Yesterday saw a river of HomePod reviews. Here are a few that struck me, each with its own unique spin.
For starters, if you have not yet already, spend a few minutes with Jim Dalrymple’s take on HomePod. Jim is passionate about music, is an excellent guitarist, and has a real musician’s take.
With Jim’s review as foundation, take a look at these three reviews:
- Rene Ritchie, iMore: HomePod: Retina for your ears. I love Rene’s analogy comparing HomePod’s computation audio to iPhone and portrait mode. Rene’s review might be the most technically detailed of all the reviews I’ve read. He asks a lot of interesting questions, lays out understandable answers.
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Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch: A four-sentence HomePod review (with appendices). Here’s the four sentences:
Apple’s HomePod is easily the best sounding mainstream smart speaker ever. It’s got better separation and bass response than anything else in its size and boasts a nuance and subtlety of sound that pays off the 7 years Apple has been working on it.
As a smart speaker, it offers best-in-class voice recognition, vastly outstripping the ability of other smart speakers to hear you trying to trigger a command at a distance or while music is playing, but its overall flexibility is stymied by the limited command sets that the Siri protocol offers.
Buy a HomePod if you already have Apple Music or you want to have it and you’re in the market for a single incredibly over-designed and radically impressive speaker that will give you really great sound with basically no tuning, fussing, measuring or tweaking.
What follows is the review itself. Keep an eye out for the discussion of Siri detection (how HomePod picks up a Siri request with music playing or background noise competing with your voice) as well as Matthew’s appreciation of the HomePod power cord.
- John Gruber, Daring Fireball: HomePod. John’s review starts with a tweet-sized summary:
Apple says HomePod:
- Has great audio quality.
- Is easy to set up.
- Makes it easy to play audio content from Apple (Apple Music, iTunes Store, iCloud Music Library, podcasts from iTunes’s directory).
- Has primary interaction via Siri. You just talk to HomePod.
- Allows secondary interaction using HomePod as an AirPlay speaker.
All of this is true.
Great summary. What follows is really worth reading. John avoids all boilerplate, digging into the good and the bad. Pay special attention to the “What’s missing” section towards the top. Every one of these rang true for me. Other than the lack of a line-in jack (I’ll address that in a sec), each of these issues can be addressed, should Apple choose to, in a future software release.
As to the line-in jack, I get that some people are bothered by this, but this is a speaker made for wireless. To me, a wired input would be old school in a bad way. And if the need is large enough, surely someone will step in with a product that allows you to plug any audio source in, then wirelessly bridge that signal to HomePod via AirPlay.
The final review in my list is sort of an anti-review. This one is from the New York Times and, as is often the case with the Times, is a curmudgeonly take with the title, Apple’s HomePod Has Arrived. Don’t Rush to Buy It. The core of this review is a complaint about Siri:
Siri on HomePod is embarrassingly inadequate, even though that is the primary way you interact with it. Siri is sorely lacking in capabilities compared with Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant. Siri doesn’t even work as well on HomePod as it does on the iPhone.
Two points here:
- Know going in that the Siri domain on HomePod is limited, a subset of the Siri domain on your iPhone. This is no secret, and the reviewer should not have been surprised by this.
-
Anyone paying attention knows that HomePod is first and foremost about music, about audio. This review doesn’t even look at audio until near the end of the article.
I find reviews like this mind-bogglingly irresponsible. Clearly, Siri is an issue, but that itself is not the story. This feels like an unbalanced slam. Read the other reviews instead. They all carry the good and the bad, they’ll let you know what’s what.
I don’t totally agree with you. While the main focus is audio, the HomePod is touted as being a competitor to Amazon and Google’s devices. It’s up to reviewers to make that clear. I think a lot of people just assume it’ll be like an Echo with better sound.
Clearly, Siri is an issue, but that itself is not the story
It’s not the story that the main way of interfacing with the HomePod does not work particularly well?
I’d broaden the audio-in jack argument to the lack of both an audio-in and Bluetooth.
This means that this is intended to be an AirPlay and Apple streaming speaker, period. (There are in fact ways to AirPlay from other platforms, although they’re reverse engineered.)
My problem with this is obsolescence. One nice thing of regular BT or wired speakers is they last ~forever and you can stick them anywhere and use them for anything. Not so, here.
As a concrete example: I couldn’t hand-me-down this speaker in the future to a family member who has a Windows machine. That reduces its long-term value, in my opinion. I might still buy it, but it means I’ll think twice about the price.
From what I’ve observed, APPLE is not touting the HomePod to be “like an Echo with better sound”. If REVIEWERS are calling the HomePod “like an Echo with better sound”, I agree with you, and would say that those reviewers are doing their readers a disservice.
From the Apple HomePod page: “It’s the ultimate music authority, bringing together Apple Music and Siri to learn your taste in music. It’s also an intelligent home assistant, capable of handling everyday tasks — and controlling your smart home.” (https://www.apple.com/homepod/)
That quote, combined that with the [4] 15-second ads Apple has produced to promote the HomePod (all focusing on music/sound), gives me the impression that Apple is touting the HomePod as “mainly a great music listening device that can also do some home automation tasks”. Nowhere does Apple talk about things like 3rd-party app voice API/integration, no ability to order stuff from an online stores, etc…
Hopefully, people are not making a purchasing decision based on assumptions, rather are making a semi-informed purchasing decision after doing reasonable research, such as reading multiple product reviews, observing how the manufacturer is positioning the product, trying the product in-store (if possible)…etc…
Overpriced, under-spec’d. Surrounded by hyperbole.
Eh, pretty sure Apple has been billing this thing as an Apple Music speaker with a voice interface.
Of course Apple is comparing it to Amazon and Google. Because both of their speakers are also music speakers with voice interface. But I haven’t seen Apple claim anywhere “its just like an Echo, but with better sound.”
The name of the product even reflects its music focus. Its in the “Pod” family of products.
Well, the problem is that regardless of Apple’s intentions, the Home Pod will be compared, in every aspect, to the competition. There’s just no getting around it. Audiouphile’s are rejoicing, but they are comparatively fewer than the masses that are fine with ‘good enough’ audio provided they get better services for a lower price point. This is the market Apple entered and they did it with an insanely great speaker that has serious limitations and a typical Apple price point that will not hold up under the pressure. Unless major OTA updates are made, we are looking at the 2018 version of the iPod Hi-Fi.
I see you working, but where does the feature request quest end?
For example, we have a JBL speaker dock in the kitchen for listening and charging. The latter goes away when the HomePod arrives. As ugly as an USB port would be we’d use it and, I imagine, it’ll be the one complaint I have about HomePod a few weeks from now.
That’s the essential question, isn’t it.
I appreciate Apple’s minimalism: I love my iPad Pro and in many ways prefer it to my Mac.
It’s just that if, in 10 years, we get to an era where the current Siri product, or the current Apple Music product, morphs into something else, I’d rather a speaker not become a brick.
Either one of those two things would satisfy that requirement.
And this is when we circle back to Apple’s game tape:
Apple has never, ever suggested that it exists to design products that satisfy every single consumer need. HomePod is no different.
Apple’s also telegraphed HomePod’s near-term roadmap, which should clear up any association with the Apple HiFi; HomePod is a speaker with a computer, not a speaker with a connector.
No, HomePod isn’t a competitor to other devices. It ignores the existence of other devices, as makes sense for something with origins more than half a decade ago.
It doesn’t matter that they never suggested it. They have a huge and loyal fanbase (myself included) that want to use and enjoy their products. We want to buy. They want us to buy. That won’t happen if they release a product that is (at the moment) DOA.
Very good point about the computer vs connector. It does differentiate the Pod from the Hi-Fi. Which is why I suggested OTA updates are needed. Hopefully that will do the trick.
Still, how much further behind can Siri be? At this point it seems silly that Google/Alexa can deal with contextual commands and Siri can’t It’s frustrating. I’m pulling for Apple, but they need another leapfrog moment (ala’ iPhone) that will put them back in front in regards to voice command.
Exactly.
If pressed to compare HomePod to Echo-like products I’d say there’s a Venn Diagram that highlights some common features, but this isn’t about apples-to-apples. It’s another classic example of Apple being Apple.
You’ve read/skimmed the reviews, right? HomePod’s clearly not DOA. I won’t address your OTA suggestion because, again, Apple’s told us they’ve got that dialed.
Here you raise a solid question relating to HomePod. No fscking idea is my answer.
I remain baffled by 1) the current state of Siri and 2) how quickly Apple’s frenemies have seemingly surprised Siri.
In fact, in a week’s time I’ll be surprised and peeved if I’m not as frustrated with Siri on HomePod as I am routinely with Siri everywhere else.
FYI the pro trolls are — Verge, WSJ, Bloomberg, NYT. without fail. the personalities behind these publications don’t like apple and routinely grade on a curve.
The very limited Siri feature set is important to many, as by entering this market so late Apple has let Amazon and Google set the expectations for this product space. And, unless you’re an Apple obsessive who reads sites like The Loop regularly, it’s far from common knowledge that Siri on the HomePod can’t do most of the things you can do with Siri on your iPhone.
I don’t know how many people today are willing to drop $350 dollar on a nice sounding speaker that lets you control it via voice command, but offers little in the way of smart features. Maybe many, maybe a few. However, I don’t have a problem with a reviewer being let down by the lack of Siri smarts if that’s something of importance to them. After all, there many who held off on an Amazon Echo or Google Home expecting the HomePod to be Apple’s alternative. It’s not that and there will be disappointment.
but as an interface it DOES work well. better than the competition (read Gruber’s review, voice is heard better than by his Echo). you’re complaining about command sets, which is not the same as not working well.
When every other review praises how WELL Siri works on the HomePod, and is able to detect commands even with volume at full blast, its probably safe to say that Siri does in fact work well.
Siri limitations are a completely different story. Has nothing to do with how well Siri works with the functions HomePod CURRENTLY has.
This is Rev 1. Echo didn’t have as much functionality at Rev 1 either. I’m hoping for some dramatic improvements with SiriKit at WWDC this year.
i have an AP-only wireless speaker that is 5 years old, an iHome thing that was 300 bucks. no obsolescence. it just doesn’t sound nearly as good as the HP and will be replaced.
BT doesn’t have the needed bandwidth for high-quality audio.
using it on Windows is a platform compatibility issue, not obsolescence. wrong word.
classic troll speak.
what processors are the other speakers used to perform their computational audio manipulation? details please.
I think Apple’s focus is on making the most kick ass product they can using current technology. They would be sacrificing their vision by trying to address EVERY concern like that.
In the grand scheme of things, its a $350 consumer electronics product. If you get 10 years out of the thing, I think its safe to say you got your moneys worth.
ah, the classic “Apple is doomed to repeat their past mistakes! Always!” trope. how precious.
says you. it’s not DOA at all and we will certainly be replacing our old AirPlay wireless speaker with this. way better for all the same use cases.
Actually, no. All the reviews listed above note that Siri is limited as an interface as well, in various ways. The “hearing you in loud music” is nice, but just one part of it.
Hmm, where have I heard similar bearish comments?
Oh yea, practically every new Apple product. The iPod, iPhone, iPad, Watch, AirPods have all done pretty well despite the “serious limitations and high price.”
All the other reviews linked above note limitations to Siri on the HomePod, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Yeah exactly. Same here.
As for the “DOA” comment, I’m only referring to the acceptance of the Pod by the masses. I have seen all of the favorable reviews for sure. I mean it’ll be (imho) DOA with wide acceptance for now.
actually yes, the reviews say it hears you and works better than Echo. that’s working well.
your complaint appears to be that Siri doesn’t perform as many commands as you would like it to, which is not the same topic. if this is not your position please clarify.
This debate reminds me of so many others relating to yet-to-be-released new-category Apple products.
Let’s get HomePod in the homes of Apple’s early adopters and learn what we can about their experiences.
As for me, I bought HomePod knowing it’s not going to meet all of my needs. But it meets enough of my needs and it represents enough of an improvement over what I use now that I jumped.
FWIW, if my experience is anything like the surprise, delight and utility I’ve derived from AirPods I’ll be buying several more HomePods. AirPods don’t do everything, but they are…yet another remarkable Apple product.
I guess you have trouble interpreting my second paragraph.
i will without a second thought. i paid $300 for an AirPlay speaker that does nothing except function as an AP endpoint, with muddy sound.
as usual, the techies just can’t wrap their heads around an apple product…that it’s not designed to do everything for everybody, that the prime use cases are within the walled garden, etc. that’s fine. you don’t need to get apple…apple gets its customers and that’s why it continues to have record breaking quarters as the most successful company in human history. customers vote with their wallets, not by comments on tech sites.
Actually, no. The reviews say that it has limitations. E.G., John Gruber points out that Siri can’t handle non Apple Music streaming. That’s a limitation. John Gruber points out that Siri can only handle and learn from one user. That’s a limitation.
I’m happy to go through the other reviews and point things out, but Gruber’s the most pro-Apple, so I’ll stick with that.
I was being nice, because your second paragraph is essentially “well, Apple couldn’t actually make this feature work, so it doesn’t count” which is just silly.
No argument there. AirPods show that Apple continues to release incredible products. I absolutely love mine. That said….they weren’t priced way out of reach either, so that helped a little.
But AirPods are nearly six times the price of Apple’s wired earbuds.
HomePod’s got similar metrics working for or against it depending on who’s counting the money.
Let’s take HomePod out of the guillotine until it actually arrives.
actually yes, you’re continuing to either not understand the topic being discussed or are playing at being obtuse.
again, Siri’s ability to hear you and hear you well is a different topic than Siri’s available command sets. dur dur. How many times can we say this?
and to add you’re flat out wrong — HP Siri can be used to playback Apple Music, but also iTunes Match, iTunes purchases, and iCloud Music Library.
but frankly i never use siri to initiate playback on my existing devices and prefer browsing my library visually.
DOA means “dead on arrival”. meaning a flop that doesn’t sell or generate profit. If you’re redefining it to mean something else, you’re moving the goalposts. Try another word?
Fair enough.
Although the AirPods were priced very similarly to the competition, which is what I meant. So the pricing vs capability argument still holds in my mind.
Actually, yes. I’m understanding the discussion quite well, thanks, I’m just not agreeing with it.
One of the points I’m disagreeing with is this silly attempt to limit the discussion only to how well Siri can hear you. That wasn’t the point of the main post and it’s not my point. My point is that Siri — the main interface on the HomePod — is currently limited, and it’s perfectly reasonable to call that out. Handwaving it away (as the post does) with “but that itself is not the story” is ridiculous.
and to add you’re flat out wrong — HP Siri can be used to playback Apple Music, but also iTunes Match, iTunes purchases, and iCloud Music Library.
Oh, for &^^ sake. Fine. Siri can’t handle non-Apple streaming. Does that work for your OCD pedantry?
Nah you’re just being a brat when it’s pointed out that youre wrong. You tried to claim HP only offered Siri control for AM, but in fact this is quite wrong. Now you’re pissy.
As for other item being discussed, again you’ve moved the goalposts — first you suggested that the voice interface didn’t work well:
…yet the “interface” is the ability to speak and be heard by the HP, and as we’ve pointed out to you several times, this in fact does work well, particularly well. What you are instead complaining about now, is the availability of command sets (“skills” in Alexa parlance).
Do you see how words work? Different words have different meanings. It helps if you stop trying to change them mid-stream in order to shore up your failed claims.
Oh, the circles are making me dizzy!
Nah you’re just being a brat when it’s pointed out that youre wrong
My point was that HomePod does not support non-Apple streaming services. I stated it imprecisely, and you had a great triumph in pointing out that it does in fact support other Apple services. Well done, you.
…yet the “interface” is the ability to speak and be heard by the HP, and as we’ve pointed out to you several times
No, it’s not just that. It’s the ability to do things in response to those commands. So, once again, I’m not agreeing with your assertion that all that matters is whether Siri can hear you.
Customer: Siri’s not playing my Spotify lists.
MD: But it heard you!
Customer: Yes, but it didn’t do anything.
MD: But it heard you!
Customer: I’m getting an Echo.
A quick reality check for people freaking out over the HomePod’s $350 price tag.
iPod Hi-Fi shipped in 2006 and it cost $349. That’s $424.34 in today’s money.
Maybe so many criticisms should be praise after all?
There is a difference between how “well” something works and how “capable” something is.
Whether or not something works “well” is a marker of quality on how it performs a task that it is designed to do.
A product being “capable” is a marker of the breadth of tasks that it is designed to perform.
A “limitation” is a lack of capability, not a lack of how “well” it performs.
So is HomePod in this context.
Google Home Max is $399. And we’ve already discussed the role Amazon plays in this space.
This is exactly what he is trying to tell you.
If you ask HP to do something it is designed to do, but it doesn’t do it, then it does not work well.
If you ask HP to do something it is not designed to do, but it hears you clearly and lets you know it can’t do that. It IS working well, it just doesn’t have the features you want.
It is a subtle but clear distinction between the two.
Speaking of which, HomePod revenue goes into Apple’s Other category, right?
Asymco will provide insight into that category’s progress in a few months.
It’s clear why it’s in Apple’s best interest to limit HomePod to Apple Music at launch.
But I wonder if that limitation will be lifted at some point; after all, iOS plays well with everyone.
If you ask HP to do something it is designed to do, but it doesn’t do it, then it does not work well.
If you ask a piece of equipment something that is part of its core functionality (playing streaming music) and it can’t do it, then it is perfectly reasonable to say that that item does not work well, or is limited.
It’s like arguing a car that can’t get above 20 mph is fine because it’s not designed to do that. Well, thanks.
I think I’ll just start quoting from the reviews themselves to answer people. So, from above: “Clearly, Siri is an issue.”
Where did I say SiriKit is not limited? Thats precisely why I wrote my last paragraph. Because it is.
Once again, you are having trouble understanding what I wrote in my second paragraph. Brandon above gets it. You don’t.
True — I suspect that they will add other services as well eventually.
“My point was that HomePod does not support non-Apple streaming services”
That’s not a Siri limitation. It’s a limitation of the HomePod itself. it’s the same as the one iCloud account limit – not Siri, but the HomePod itself limits that. Siri seems to work fine if you ask it to to something the device can do.
Try asking Alexa to do something that the Echo cannot do. She will fail. Not an Alexa problem, just not something the Echo can do.
The doctors can help you with that.
Lol, you won’t find audio quality on spec sheet. Overpriced? Yeah, if you only shop at Walmart. Quality speakers are VERY EXPENSIVE.
Try not to waive your ignorance around on flag, silly troll.
BT can’t support the audio quality of Airplay or Wifi so it would undercut the HP’s main feature.
Sometimes they grade on a curve to appear “fair” to their Android loving audience. The ones who make a racket anytime an Apple product is reviewed favorably.
I don’t think Nilay HATES Apple. But he tries way too hard to appear “fair.” To the point that its laughable.
“It’s just that if, in 10 years..”
You’re not seriously complaining that a rev 1 product might be obsolete in a DECADE are you?
I think it’s a stretch to call my original post a complaint. 🙂
But I do have 20+ year old speakers that are still useful.
This.
I would liken the HomePod to the ill-fated iPod Hi-Fi, with far greater ecosystem integration and compatibility. The thing with hardware input plugs is that you are always limited to what was shipped with the device, while wireless protocols (AirPlay2) allow some degree of software-based enhancements in the future.
A headphone jack is not just limited to Windows, though. It’s to anything. Even an old iPod.
I totally understand why Apple didn’t include BT SBC, but there are high-quality codecs. Heck, Apple uses BT AAC for the AirPods. It’s quite good.
Yeah, I get the argument. Although Apple does support AAC over Bluetooth for the AirPods, and it’s substantially better than SBC (the default A2DP codec). I can’t imagine Apple couldn’t have done something similar (or better) for the HomePod, but clearly it is not their product priority.
This is probably the most compelling counterargument. Thanks!
I don’t agree with that distinction.
Look, everyone, stop re-explaining your point about how certain limitations fit into one bin and not the other. I understand that point, I just don’t agree with it.
“Oh, that’s not an interface limitation, that’s a whole device limitation, so it doesn’t count” is not really convincing.
In my continuing quest to quote from the reviews linked above, from TEchCrunch:
“its overall flexibility is stymied by the limited command sets that the Siri protocol offers.”
However, I don’t have a problem with a reviewer being let down by the lack of Siri smarts if that’s something of importance to them.
I do and don’t. I do in the sense that you have to review a product on its merits. Does it do what it sets out to do? How well? If not, where does it fail?
I don’t in the sense that it’s fair to call out these limits so readers know about them and to say “here’s an area in which this product could be better.” But to downgrade it for not doing what it’s not designed to do is like downgrading an Italian restaurant for not offering good Chinese food too.
Right, but then that puts us back into the ‘functional’ debate. AirPods were as good if not better. Home Pod….well, as you said, remains to be seen for now. I honestly hope it does well and Siri starts to improve. If so, I’ll buy.
And the problem is that most audiophiles already have a good set up so which out-performs the HomePod.
1) I’m not repeating myself. Different person.
2) You called this out as a Siri limit when it’s not. If you don’t want to be corrected, learn to speak clearly and know what you’re talking about.
“The very limited Siri feature set is important to many” Many techies, perhaps. I’ve talked to many non-techies and this rarely comes up. Granted, they also rarely use Siri.
“But to downgrade it for not doing what it’s not designed to do is like downgrading an Italian restaurant for not offering good Chinese food too.”
Yup. As I said elsewhere, many reviewers are complaining that this Ferrari doesn’t act like a Corolla.
“the HomePod is touted as being a competitor to Amazon and Google’s devices.”
Touted by who? Not the maker of the device.
I think the problem is that once you support BT you open yourself to all BT streams (of a given version of the standard at least) and some might be poor quality. So, yes, Apple BT streams might be OK but Apple devices also support Airplay, so there’s no need to support BT there. The only reason to support BT would be non-apple devices which could put out crappy quality which undercuts the perceived quality of the HP.
Most of this won’t matter if HP 2 or whatever supports other services. In this way, this is a forward looking device. Got Windows or Android? Use Spotify, etc. IF they don’t allow that, yes, this is a limitation
When EVERYONE disagrees with you, it may be time to re-evalute your position.
We get what you are saying, you are just using the wrong words to get there.
1) I’m not repeating myself. Different person.
Yes, that’s why I said “everyone.” As in everyone keeps making the same point.
2) You called this out as a Siri limit when it’s not. If you don’t want to be corrected, learn to speak clearly and know what you’re talking about.
Oh FFS. See my point above about not reexplaining. I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU DO NOT THINK THIS IS A SIRI ISSUE. I DISAGREE WITH YOUR DISTINCTION.
Next up: Rick G once again explains that this is not a limitation of Siri but of the HomePod itself, fails to understand why I reply in all-caps.
Yep, that’s a compelling argument—and if you only support the high-res codec, you get angry users saying “why not us xyz platform?”
And this is in line with Apple’s MO—start limited and expand from there. I do wonder how much they will do in software vs. releasing a 2nd-gen device in the future. We already know several major updates are coming.
Yeah, it turns out Siri on HomePod isn’t really for buying TidePods from your living room. On the other hand, Siri on HomePod plays music well. Go figure.
Your disagreement is beside the point. You’re objectively wrong for reasons I already noted (that Siri does those things on other devices). Your inability to understand this is your issue, no one else’s.
Well, you can get a Ferrari to act like a Corolla. Just unplug 2/3 of the spark plug wires…
“My point was that HomePod does not support non-Apple streaming services”
No, it wasn’t! Nice try, though. Maybe you should delete a bunch of your early posts so people are fooled by that.
I’m pretty sure iTunes on Windows supports the HomePod, but that’s a small detail on an otherwise valid point.
Do we know for sure that AirPlay 2 is going to be proprietary? The number of vendors offering supporter was pretty high for proprietary tech.
Great comparison in intent. Lousy comparison in product quality. 🙂
Not sure if HomePod is like AirPods (underrated breakthrough product), or AppleTV (decent solution for heavy Apple users, but otherwise expensive and unremarkable).
It’s a great deal compared to the Hi-Fi, no doubt.
The question is if the HomePod is a great deal in absolute, or if the Hi-Fi was a bad one. 🙂
Sure it is. Every review I’ve read has mentioned that as part of the orientation Apple does a demo comparing the HomePod to the Echo, Sonos and Google Max.
A bit of both I suspect.
Yep, they’ve done a lot of demos, and they certainly haven’t compared it to expensive speakers. They roll out the big three: Amazon, Google, and Sonos.
If I’m Apple, the NYT and Brian X Chen would be dead to me at this point. It’s one willfully ignorant hatchet job after another.
Indeed, Bluetooth does have the bandwidth, and I understand that BT 5 is actually quite good. But it still compresses the audio somewhat, whereas AirPlay doesn’t.
AirPlay is proprietary; there’s no reason for Airplay 2 to not be similar.
iTunes on Windows supports AirPlay.
AirPlay never had a supporting vendor list like AirPlay 2 already has, though.
As to HomePod, I’m not referring to AirPlay only. I believe the latest iTunes got HomePod support as a bullet point.
This is unusually trollish, even for you.
You’re being generous when you call it “subtle.” 🙂
As a sound competitor, not a virtual assistant competitor.
They did – but to compare audio quality – not (as far as I can tell) to compare voice assistant prowess.
As Gruber said in his review, the priorities are different. As any company would, Apple is emphasizing where it has an edge over the competition, and understating where it is not be as competitive.
But obviously Apple views them as competition – otherwise it wouldn’t mention them at all.
CmdrTaco is back, I see.
I actually never got a chance to listen to the iPod Hi-Fi, how were they in terms of sound quality? My impression is that Apple has spent far more time and effort on the HomePod R&D than they did with the iPod Hi-Fi.
Vicious circle? “We trash Apple because they stopped inviting us to those small previews.” 🙂
Let’s get HomePod in the homes of Apple’s early adopters and learn what we can about their experiences.
This. HomePod is version 1 of a product that will very likely evolve with noticeable improvement. Nothing about that idea should be unfamiliar to tech enthusiasts who still imply their immediate, urgent, and specific concerns are somehow universally relevant to an entire consumer market.
For my part, I generally avoid version 1 of almost any new device, which has served me fairly well across Apple’s product-category set (except for AirPods, which I didn’t wait very long for). For the cost of a bit of patience, I can eventually benefit from the experiences of lots of early adopters, and I suspect HomePod will be no different in this regard.
Awful. Muddy sound.
Re: “Clearly, Siri is an issue, but that itself is not the story.”
Yeah, it’s strange that reviewers & customers expect a working assistant on their speakers.
Odder still that even kids expect speakers to be smart. I see 3-year-olds talk to speakers all the time & expect intelligence.
Thanks for telling people that this isn’t the story!
Your’s is the probably better strategy.
Some Apple stuff I can resist, other stuff I can’t. In this case, the catalyst’s mainly music, so my bar’s pretty low.
I see the iPad as the witch who wasn’t invited to the smart party. As a designer I have to think that our iPad Poort solution over your kitchen counter will reveal that witch to be Siri with knowledge results, always listening. No poison apple this time; this partnership may be the undoing of Amazon in kitchens.
“strange that reviewers & customers expect a working assistant on their speakers.” No, not all of them do.
“I see 3-year-olds talk to speakers all the time & expect intelligence.” So? I see kids do the same thing with dogs.
Better? Debatable. Certainly less immediately enjoyable. Economic necessity ain’t about fun. 🙂
Did you omit a link to the product you’re touting?
Yes google assistant is better in the exactly way iPhone X, for them, was unsealed. Fake opinion , publicity. Apple have all the profits of mondial smartphones, you can find it online, and on smartwatchs. And Siri is part of that success. Who use assistant on android ? Why Samsung loose profits also this year? I got it on s7 edge, was terrible. If google assistant is so good why Samsung introduced his bixi assistant? And why hauwei announced their virtual assistant in sostitution of google assistance included just right now in their models? The answer is there. Just don’t be fool. The only issue with Siri that is work properly , that is a thing that concurrence of Apple don’t .
If google assistant is so good why Samsung introduced bixi assistant in alternative at the google assistant ? And why hauewei did it to announced their personal assistant in substitution of google assistant ? This is publicity against Apple. People know it. Apple Watch is the best seller about smartwatches, and the more appreciated. And Siri is one of the most used and appreciated things of Apple Watch.
I think you miss the point if you don’t get why talking about Siri (and its problems) is relevant. The device is competing against Alexa and it suffers by comparison. So it’s very relevant to what consumers expect the product to be and do.
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blockquote>Google gives all people 98 US dollars per-hour to complete small jobs staying at home .. Work Some just few hours in a whole day and enjoy more time together with your family … any individual can also avail it!!!this Thursday I bought a great new Audi Quattro after just making $6393 this last month .it is absolutely my favourite-work however you could no longer forgive yourself if you do not read it.!kg50n:➩➩➩ http://GoogleEarthEasyMoneyOnline/getpay/$97/per/hr… ♥♥♥b♥♥♥o♥♥♥f♥o♥o♥♥a♥♥♥a♥♥♥o♥r♥i♥♥♥k♥m♥v♥♥w♥♥♥h♥♥d♥♥b♥♥h♥♥♥a♥x♥r♥♥♥l♥♥♥l♥♥♥s♥♥♥e:::::!yg22g:wkyuk
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blockquote>Google gives all people 98 US dollars per-hour to complete small jobs staying at home .. Work Some just few hours in a whole day and enjoy more time together with your family … any individual can also avail it!!!this Thursday I bought a great new Audi Quattro after just making $6393 this last month .it is absolutely my favourite-work however you could no longer forgive yourself if you do not read it.!kg50n:➩➩➩ http://GoogleEarthEasyMoneyOnline/getpay/$97/per/hr… ♥♥♥b♥♥♥o♥♥♥f♥o♥o♥♥a♥♥♥a♥♥♥o♥r♥i♥♥♥k♥m♥v♥♥w♥♥♥h♥♥d♥♥b♥♥h♥♥♥a♥x♥r♥♥♥l♥♥♥l♥♥♥s♥♥♥e:::::!yg22g:wkyukd
You’ve not lived until you’ve had some good Italian Chinese food. 😉
My point is that by entering so late, Apple has allowed Google and Amazon to set the market expectations for “smart speakers” and their capabilities. The HomePod isn’t that, but the general perception is that the HomePod is Apple’s answer to the Amazon Echo or Google Home. That’s how the local news framed it, and that’s what countless preview articles claimed. Perception matters, even if it’s ultimately wrong. I’ve lost track how many times I’ve seen someone refer to the HomePod as Apple’s answer to the Echo/Home on Twitter. It’s rarely mentioned as a direct Sonos competitor, although that’s clearly a more apt comparison.
I’ve got “Hey Siri” available on my iPhone/Apple Watch which happen to be with me everywhere I go. I’ve never had any interest in a Echo like device. I’m far more interested in the HomePod as a vastly superior Boom type device that can fill a room with great sound. Their is a great market for the HomePod, but Apple will need to change the conversation so the product isn’t lumped in with the Echo and Home. Unfortunately for them, it’s still being framed as an Echo competitor even after release.
Just check YouTube. There are literally dozens of HomePod vs Echo/Google Home videos. Heck, visit The Wirecutter, a review site I generally like a great deal. The headline for the HomePod review actually says “It only sounds good”, as if sound is a secondary, less important feature, while pointing out how it falls down against the Amazon and Google offerings.
I don’t blame the reviewers here. They write for their audience and their audience is looking to the HomePod to be a smart speaker solution. This is on Apple for failing to properly establish expectations for the HomePod as an audio device and NOT a smart speaker. Apple isn’t usually so late to the game, and as such they are usually the ones setting the market expectations for a product category. They aren’t establishing the category this time, and it’s biting them in the arse a bit.
Meanwhile, I’ll take two please.
Sure, the market views things that way. I don’t disagree there. But a tech reviewer who can’t break free of herd mentality and say “OK, what are the design goals of this device?” isn’t worthy jack.
Now, it’s fine to ALSO say “The design goals are X and this device nails those/sucks at those/whatever – but it also will be compared on other criteria and here’s how it does there.”