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I feel like the reason their speakers don’t take off is because for most, you will need two to get good sound and at $300+ each it is a hard sell for many, especially with them not having Bluetooth and the woes that come with Siri. A soundbar could do the job of the speakers + the Apple TV (and could incorporate hdmi in/eArc so it doesn’t rely on Airplay which can be finicky.

you can get a pretty good sounding pair of speakers for $600

much better sounding than those apple things

that's why they don't take off
 
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Apple Dolby Atmos surround sound would be great. With a built in Apple TV to the sound bar would be sweet also.
 
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I miss airport a lot. I hate that I pay to rent a router from my ISP and still have to remember to manually back up my mac to an external drive.
Can you not use your router in pass-through mode? That's what I do, and still use my many AirPorts. :)

Screenshot 2024-07-04 at 9.45.29 PM.png
 
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“Guys, todays assignment is to go through our parts bin and Frankenstein a new billion dollar category product. People seem to think we are not innovating enough. Courage hooyah!”
 
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you can get a pretty good sounding pair of speakers for $600

much better sounding than those apple things

that's why they don't take off

Yeah, that’s what holds back all of these Bluetooth speakers with assistants. Great sounding standard stereo speakers are abundant.
 
Apple Dolby Atmos surround sound would be great. With a built in Apple TV to the sound bar would be sweet also.

I do wonder if Apple has an interest in getting into the Sonos space. Their computational audio would be a good match with an all in one virtual surround sound system that’s basically a sound bar with AI Siri and an AppleTV in it.
 
Given that Apple Arcade is a paid subscription, Apple may be doing exactly that. More memory, an M-series chip and seamless integration with the Vision headset. The Vision headset could have been one of the final pieces in that plan.
Arcade is a perfect example of how little Apple actually cares about, understands, or wants to bother understanding the videogame field. All of the hardware power in the world matters little if the actual game selection is awful. We do get a top-notch game once in a while like the Resident Evil ports, but the fact that it happens so little is a big indicator of what's wrong with Apple and gaming.

But they invest in that hardware power because they'd rather be focusing on other fields like professional creativity, and Apple taking games seriously would mean having to admit games are just as legitimate as the movies and TV shows they keep trying to make and sell subscriptions for.
 
Yeah, that’s what holds back all of these Bluetooth speakers with assistants. Great sounding standard stereo speakers are abundant.

my 1974 large advents sound way better than any "smart speaker" I've ever auditioned

for near field at the desk I have some kali lp6 that sound phenonmal as well

Lot's of people just want good sounding speakers without the "smart"
 


Code discovered on Apple's backend by MacRumors confirms Apple is indeed working on a long-rumored home accessory in addition to the HomePod and Apple TV.

HomePod-G4-Feature.jpg

The code references a device with the identifier "HomeAccessory17,1," which is a new identifier category. The name is similar to the HomePod's "AudioAccessory" identifier.

Interestingly, the 17,1 in the identifier name suggests that this device may receive Apple's upcoming A18 chip, which will be used in all four iPhone 16 models later this year. With the A18 chip, the HomeAccessory device would have the power for Apple Intelligence.

The code also indicates that this "home accessory" will be running a software variant of tvOS, much like the HomePod. Earlier this year, MacRumors found evidence of Apple's work on homeOS, which could be the firmware running on this device.

On a similar note, the code also references two unreleased Apple TV models with the identifiers AppleTV14,4 and AppleTV14,5. Rumors suggest that an updated Apple TV could launch in 2024.

Apple is expected to announce new iPhones, iPads, and potentially other products in September.

(Thanks Nicolás Alvarez!)

Article Link: Leak Confirms Apple's Work On 'Home Accessory'
That’s pretty cool. Just hope they don’t charge 500 bucks for it like how they made the HomePod 249 dollars.
 
“Guys, todays assignment is to go through our parts bin and Frankenstein a new billion dollar category product. People seem to think we are not innovating enough. Courage hooyah!”

This is exactly it

They are supply chain driven company now

Same reason they are selling laptop board in the old Mac Pro case
 
It's very sad that Apple have chased customers away with super premium pricing. Apple TV is a good example of this, great device but very overpriced for what it is.
For what it is…to you.
Not only does it have the best and fastest interface for my use, it also functions as a flawless always-on home hub for HomeKit and my matter devices. It also functions as a threads border router flawlessly for me.

The Nvidia Shield is probably the best. It costs more than Apple TV but is likely quite superior. I've never used one.
If you ever decide to switch to a Shield, I’d look into it closely. A few Apple Ecosystem nerds swore by the Shield over the AppleTV (mostly for the wide range of formats it could handle) but are switching back after NVideo started pushing annoying software and requirements.
The article photo looks strongly reminiscent of an Amazon Echo Show 8 (albeit with the 'arm' to the monitor portion) with more speaker emphasis.
I take it you aren’t familiar with the G4 iMac? Because that’s what it really looks like.

I think the more tech we get into our lives, the more we start to become aware of the cost of giving technology so much of our attention.

As such, it is often a healthy reaction to start wanting less tech in one’s life
It’s certainly a healthy thing to ask yourself if a technology saps or buys you time. I tend to use Apple devices because they buy me time. When I want to fiddle with nerdy things, I don’t fiddle with my phone/computer/TV setup. They work, consistently, and quickly. I’m hoping the Apple Intelligence fits into a similar vein, because if not, I won’t use it.
Hoping the new AppleTV is just a cheaper version of the current one with streamlined features. Streaming content is barely 4K UHD + Atmos, and anything beyond that is not even remotely close to what most TV hardware or bandwidth can display. Honestly, it’ll probably be a match to the current iPhone chipset that can handle AI. Not sure what AppleTV AI would even do, but hey, they need to keep that price justifiable.
I’m sure there is a big market for a cheaper one. But as someone that rips his own content with as much quality as possible, the AppleTV chokes on files that my 5 year old iMac plays with ease. As soon as they release an AppleTV capable of faster decoding of more file types, they have my money.
(Yes, the Nvidia shield exists, but I’m not liking what I’ve seen from them the last year).
having just bought a new one, I'm not sure what Apple TV is missing that that can't be addressed on the software side

maybe cheaper?
My wish list: More formats, faster decoding. Otherwise I keep mine hardwired, so I don’t care about newer wireless standards, but some may.

I would LOVE to see AAPL go back to making Airport routers. Given how dependent the entire ecosystem is on WiFi, AAPL really should focus on getting us reliable high speed WiFi.

I used to think that, then I stopped buying bargain wifi routers. The field is huge, with some making some pretty decent UI interfaces and being super reliable. The downside is you gotta pay as much as Apple would sell one for.

You also need a $1000 iPhone to play music on your $300 speaker where Siri laughs at you anytime you make a basic request. Non wonder they are a tough sell.

What? No, you don’t need a phone, let alone a $1000 one.

you can get a pretty good sounding pair of speakers for $600

much better sounding than those apple things

that's why they don't take off

I have expensive speakers in my living room, e.g. my Music room. However I can not get speakers to sound remotely good in my kitchen. One full sized HomePod with its room sensing/correction is enough to jam to music while making dinner and cleaning up, and sounds better than two $500 speakers in my space. Now, I didn’t try adding a $1000 modern receiver to the mix (which can do room correction), but now you’re up to $2000 and having to find a place to store the receiver.

For dedicated space that you can modify to suit the speakers, yes, go dedicated speakers and a good amp all day long. For wonky spaces where you want tunes, I highly suggest a full sized HomePod. If I had time to go back to my garage projects, I’d probably pick up one or two for that space, as it’s another acoustic nightmare.
 
For what it is…to you.
Not only does it have the best and fastest interface for my use, it also functions as a flawless always-on home hub for HomeKit and my matter devices. It also functions as a threads border router flawlessly for me.

Holds tiny market share in the category so not just to me.
 
An AI HomePod would need a lot of computing power, and cost a lot to produce... a much cheaper way for Apple to do that would be to give it a much cheaper 'brain' and let another device in the home do the grunt work. That's assuming they want to do the computation locally... do it all on servers and the requirements drop quickly.
Your point is well taken. It would be cool if all our devices could readily share their computing power. Obvious bandwidth and latency issues at this point in time however.
 
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