Siri on HomePod Correctly Answered 52.3% of Queries in New AI Test

[citysnaps]

They used machine learning to identify important aspects of the room, thereby making it easy to deterministically map the sound to the listening area in a way that gives the illusion of good room acoustics. Of course, deconstructing the audio signal into 7.1 channels is non-trivial. I can think of a few approaches to try, but none of them stand out as an obvious solution.

Previous attempts (at reasonable consumer prices) were largely limited to volume and (sometimes) EQ adjustments. Previous versions of DSP were novel, but rarely sounded like the space they claimed to replicate, e.g., a concert hall. Dolby Pro Logic and its variants are a notable exception, but they required a properly encoded source and a well arranged room, neither of which the HP needs.

The Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90 looks the most similar to the HomePod in audio functionality, albeit without automated setup, and with enough power to get virtually any renter evicted, and, of course, over 120x the price of a pair of HomePods. (I would expect the drivers and amps of the Beolabs to be far superior to the HomePod, while B&O is probably well behind Apple with respect to ML.)

Incidentally, I live close to a B&O showroom, so I plan to check them out in the next few weeks to see how they compare to my HomePod (which I still haven't had the opportunity to unbox).

No. That doesn't address beamforming at all, or how Apple is employing the technology. It's not about "deconstructing the audio into 7.1 channels."

 

[sbuntin]

Siri is Apple's biggest failure. They have had years to make it at least 80% functional and have failed to do so. Just like the ATV, it seems to be just a "hobby" for Apple.

It is sad. Apple has had voice recognition and control since OS 9. It ran on a 233mhz G3. Siri is not much more advanced almost 20 years later.

My wish list for decent functionality:
“Hey Siri, get directions to my next meeting.” Siri can tell me what’s next on my calendar. Given the location in the calendar entry, it can give me directions. Why can’t it connect the dots? It’s not much of an ‘assistant’ if I have to do half the work of that request to get the answer I need.

“Hey Siri, business mode” No smart-ass answers. Just say “Ok, done” or beep.

Hey Siri, change your name”. A personal digital assistant isnt terribly useful if a roomful of people are constantly setting each other’s Siri’s off.

“Hey Siri, no fscking censorship mode”. Sometimes I need to make a request that includes words that sound like swearing but aren’t. Just get on with it.

 

[jeffreyg]

I'm a recovering audiophile. I know exactly what an excellent home audio system sounds like, both in ideal rooms, and less than ideal rooms. The reality is that $1000 and an ideal room will provide FAR better sound quality than $10,000 and a typical non-symetric room.

After a great master and good (not great) speakers, the next low hanging fruit (i.e., best bang for buck improvement) to improve sound quality is replacing the room. For most people, that's not a practical option, despite being the most logical next step (if only sound quality is considered). Apple has used machine learning in an innovative way to correct for poor room acoustics. I've been waiting 23 years for someone to provide an affordable solution to the very problem HomePod is designed to address. I don't care about Siri performance in the least, beyond functionality equivalent to a three button inline headphone remote.

As far as stereo sound, a single HP provides up to 7.1 discrete channels in a single enclosure. Stereophonic sound does not require multiple enclosures, only multiple drivers. When AirPlay 2 arrives, two HomePods offer the potential of up to 14.2 discrete channels. Claims that HP doesn't support stereo are wholly incorrect.

At last someone who understands what is so intriguing about HomePod! And how it totally isn't Siri.

 

[Crzyrio]

No. That doesn't address beamforming at all, or how Apple is employing the technology. It's not about "deconstructing the audio into 7.1 channels."

While he may not be using the correct terms, the general idea is still true. Apple is doing what no other speaker in remotely this price point is doing. The tech in this $350 speaker isn't seen in anything until you get to $1000+

And if you dont believe me and chose to post random comments with no proof. Heres a post done by an audiophile with actual measurements and the rest of the audiophile community drooling over it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_homepod_the_audiophile_perspective/

 

[citysnaps]

While he may not be using the correct terms, the general idea is still true. Apple is doing what no other speaker in remotely this price point is doing. The tech in this $350 speaker isn't seen in anything until you get to $1000+

And if you dont believe me and chose to post random comments with no proof. Heres a post done by an audiophile with actual measurements and the rest of the audiophile community drooling over it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_homepod_the_audiophile_perspective/

"While he may not be using the correct terms, the general idea is still true."
The general idea as how he presents it is dead wrong. It's more than simply not using the correct terms.

But I don't disagree with you at all with respect to what Apple has developed. It's what I've been saying since HomePod was announced, understanding how beamforming works and its potential. Read some of my previous posts going back several weeks. I have direct experience developing beamformed systems.

 

[Xenomorph]

Wow. This is GREAT for everyone that wanted all the STUPIDITY and USELESSNESS of Siri in a stand-alone device.

 

[radus]

yes SIRI is really stupid.
on the appletv 4 it often recognises correctly, but does not find the item.

google is the winner on this topic because of its larger user base

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

This is the first product launch in years where Apple has entered the market trailing years behind the competition. "Moving to where the puck is going to be", Ha!

 

[The Game 161]

This is the first product launch in years where Apple has entered the market trailing years behind the competition. "Moving to where the puck is going to be", Ha!

Huh? For the most part Apple has never been first on up to date tech. It took this year to get important features that’s been on android for years

While Apple are behind on voice assistants when it comes to sound for a smart speaker they are ahead

 

[BvizioN]

What good is "superior" listeng skills if it can't answer many of the questions?

What good is a superior knowledge and question answering when you suck at listening?
You see, it goes both ways.

 

[pratikindia]

Siri is dumber than Google Assistant, that's I can understand. But dumber than Alexa, Cortana and Bixby? Siri is so much behind these new comers. Bixby can control every aspect of a phone and Siri says "I cannot __". Shame on Apple. It cannot make a smart AI even with all resources available.

 

[sir1963nz]

If you're content (and apparently desire) accessing every aspect of the service from a web browser, you're pretty much Google's ideal customer. Most of us don't share your view on the matter, and increasingly people have given up keeping their own MP3 collections in favor of convenient (and legal) subscription services. Amazon even retired the option to upload your own music in December.

I don't think $25/year is unreasonable, but yes Google offers a similar service for free (until they decide to axe it like Amazon did).

Why they chose to omit home sharing from HomePod, I don't know - but no feature like that exists on any competing device either, you have to have your music uploaded to their services online and I don't see much outrage about that.

i use a radio for my advert supported music service.
It works in my home, my car and for $5 I can give my grandkids a device which allows them to access the same services with no impact on anyones data cap. I can even get a solar powered version for not much more so there is no buying batteries. I have multiple options for the different music genres , I pay $0 a month for access. Hell when I was a kid we built out own radios with a speaker, coil/capacitor and a diode.

My VDSL modem/VOIP gateway does NOT require Google, neither does the interface to my Brother laser printer, or the interface to my wifi router, they all run in a standard web browser, they don't care if you run OSX, Windows,Linux nor which web browser you prefer.

My music library is all ripped from CDs I own, hell I will even admit that most of them I have bought 2nd hand for $1.

If your source closes up, guess what, your music has gone, mine is still with me, I can play it as often as I like , when ever I like with just the tracks I want on any particular day and it works even if the internet dies. If Apple looses the right to stream any of the artists I have in my collection, my answer is so what who cares, I OWN it and I can STILL play it as often as I like.

Apple is also known for axing products, anyone else here remember e-world, me.com, Aperture, or all the hardware product lines they have abandoned, printers, servers, raid arrays, Magsafe connector, iPods, or left languishing, Mac mini, Mac Pro, Airport base stations

 

[FloydPink28]

Jeez what’s up with all the misery here? The speaker has amazing tech that makes it sound great. I spent several hours this weekend sitting in my living room with my dad just throwing songs at it and enjoying the music with each other. When it didn’t understand a song I just pulled out my phone and chose it from the catalog of 45 million songs I get for $11 a month. What’s the big deal? I bought a speaker, it sounds great... what’s the problem?
Y’all need to relax and stop stomping your feet at a speaker. I have an echo, and besides sounding like crap I use it twice a day, to give me news in the morning and to set an alarm for the next morning. These things aren’t making your life better by answering how old Morgan Freeman is correctly.
For the hours I spent listening to music on the HomePod with my dad though it did. I’d never had a memorable experience with a speaker until this one came out. So just relax and enjoy the music.

 

[recoil80]

Siri is server based, we didn't need HomePod reviews to know it lags behind competitors.
The advantage of HomePod is the ability to hear the voice better even with music at high volume, but once the device record the voice the processing is made on the cloud, so an HomePod can't be any better than an iPhone or an iPad.

I'd buy and recommend this product only as a speaker, given that you have Apple music or are willing to subscribe, but I wouldn't use it as a smart speaker. It is too expensive and Siri isn't smart enough.

 

[Machead2012]

52.3% from a product (Smart Speaker) being touted as the end all where voice commands are concerned? Pretty darn pathetic!
My ex-Girlfriend responds more!
Without sounding like a hater i'm fed up with Apple releasing products in their infancy (Beta and other stages) IMHO just to appease the Board Of Directors.
Looks like this is just another early release leaving the customer in the lurch waiting for the fix. Typical.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

Shhh. Don't tell people their trendy new tech sucks. Let them feel smart and popular for a day.
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Can you say the same about the other smart speakers?

This is like saying your fast-food burger tastes better than every other fast-food burger. In the end, it's all a fake, chemically laced byproduct that rots you from the inside.

 

[Skeumorph42]

Seems to me that HomePod is at best a half baked product in anything it does: audio, smart assistantance, home control hub, etc. It's a classic Apple Gen 1 product. I'll hold off on my purchase until it's fully baked. Also, its a little amusing to see many Apple pundits bending over backwards to justify the purchase of this product when it's clearly not competitive with the Sonos/Alexa/Google alternatives out there.

 

[dilbert99]

I think Siri is more than adequate for what most need it for the HomePod. Is it better than Google Home? No. Does it need to be better than the competition? Not necessarily. I use Siri all the time and I really don’t have any general complaints, aside from not understanding some of the things I ask it. None of these voice assistants are perfect.

Siri needs to be able to do home automation - Home Kit.
Siri is bad when it comes to accents, especially the Scottish accent

 

[Heineken]

There is certainly a lot of filtering that goes on when we perceive sound and probably even more so with tasting and smelling. It is easy to find guides on how to improve your ability to taste and distinguish the various types of fine wine by learning to focus both your taste and sense of smell. I think the same would apply to appreciating sound, maybe perhaps not as much though. So I would agree with the notion that ours senses are trainable, taste and sound more so that sight.

Again that's your brain adapting to the task not your tongue or ears, moreover hearing degrades with time no matter what you do, because your ears lose sensitivity. There are no 50 year old audiophiles.

 

[dilbert99]

Siri on HomePod can’t do X therfore it’s at the bottom of the pack when it comes to doing X. Well duh. If the product you want is the smartest AI assistant then HomePod isn’t for you. Then again Apple isn’t marketing HomePod as that. If you want to argue that HomePod should be a different product than it is, fine, but that’s a different conversation. Reviewing/grading HomePod on things you know it can’t do and Apple never said it could do is dumb.

If the Siri was any good, you can bet Apple would be marketing it as the smartest AI assistant around.
I guess one of the problems for Apple is that it is like a dinosaur when trying to open things up to make them useful.
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Whatever they do is fine. If it’s legal, it’s all good. It’s just a personal choice of mine not to support it.

you don't use any of googles services?

 

[Rogifan]

If the Siri was any good, you can bet Apple would be marketing it as the smartest AI assistant around.

So? My point is Apple is marketing this as a great sounding speaker with limited voice capabilities. Review it for what it is. And then let people decide if that’s what they want or not. Apple isn’t out there overselling Siri on this thing. The company is mostly focusing on sound quality.

 

[sirozha]

I was goint to wait on the HomePod to use for my home automation.

I received a google home mini for Christmas, and only recently did I open it and make it part of my system. The integration was quite seamless and I couldn’t be happier. All of my HomeKit products were compatible with google home, which was a bonus.

Google assistant is leaps and bounds better than Siri (aka Sori). I turned off Siri and downloaded google assistant on my phone; I haven’t looked back since.

Would love to use Google assistant on the iPhone natively, but it's not possible.
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None of your 10 year old sonos equipment is 'smart', and there's not a software update in the world that can change that..

As long is the owner is smart, speakers and amplifiers don't have to be.

 

[zoozx]

I can't ever remember when apple users dismissed or made excuses for a inferior apple products.
Siri and apple are no longer cutting edge in new product development. They haven't been for years now, BUT the reputation still sells lagging overpriced products.

 

[bobob]

As long is the owner is smart, speakers and amplifiers don't have to be.

Same thing goes for phones.

 

[iTurbo]

Why, what’s so bad about adding an always on device with superior listening skills that answers 1 out of every 2 questions correctly?

I just see them as an invasion of privacy that has potential to be hacked or used nefariously.