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

JosephAW said:
All the negative words reminds me when the iPhone launched and everybody had nothing good to say. Well we know how the story ended.
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except by this analogy there are other iphones already in the market, which can do more and are cheaper.

This Homepod does not innovate, seems to be too late, too little, too walled-in and too expensive.

If its a success, then great, I just cant see it becoming market leader with so much stacked against it.
 
It seems that the issues that are freaking people out about SIRI are mostly related to privacy issues. Access to your calendar, phone calls ETC. The other 'smart' speakers don't give a damn and Alexa (we've had one forever) is actually pretty silly most of the time. It's long been unplugged and or relegated to the front room out of the kitchen. But I think what's getting Apple in trouble is people want access to more 'stuff' no matter the privacy concerns.
 
I get the feeling that incorporating Siri into this product was more of a necessity for Apple than them actually wanting to. The real feat here is the speaker technology that they have been developing for 6 years, but with the rise of the Echo they knew people would dismiss HomePod if it didn't have some "smart" element to it. I think it'll be nice to play a song by talking to it but I really can't see using Siri for much else; in fact, I don't understand what people use smart speakers for really. Almost every use case for a smart speaker I've heard of is better fulfilled by a phone - other than setting timers and turning on a light, which Siri could do. It's upsetting that reviewers are so focused on comparing Echo and HomePod that they are missing the technology breakthrough that has been made here.
 
smirking said:
This is sounding very alluring. I could not care less about any of this smart assistant foo foo, but a high quality speaker that's a better audio technician than I am and will recalibrate on its own? Yes. I want that... but I don't want to subscribe to Apple Music to get it. I really hope the reason why it's tied to Apple Music is a technology reason that will be resolved later. If I can just play off of my iTunes library, I'd be placing an order as soon as I finish typing this.
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You can just play off your iTunes library.
 
Apple designed a product to work best with other Apple products. And this news to tech reviewers in 2018 how exactly? I get that it has to be called out in the review for those that don’t know but it shouldn’t be any shock to Nilay Patel at The Verge that Apple doesn’t design cross platform hardware. So yeah if you have an Android phone and use Spotify, HomePod isn’t for you. When did Apple ever say it was? To me a review should be about whether a product delivers on what it promised and how it was advertised or not, not is it the product you wish would have been designed. So many did the latter with the MacBook which was incredibly annoying.
 
bozzykid said:
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.
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I have no idea what you are talking about. HomePod has best privacy features of any smart speaker. It will clearly ask you if you want it to handle your messages or not. What's so hard here?
 
MacRumors said:
…it's only for those who live in Apple's walled garden and "prioritize sound quality over everything else.
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This is what I have been saying all along. How big can the market for something this niche actually be? Unless they've got some massive improvements to Siri in the works, this thing isn't going to do well.
 
macduke said:
This is what I have been saying all along. How big can the market for something this niche actually be? Unless they've got some massive improvements to Siri in the works, this thing isn't going to do well.
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Given the rumored amount of users moving to Apple Music it’s going to be a huge success.
 
If Homepod could order from Amazon; it would be a winner in my book. But a speaker that I can ask the weather and calendar appointments? It just does not seem useful to me.

We're in the age of Amazon now friends.
 
Apple says the speaker adjusts itself based on room position, and as I moved the speaker around I could hear the difference as it recalibrated. Overall I found that the HomePod sounded best placed against a wall or in a corner
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If it auto adjusts, shouldn't the speaker sound the same no matter where it's placed in the room? Seems like being able to hear the difference when moved to different locations defeats the point of it auto adjusting for optimal sound?
 
carpleror said:
Well I guess it’s a good thing I live entirely inside Apple’s walled garden and prioritize sound quality over everything else!
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Honestly, from the above it's more accurate/honest to say you prioritize Apple products over other considerations. Not a criticism, just an observation. If sound quality was your 1st priority over everything else then it seems you'd already have high end audio equipment, calibrated just-so in your home. HomePod is a novelty to true audio purists. HomePod looks like it sounds amazing for a small speaker but let's not pretend it reinvents sound. It's not even stereo unless you link two together.
 
Baymowe335 said:
Nonsense. Post some real examples.

Siri = Alexa and is better than Bixby.

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.
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I only use Siri for certain things. Setting reminders (esp at work where I set at least a dozen a day), calendar appointments, in my car for music, navigation & texting and for HomeKit to control my house. A lot of other things Siri can do don't really interest me, so I can't comment on their accuracy (like sports/scores).

I understand Google is better to search for things, but I never use a voice assistant to search. I prefer to use my browser as I usually have something very specific I want information on, and I can get better results with a specific query (as opposed to a voice one). This is probably from years of using Google Search and understanding how to word my queries to get exactly what I want.
 
They should've addressed Siri's massive shortcomings first and then released HomePod. To have an inept (to put it nicely) 'assistant' be the only real means of controlling the HomePod is a terrible idea. If I had to rely on Siri in order to interact with my iPhone and iPad, I wouldn't own an iPhone and iPad.

The HomePod will either force Apple to buckle down and finally bring Siri up to par or, if they fail to do that, it will seemingly show that they're tone deaf and don't really give a damn. I have a hard time believing that the people on the Executive Team have actually used Siri with any regularity over the years. If they used Siri for just two or three minutes per day, the problems would be readily apparent. The good news for us (possibly) is that they've probably all had HomePods for months now, so they're now forced to use Siri whenever they use HomePod.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
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.
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Well I have Apple Music already, so if I wanted to listen to a studio mastered for digital version, I would just open up Apple Music.

I understand the walled garden approach, but Apple is usually quite "hip" with current trends, and the vinyl renaissance is a pretty heavy one in the hifi community.

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.
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Yep an aux or an rca pair would have been optimal.

On a separate note, interesting that Apple is getting into the hifi speaker industry [again], but Apple Music doesn't support a lossless audio source o_O
 
the future said:
This is not the case for me or many others at all. Next, please.
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eh!?

a scroll through these pages confirms that Siri's lack of comprehension is evident to many!

.... what about when siri repeatedly tells me to look at web results rather than reading me an answer...?

Alexa tells me things as she should do ... siri tells me to unlock my iphone and have a look!
 
rtomyj said:
Siri doesn't even compare. Apple should just quit now o_O
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So silly conversations like that are important and fun these days? Maybe for kids I suppose.

Much rather have an assistant that does basic tasks well. The smart answers are nice. It not something I would ever use. Just play my music, podcasts, reminders, weather, my lights

That’s all I need a voice assistant for
 
Art Mark said:
It seems that the issues that are freaking people out about SIRI are mostly related to privacy issues. Access to your calendar, phone calls ETC. The other 'smart' speakers don't give a damn and Alexa (we've had one forever) is actually pretty silly most of the time. It's long been unplugged and or relegated to the front room out of the kitchen. But I think what's getting Apple in trouble is people want access to more 'stuff' no matter the privacy concerns.
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I made the mistake of listening to the panic/criticism of the X.

I love the X. Two homepods on order.
 
deanthedev said:
I only use Siri for certain things. Setting reminders (esp at work where I set at least a dozen a day), calendar appointments, in my car for music, navigation & texting and for HomeKit to control my house. A lot of other things Siri can do don't really interest me, so I can't comment on their accuracy (like sports/scores).

I understand Google is better to search for things, but I never use a voice assistant to search. I prefer to use my browser as I usually have something very specific I want information on, and I can get better results with a specific query (as opposed to a voice one). This is probably from years of using Google Search and understanding how to word my queries to get exactly what I want.
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That's why I'm saying examples that show Siri can't do pointless things are well....pointless.
 
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