It seems odd that it took an overpriced stereo speaker to publicize the fact that Siri is extraordinarily lame. Surely those reviewer knew that previously.
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 Reviews: Outstanding Sound Quality, but Siri 'Struggles at Smart'
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Not so sure.
I can ask Google Home the weather at a certain time. Siri can't, it just displays the weather for the entire day.
I can ask Google Home for the news, or results for a minor English football league club, but again, Siri can't.
There's a LOT of things other assistants can do, but Siri just falls flat.
Hardware integration works better too. I.e., Logitech Harmony works out of the box after linking the accounts, garage controller ( without having to buy extra hardware for Home ), home thermostat
Siri is great for telling me that I need to look at a web page though.
You can Airplay from your iTunes library. And if you have iTunes in the cloud or whatever it's called, it should work without Airplay. Hope you're done placing your order.
Have you ever USED Alexa?
There are so many times that Siri shines bright as Siri can understand specific tasks.
Alexa groups all related questions into one answer, instead of giving you specific answers.
I have never used Google Assistant, but i guarantee I’m not missing anything. Google makes ugly products and their assistant sounds like it’s still in its alpha stages.
Apple always said it was more about the audio than the "smart functions". It will improve over time. Apple is playing catch-up but instead of starting at the bottom and trying to work up, they are starting at the top (sound quality) and will work down (Siri).
Will I buy one? No, but I appreciate Apple's approach. I'll stick with my Echo dots and Google Home Mini (at least until the HomePod 2).
Will I buy one? No, but I appreciate Apple's approach. I'll stick with my Echo dots and Google Home Mini (at least until the HomePod 2).
Exactly, other than Dalrymple (no surprise there....Apple could box a turd and he would praise it), it doesn't appear the sound difference is overwhelmingly better, given these reviews. The slightly better sound is certainly not worth double the cost given the downsides as compared to the Sonos One.
I have Alexa and Google Assistant. Both work well but Google Assistant works better for me. Siri is pretty good and the few core things it does [I've never had the struggles some people seem to have with Siri] but Google Assistant is much better overall.
I certainly will not be replacing my Google Home with a HomePod anytime soon. Siri needs a massive overhaul until I can actually use it as a virtual assistant. Until then, Google Home wins out.
Except it doesn't. You can set it to let or not.
I thought the same, but really does it matter now? I mean its clear they sound great compared to the competition and it is, ultimately, a background music speaker. People talk about hooking it up to their TV, but I don't get that. If I'm making an effort to hook up speakers to my TV I'd want them, minimally to be 5.1, not simulated anything. And clearly, at $700 pair they shouldn't be taken as audiophile. There is a wide distance between even "high end" and "audiophile" equipment. The former is still consumer-land in the same way a BMW 3-Series with the M-Sport package is a nice car, but still not an M.
I don't think buying or not buying a HomePod comes down to audio quality, but rather one's personal use scenario. I think it's limited right now. I mean you have to need a small speaker, mostly for music, not voice control. The big problem with HomePod is Siri is still not fully mature or unified thought Apple's ecosystem.
Last edited:
"Really truly" -- well that settles it. Seriously, are there any editors left in the tech press?
I'm not feeling the need to jump ship from my Amazon Dot and Harman Kardon sound sticks for this. I've not seen a HomePod in action in person, but judging by this review my setup probably 'outsmarts' and 'outwoofs' with little trouble...
They are going to sell and people will love them but Apple are going to have to release some major software updates to get this in line with other smart assistants if they want me to switch.
They are going to sell and people will love them but Apple are going to have to release some major software updates to get this in line with other smart assistants if they want me to switch.
Oh dear. Bad Siri is bad.
My husband wanted an Apple TV 4K for Christmas so I got him one. He’s struggled mightily with the twitchy remote and Siri has been awful.
Siri doesn’t always do contextual use of words well and that’s a big problem I run into a lot with homonyms. For example, we wanted to show one of the kids footage from Evel Knievel’s canyon jumps to explain where a cultural reference in one of their classes came from. Siri on Apple TV isn’t programmed to put the phonetic sound of the word “Evil” in context with the name “Knievel” in order to properly amend the spelling to “Evel”. So the search kept returning no results. When we changed the query to just “Knievel”we did get some results, but fewer than when we entered a manual search.
The entire interface with Apple TV is less than satisfactory and the whole thing needs to be rebooted frequently to get rid of glitches. I don’t know if other people have as much trouble with Apple TV 4K as we do since we recently set it up, but our difficulties have made us wary of jumping on to Home Pod.
I had really wanted a Home Pod but now I’m in agreement with my husband about waiting and seeing. I already struggle enough with Siri on my iPhone. Hearing it’s worse on the speaker is the complete opposite of what I hoped the situation would be.
My husband wanted an Apple TV 4K for Christmas so I got him one. He’s struggled mightily with the twitchy remote and Siri has been awful.
Siri doesn’t always do contextual use of words well and that’s a big problem I run into a lot with homonyms. For example, we wanted to show one of the kids footage from Evel Knievel’s canyon jumps to explain where a cultural reference in one of their classes came from. Siri on Apple TV isn’t programmed to put the phonetic sound of the word “Evil” in context with the name “Knievel” in order to properly amend the spelling to “Evel”. So the search kept returning no results. When we changed the query to just “Knievel”we did get some results, but fewer than when we entered a manual search.
The entire interface with Apple TV is less than satisfactory and the whole thing needs to be rebooted frequently to get rid of glitches. I don’t know if other people have as much trouble with Apple TV 4K as we do since we recently set it up, but our difficulties have made us wary of jumping on to Home Pod.
I had really wanted a Home Pod but now I’m in agreement with my husband about waiting and seeing. I already struggle enough with Siri on my iPhone. Hearing it’s worse on the speaker is the complete opposite of what I hoped the situation would be.
You think what's wrong with Siri is a little software update? If so, you need to put a Google Home in your house FOR ABOUT TWO MONTHS. THat's how long it takes to realize all the things that it can really do for you from across the room.
I don't really care. Siri works fine for me. Dictation works excellent. The last thing I want is google or amazon in my house.
I'm just realizing that now after reading the review from What Hi-Fi that OllyW posted, but they said that the sound quality was lower if you used AirPlay... which would defeat the reason why I'd want one.
Is there an Airplay SENDER to stream analog audio?
I can't be alone with this question. Conceivably I could replace my ok but bulky floor standing speakers with a pair of Homepods. Provided they indeed sound good to my taste.
But, I would want to use it for ALL my audio sources. I also have an AV preamp that is used for several sources: tv audio, CDs (these can perhaps be dropped) and BluRay discs, and eventually a game console when the kids are old enough.
Ideally I would take the analog out of my AV preamp (or alternatively extract digitally from the hdmi out) and convert it to an airplay stream towards the home pods.
However I am not aware of a simple device (a mac mini would be overkill, and is there software that would do it? not sure) that does this? I also checked raspberry pi projects. An airport express would NOT work as it is a receiver, not a sender.
Any tips?
I can't be alone with this question. Conceivably I could replace my ok but bulky floor standing speakers with a pair of Homepods. Provided they indeed sound good to my taste.
But, I would want to use it for ALL my audio sources. I also have an AV preamp that is used for several sources: tv audio, CDs (these can perhaps be dropped) and BluRay discs, and eventually a game console when the kids are old enough.
Ideally I would take the analog out of my AV preamp (or alternatively extract digitally from the hdmi out) and convert it to an airplay stream towards the home pods.
However I am not aware of a simple device (a mac mini would be overkill, and is there software that would do it? not sure) that does this? I also checked raspberry pi projects. An airport express would NOT work as it is a receiver, not a sender.
Any tips?
Like many here, I don't want a Google Home in my house at all.
And yes, anything Apple does to improve Siri would be handled in a software update. In theory, Siri could literally become the best voice assistant on the market with a software update.
Before you get that far, this one review mentioned that audio played over AirPlay takes a hit in sound quality.
https://www.whathifi.com/apple/homepod/review
The whole smart thing is a little overblown because frankly they're all not very smart (meaning all of the smart assistants on the market). Siri works the best for me because I happily reside within the walled garden. I still have an Echo Dot that a friend gave to me just to place Amazon orders, but for little else.
I love Apple products and I'm quick to jump to their defense but the one thing I haven't been able to defend is Siri, it's a mess. Surely they could just make another Alexa if they wanted to, they have the resources and talent to do that, but instead they're content to stick with something so obviously inferior. I just don't understand what the end game is here. They can't be so oblivious as to not realize that they've been lapped by Amazon and Google in the AI market.
Well I guess it’s a good thing I live entirely inside Apple’s walled garden and prioritize sound quality over everything else!
Exactly my point. I don't need anything but the basics because the current crop of smart assistants can't do much more than that on a consistent basis. So for all the simple stuff, Siri works like a charm.