to play music in your iTunes library, a couple of additional points:
- in Apple's own description of Apple Music, they include the following statements:
--- "45 million songs. Plus your entire iTunes library. Apple Music allows you to stream our catalog of 45 million songs, along with everything in your iTunes library - no matter where it came from."
- In Apple's description of iTunes, it includes the following statement:
--- "All the music in your personal iTunes library — no matter where it came from — lives right alongside the Apple Music catalog"
- In the Apple iTunes Support section, under "Access your music collection on all of your devices with Apple Music", it includes the following:
--- "What happens to the music you already had on your devices when you join Apple Music?
--- When you first join Apple Music, we identify the songs that are on your iOS device or computer and compare them to the Apple Music catalog.
------- Songs that you bought from the iTunes Store are automatically available in your Apple Music library as long as you use the same Apple ID with Apple Music that you used to buy the music.
------- If we have your version of a song in the Apple Music catalog, we make it instantly available to access on all of your devices for the duration of your membership.
------- If we can’t match certain songs in your collection to songs in the Apple Music catalog, use iTunes on a Mac or PC to upload a copy to iCloud Music Library. After the upload, you can access it on all of your devices.
--- If you have music on your iOS device or computer from sources other than Apple Music or the iTunes Store
------- You can have up to 100,000 songs in your music library. Songs that you buy or bought from the iTunes Store don't count against this limit.
------- Only songs smaller than 200 MB or shorter than 2 hours are added to iCloud Music Library.
------- We create AAC 256Kbps versions of songs that are encoded in ALAC, WAV, or AIFF formats and add the AAC version to iCloud Music Library. Your original music file remains untouched on your Mac or PC.
------- We won't add songs to iCloud Music Library that are encoded in AAC or MP3 formats and don't meet certain quality criteria.
------- You must authorize songs that contain Digital Rights Management (DRM) for playback on your Mac or PC before we can add them to iCloud Music Library."
--- Finally, in Apple Support under "Download iTunes 12.7.3" (posted Jan 23, 2018), it states: "iTunes is now designed to work with HomePod. Use the improved AirPlay menu to easily choose HomePod and control what plays next with your Apple Music subscription."
So iTunes works with Apple Music to give you access to everything you own, and the process is similar to iTunes Match in that a copy of your personal library is created in the iCloud Music Library and you access it from there when you're using any of your devices. And iTunes can stream to the HomePod via AirPlay (current AirPlay, not just forthcoming AirPlay 2).
If you are at home and, for example, using your iMac to stream music to your HomePod, then it will be using iTunes on your computer to stream music to the HomePod. It just seems to me that in this particular circumstance, it wouldn't make sense for music that you have existing on your computers hard drive to be ignored and iTunes would rather use the copy that had been created in iCloud Music for streaming to the HomePod. Would it?
I am still not entirely confident that HomePod can be used to stream music from iTunes, i.e. CDs ripped into a personal iTunes library, without having Apple Music involved, but it sure seems that the capability is there, or should be there, even if it is not explicitly stated in the HomePod descriptions currently provided.
There seems to be a lot of confusion over this, in part due to the 9to5Mac article, which states:
If you add music to your home iTunes library that was not acquired through a purchase, HomePod will not be able to access it. It appears HomePod doesn’t have Home Sharing, which would enable that kind of feature.
But the same article then states:
HomePod will not include support for non-Apple music services, like Spotify, but it will still be possible to AirPlay the Spotify app using a nearby iOS device to the HomePod.
I can't imagine what Apple would make the HomePod incompatible with their existing wireless music tech AirPlay. I asked Apple whether HomePod can stream ripped CDs via AirPlay without Apple Music and got this response:
Ok, so we often get inaccurate info from AppleStore 'chats', but I'm confident that we will be able to stream ripped CDs to a HomePod from a Mac running iTunes via their existing AirPlay tech. If not then I will be returning my HomePod.
For those that have preorder the HomePod, but are not interested in Apple Music... I’m curious to know why??
IMO, to have the best experience with the HomePod is through Apple Music... right? Why pay $350 for a Smart Speaker and not experience it in full?
If you rather not have Apple Music... go with the newest Sonos speaker. I have Apple Music, been using it since announced. Have the Family Plan service and it works fine for me. For $15 bucks with 6 people... it’s perfect.
IMO, to have the best experience with the HomePod is through Apple Music... right? Why pay $350 for a Smart Speaker and not experience it in full?
If you rather not have Apple Music... go with the newest Sonos speaker. I have Apple Music, been using it since announced. Have the Family Plan service and it works fine for me. For $15 bucks with 6 people... it’s perfect.
Personally I prefer Apple Music, it works well especially with other Apple devices the HomePod will be great for around the house especially when multi room and being able to pair them together comes out at a later date.
Why? In my case, my music interests are fully satisfied with my own music library, and those recordings are what I have accumulated over my life and want to continue to explore and enjoy. In particular, for classical music many of the recordings are not what can be obtained via any streaming service to the best of my knowledge, but even if they were I am only really interested in listening to the music I've selected and own already.
Why pay a monthly fee to get what you already have?
There are many others who have large CD collections - and we're talking about a couple of thousand CDs easily in my own and many cases - who feel the same way, judging from comments I've found on various forums including Apple's own support community, discussing this exact question.
I do enjoy the benefits of iTunes, and I've invested a very large amount of time and effort to load my CDs into iTunes so that I can access them in that way. It now gives me the ability to easily select which recordings to play, and to program them. The only necessary added element is to connect good speakers to play the music through. I've used Airport Express stations in the past to connect speakers, but fully wireless AirPlay is a better arrangement and if the quality of sound from HomePod is as good as it is claimed to be, then this gives me the ability to provide high quality sound throughout my home and control it from either my computer or i-device.
I'm sure that I will explore the other capabilities of HomePod, but those features, Siri and so forth, are not really my main motivation in purchasing it right now. If HomePod can give me high quality sound that integrates well with my computer and i-devices, as well as my iTunes library, then I'll be very satisfied.
Last edited:
Enjoy the benefits of iTunes??? Not too many people state that. But I mention the newest Sonos speaker... you are not interested in that? I’m honestly curious.
We are all Apple fans here, we prefer having a seamless ecosystem with Apple devices. But I’ve picked up the Libratone Zipps.. since they announced support for AirPlay 2 and Sonos has said the same.
So far, I have the Apple TV on the public beta with AirPlay 2 support.. my Apple TV is plugged into a Denon receiver attached with 5 speakers. And I’m anxiously waiting until when Libratone pushes support for AirPlay 2. I’m super geeked about it.
Now, I can’t speak on the comparison of HomePod and the newest Sonos speaker. But seems odd not to give both consideration.
Enjoy the benefits of iTunes??? Not too many people state that. But I mention the newest Sonos speaker... you are not interested in that? I’m honestly curious.
We are all Apple fans here, we prefer having a seamless ecosystem with Apple devices. But I’ve picked up the Libratone Zipps.. since they announced support for AirPlay 2 and Sonos has said the same.
So far, I have the Apple TV on the public beta with AirPlay 2 support.. my Apple TV is plugged into a Denon receiver attached with 5 speakers. And I’m anxiously waiting until when Libratone pushes support for AirPlay 2. I’m super geeked about it.
Now, I can’t speak on the comparison of HomePod and the newest Sonos speaker. But seems odd not to give both consideration.
I have considered looking at the Sonos speaker in the past, your point is a good one. Perhaps I should have looked into it further before taking what was admittedly an impulse decision to order the HomePod. But since I don't already own a Sonos, I'm happy enough with going with HomePod simply because I am expecting a better integrated experience with my other Apple devices. Early comparisons I've read give HomePod good reviews compared to Sonos, too.
I don't have Apple TV (yet) and that's going to be something I'll probably think seriously about doing this summer. When I have time I'll find the appropriate discussion here and start getting familiar with it, and I'll be looking to have my HomePod speakers integrated with the Apple TV as well as my music library. Finally, when I am ready to experiment with some home automation, I'll give HomeKit a try - and HomePod will be ready to work with that as well.
I'm not adverse to using non-Apple devices either. I recently replaced my old early-generation Airport Extreme and Express with Google WiFi and am very happy with it. A big factor in selecting the Google was ease of setup and use, I purchased it knowing that there were other WiFi routers that are probably more capable and configurable, but those features are not particularly important to me. But the Airport's were always easy to manage and I would have stayed with them if Apple had brought out a new model that provided capabilities missing in my older equipment, which couldn't even provide a guest connection.
I don't normally grab each new product immediately when it first comes out, this HomePod was probably the first time I've done that. It took me several years to switch from blackberry to iPhone, to get my first iPod, and so forth. I hope that I'm not sorry that I grabbed these speakers when I did, but I don't think I've really ever been unsatisfied with anything I've purchased from Apple.
The reason I mention the newest Sonos speaker is that it’s on sale 2 for the price of a HomePod speaker. I’ve gotta iMac, iPad Pro, iPhone and Apple Watch... I enjoy the whole Apple ecosystem.
But I’m passing up on the HomePod, because I bought the Google Home when that launch.. and as I’ve mention previously I’ve gotten the Libratone Zipps. And the reason I purchased the Zipps cause of the portability aspect of it... don’t necessarily have to be plugged in.
I’m sure you will be satisfied with the HomePod... Apple has a known track record of delighting their customers. But just trying to pass on some advice... since it seems rather odd for those to not a Apple Music subscriber and purchase the HomePod, be more understandable to go with a Sonos instead.