I laughed out loud when they mentioned the intelligibility of Siri. Every 6 months or so I try Siri and am shocked it still can’t understand basic things my kids are using Alexa for.
I love Apple, and I would have to agree with this.
HomePod Mini
171–180 of 446 posts
Re: HomePod Mini
#172So here is the thing I struggle with. I have a NAS. On it is my media (music, videos, photos) collection. I do not have a subscription to Apple Music, or the reset of the streaming services and I not want one. So how do I play my own music collection with this? Right now to do this I have an AppleTV on every TV. I have an app on the AppleTV called MrMC which is basically a paid for port of Kodi for the AppleTV. The M…
You can make it work with iTunes Match. It will upload all your music (it's not just filename or metadata matching, apparently it uses audio fingerprints). Then you can play your own stuff without needing an Apple Music subscription. It's $25/year. I moved to Apple music a while ago, but iTunes Match worked great for me before that.
Ehm $25/y to play your own music!?
I don't get it.
Re: HomePod Mini
#173I was expecting a refresh of the HomePod too, though rumors mentioned only the HomePod mini. I also thought that a price of $79 would’ve been quite attractive compared to the $99 price. Just have to wait for holiday sales, I guess. I can’t wait for reviews and comparisons on the sound of HomePod vs. HomePod mini.
> I also thought that a price of $79 would’ve been quite attractive compared to the $99 How did you arrive at that? Is $20 really the deciding factor for you?
It's not about $20, it's about 20%. If you're thinking about buying 4 or 6 of these things, 20% adds up.
Also for some people, $20 does matter. Lots of people are out of work — unemployment hasn't been this high in decades.
Re: HomePod Mini
#174I'm a big apple fan, got a homepod last christmas, and it's the worst apple product that I've ever owned. Truly disappointing. Siri fails to recognize commands that work great on alexa or google, the features it does have often fail (if I transfer a podcast from playing on my phone to play on the homepod, my phone often fails to sync with the location of my homepod).
There's no way I will buy one of these until I hear from multiple people I know that they have one and it's truly amazing.
edit: typos
Re: HomePod Mini
#175So here is the thing I struggle with. I have a NAS. On it is my media (music, videos, photos) collection. I do not have a subscription to Apple Music, or the reset of the streaming services and I not want one. So how do I play my own music collection with this? Right now to do this I have an AppleTV on every TV. I have an app on the AppleTV called MrMC which is basically a paid for port of Kodi for the AppleTV. The M…
Random aside: the VLC app will also play music/movies from NFS/SMB and is an overall great app on Apple TV.
Re: HomePod Mini
#176So here is the thing I struggle with. I have a NAS. On it is my media (music, videos, photos) collection. I do not have a subscription to Apple Music, or the reset of the streaming services and I not want one. So how do I play my own music collection with this? Right now to do this I have an AppleTV on every TV. I have an app on the AppleTV called MrMC which is basically a paid for port of Kodi for the AppleTV. The M…
Can HomePods only play via Apple Music? How about using Plex and getting that to play thru whatever device you want?
Disclaimer: I don't use Plex for music or have any Apple smart home devices. Just trying to throw out an idea that maybe possible. I use Plex with my NAS for video content and stream it to all my devices.
Re: HomePod Mini
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple is consistently better on privacy, actually, than competitors. Not sure which competitors you are talking about or which issues/products, but you're way, way off-base. And for obvious reasons: Amazon and Google need to gather user data to survive because they don't make any profitable hardware. Apple doesn't need your data, plus, they have a real and honest commitment to privacy. It's not even a close call, rea…
> 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…
On the one hand, Google has compiled a petabyte scale database containing detailed day-to-day movements, trips taken, searches made, web sites visited, purchases online and offline, and more, all linked together and associated with our identities.
But Apple requires a credit card to sign up for a developer account so obviously they're much worse.
Re: HomePod Mini
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google also doesn't retain audio recordings by default and hasn't for longer than Apple hasn't. https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/doing-more-protec... Apple is consistently worse on privacy than alternatives. Don't let them get away with it, or everybody will play Apple's game of just pretending that they care about privacy.
Apple is consistently better on privacy, actually, than competitors. Not sure which competitors you are talking about or which issues/products, but you're way, way off-base. And for obvious reasons: Amazon and Google need to gather user data to survive because they don't make any profitable hardware. Apple doesn't need your data, plus, they have a real and honest commitment to privacy. It's not even a close call, rea…
>Apple doesn't need your data, plus, they have a real and honest commitment to privacy.
Since you opened that door: Apple shares personal user data with the Chinese government. Call it what you will, but it's not a 'real honest commitment to privacy'.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/apple-privacy...
Re: HomePod Mini
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can make it work with iTunes Match. It will upload all your music (it's not just filename or metadata matching, apparently it uses audio fingerprints). Then you can play your own stuff without needing an Apple Music subscription. It's $25/year. I moved to Apple music a while ago, but iTunes Match worked great for me before that.
Ehm $25/y to play your own music!? I don't get it.
It is a cloud storage service. You get all your music stored in the cloud. You always can use AirPlay to play your music on Homepods, if you like.
Re: HomePod Mini
#180Wish I could get 4 or 5 of these and use as a home theater setup. It'd be significantly cheaper than a Sonos Arc, and presumably offer better surround (though worse low-frequency response).
I guess with the lack of Dolby Atmos they would be more comparable to a Sonos Beam plus two rear speakers (e.g. Symfonisk) which can be bought for about $500. And that works with HDMI ARC for any input you might have on your TV, AirPlay, and every service that Sonos supports.