Still a NO buy of this Trojan Horse for Apple Music as I cannot stream my iTunes library from my Mac or iPad.
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HomePod's Sound Continues to Receive Top Marks After Listening Demos in New York and London
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But the apologists say it was designed to be a high quality speaker and that’s why it shouldn’t be compared to Echo and Home. Perhaps it will be like the Watch where Apple pivots after a year or so. Perhaps they’ll find that home hub is what people really want.
I would really like for this to support Google Music, but we all know that will not happen.
What's the point of a magically amazing speaker if it streams Apple Music, whose quality is ****.
The only streaming service I've ever sampled that sounded halfway decent is Tidal HiFi. The rest are embarrassingly terrible quality not worth a dime.
The only streaming service I've ever sampled that sounded halfway decent is Tidal HiFi. The rest are embarrassingly terrible quality not worth a dime.
There is no such thing as "true stereo sound". Stereo sound is not "true". Stereo sound is an attempt to approximate the correct listening experience by producing sound from two different positions. HomePod approximates the correct listening experience in a different way. It will not be equal to stereo sound, and it won't try to make it equal. The questions isn't whether it's the same, but whether it is as good as stereo.
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The music store where you buy begins encountering seriously increased profits
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According to Tom's Hardware, if it's playing through AirPlay, it's not worth it. If you find that opinion strange, so do I.
Just rolls of the tongue, doesn’t it? AirPlay, not worth. Good ‘ol Tom Shardware.
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i guess my point is it seems like when Apple enters a market it’s because the company feels it’s solving a problem that exist with products already on the market. I don’t think Amazon and Google are worried about HomePod sounding better. People aren’t buying those devices for the sound. But if Siri was vastly improved for HomePod then Apple’s marketing pitch could be HomePod has superior smarts and sound.
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I’d agree if Siri was really beefed up for this product and there were a ton of new SiriKit domains. But outside of Apple Music it seems Siri is pretty limited on this device.
Try google assistant and come back to me
Google assistant is very good, and I have used it vastly. But I don't think Siri is "Crap" either.
I think that Apple are starting with the pitch about sound, BUT they will probably add updates and features including ones that will make Siri better. Tim Cook even hinted to this during an interview where he said "we will start with a patch of those and you can bet there's a nice follow on activity there as well"
You do not seem to truly understand the true value of a dollar. $349.99 seems reasonable? Really? And $700 for the speaker you mentioned (and everything it lacks)? Yikes!
But the Rene Ritchies of the world keep telling me Apple isn’t pitching this as a smart speaker.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Siri has been around since 2011 and improvements have been marginal at best.
Not everyone has a home theater system. What if a house was two stories and they wanted music upstairs in a room where the home theater setup wouldn’t be easily audible?
And not sure if anyone realizes that you can play Spotify to the HomePod. Apple isn’t banning 3rd party music apps. Apple Music, however, is its intended use because of the Siri DJ-style features they designed.
By the way, there’s a reason they didn’t bring Siri audio feedback to Apple TV. If Siri spoke over a 7 or 9 channel system it would be plain creepy and just way too loud. Imagine it...
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Very good questions and notice none of these early previews addressed them. It was all about sound. Hopefully someone like Serenity Caldwell at iMore is able to dig into the details and find out how this works. I’m curious too about music one has in iCloud Music Library that isn’t on iTunes or Apple Music. According to Kirk McElhern you won’t be able to play it natively because of Siri. That’s a bummer.
I have a HomePod pre ordered but I’m on the fence. I don’t listen to music at home via speakers anymore as it is too intrusive with a family whilst everyone is doing their own thing, the TV is the king of background noise.
However IF the Apple TV 4/4K could broadcast to the HomePod, then I’m pretty sure I’d be walking room to room to find who had it next to their bedroom TV.
As such I’m curious and using the 14 day return period as a testing ground. Updates may be promised but if it can’t fit into my life from day 14 then it will be returned and I’ll wait a year or so and see how Apple fleshes the software out.
From observation the hardware looks to be great, software side lacking I.e what can connect to it and how, Airplay 2, Airplay and Bluetooth? Ie can my Bluetooth devices send audio to the device etc?! Easier to buy one, test it at home and see everything in person than to wait for reviews.
However IF the Apple TV 4/4K could broadcast to the HomePod, then I’m pretty sure I’d be walking room to room to find who had it next to their bedroom TV.
As such I’m curious and using the 14 day return period as a testing ground. Updates may be promised but if it can’t fit into my life from day 14 then it will be returned and I’ll wait a year or so and see how Apple fleshes the software out.
From observation the hardware looks to be great, software side lacking I.e what can connect to it and how, Airplay 2, Airplay and Bluetooth? Ie can my Bluetooth devices send audio to the device etc?! Easier to buy one, test it at home and see everything in person than to wait for reviews.
People are just butthurt about the price. For the problems it solves, as I said earlier, you get what you pay for. Convenience comes at a price just like other Apple products. Not all speakers are smart and not all smart speakers sound good. This device does both, without ridiculous inconvenient workarounds.
[doublepost=1517135630][/doublepost]I see why so many are upset over this device. They are trying to justify a purchase that doesn’t need to be made. Unless you have a situation that this speaker would solve (multi level house, no home theater, etc.) you’re just buying to be buying and getting mad about the price.
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[doublepost=1517135630][/doublepost]I see why so many are upset over this device. They are trying to justify a purchase that doesn’t need to be made. Unless you have a situation that this speaker would solve (multi level house, no home theater, etc.) you’re just buying to be buying and getting mad about the price.
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You will absolutely be able to use this with Apple TV. Like the AirPods you will be able to pair via Bluetooth with non-Apple devices but functionality will be limited (ex. no Siri). You can also allow guest access via the Home app (iOS 11.3 and later).
Without spending a fortune I’d suggest something like the KEF LS50 Wireless would perform rather better.
Different market though. I’m sure it will sell well, but it’s got a long way to go to catch up with Google/Amazon, even Sonos.
Different market though. I’m sure it will sell well, but it’s got a long way to go to catch up with Google/Amazon, even Sonos.
I still need Apple to convince me I need one of these. They pulled it off with the iPad Pro (pencil support) and iPhone 8 (dual lens, wireless charging). Currently nothing about the HomePod appeals to me much like the AppleTV. I imagine one day they’ll add a feature that I didn’t know I wanted and I’ll rush out to buy one.... maybe!
Apple are positioning the HomePod as a speaker first and then a smart speaker, Tim Cook more or less confirms this in that interview i linked. Siri has indeed been around since 2011 but just lately they have started to update it more, for example at WWD they added a more natural sounding voice and so on, i think they will update the HomePod with new features via software over time.
Not a single audio or hi-fi site invited?
Move along, nothing to see here.
Move along, nothing to see here.
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Pivot to what exactly?
Marketing campaigns focuses on key differentiating points and one or two messages.
Other aspects, say Homekit, Siri, or whatever or more debatable (the endless assistant debate) or harder to sell and thus muddy the strength of the message.
In this case the first message for launch is communicating the fact it has fantastic sound that no one can copy. This will be the focus for at least the next 2 months.
The full campaign may also emphasize a few other aspects as people actually get their hands on it and Airplay 2 gets released in a few months.
That it can do homekit, this, or Siri that it's just something on the spec list that people that are interested in will verify for now. It's not the main reason right now someone will buy this product.
The main goal of Apple now is getting this product in the hand of people so word of mouth can sell it.
Also, WTF does "apologist" have to do in this conversation about THIS PRODUCT that has very good review on the exact same point Apple is doing its marketing push on.
Not sure what your bee in bonnet is these days but it has been escalating (I also read Appleinsider) and you sound this close from uttering "fanboi" (sic) and sounding like someone who gets his jolly just opposing anything Apple just for kicks.
Apple has been fantastic at meeting something no one has really served (they go to where people wanted to go but didn't feel they could go) and using that as a wedge to dominate.
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Siri is complete crap.
All I ever get is "here's what I found on the web"
Because you mostly use it for searches, that's not what an assistant is suppose to all the time unless of course you are Google's assistant.
Considering that even in searches the first one at the top is usually the correct answer and Alexa is pretty bad at that too, I'm not even sure what's your point is.
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It seemingly use the sound's reflection to map the room including people.
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You obviously have no concept of the hi-fi market and just how much people are willing to spend on quality components. The sky is literally the limit.
My headphones and portable headphone amp combined cost US $1200 new and they are upper mid-range, not high end.
You can get headphones that cost > $5,000 and speakers for many, many times that! The sub-woofer alone that I want costs $2,000. Isn’t value all subjective?
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Nobody actually said that, it's your straw man, the ones being damaged will be Sonos, Bose and the like and possibly Amazon and Google if they ever try to go into the high end in a significant way (which they are not currently).
Google and Amazon are selling those things almost at a loss. Apple is never going to compete with those things at those prices just like it is not competing with Android's mid to low end.
What Apple will extract from the market will mainly be profits, not marketshare, as usual (they only have 15% of the worldwide marketshare of smart phones and also about 10% market share in laptops btw). Even in smart watches, they dominate the "market share" though they sure do profits.
Rofl that's adorable.
There's definitely justification for the endless laughter directed towards HeadFi elitists. Thanks for the comedy buddy