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New HomePod Delivered to One Lucky Customer Two Days Early

I updated the firmware last night. I’m holding onto my OG’s!!! I’m also going to put both OG’s on a UPS, to keep them as healthy as possible. I suggest you do the same, if you want longevity & better sound.


New customers will be happy, gen2 are nice.
 
hagar said:
Tons of stuff have changed. People seem to forget how bad the situation was in 2018. You couldn’t even hook them up as a stereo pair or to your ATV, no personal Siri requests, no support for third party music services, no multiple timers, no Intercom, etc
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by the time it was discontinued all of that was available if im not mistaken....
 
zapmymac said:
I updated the firmware last night. I’m holding onto my OG’s!!! I’m also going to put both OG’s on a UPS, to keep them as healthy as possible. I suggest you do the same, if you want longevity & better sound.


New customers will be happy, gen2 are nice.
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Or just save $100's and use a surge protector?
 
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beanbaguk said:
I would love to get a couple more for my lounge but not at EU prices.

299USD = 272EUR

Actual price in Europe: 350EUR

29% mark up.

Get stuffed Cook! You even upped the HomePod Mini price 10% to 110eur with a 22% mark up on US prices.
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US price is without tax. EU is with the tax. Simple as that.
 
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"Lucky" customer... let the beta test begin.

1675343778354.png
 
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We have a pair of the original Home Pods, one black and one white. Then I can be sure which one is left or right or been updated. There were a few early issues that have been fixed by software updates over the years. See no need to pay the same price for the new generation for less equipment inside. The existing pair makes room filling sound for our very large dining/living room area. We use the Siri function just for music selection and volume adjustments.
 
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
The plot thickens: I see a Calendar icon on the Mac Display screen but can't read the number/date. Dare you to try! Just kidding, haha!



Maybe Apple wanted to steal Samsung Galaxy Event Thunder. They were only late a couple of hours or so.
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Move for the early home pod delivery, stay for the crappy but freeish health care? :p

Start practicing your eh's! We boot you out if you can't perfect that. ;)
 
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Used to work at Best Buy Canada. Can confirm such sloppiness happens ALL the time
 
UMHurricanes34 said:
I think it’s a combination of this (choosing the wrong model to lead to market first) and the tech stack inside the OG HomePod.

I imagine that Apple felt pressure with the first HomePod and knew that Siri wasn’t up to the task. They probably felt the small “cheap” speaker wouldn’t do enough to wow on sound quality and wouldn’t hold up to competitors in smarts. So they decided to position the first gen as a premium audio device and priced it accordingly, downplaying the smart speaker aspects. Now we see that the mini has been able to generate a fan base of both music lovers and smart home enthusiasts, and is instead acting as a bridge to people wanting more of the HomePod experience. They released the products in the wrong order (and I think we might see it again with their next major product announcement, but that’s for another day and another thread).

Another major factor was the A8 chip. I believe it was the very last device to use an A8 chip and I have a feeling producing those legacy chips isn’t a top priority for a company that has been systematically aligning all of its devices to the same general silicon for the last 3 years. Apple also discontinued remaining products that were using the A8 when they updated the iPod Touch that had been ignored for years to the A10 and last year when they discontinued the Apple TV HD.

I know a lot of folks claiming the “defects” as another reason. While this alleged “fart of death” might be a factor, we have 5 original HomePods in our home that were all purchased close to release and have experienced zero reliability issues. *knocks on wood*

TLDR - there are many factors here and many things can be true at once.

I’m glad the HomePod is back, but I really hope to see Apple push harder into the smart home with more innovative solutions.
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I had 5, one lost all power, and another farts and stops playing.
 
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dampfnudel said:
How is a processor based on the A13 less powerful than the A8?
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I would assume it has similar design features but it is a scaled down version more suited to running a smart watch for instance rather than a more complicated instrument such as a phone. Otherwise they would be using S series chips for the iphone rather than A series chips. I was curious about that as well but was unable to find much documentation on the S series chips to make a useful comparison.
 
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