Are you guys also planning a 5 reasons not to?
Yeah, people are just dying to read more pessimistic articles
Are you guys also planning a 5 reasons not to?
And yet...I've had Echo dots for years now...find them to be crap, and unimpressive, and looking to get Home Pod mini now.1. You can buy 2-3 Echo dots for the same price. 5 right now if you go with the previous gen.
2. Alexa has supported this for years.
3. Much, much more smart products support Alexa than Homekit, and cost generally half as much.
4. Yeah Alexa has also supported this for two years now.
5. Why do I need this? It's a cute gimmick but other than that I can continue playback on my Alexa devices with a voice command.
So let's see: close to whole home coverage for the price of one Homepod Mini thanks to the Best Buy sale going on right now, the same if not better functionality in regards to communication and control of smart devices around the home, easy stereo pairing that improves sound quality dramatically with minimal effort and supports ALL music streaming services including Apple's? Sorry, but no. Apple needs to try a lot harder and compromise on their ridiculous price margins a bit more before I'd ever consider abandoning my Echos for HomePods, Mini or otherwise.
Really interested in the intercom feature. But I don't quite understand it. Does it require the homepod itself? Apple's keynote mentioned how the message can go to Apple watch and Airpods, so will it work if it's iPhone to iPhone? I mean obviously I can just make a phone call, but I'm assuming it works with the family group in iCloud for Apple's system to recognize to whom it should blast the message, right? So the device shouldn't matter?
Or is it some artificial software feature just for the HomePod mini?
That folks didn't read, doesn't mean Apple lied. And Apple didn't lie again. And Siri is not used for market purposes as I have never had ads presented for queries that I've made. My anecdotal opinion vs another.... you don't think Apple is listening, despite being busted last year for doing just that?
First they said Siri doesn't record ANYTHING, then they said Siri only records ACTIVE requests for quality assurance, then they said their iOS API's prevented other apps from listening in without notifying you. Well they lied, they lied again after getting caught lying the first time, and last week I was presented with ads for rotary sushi restaurants on four separate apps that were not running at that time an hour after mentioning it in a phone conversation. I HATE sushi, I haven't discussed, searched for or even thought about sushi let alone restaurants that serve it rotary style in years, which is how that topic came up in conversation as I was discussing how a place that used to be popular in high school was shutting down because of dropping sales blamed on the Rona. But please, Apple, tell me again how Siri and iOS protect my "privacy."
Alexa devices have a hard button on the top to mute their mics completely. I don't see that functionality anywhere on the HomePod line, hardware or software based. If you're placing a a smart speaker in your home, you need to accept that your conversations are going to be recorded and used for marketing purposes etc. If you cannot abide this, don't get a smart speaker, but at least don't kid yourself into thinking Apple is any different than Amazon in regards to this issue because they've already lied a couple times about it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/28/apple-apologizes-for-listening-to-siri-conversations.html
It's a super low power standard to be used by smart home devices. It's meant to be the successor to zigbee (which is currently what stuff like Phillips Hue and Ikea Tradfrii use).
Essentially, when devices (bulbs, switches) start moving to Thread - the homepod will be able to function as a hub, removing the need to buy a Hue hub or Ikea Hub or whatever. Also, you're removing one device in the chain so instead of HomeKit Hub > Hue Bridge > Lightbulb you are just going straight Homekit Hub > Lightbulb
... you don't think Apple is listening, despite being busted last year for doing just that?
First they said Siri doesn't record ANYTHING, then they said Siri only records ACTIVE requests for quality assurance, then they said their iOS API's prevented other apps from listening in without notifying you. Well they lied, they lied again after getting caught lying the first time, and last week I was presented with ads for rotary sushi restaurants on four separate apps that were not running at that time an hour after mentioning it in a phone conversation. I HATE sushi, I haven't discussed, searched for or even thought about sushi let alone restaurants that serve it rotary style in years, which is how that topic came up in conversation as I was discussing how a place that used to be popular in high school was shutting down because of dropping sales blamed on the Rona. But please, Apple, tell me again how Siri and iOS protect my "privacy."
Top 1 reason not to buy it: Not available in your country.
I actually found this pretty interesting and though about getting it for the bedroom, but apparently I don’t live the right place to be able to buy one.
I’m buying two of these to use as a surround sound system for my living room Apple TV - The software update for the HomePod now allows you to pair these to your Apple TV to use as the default sound system which is definitely awesome! I think Apple is going to sell a lot of these this year for Christmas time!
I think the little HomePod is cute, and I might end up with 1 or 4 someday... But its "$99 price" is not a reason to buy. That's still $99 more than not buying one, which is $0.
You can pair two of the full-sized HomePods to use for simulated surround sound on the Apple TV. The best you can do with a pair of HomePod minis is to pair the two of them to the TV as a stereo pair. Not the same experience.I’m buying two of these to use as a surround sound system for my living room Apple TV - The software update for the HomePod now allows you to pair these to your Apple TV to use as the default sound system which is definitely awesome!
I would be quite surprised if the HomePod mini sounds as good as a Sonos One, given that the one has a larger mid-woofer and a separate tweeter, while the HomePod mini has a single smaller full-range driver.You don't know that. I wouldn't be surprised if e.g. Sonos One sounds better than the HomePod Mini - it's competing well with the normal HomePod.
I’m buying two of these to use as a surround sound system for my living room Apple TV - The software update for the HomePod now allows you to pair these to your Apple TV to use as the default sound system which is definitely awesome! I think Apple is going to sell a lot of these this year for Christmas time!
That’s not a true statement at all. I have 13 speakers in my home theater pushing over 2000 watts rms total. And it sounds way better than my upstairs sound bar.I'm not following. Speakers are speakers. If you already have one smart speaker (HomePod) why would you buy two more tiny ones just to use them as rear surrounds?
The Homepod doesn’t require WiFi. You can airplay directly to it from your iPhone without it being connected to WiFi.The regular HomePod requires WiFi, it’s not a Bluetooth speaker. So that may be another issue there
Yeah that first point kind of disturbs me... reeks of brainwashing... of "c word" brainwashing. (...it's an economic system but I fear being modded for just bringing it up.. starts with c, rhymes with "schism" ...)I think the little HomePod is cute, and I might end up with 1 or 4 someday... But its "$99 price" is not a reason to buy. That's still $99 more than not buying one, which is $0.
... you don't think Apple is listening, despite being busted last year for doing just that?
First they said Siri doesn't record ANYTHING, then they said Siri only records ACTIVE requests for quality assurance, then they said their iOS API's prevented other apps from listening in without notifying you. Well they lied, they lied again after getting caught lying the first time, and last week I was presented with ads for rotary sushi restaurants on four separate apps that were not running at that time an hour after mentioning it in a phone conversation. I HATE sushi, I haven't discussed, searched for or even thought about sushi let alone restaurants that serve it rotary style in years, which is how that topic came up in conversation as I was discussing how a place that used to be popular in high school was shutting down because of dropping sales blamed on the Rona. But please, Apple, tell me again how Siri and iOS protect my "privacy."
Alexa devices have a hard button on the top to mute their mics completely. I don't see that functionality anywhere on the HomePod line, hardware or software based. If you're placing a a smart speaker in your home, you need to accept that your conversations are going to be recorded and used for marketing purposes etc. If you cannot abide this, don't get a smart speaker, but at least don't kid yourself into thinking Apple is any different than Amazon in regards to this issue because they've already lied a couple times about it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/28/apple-apologizes-for-listening-to-siri-conversations.html
btw... do you know if the current Apple TV also supports this? ... I've been wanting to upgrade my Apple TV 3, but if this is coming then I will probably wait.It's a super low power standard to be used by smart home devices. It's meant to be the successor to zigbee (which is currently what stuff like Phillips Hue and Ikea Tradfrii use).
Essentially, when devices (bulbs, switches) start moving to Thread - the homepod will be able to function as a hub, removing the need to buy a Hue hub or Ikea Hub or whatever. Also, you're removing one device in the chain so instead of HomeKit Hub > Hue Bridge > Lightbulb you are just going straight Homekit Hub > Lightbulb