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HomePod Mini

apple.com

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Re: HomePod Mini

#151

Post by jnwatson »

agd wrote: post #58
jnwatson wrote: post #53

This is so me-too. The only newish feature is a better privacy argument. This is a full 5 years after the Amazon Echo was introduced. This just adds to my creeping feeling that innovation is dead at Apple.

The big difference is seamless integration with other Apple products. This is why they’ll take market share, it will just work with your iPhone better than the echo does.

A limiting factor is Siri. It took them 8 years to allow asking to play a particular song on Spotify.

Usually the first thing I say to Siri is 'Hey Google' so it goes to Google Assistant.

I'm not really sure what "seamless integration" is left. I (and my friends that have similar devices) use smart speakers for power control, getting the weather, playing music, and setting timers/alarms. It doesn't take an sole-source ecosystem to make that work well.

Re: HomePod Mini

#153

Post by [deleted] »

gnicholas wrote: post #140
lozaning wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it could withy something like HDMI ARC.

But how would you get the audio from an HDMI cable into the HomePod? Does Apple TV offer some sort of HDMI passthrough? I don't know since I've never had one.

[deleted]

Re: HomePod Mini

#155

Post by [deleted] »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #122
lern_too_spel wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is consistently better on privacy, actually, than competitors. Among Apple, Amazon, and Google; only Apple's phones and tablets send your location to Apple every time you use GPS (even if you're not using an Apple app like Apple Maps!). Among those three companies, only Apple requires you to tell Apple every app you install. Among those three companies, only Apple requires you to further associate your bankin…

> only Apple's phones and tablets send your location to Apple every time you use GPS Impressed they can do that when I’m using offline mapping in an area with no mobile signal.

[deleted]

Re: HomePod Mini

#156

Post by major505 »

athenot wrote: post #7

HomePod mini works with your iPhone for requests like hearing your messages or notes, so they are completed on device without revealing that information to Apple. This is the big differentiating feature, along with the seamless integration within the rest of Apple's product line. EDIT: HomePod does this too but it was not at a price point nor size that competed with other assistants.

Yup. I really thinking in getting a echo dot, but I have serious privacy concerns.

Re: HomePod Mini

#158

Post by shagie »

seppin wrote: post #55
leecb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They look to both be almost exactly the same size- 3.9 inches in diameter. Echo Dot: 100 x 100 x 89 mm HomePod Mini: 98 x 98 x 84mm

1/2 the price

With the prime day sale, it's even a smaller fraction.

However, there's probably a bit of a difference with the amount of on board processing that the two devices can do.

For example, my iPhone can do voice to text while on airplane mode.

{guessing} Similar on board processing would allow a HomePod Mini to work with HomeKit without needing to go to the cloud - Amazon working with Hue does need to go out to the cloud to get that voice to text to command layer. {/guessing}

Re: HomePod Mini

#159

Post by tensor »

dmix wrote: post #148
INTPenis wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it different though? Doesn't Siri on your phone send your recording to its backend to figure out what you need anyways? So it's just an extra step?

They explained in the video the only time it hits the Apple service is when you activate Siri (and limited to Siri queries only). This is the way to do it ...if you insist on putting smart microphones in your house.

But that's true of Google too. It only hits their servers when you "hey Google."

Re: HomePod Mini

#160

Post by Jnr »

Woohoo, finally a cheaper homepod! I was looking forward to something like this to be able to remotely control my Home Assistant setup through Homebridge Hue.

Without having dedicated Apple TV/iPad/Homepod at home, you can't access devices in Home app, even if you have VPN.

This meant that even at home I had to unlock the phone and wait for it to connect to Wifi before Siri would do anything with devices. This delay made it impractical to use Siri for controlling devices through Siri.

Maybe it's possible to make it work with VPN by also forwarding some autodiscovery packets, but I'm not sure.

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