HomePod Reviews: Outstanding Sound Quality, but Siri 'Struggles at Smart'

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I am not sure if I get one. Sound is really important but the price is too. Need to read the reviews myself. I am only using Apple devices and will not change that for the foreseeable future. But I am not subscribing to any of their services as I do not subscribe to thinks if not absolutely forced to do so. So for me it would be streaming through Airplay only.

There's a LOT of speakers in the world that can become Airplay speakers with other hardware. You may already have some exceptional speakers in your home. If you have an TV connected to them, you can airplay through that to them. If you don't have an TV, it's about half this price, has Siri voice control too, and comes with a number of other features that can never be "just one software update" away in HP.

If you don't have or don't want to buy an TV, Apples makes even cheaper devices through which you can Airplay to ANY speakers too.

Basically, if someone doesn't really care about the "smarts," there are a LOT of alternative options that might prove better choices for the airplay-only segment.

 

[DTphonehome]

WTF is going on in that fancy new headquarters? I’m sure they have several hundred people working on Siri. Why in the world are they having such trouble?

 

[the future]

Nonsense. Post some real examples.

Siri = Alexa and is better than Bigsby.

GoogleHome appears to be better, but how often do you ask Siri things she can't do or answer? What specifically does she struggle with?

I honestly think people here just repeat their negative thoughts on Siri based on what they read.

Exactly. I always wonder what amazing things Alexa supposedly is able to do, but when asking for real world examples, there are always crickets.

SO, ALEXA ENTHUSIASTS, GIVE US REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES OF THE AMAZING THINGS IT CAN DO THAT SIRI CAN‘T.

 

[JosephAW]

All the negative words reminds me when the iPhone launched and everybody had nothing good to say. Well we know how the story ended.

 

[NeuralControl]

The Verge review video was really well done. This time I think Nilay was uncharacteristically fair with his criticisms and praise. Definitely worth a watch.

I hope Apple pays attention to reviewer (and public) criticism and rolls out software updates to back HomePod a better product. From a sound perspective, they are doing incredible things. But they are unnecessarily holding HomePod back.

 

[dannyyankou]

Luckily Siri can get better with software updates, and with the recent aquisitions it might improve sooner rather than later.

 

[The Game 161]

WTF is going on in that fancy new headquarters? I’m sure they have several hundred people working on Siri. Why in the world are they having such trouble?

They likely see nothing wrong as for pretty much all basic tasks it does what’s required.

 

[BlargKing]

I mean, I would be all for a great sounding smart speaker, and honestly I like the design of the HomePod more than any other smart speaker out there right now. But I use Android and PC, so its not going to happen.

I get that Apple wants to keep people in their ecosystem, but sometimes their garden is so walled in that I feel like they're suffocating themselves.

 

[JimmyBanks6]

Okay so how do I play my vinyl's to two HomePods?

Oh, I can't? Oh.

 

[gnipgnop]

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...

"Sure, you can send audio from the likes of TuneIn or BBC iPlayer (or Spotify, Tidal or any other audio app for that matter) using AirPlay on your iPhone or iPad, but doing so runs down your portable’s battery and involves a decrease in sound quality."

I don't think they're saying everything sounds lower quality over Airplay. I think the issue with "lower quality" may be that the music coming from those 3rd party sources can't get the same auto correction for the space like iTunes/Apple Music content. Airplay streams at CD quality, so it's not a technical bit-rate issue.

 

[Heineken]

They likely see nothing wrong as for pretty much all basic tasks it does what’s required.

Like me dictating this message for example.

 

[Baymowe335]

WTF is going on in that fancy new headquarters? I’m sure they have several hundred people working on Siri. Why in the world are they having such trouble?

Stop and breathe for a second.

1) They could be working on a massive update to be released soon.
2) Siri is not as bad as you read here.
3) She can answer frequently asked questions and perform basic tasks flawlessly.
4) Most of Siri's criticisms are vague, "She sucks" and "Google is better" but no one specifies at what.
5) Siri works very well for what I need in a voice assistant. TRYING to trick voice assistant in arbitrary testing is not real world relevant. I don't care if a voice assistant can talk politics or rap better than Siri.

What exactly do you ask Siri that she can't answer? I have use Siri all the time and never have such obvious problems.

 

[Richard28]

SO, ALEXA ENTHUSIASTS, GIVE US REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES OF THE AMAZING THINGS IT CAN DO THAT SIRI CAN‘T.

Alexa nearly always understands me for a start... I seem to have to ask repeatedly when I want Siri to do something - Siri hardly ever gets it right first time...

 

[npmacuser5]

Tied closely to a single Apple ID, terrible. The Family share, for those who do not share, now this. Apple’s echo system more challenging with every up date.

 

[imacericg]

How does HomePod's "Hey Siri" work?

I would have 3 devices (HomePod, iPhone X, Apple Watch) that would wake up if I said "Hey Siri" on my house. How does the HomePod know I am talking to it?

 

[rtomyj]

Apple's ignorance on Siri's development in recent years is really starting to show up. Siri has become the Village idiot among smart assistants.

Overblown narrative is overblown. Siri just needs to be more open. If you consistently use it it will get better.

Here's a picture of the champ of assistents (more found in r/softwaregore):

 

[the future]

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

Which is just BS. They probably assumed Airplay works via bluetooth, which it of course does not.

 

[bchery21]

Hmm, I guess I’ll wait for the smart features, I’m already not a big music listener...

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Okay so how do I play my vinyl's to two HomePods?

Oh, I can't? Oh.

Sure you can. Convert them to AAC, drop them in iTunes, buy a subscription to iTunes Match or Airplay them to HP. Yes, I realize that's missing the point but that THE way Apple has chosen for you... and Apple knows best.

If you mean you wish you had even one audio AUX port on this thing for any such external source options, welcome to the walled garden, where functionality & consumer utility increasingly seem to revolve around the answer to "can Apple make money by doing this?" Personally, I believe that this thing would be significantly more useful with at least one such input port... just to cover all of this kind of real world usage wants.

 

[bozzykid]

Except it doesn't. You can set it to let or not.

It shouldn't need an option to make it have assistant functions. Most people will leave the option on. Other assistants already figured this out. Even Google wouldn't let you do personalized commands until it had multiuser.

 

[macduke]

Outstanding Sound Quality, but Siri "Struggles at Smart"

Understatement of the year.

 

[Heineken]

Overblown narrative is overblown. Siri just needs to be more open. If you consistently use it it will get better.

Here's a picture of the champ of assistents (more found in r/softwaregore):
View attachment 750105

Not so smart is it?

 

[mazz0]

I read the headline of this and I thought "well yeah, that's exactly what we expected isn't it? Everyone know's Siri's rubbish as a means of gathering information" but then when I read the article I was surprised at some of the obvious omissions. You can't initiate a call from it? Are we sure that's not just a security feature that's set by default but can be changed?

 

[The Game 161]

How does HomePod's "Hey Siri" work?

I would have 3 devices (HomePod, iPhone X, Apple Watch) that would wake up if I said "Hey Siri" on my house. How does the HomePod know I am talking to it?

According to Nilay it just knows...so if you’re in a room with the HomePod it will use that as for hey Siri

 

[stanman64]

The good news is that most (if not all) of HomePod's shortcomings and criticisms can be remedied through software. No bluetooth audio? There's a bluetooth 5.0 chip, so I'd assume this could be added in the future. No making calls/reading calendar appointments? Software fix. Generally crappyness of Siri? Software fix.

So, in a way, I'm glad Apple concentrated on the hardware to make the sound as good as it can be, and hopefully they will polish everything else out over time. Other speakers can't just spontaneously sound better with a software update. Having great sound hardware out of the gate will also likely give HomePod a good longevity, which is to be expected from Apple.

Also, I'm fully into the Apple ecosystem, so not having Alexa/Google/etc capabilities and app developer access yet doesn't bother me much, but they would be a nice bonus and keep others happy. Can't wait to hear it myself!