Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–108 of 108 posts

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#101

Post by nkristoffersen »

danso wrote: post #58

I already have and am satisfied with Alexa, but HomePod interests me because of Apple's general stance towards privacy. Has there been extensive discussion on how Apple plans to differentiate Siri's data usage/sharing vs Google and Amazon? But honestly, the main obstacle for me is Apple's lack of 3rd-party integration. For example, it appears that Siri can't be used to access Spotify. With Alexa, I can scope music re…

Wouldn't the "sirikit" availability start to solve the problem of 3rd party integration?

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#102

Post by firloop »

nkristoffersen wrote: post #101
danso wrote: post #58

I already have and am satisfied with Alexa, but HomePod interests me because of Apple's general stance towards privacy. Has there been extensive discussion on how Apple plans to differentiate Siri's data usage/sharing vs Google and Amazon? But honestly, the main obstacle for me is Apple's lack of 3rd-party integration. For example, it appears that Siri can't be used to access Spotify. With Alexa, I can scope music re…

Wouldn't the "sirikit" availability start to solve the problem of 3rd party integration?

SiriKit has specifically scoped "intent domains" for acceptable usage and music controls aren't one.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sirikit#2863953

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#103

Post by lobster_johnson »

knolan wrote: post #87
lobster_johnson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The changes in AirPlay 2 will be a little more than that. To make it work more like Sonos, it requires that the receiving device buffer a lot more of the audio to make it resilient from wi-fi instability, and it probably requires some changes to that devices are synced up at all times. And I sure hope they're doing something with latency. As I understand it, Sonos can do some of these things because their audio is tr…

My AirPlay experience is a lot better. From my Mac I can play music simultaneously in my living room and kitchen very reliably. From my phone I can play to either speaker, however the kitchen unit (Airstream S200) stutters when I move the phone into a known poor signal area at the back of the kitchen. There’s about a 2-3 second buffer with current AirPlay. It warns you of this when use use the a GarageBand app. Try e…

Thanks for the IGMP tip! Turns out Mikrotik's RouterOS got this feature a month ago, and I've turned it on now. So far so good.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#104

Post by slantyyz »

MBCook wrote: post #99
slantyyz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> But this thing is expensive. I don't necessarily agree. I was shopping around for multi-room audio solutions, namely Sonos. I don't think the Homepod price is that out of whack compared to Sonos or Google Home Max. And this is coming from someone who generally finds Apple products way overpriced.

That may be. I guess it’s within reason for the multi-room solutions. But 1) How big is that market? and 2) It doesn’t do multi-room at launch This all just feels odd to me. Like it slipped through a hole in Apple’s process.

1) Don't know. But not all of Apple's other markets are as huge as iPhone/iPad/Mac Laptops (i.e., Apple TV, Mac Pro).

2) In fairness, Amazon Echo did not do multi-room at launch either. I tend to think Apple fans won't have a problem waiting for that feature update. I'm not an Apple fan myself any more, but in general, when they do a feature, they do it right.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#105

Post by knolan »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #103
knolan wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My AirPlay experience is a lot better. From my Mac I can play music simultaneously in my living room and kitchen very reliably. From my phone I can play to either speaker, however the kitchen unit (Airstream S200) stutters when I move the phone into a known poor signal area at the back of the kitchen. There’s about a 2-3 second buffer with current AirPlay. It warns you of this when use use the a GarageBand app. Try e…

Thanks for the IGMP tip! Turns out Mikrotik's RouterOS got this feature a month ago, and I've turned it on now. So far so good.

Good luck!

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#106

Post by oceanghost »

minikites wrote: post #50
oceanghost wrote: post #7

How can you release a music player when your music ecosystem is completely broken? iTunes is so bad I have to pay for an app (Waltr) to put music on my phone. And Apple music sounds like garbage. I don't need a high-quality speaker to stream garbage.

If you're not satisfied with 256kbps AAC then may I suggest https://www.ponomusic.com/ ?

I honestly cant tell what Pono does from their website?

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#107

Post by oceanghost »

jacksmith21006 wrote: post #63
oceanghost wrote: post #7

How can you release a music player when your music ecosystem is completely broken? iTunes is so bad I have to pay for an app (Waltr) to put music on my phone. And Apple music sounds like garbage. I don't need a high-quality speaker to stream garbage.

By combining it with the worse assistant available?

Yes. Siri is Annie Pots in ghosbusters, but deaf.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#108

Post by gcr »

BatFastard wrote: post #75
danso wrote: post #58

I already have and am satisfied with Alexa, but HomePod interests me because of Apple's general stance towards privacy. Has there been extensive discussion on how Apple plans to differentiate Siri's data usage/sharing vs Google and Amazon? But honestly, the main obstacle for me is Apple's lack of 3rd-party integration. For example, it appears that Siri can't be used to access Spotify. With Alexa, I can scope music re…

I love having Spotify hooked into my Alexa. I have totally abandoned my iTune lib.

Totally agreed that preferring one form of service over another is a form of lock-in.

However, in favor of a certain music service:

- with iCloud Music Library, you can play all of your mp3 files on any device, Spotify-style;

- if you purchase an album from iTunes, you own it forever; this is not true of Spotify-streamable music. I've had some of my favorite albums disappear from Spotify, for example.

Long-term, iTunes, Apple Music, and iCloud Music Library seem like a better solution because they allow you to retain actual ownership/control of your own music collection, which helps a lot.

Post reply on HN