One author described the HomePod as “Openly Hostile”.....WTH!

TylerLV76

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I don’t have a home theatre any more so this could certainly work for me. I don’t need anything fancy but would like some decent sound. Since it’s integrated with products I already have and trust, it makes sense.

Siri will be improving with Apples acquisition of Vocal IQ, but can wait for that.

Holy cra*, I’m talking myself into buying one of these when I previously didn’t have any interest. 🤣

Lol. The siri thing, Im skeptical on and feel there is a good reason to be. The rest though, you are the person this appeals to and there is nothing wrong with that. My Apple tv is my kitchen tv device and really only bought it for a hub for HomeKit.

Where Apple could have got me was with bluetooth. After hearing it yesterday, I will say with complete certainty, if this thing had bluetooth Id own one right now. In fact, Id own 2. One in my shop at work and one in my living room for when I dont want big booming sound.
 

anon(50597)

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Takes about 30 second to scroll through until you see the homepod displayed but regardless it's at around 2:03.

I don't think anyone is saying you shouldn't buy one. I certainly am not - I'm disappointed with some of the shortcomings but that didn't stop me from buying one. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I wish it had a line in so I could plug an echo into it and have the best of both worlds - Alexa and the superior sound of the HomePod.

Apple TV is ok, does the job but doesn't necessarily do anything substantially better than competing products for what I primarily use it for (Netflix / Hulu / HBO NOW).

I love my Apple Watch and if the iteration of the HomePod is in anyway similar to what we've seen with the Apple Watch it will be successful. I'm a bit nervous though considering how slow (to non-existant) the advancements in SiriKit have been since it was released.

None of that changes that the reviews are not being unfair like the premise of this topic implied.

A line in would be excellent, no doubt. Maybe HomePod2 will.
 

Just_Me_D

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The HomePod is designed to work with Apple Music, from the beginning. That is what Phil Shiller said during the Keynote.
 

jgibson2400

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Where Apple could have got me was with bluetooth. After hearing it yesterday, I will say with complete certainty, if this thing had bluetooth Id own one right now. In fact, Id own 2.

This is the one of the areas where I think the accusations of being hostile (or better stated consumer unfriendly) is justifiable. I can understand no line in (even though I think it would have made it an better product) to keep it fully wireless. But I cannot think of a compelling reason (other than lock-in?) to why Bluetooth (which it has all the hardware for) is not enabled for audio. If anyone has a compelling reason for the omission I'd love to hear it.
 

jgibson2400

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The HomePod is designed to work with Apple Music, from the beginning. That is what Phil Shiller said during the Keynote.

Of course, just as Google Home is designed to work with Google Play Music and Amazon Echo is designed to work with Amazon's Music service. The difference is that while the competitors to the HomePod designed their products to work with their music services they created a platform that also allows consumers to also use other services with their devices if they have the desire to do so.

Beating the same drum to death... Not a problem if it wasn't presented as a competitor to the other smart speakers but since it was - completely fair to make it a point in the reviews that HomePod fails to offer similar options.
 

TylerLV76

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The HomePod is designed to work with Apple Music, from the beginning. That is what Phil Shiller said during the Keynote.

I think many of us, myself included, expected it to be like other devices where its primary goal was Apple Music but would still have bluetooth for all platforms like the AirPods do. I dont think anyone, a couple months ago, would have ever imagined bluetooth would be disabled. It was disappointing.
 

anon(50597)

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I think we’re arguing semantics here.
It will most likely be successful.
It will make most Apple devotees happy.
Apple will be profitable from it.
Siri integration will improve.
The HomePod2 will come out.
People will continue to find fault.
The HomePod2 will be successful.......

I enjoy the conversation though!
 

xanadome

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The HomePod2 will come out.

I saw an article somewhere that Apple is planning "HomePad Mini".
HomePad Mini?.....
Hope Apple wouldn't be too carried away with the HomePad thing and obsessed with it, when they should produce/update other "Mini" stuff, lol
 

anon(50597)

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I saw an article somewhere that Apple is planning "HomePad Mini".
HomePad Mini?.....
Hope Apple wouldn't be too carried away with the HomePad thing and obsessed with it, when they should produce/update other "Mini" stuff, lol

So one for your desk?
Why not? Bring it on.
 

jgibson2400

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I think we’re arguing semantics here.
It will most likely be successful.
It will make most Apple devotees happy.
Apple will be profitable from it.
Siri integration will improve.
The HomePod2 will come out.
People will continue to find fault.
The HomePod2 will be successful.......

I enjoy the conversation though!

Agreed and I hope so. So much potential. Let's all hope it gets updated on a cadence similar to the Apple Watch and not treated like a hobby like the Apple TV was initially. If they do that people will not continue to find fault. It will be lauded as an excellent product offering just like Apple Watch is looked at today.

Hope you are right about Siri but as I said I'm nervous. Siri was released ~6.5 years ago and I think we can all agree that the level of improvement from 2011 to today has been abysmal compared to how much more other companies voice assistants have improved in a much shorter time frame.
 

jgibson2400

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I saw an article somewhere that Apple is planning "HomePad Mini".
HomePad Mini?.....
Hope Apple wouldn't be too carried away with the HomePad thing and obsessed with it, when they should produce/update other "Mini" stuff, lol

I would find HomePad soundbar for a television much more compelling.
 

anon(50597)

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Agreed and I hope so. So much potential. Let's all hope it gets updated on a cadence similar to the Apple Watch and not treated like a hobby like the Apple TV was initially. If they do that people will not continue to find fault. It will be lauded as an excellent product offering just like Apple Watch is looked at today.

Hope you are right about Siri but as I said I'm nervous. Siri was released ~6.5 years ago and I think we can all agree that the level of improvement from 2011 to today has been abysmal compared to how much more other companies voice assistants have improved in a much shorter time frame.

I agree. Siri has pretty much been ignored since it was implemented. From what I have read (I’m no expert) some acquisitions lately point to Siri improvements. All we can do is sit back and hope.
 

xanadome

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So one for your desk?
Why not? Bring it on.

I was just sarcastic for the fun of it.
But I actually agree with you. If it's a mini version, I might buy it. I have a big surround sound system, which is one of the reasons I was not interested in this heavy stuff (besides, my daughter is constantly shouting "Alexa!" :)
For the casual listening, my portable mini stereo is suffice with the airplay from my iPhone.
But the current HomePod is very heavy, as with any good speaker system (heavy coils and magnets).
Very portable desktop, like Echo, might be useful with Siri.
As long as this is not Apple's way of mea culpa on pricing, lol lol
 

anon(50597)

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I was just sarcastic for the fun of it.
But I actually agree with you. If it's a mini version, I might buy it. I have a big surround sound system, which is one of the reasons I was not interested in this heavy stuff (besides, my daughter is constantly shouting "Alexa!" :)
For the casual listening, my portable mini stereo is suffice with the airplay from my iPhone.
But the current HomePod is very heavy, as with any good speaker system (heavy coils and magnets).
Very portable desktop, like Echo, might be useful with Siri.
As long as this is not Apple's way of mea culpa on pricing, lol lol

Good point about weight, I heard it is very heavy. A mini version would allow easier portability. I wonder what price would be?
 

Rob Phillips

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I can’t disagree with the author here. While other manufacturers have learned to play nice with the competition (i.e. my Echo speakers will natively play music from Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, etc.) HomePod is incredibly Apple-centric. This is Apple though. They like tight integration and have always preferred a closed ecosystem. Aside from price, it’s the main reason I won’t be investing in a HomePod for the time being. Furthermore, I already own four Echo devices so I’m not sure introducing a HomePod makes sense for me at this point. Only time will tell.
 

Steven Sabo

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While this may be convoluted, this is how I stream a non apple device to the HomePod. On my windows laptop, I am running a program called airserver. It basically allows my laptop to act as an Apple TV. I can then airplay whatever to and from the laptop. I can also play audio off the laptop through the HomePod using airserver as it allows me to connect to it as an audio device. Today I had a friend connect his android phone via bluetooth to my laptop as a target for audio playback to stream from his phone. It then played through the HomePod. While this may not be an ideal setup, it does work.
 

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