I've got my home hub in the kitchen. I'd probably leave it there as it's good for YouTube videos and have a Homepod mini for music, reminders, messeges and calls.
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HomePod 'Sold Out' on Apple's Online Store [Updated]
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hopefully they discontinue it. I have one. It sucks, bad.
I picked one up for $200 on sale. At that price point it’s a fantastic little gadget. If they can get it to $150 and maintain 90% of the sound quality I think it would be a monster hit. The original $350 was way too much.
I haven’t had that particular issue, but have heard of others dealing with that. My issue with it is it not recognizing songs in my library and it not being smart enough to respond to “play track 1 from the album *****”.
I love Siri on my homepod. I never use Siri with my iPhones or iPads but i use it with my Homepod and Philips hue lights (through the Homepod) and Siri works GREAT!!! Just GREAT.
I have homepods, an echo, echo show and a google home hub, along with some echo dots, and some google home minis. I'm not an audiophile but my home pod sounds the best by far. Obviously you would expect the home pod to sound better given it's price. Alexa and the google assistant are smarter. However there's some things I can do on my home pod that I can't do on my other smart speakers, such as locate my airpods, iPads,iPhone and macbook. I can answer calls on my home pod and hand off what I'm playing on my iPhone and then switch it back. I subscribe to Apple music and it's the best for music for me I've found. I've tried spotify and I get google play music with my youtube premium account. It's better than both of those for me.
the homepod is great for what it is, an audio quality focused speaker (not a smart speaker). apple missed in two key areas in my opinion:
1) price ... while they sounds great, the original $349 was just too much. it should have retailed for $199 (or $249 allowing frequent $199 sales). i bought two at different times at $199 each, but i wouldn't have bought even one at $349.
2) physical inputs ... i get apple's portless ideal, but this thing should have had a single usb-c input, allowing apple to continue their dongle life utopia (optical to usb-c, 3.5mm to usb-c, rca to usb-c). with a single usb-c in, this thing could have been opened up to many more people and be allowed to connect to any audio device people might have. if they had a physical input i would probably have at least two more right now (using as wired computer speakers).
1) price ... while they sounds great, the original $349 was just too much. it should have retailed for $199 (or $249 allowing frequent $199 sales). i bought two at different times at $199 each, but i wouldn't have bought even one at $349.
2) physical inputs ... i get apple's portless ideal, but this thing should have had a single usb-c input, allowing apple to continue their dongle life utopia (optical to usb-c, 3.5mm to usb-c, rca to usb-c). with a single usb-c in, this thing could have been opened up to many more people and be allowed to connect to any audio device people might have. if they had a physical input i would probably have at least two more right now (using as wired computer speakers).
If you are fully invested into homekit, like I am, Siri is just fine and the speaker sounds GREAT! Siri blows Alexa out of the water, don't know about google home...need Apple to release smaller cheaper version for other rooms in the house that don't need the big speaker, like the basement, laundry room...etc If you think homekit sucks, or that Siri isn't robust, that's on YOU for not knowing how to setup homekit correctly, running correct automations, using Shortcuts PERIOD...does Siri sometimes not understand you, sure, but they all screw up like that...right now I use Siri for everything, and have Alexa shows just for video drop in....I never talk to Alexa, Siri is just way better
Nice ploy. When lowering the price to $200 didn't work, create artificial shortage then jack up the price to $300.
Same here. In a few hours my 4th HomePod will be delivered. I could use two more, but need to think on that a bit more.
What I like most about my HomePods is not needing to engage another device (phone/computer/tablet) to play music.
And, Apple's automatic beam-formed adaptive acoustic equalization produces a great sound no matter where a HomePod is placed in a room (within reasonable limitations). Also, I can be 20-30 feet away speaking Siri commands in the presence of loud music or other loud sounds and the beam-formed microphone array locates my commands in a normal speaking voice. There's a ton of signal processing working behind the scenes.
It will be interesting to see what follows from Apple in this product space.
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I suspect $200 HomePods worked very well.
The only way this dung pile of a product goes out of stock is if the shipment falls into the Pacific.
That's the issue... speaks for yourself and Siri is always popping in when she's not invited and busting up whatever work/life flow you have going
That has never happened to me, having multiple HomePods, the first going back to launch day.
Perhaps a visit to the Genius Bar could be useful when Apple Stores are open again.
Clearly out of the blue, my iPhone popped up Siri yesterday. Odd timing. I was doing drywall finishing, and listening to The Joint of Sirius/XM. Totally puzzled why SHE came to life. I have her turned off.
Siri speaks up occasionally for me as well, usually difficult to know what prompted it, amusing when it happens.
The OP stating that HomePod is sold out on Apples online store prompted me to take a quick look at BestBuy online to see if their sale was still going on, and it is not. So I missed the opportunity to get their great pricing, not that I need more HomePods right now.
The OP stating that HomePod is sold out on Apples online store prompted me to take a quick look at BestBuy online to see if their sale was still going on, and it is not. So I missed the opportunity to get their great pricing, not that I need more HomePods right now.