Actually, they are protecting privacy by not allowing your data to flow through third parties. It’s like YOU didn’t even educate yourself.
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Sonos Complains About Apple's Restrictions on Third-Party Siri Access in Antitrust Hearing
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Is this the same Sonos that removed the ability to stream directly from my iPhone and iPad to my Play:1 speakers?
To me, Apple's requirement for a HomePod makes sense based on their stated goal of consumer privacy. Or their need for control if you are feeling less charitable. What surprises me most about the requirements is that you can't use an AppleTV in place of a HomePod.
This is all rampant speculation, but I see several advantages for requiring a HomePod:
- Lower computational requirements and simpler implementation for third-party devices
- Less data available to third-party device manufacturers
- Future on-HomePod processing of Siri requests
- HomeKit control requests would need to pass to a HomePod or AppleTV anyways
Homepod had its day and apple squandered it. Siri is worthless but HomeKit is a better setup than amazon for example. If I could simply setup a sonos to take Siri commands I’d be happy as HomePod was supposed to be apple’s entry into home audio. Instead it only amounted to streaming audio and you can’t have more than 8 HomePods before they start cutting out.
Sonos can do 32. I know this is a apple forum and I have a lot of apple gear, but call each what they are. Sonos never should have bricked devices, apple should have put their money where their mouth is and made Siri better and more widely available.
Today, all the things apple is doing are a result of not wanting regulation. Not because they want what is best for us. Call it what it is.
Sonos can do 32. I know this is a apple forum and I have a lot of apple gear, but call each what they are. Sonos never should have bricked devices, apple should have put their money where their mouth is and made Siri better and more widely available.
Today, all the things apple is doing are a result of not wanting regulation. Not because they want what is best for us. Call it what it is.
Or you could just read the instructions.
Apple already fixed the speaker choice you mentioned. They quit making the only speaker they have that competes with Sonos speakers, HomePod. All Apple has is the HomePod Mini. Not much of a choice.
You don’t need a HomePod. An Apple TV or a (charged) iPad works as a home hub too.
I'm sorry, did you see me discuss the merits of why they're doing it that way? I fully understand that there may be a good reason Apple is doing third-party Siri the way they are. Take a seat.
Even the absolute joke that is Amazon’s software team figured out how to implement Alexa into basically everything from smart speakers to cars to cameras etc etc. But apple can’t figure out some sort of integration? Not even through MFI?
I mean I can’t blame them, HomePods have been an abysmal commercial failure and they’ve got extra stock
I mean I can’t blame them, HomePods have been an abysmal commercial failure and they’ve got extra stock
I won't buy Sonos since they canceled their customers.
Sorry Sonos, you shot yourself in the foot. And THEN you shot yourself in the hand thinking that it would make your foot stop hurting. We used to say that when we were kids, but even the slow kids in the neighborhood knew that we were joking. Nobody was stupid enough to ACTUALLY DO IT. But we were all kids; not an adult in the bunch. Maybe that's our answer?
But there you go, and now your hand hurts too!
Sorry Sonos, you shot yourself in the foot. And THEN you shot yourself in the hand thinking that it would make your foot stop hurting. We used to say that when we were kids, but even the slow kids in the neighborhood knew that we were joking. Nobody was stupid enough to ACTUALLY DO IT. But we were all kids; not an adult in the bunch. Maybe that's our answer?
But there you go, and now your hand hurts too!
I'm 100% for standards. We're sprinting right into a brick wall if we aren't careful.
We saw what happened if you don't regulate companies back in the 00's of cell phone power cables. Clearly no company can be trusted. We saw what cluster truck that was Document standards...
I'm ok with slowing down innovation primarily because I don't trust companies not to want change for the sake of more profit. They don't put customers first -- and if they are publicly traded, they legally can't -- profit has to come first.
So... federal regulations are what needs to happen. Especially in relation to HomeKit and home devices.
I have a Bose Home Speaker 500 and when you set-up you either choose Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa as your voice assistant. I am not sure why anyone would want both running at the same time. Imagine if Siri was thrown into the mix what a mess that would be if all are running at the same time. I guess maybe you could get them all to talk to each other as a joke.
I honestly think this requirement is more about user experience then just being anti-competitive.
Sonos will likely be bought up by Google, Amazon or Apple at some point. It sounds like they are just throwing accusations against the wall hoping something will stick.
I honestly think this requirement is more about user experience then just being anti-competitive.
Sonos will likely be bought up by Google, Amazon or Apple at some point. It sounds like they are just throwing accusations against the wall hoping something will stick.
“you either choose Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa”
“I am not sure why anyone would want both running at the same time”
so which is it?
This is easily mitigated by exclusivity agreements which apple easily has the leverage to do. This is more likely apple not wanting to help competition sell Siri smart speakers (not sure why they’d want to do that in the first place with Siri being what it is but whatever), or they’re worried they’d have to discontinue the mini homepod as well
You must have zero imagination if you can’t think of why someone might want more than one assistant active. Some households are split households where not every family member uses the same ecosystem. I’m not sure why you assume multiple assistants would be a mess. You can make it so only one assistant is in immediate use at a time. You’d have to intentionally try to break the system to cause issues.
I do not know enough of the reason for this (could be anti-competitive or it could be for security/privacy).
Obviously.
Having worked in a number of standards bodies, I am surprised that this is not the common approach of taking the worst part of all three, but genuinely picked the best of HomeKit and the others.
Takes money and engineers. Easier to just complain a.
Build With Matter | Smart Home Device Solution
Matter creates connections between devices, simplifies development for manufacturers, and increases compatibility for consumers.buildwithmatter.com
I see a lot of companies participating in Matter, but notice that Sonos is not among them. Perhaps they should join the alliance for the new standard, rather than complaining about it.
You should have seen the thread earlier about the investigation of Apple and Google. So many were outraged that governments are even keeping an eye on what tech companies are doing. Apparently Apple has earned the right to do whatever they want just because their products are popular. Don't remember them arguing Microsoft had earned the right to do whatever they want back when people had clearly voted with their wallets and chosen that company over the unix alternatives.
Alexa runs almost nothing on device and does not care about privacy, so everything is sent to AWS for processing.
Much of the code for Siri runs on the HomePod, in order to maintain privacy and support continuity.
MfI is a licensing agreement and has nothing to do with this.
They have been completely sold old for several days, and almost completely sold out for a few months.
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yes that’s how that would be done, and it’s frankly insulting to suggest they can’t somehow figure out how to use something as shockingly abstract as a secure web service
Yes it does, it lets apple make demands on aspects of the device manufacturing and standards
lol I wonder who controls the supply
Sonos really has some balls griping like this, considering they repeatedly make decisions that are hostile to their customers.
As smart-home devices become more prevalent, and as technology controls more in and out of the home, security will become more and more paramount. I consciously choose to stay with Apple products, from laptops to iPads to phones, because of the relatively seamless integration and best-in-class security. The more 3rd parties are allowed into that ecosystem, the less secure the ecosystem becomes.
I have a house full of gen 1 Play 3s and Play 5s that sit unused because of Sonos' planned obsolescence and non-upgradability to build in airplay.
I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know much about anti-trust law. But as I see it, it's Apple's ecosystem, they built it, they perfected it, and they are under no obligation to make it easier for their competitors. Play by Apple's rules, or stick with Android.
As smart-home devices become more prevalent, and as technology controls more in and out of the home, security will become more and more paramount. I consciously choose to stay with Apple products, from laptops to iPads to phones, because of the relatively seamless integration and best-in-class security. The more 3rd parties are allowed into that ecosystem, the less secure the ecosystem becomes.
I have a house full of gen 1 Play 3s and Play 5s that sit unused because of Sonos' planned obsolescence and non-upgradability to build in airplay.
I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know much about anti-trust law. But as I see it, it's Apple's ecosystem, they built it, they perfected it, and they are under no obligation to make it easier for their competitors. Play by Apple's rules, or stick with Android.
Sonos is complaining that Apple won’t let Siri run natively on their hardware, unlike on HomePod? This is like Psystar saying Apple has a monopoly over Mac OS and must allow clones….
Apple does not have a monopoly in any market they operate in. In PCs, Microsoft (and now Google) have more market share. In mobile, Google has more market share. In music, Spotify has more market share. In smart home, Amazon and Google control the market. And yet, every company wants to jump on the “Apple is a monopoly” train with more and more outlandish claims.
What these companies are really upset about is that Apple, with its minority market share, has the lion’s share of the profits. That’s not called being a monopoly. That’s called smart business- Apple focuses on the high-end and the user experience. Other companies chase market share and the lowest common denominator. The fact that Apple’a strategy has paid off for them does not make Apple a monopoly.
Apple does not have a monopoly in any market they operate in. In PCs, Microsoft (and now Google) have more market share. In mobile, Google has more market share. In music, Spotify has more market share. In smart home, Amazon and Google control the market. And yet, every company wants to jump on the “Apple is a monopoly” train with more and more outlandish claims.
What these companies are really upset about is that Apple, with its minority market share, has the lion’s share of the profits. That’s not called being a monopoly. That’s called smart business- Apple focuses on the high-end and the user experience. Other companies chase market share and the lowest common denominator. The fact that Apple’a strategy has paid off for them does not make Apple a monopoly.
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The complaint won’t fly. Apple are moving towards a future where Siri, for the most part, lives ON the device, not just a microphone that connects to a remote speech processor. In such a world, how can a Sonos device interact with Siri, when Siri software and hardware must exist on the Sonos device itself. You can’t force Apple to sell a Siri module to solder into your product any more than you can force them to sell you a T2 security module.
