HomePod

NabyLadistheman

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/homepod-arrives-february-9-available-to-order-this-friday/

So HomePod is finally coming & is available from the 9th Feb. $349 seems pricey! Whose going to be getting one?!

peteeeed

Ill wait for reviews

bluemachaveli

Depends on Siri really. I'm still pissed it doesn't work on Apple TV

Zhane

I'm gonna wait till more updates are issues and if they bring out the next one. I very rarely buy first gen products.

duridian

If they do as good a job on the speaker as they did with the smaller ones in iPad Pro, then this should sound spectacular for the size.
Siri could be a bit of a weak point though. Google Assistant and Alexa have a bit of a jump on them in that regard, and Apple need to improve it if they want this to be a real big hit.

peteeeed

Quick review here
http://www.refinery29.com/2018/01/188840/apple-homepod-speaker-quality

faceman

As much of an Apple fan I am, they’ve missed the mark by miles on this one. The competition have better products at better prices.

Sonos are now selling 2 of their Sonos One speakers with Alexa for the same price of 1 HomePod.

Plus Siri is crap as an assistant.

Zhane

faceman wrote: »

As much of an Apple fan I am, they’ve missed the mark by miles on this one. The competition have better products at better prices.

Sonos are now selling 2 of their Sonos One speakers with Alexa for the same price of 1 HomePod.

Plus Siri is crap as an assistant.

If I had a €1 for every time some says they've missed the mark....

And Sonos offering that promotion is simply in retaliation. They can see that the Homepod will be a competitor.

I trust Apple have a plan for the Homepod. They are not stupid, they know what the competitors do and they know what Siri is not capable of right now. This might be wishful thinking, but i think Junes WWDC keynote will be very Siri focused. That being said, I'm still not getting this version.

faceman

Zhane wrote: »

If I had a €1 for every time some says they've missed the mark....

And Sonos offering that promotion is simply in retaliation. They can see that the Homepod will be a competitor.

I trust Apple have a plan for the Homepod. They are not stupid, they know what the competitors do and they know what Siri is not capable of right now. This might be wishful thinking, but i think Junes WWDC keynote will be very Siri focused. That being said, I'm still not getting this version.

Homepod only supports a premium Apple Music account. Sonos, Echo and Google support numerous music streaming options.

Far overpriced compared to its competitors.

Siri vastly inferior to what it offers.

For now, gen 1 of HomePod is dead before it’s out.

Oafley Jones

faceman wrote: »

Homepod only supports a premium Apple Music account. Sonos, Echo and Google support numerous music streaming options.

Far overpriced compared to its competitors.

Siri vastly inferior to what it offers.

For now, gen 1 of HomePod is dead before it’s out.

It's a throughly un-compelling product. It's doesn't seem to have any single feature that'll give it an advantage over the competition. I know Apple feel they can't cede the sitting room to Amazon and Google, but they've show **** all ability or interest in leveraging Siri and this seems so half arsed. As an assistant it just seems to get worse every year for me. I just worry that this will launch and exist in that space of the new Mac Pro/Hifi and just languish around until they kill it.

duridian

faceman wrote: »

Homepod only supports a premium Apple Music account. Sonos, Echo and Google support numerous music streaming options.
...
For now, gen 1 of HomePod is dead before it’s out.

Didn't realise that. In that case things are looking pretty grim. I thought you would be able to use other services, Play Music, Spotify, Deezer, etc. Very much a one trick pony so.

Creamy Goodness

I wouldn’t say it’s dead before it comes out, based purely on the fact people said that about the iPhone (can’t do video), the iPod (doesn’t play certain formats) and the watch (bigger in revenue than Rolex).

But even then I’m struggling to want a HomePod. It looks beautiful and will probably sound it too but I still think all voice assistants are weak.

Alexa is fine, but only recently came to Ireland (this week, I know there were ways around it but still), but the physical device looks ugly.

Google assistant is the best out of the lot, but again ye hardware doesn’t look nice and I’m not hugely in the google ecosystem for reasons.

Siri is good at simple things, has way more languages than any of the others but gets things wrong far too often. What’s worse is when it’s wrong it’s too sassy about it and it frustrates the living hell out of me.

So a HomePod that’s focused on music with Siri on the side is fine, but when it was delayed for so long, and he two main audio features (airplay2 and multi-channel audio) don’t even ship day one you’ve got to wonder.

The HomePod does have an A8 SOC on board though and has multiple speakers and loads of microphones so perhaps it’s something that will get much better overtime.

At €249 I’d take a punt, but €349 is a bit too rich right now considering what it does right now.

peteeeed

i have apple music so i will probably get one at some stage

faceman

peteeeed wrote: »

i have apple music so i will probably get one at some stage

Sonos supports Apple Music too. I’d be politely steering you in that direction instead tbh.

murpho999

peteeeed wrote: »

i have apple music so i will probably get one at some stage

I have Apple music too but that would not make me get it.

Firstly, Siri would have to catch up with the competition. I use it a good bit and it is handy but it does mishear a lot and it needs to be able to do more.

Also, a speaker like this will be used by more than one person. So my wife has Spotify through her Vodafone contract and she would not be able to use the speaker which is just wrong.

I think Apple should open that up.

€349 is a ridiculous price as well.

peteeeed

to me i would mainly use it for listening to music no until full reviews are out i'll not be buying it

Bob24

I'll wait for reviews from audio equipment websites, but I am cautiously positive about it since initial impressions seem to indicate their sound quality blows other smart speakers out of the water and it has a hi-fi feel. If I was to buy HomePods it would be to listen to music in good quality throughout a room, I don't care for Siri.

One potential issue for me though is the lack of line in connector. What do people do if they want to output the audio of their TV/gaming console to the HomePod?

glideslope

HomePod has Airplay ( Airplay 2 is on the way ) so if you have Spotify you can use the HomePod to play your music like any other Airplay speaker. Siri on the HomePod will only work with Apple Music.

The question is though - if I buy one of these HomePods in the UK, will Siri work here? Siri on the Apple TV is currently not supported here so will it be the same case with the HomePod?

murpho999

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAYm688TMo

https://youtu.be/-kAYm688TMo

Link also provided as you tube tags appear not to be working.

This guy summarises it pretty well. Apple are charging a premim for a beta product at launch with updates to follow months later

flexcon

glideslope wrote: »

HomePod has Airplay ( Airplay 2 is on the way ) so if you have Spotify you can use the HomePod to play your music like any other Airplay speaker. Siri on the HomePod will only work with Apple Music.

The question is though - if I buy one of these HomePods in the UK, will Siri work here? Siri on the Apple TV is currently not supported here so will it be the same case with the HomePod?

Yes I can confirm it works. I have a close friend who was lucky enough to test this as an employee in Apple. You need a UK Apple ID ( Very simple to create ).

This works for both Apple TV and Homepod.

One downside to this though, Since its a UK Apple ID you will need to have a UK sub of Apple Music for the full experience.

bluemachaveli

flexcon wrote: »

Yes I can confirm it works. I have a close friend who was lucky enough to test this as an employee in Apple. You need a UK Apple ID ( Very simple to create ).

This works for both Apple TV and Homepod.

One downside to this though, Since its a UK Apple ID you will need to have a UK sub of Apple Music for the full experience.

Changing the region is an absolute pain tho. I can't change my main account due to having a family share setup. There's no point in using a throwaway account as you won't have Apple Music, Homekit etc.

It baffles me how Siri can be on the iPhone here and not on the Apple TV & Homepod (potentially).

whippet

can you change your AppleID to a UK one?

bluemachaveli

whippet wrote: »

can you change your AppleID to a UK one?

You can, but you lose any credit you might have on the account. You may also lose some purchases if they are not available in the region you are switching to.

https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT201389

flexcon

whippet wrote: »

can you change your AppleID to a UK one?

instead of changing you should create another new one for the UK

AFAIK you don't need to change the region anymore on Apple TV and the Homepod. They removed that part. Just the UK Apple ID

whippet

flexcon wrote: »

instead of changing you should create another new one for the UK

AFAIK you don't need to change the region anymore on Apple TV and the Homepod. They removed that part. Just the UK Apple ID

if I create a UK ID, how will that affect my music subscriptions etc?

glideslope

flexcon wrote: »

Yes I can confirm it works. I have a close friend who was lucky enough to test this as an employee in Apple. You need a UK Apple ID ( Very simple to create ).

This works for both Apple TV and Homepod.

One downside to this though, Since its a UK Apple ID you will need to have a UK sub of Apple Music for the full experience.

Thanks for the info. That’s unfortunate though as I don’t want to use a uk Id. Will have to wait until it’s launched here.

flexcon

whippet wrote: »

if I create a UK ID, how will that affect my music subscriptions etc?

They won't be related.

In the case above, you need to cancel your Irish subscription and start a UK one on your UK Apple ID.

In other words - if you have playlists built up on your Irish one, no point in doing this

davo2001

Can you purchase a Sonos play3 (not just the play1 or Sonos1) and an amazon echo dot or google home mini for the same price as this.

And there is no way in hell the Homepod will be able to match the sound quality of a play3 given it's size.

flexcon

davo2001 wrote: »

Can you purchase a Sonos play3 (not just the play1 or Sonos1) and an amazon echo dot or google home mini for the same price as this.

And there is no way in hell the Homepod will be able to match the sound quality of a play3 given it's size.

While that is true, I think you have to remember that once you are invested in an ECO system it's expensive to get out and get the equivalent

for example if I did the above, then that would be literally mean all my existing home kit is a mess.

If starting from scratch, then yes - But that goes for any Apple Device.

Oafley Jones

davo2001 wrote: »

Can you purchase a Sonos play3 (not just the play1 or Sonos1) and an amazon echo dot or google home mini for the same price as this.

And there is no way in hell the Homepod will be able to match the sound quality of a play3 given it's size.

I’ve a play 3. It’s the oldest product Sonos sell and while it’s still fairly decent, I’d take a pair of the new Ones in stereo over it. Tempted to do this at the living room at the moment actually.

Bob24

Reviews round-up: http://appleinsider.com/articles/18/02/06/homepod-review-roundup-apples-smart-speaker-sounds-incredible-but-siri-is-lacking

Basically the consensus seems to be great audio quality as a speaker but but as good at the smart part and restricted to the Apple ecosystem.

I'll have to give it a try bit depending one how great the audio quality is I might actually be interesting as I am in the Apple ecosystem anyone and don't care for "smart" features.

Bob24

And What Hi-Fi which I would trust a bit more than the generalist tech website in terms gauging audio quality: https://www.whathifi.com/apple/homepod/review

Despite some flaws and limitations, the HomePod is the best-sounding smart speaker available - and by quite a margin.

I have to say I am a little excited ...

faceman

Having read the full reviews for this it’s clear that it’s a much higher end speaker than we were first anticipating. Comparisons with the Sonos 5 are being made which means that it’s a very high end speaker.

Downside though is that Siri functionality is even less than what Siri does on the iPhone and the HomePod is tied to the Apple ecosystem more than any other Apple product.

It definitely feels like an Apple Watch series 0. Come the next release of HomePod they no doubt will have addressed the failings.

Bob24

For me the likely deal breaker will be the lack aux audio input (unless there’s one and I missed that).

I am 100% in the Apple echo system (iPhone, iPad, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Watch, MacBook Pro, AirPort Extreme ... the whole lot), but still there are use cases for outputting audio from other devices. For exemple if sound quality is that high end i could consider getting a pair as the stereo system for my living room... but it would need to be able to render audio from a TV or gaming console

murpho999

Like most tech products it's all about the software.

This product is not complete. Too limited and being restricted to Apple products make this a 'wait till Model 2" product.

flexcon

Bob24 wrote: »

For me the likely deal breaker will be the lack aux audio input (unless there’s one and I missed that).

I am 100% in the Apple echo system (iPhone, iPad, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Watch, MacBook Pro, AirPort Extreme ... the whole lot), but still there are use cases for outputting audio from other devices. For exemple if sound quality is that high end i could consider getting a pair as the stereo system for my living room... but it would need to be able to render audio from a TV or gaming console

No AUX input, and you cannot use the bluetooth in the device to cast music to it

Bluetooth is only used with the initial pairing. Seems weird, but true.,

Bob24

Not sure about “wait for v2” of the concerns are the lack of AUX and Bluetooth input. Those are deliberate restrictions from Apple rather that typical V1 technology/cost related restrictions. I wouldn’t necessarily count on them reversing those choices in a new version.

And for me asside from these (especially the AUX input as personally I don’t care for Bluetooth and prefer AirPlay, but of course understand how Bluetooth is important to other people) I don’t see anything lacking in the V1 which would make me want a V2. Whereas if you took the Apple Watch at launch the flaws and things they would have to address were obvious to me.

adox

The Homepod seems to be the opposite of what the competition have released as a smart speaker. Whereas the others have released what is primarily a smart speaker with extensive smart functions and the speaker itself being secondary, Apple seem to have released a very good speaker with smart functions as an after thought.

There isnt a hope in hell Id buy this. Siri is limited enough as it is without an even more limited version on this.

Although Im quie heavily tied into the Apple eco system, I dont subscribe to Apple Music, i use Spotify and found it quite easy to first integrate an Amazon echo and then switch to a Google Home.

Apple are way behind the curve with this product and probably could never instantly catch up with the smart features of the other two so maybe they concentrated more on the speaker as a selling point but, as with a lot of Apple products on launch, it feels half done and very restrictive.

davo2001

adox wrote: »

The Homepod seems to be the opposite of what the competition have released as a smart speaker. Whereas the others have released what is primarily a smart speaker with extensive smart functions and the speaker itself being secondary

Absolutely not true with the SONOS speaker.

Creamy Goodness

WWDC this year will make or break this product I think.

If they extend the SiriKit domains to music - which is the absolute minimum they have to do to make this product something I'd want - then this will start to fly off the shelves. If Apple don't do it at this WWDC they'll never do it and it'll just be an Apple Music/iTunes/Apple Podcasts speaker.

adox

davo2001 wrote: »

Absolutely not true with the SONOS speaker.

Well true but Sonos dont have their own smart assistant and are integrating others so I wasnt talking about them really.

glideslope

I won’t buy the HomePod until Siri supports Spotify and is able to recognise different voices so that all family members can use it. That’s at least a year away and by then it will be available on the Irish Apple store.

In the meantime, I went out and bought a Sonos Play 3 for €279 to add to my play 1 for multi room audio and it all works great with Spotify.

Bob24

adox wrote: »

The Homepod seems to be the opposite of what the competition have released as a smart speaker. Whereas the others have released what is primarily a smart speaker with extensive smart functions and the speaker itself being secondary, Apple seem to have released a very good speaker with smart functions as an after thought.

There isnt a hope in hell Id buy this. Siri is limited enough as it is without an even more limited version on this.

Although Im quie heavily tied into the Apple eco system, I dont subscribe to Apple Music, i use Spotify and found it quite easy to first integrate an Amazon echo and then switch to a Google Home.

Apple are way behind the curve with this product and probably could never instantly catch up with the smart features of the other two so maybe they concentrated more on the speaker as a selling point but, as with a lot of Apple products on launch, it feels half done and very restrictive.

I guess there are a different target audiences. I might be in a small minority I am not sure, but personally I have little interest in “smart” features and all I want is an easy to use speaker which outputs great sound from my various sources (including wirelessly for iPhones and iPads) and plays nice in the Apple ecosystem. This is why I was never interested in the Google or Amazon offerings ... the lack of focus on audio quality and complete focus on Siri type of features. So actually personally (and again I might be in a minority) I actually like the way Apple set their priorities compared to the competition.

murpho999

Bob24 wrote: »

Not sure about “wait for v2” of the concerns are the lack of AUX and Bluetooth input. Those are deliberate restrictions from Apple rather that typical V1 technology/cost related restrictions. I wouldn’t necessarily count on them reversing those choices in a new version.

And for me asside from these (especially the AUX input as personally I don’t care for Bluetooth and prefer AirPlay, but of course understand how Bluetooth is important to other people) I don’t see anything lacking in the V1 which would make me want a V2. Whereas if you took the Apple Watch at launch the flaws and things they would have to address were obvious to me.

Lacking at launch:

Stereo Pairing
Multroom
3rd party support, particularly for Spotify Users
Can only sync with one iCloud account
Siri's lack of ability
Security issues, anybody can ask it to read your texts

Creamy Goodness

murpho999 wrote: »

Lacking at launch:

Stereo Pairing
Multroom
3rd party support, particularly for Spotify Users
Can only sync with one iCloud account
Siri's lack of ability
Security issues, anybody can ask it to read your texts

To your last point, you can turn off it being able to read your texts/calendars etc. but it cripples the device further.

peteeeed

so wait till it gets a proper release in this country and see what as been rectified by then

murpho999

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

To your last point, you can turn off it being able to read your texts/calendars etc. but it cripples the device further.

I don't like "solutions" that restrict your device. Same as people who recommend switching almost every function off to spare battery life.

Apple are building up a record of releasing incomplete products at launch over the last few years and it really should stop.

adox

Bob24 wrote: »

I guess there are a different target audiences. I might be in a small minority I am not sure, but personally I have little interest in “smart” features and all I want is an easy to use speaker which outputs great sound from my various sources (including wirelessly for iPhones and iPads) and plays nice in the Apple ecosystem. This is why I was never interested in the Google or Amazon offerings ... the lack of focus on audio quality and complete focus on Siri type of features. So actually personally (and again I might be in a minority) I actually like the way Apple set their priorities compared to the competition.

But by definition they are mono speakers. It cant even be paired for stereo, so its a moot point in a way. If I was going for sound quality id be looking at stereo at least.

I have a Google Home that I use for casual listening and have a Chromecast connected to my Home Theatre system if I want to use the Home as listen to music in better quality.

The smart features are integral to the product and I would say you are in a minority if you want to use it only for music.

I really like a lot of Apple products but this doesnt appeal to me at all and seems to be at near Beta stage for what its supposed to be.

Bob24

murpho999 wrote: »

Lacking at launch:

* Stereo Pairing
* Multroom
- 3rd party support, particularly for Spotify Users
- Can only sync with one iCloud account
Siri's lack of ability
Security issues, anybody can ask it to read your texts

I don’t think any of those are covered by “wait for V2” (which was the original point).

The ones I marked with * will be supported by the V1, the ones marked with - are deliberate choices by Apple which are unlikely to change for a V2 (and if they were to update iOS to support these it would likely work on the V1). Siri will not perform better on V2 than V1 (same as it doesn’t perform better in an iPhone X than on an iPhone 5S), and the security “issue” is not really one as you can disable the feature.

murpho999

Bob24 wrote: »

I don’t think any of those are covered by “wait for V2” (which was the original point).

The ones I marked with * will be supported by the V1, the ones marked with - are deliberate choices by Apple which are unlikely to change for a V2 (and if they were to update iOS to support these it would likely work on the V1). Siri will not perform better on V2 than V1 (same as it doesn’t perform better in an iPhone X than on an iPhone 5S), and the security “issue” is not really one as you can disable the feature.

The starred items will not be available at launch, and therefore the product should not be launched in my opinion.

Blocking the likes of Spotify, is wrong in my opinion. I use Apple Music, so no issue for me but my wife uses Spotify and she would have to jump through hoops to get it to work.

Siri needs to be improved to work better. I would not use an iPhone if it could only work through Siri and that's how it is with the speaker.

Having to disable something is not right either. The security should be better.

All of the above are software issues, so by V2, I mean I would wait until the software is upgraded before buying.
I think it's a very poor product at launch especially when you look at the premium price they charge.

glideslope

murpho999 wrote: »

The starred items will not be available at launch, and therefore the product should not be launched in my opinion.

Blocking the likes of Spotify, is wrong in my opinion. I use Apple Music, so no issue for me but my wife uses Spotify and she would have to jump through hoops to get it to work.

Siri needs to be improved to work better. I would not use an iPhone if it could only work through Siri and that's how it is with the speaker.

Having to disable something is not right either. The security should be better.

All of the above are software issues, so by V2, I mean I would wait until the software is upgraded before buying.
I think it's a very poor product at launch especially when you look at the premium price they charge.

Spotify is not blocked - it will work fine through airplay. The missing feature is being able to use Spotify with Siri ie ask Siri to play a song on Spotify. The HomePod will come up in a list of available devices in your Spotify app.