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Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

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Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#101

Post by AlanYx »

_phred wrote: post #22
t3rabytes wrote: post #4

I love my OG HomePods that I got on close-out at Best Buy, but both of them have given me near constant connection issues over the last few months -- excited to have something to replace them with. I much prefer the appearance of the Big HomePod over the (not-really) equivalent Sonos One.

I’ve got two first gen HomePods here which died slightly out of warranty, and AppleCare wanted $300 a piece just to take a look at them. Makes me quite gunshy about spending yet another $300 on a product which may not last more than 2-3 years.

In case you still want them repaired, there's a guy online (Nic's Fix) who runs a mail-in $60 repair business for dead first gen HomePods.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#102

Post by jen20 »

agloeregrets wrote: post #89
ZeroCool2u wrote: post #14

Seems like Apple executed the way Google should have with their Google Home Max. They've added stereo pairing, so you can have two of them sync up together and then connect them to an Apple TV 4k and you basically get a pretty nice wireless sound bar with Dolby Atmos enabled. Still, at $300 per pod, I really need Siri to do better than the "dumber than a bag of rocks" vibe she currently gives off for this to be at al…

> Seems like Apple executed the way Google should have with their Google Home Max Google properly executing on Google TV would require them to not build hardware with 1/12th the single core performance of an Apple TV. (Seriously, it has single core performance around that of a 2011 Intel Atom while the Apple TV has an A15 throwing 12th gen Intel laptop numbers. https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/19594628 ) Seriousl…

To be fair, google extend this to software on the Apple TV too - the YouTube and YouTube TV apps are both complete trash that don’t respond to scrolling properly because they’ve been built using some cross platform garbage instead of for the target platform. HBO Max is another offender.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#103

Post by owlbite »

highwaylights wrote: post #49
selykg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stereo pairing was available on the 1st generation. I have three of the 1st gen models, they're fantastic. I think I paid $200 for each. At that price they're a steal.

Yeah, I'm a little confused as to what's actually new here from the video? I assume a newer chipset but it's not really clear what else has changed?

I wouldn't discount the difference chipset can make, especially with respect to features it can support - the original homepod had an anaemic processor in comparison to just about any other apple kit.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#104

Post by yunwal »

chairmanwow1 wrote: post #45
yunwal wrote: post #12

The last HomePods sounded great, but it’s hard for me to imagine them taking off without fixing Siri. Siri is still remarkably dumb compared to Alexa and certainly when compared to GPT3.5 tools. If you ask Siri “What is 220°C in F” it will correctly hear the words you’re saying, then convert 220F to C. Because of this, I never use Siri outside of contexts I’m sure Apple has tested thoroughly (e.g. read my last text).

If it's been a while since you've tried the assistants, I suggest that you watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2MGqmuEdtU Google has snuck a pretty large lead for a large category of queries over Siri and Alexa has fallen behind considerably.

Unfortunately, Google’s tendency to randomly sunset products with no good replacement or migration strategy means I’ll never really incorporate it into my life in a big way, but yeah Google Assistant is pretty solid.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#105

Post by vineyardmike »

agloeregrets wrote: post #90
blowski wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very much an anecdote here, but want to give a different perspective. I’m an Apple “fan” (at least, I have more of Apple’s devices than other brands), and I don’t want voice activation. I don’t feel comfortable something listening to all my intimate family conversations. Maybe Apple fans are more likely to be privacy conscious. All that being said, it doesn’t need to be either or. They could have a great Siri pro…

You want a Sonos SL or Ikea Symfonisk (Sonos sw/hw in Ikea design). Great products, no mic, Airplay 2 support, massive group pairing and the same room detection tuning Apple bragged about in the Homepod via the App on a phone instead of mics. (Sonos holds the patent on it and famously made no claims about Apple stealing it while asking Google and Amazon to pay licenses, aka: Apple Ponied up.)

> Sonos holds the patent on it

I’m a huge Sonos fan but I think their patent was “volume control for connected/synced speakers” and apple had a UI to control each speaker volume separately.

I also suspect that apple shared Airplay with them j stead of paying. I know lots of people that bought Sonos instead of the HomePod because it supported airplay.

Edit: nevermind

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#107

Post by emsy »

The HomePod is the worst Apple product I’ve ever owned, especially for what it’s supposed to do. I need to restart it every few days to even be able to connect to it and playing music with Siri stopped working a few months ago. It also mixes up HomeKit devices that don’t sound similar at all.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#108

Post by yunwal »

greedo wrote: post #21
yunwal wrote: post #12

The last HomePods sounded great, but it’s hard for me to imagine them taking off without fixing Siri. Siri is still remarkably dumb compared to Alexa and certainly when compared to GPT3.5 tools. If you ask Siri “What is 220°C in F” it will correctly hear the words you’re saying, then convert 220F to C. Because of this, I never use Siri outside of contexts I’m sure Apple has tested thoroughly (e.g. read my last text).

Worked perfectly for me on my iPhone.

Strangely it’s working for me today, but not yesterday when I was cooking and couldn’t touch my phone with wet hands.

I wonder if background noise has something to do with it. The fact that Siri accurately displayed what I was trying to say made me think it understood me perfectly, but it’s possible it will do something else in the background if it’s not confident it hears you correctly.

Either way, I have issues with Siri all the time.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#109

Post by adrr »

nerdjon wrote: post #97
holistio wrote: post #54

I have a pair of original HomePods. Love them dearly. Just read through the page and couldn't figure out what's new. I was expecting much more from a new version.

For me the biggest addition is the h1 chip finally being added. Know how you can be playing music on your iPhone and hold it up to your HomePod and it will transfer? But it is kinda hit or miss on the original HomePod. On the HomePod mini thanks to that chip it is nearly perfect. This seems to just add that. Couple other things, but at least it brings parity.

They should put U1 Chips in them so i can see which room i left my phone or airpods in.

Re: Apple HomePod 2nd Generation

#110

Post by plusminusplus »

deanc wrote: post #81
Dachande663 wrote: post #58

Does it work with Spotify yet? I remember the first one could only be AirPlayed to (if I'm recalling correctly).

No, you're stuck with handoff or airplay.

You can't link Spotify to it? What does the voice assistant on a speaker do if not "Siri play Shooting Star by Bag Raiders"?

Surely you can link Apple Music?

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