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HomePod Mini

apple.com

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Re: HomePod Mini

#271

Post by myrandomcomment »

acolumb wrote: post #241
myrandomcomment wrote: post #146

So 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 use HomePods as dedicated outputs for your Apple TV 4th gen or newer. Can also work alongside your amp. Also, as stated in earlier comments, you’ll be able to use AirPlay to stream anything from your NAS via an iOS/Mac device. The only feature you’ll lose is the ability to say “hey Siri, play song x” AirPlay is lossless, too.

The only feature I care sorting is "Hey Siri play X" in the framework of the Music is on the NAS. So yah, out of luck.

The current setup works very well, except I have to us a physical thing (remote or remote app on iPhone) to play something.

Re: HomePod Mini

#272

Post by millstone »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #231
millstone wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One of them is collected with user consent on both iOS and Android. The other is a problem only with iOS, and you cannot opt out.

The Arizona lawsuit tracks the many ways that Google manufactures "consent", from deliberately confusing UIs, to pushing software updates that automatically change settings without informing the user. It even documents cases of Google engineers who thought they had opted out, but were not.

And this is ignoring the tons of non-consensual tracking, such as purchasing credit card history, the DoubleClick/GTags/Analytics that infest the web, etc.

Maybe you can get an Android phone and thoroughly deGooglefy it by flashing LineageOS or whatever. I'll give you that, you can't do that with an iPhone. If that's your bar, then so be it. iPhones are not for you.

But the vast vast majority of users will have their privacy better protected by Apple's location services, which don't track you, than Google's pushy and deceptive tracking.

Re: HomePod Mini

#273

Post by zaksoup »

myrandomcomment wrote: post #146

So 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…

I use AirPlay to Sonos from my DS219 running Plex. Should work just fine with HomePods

Re: HomePod Mini

#274

Post by Nextgrid »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #85
Nextgrid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you trust a company whose bottom line ultimately depends on spying on everyone, in a regulatory environment which demonstrated that breaching your own promises/privacy policy (in the case of Facebook and the 2FA phone numbers they promised not to use for ad targeting purposes) results in nothing more than a slap on the wrist?

Because the alternative (Apple) is a company that produces worse products that breach my privacy even more. You cannot get your location on an Apple device without also sending your location to Apple. You cannot install an app on your iOS device without telling Apple. If you want to make your own apps for your device, you have to deanonymize yourself even further with banking details. If you want better privacy, don'…

Google deliberately lies, like when forcing you to enable location history to be able to store home or work addresses in Google Maps - there is no technical reason for this.

The GDPR consent prompt they recently implemented on Google & YouTube is not actually GDPR compliant and does not offer an easy way to opt-out.

I can go on and on. I'm not saying Apple is perfect (a lot of the points you raised are valid), but it's sure as hell better than a company whose entire bottom-line is based on stalking people.

Re: HomePod Mini

#275

Post by ehsankia »

fearoffish wrote: post #262
tensor wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think the difference stated above, was that for messaging, calls and other phone related activities it’s not sent. I’m not sure you can say the same for Google.

On Pixel 4, 4a and 5, assistant does most queries on devices with the Neural processor. I wouldn't be surprised if they bring that capability to speakers too eventually. Though that increases the price of course. HomePod Mini is equivalent to Google Mini or Echo Dot but costs 3x the price. Maybe it's all the Apple Tax but my guess is that they had to put a pretty strong processor to do NLP on-device.

Re: HomePod Mini

#276

Post by ehsankia »

varenc wrote: post #233

The U1 ultra-wideband chip means the HomePod can be used a fixed reference point for general purpose indoor location finding! Would be great for AirTags, if those ever become a reality. At the moment, the U1 is only be used for the nifty hold-your-iphone-close move, but I have no doubt Apple has other applications in mind. Ultra-wideband is amazing for its indoor high-resolution position finding. Down to the inch is…

I really wish of a future where I can just point my phone at one of my cast devices to cast to it.

Re: HomePod Mini

#277

Post by austinkhale »

dweekly wrote: post #253
qchris wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even really use any other Apple products, and have never really been particularly comfortable with smart assistants, but I have to say that the steps that they've taken here with E2E, non-AppleID-tied identifiers, on-device computation, and of course the really good price point have got me seriously considering a purchase from them for the first time in a long time. For my family members that already have App…

re: on-device computation, you'll note from the presentation that they said that no data is sent to Apple _until you say "Hey Siri"_. They're still doing transcription in the cloud which requires sending your voice for Apple to process and store. I have no issues personally with using cloud services like this but they very much used weasley language in the presentation and website to obscure the fact that Apple's clo…

They don’t tie your request to your Apple ID and you can opt out of any recording being stored. Presumably this would make it impossible for a government body to subpoena your recordings, which as we’ve seen with Alexa is entirely possible.

Re: HomePod Mini

#278

Post by austinkhale »

jshen wrote: post #174

I'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 hea…

Really?? I love mine. I use it every day for Hue bulb activations, playing music, timers, etc. and it does the job perfectly.

It doesn’t answer all the same answers as the Google Assistant but I feel like that’s worth the privacy trade off.

Re: HomePod Mini

#279

Post by reikonomusha »

jshen wrote: post #174

I'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 hea…

Mine bricked itself on an update. No way to hard reset it. Apple would repair it only for $1 less than the full cost of the device.

Re: HomePod Mini

#280

Post by bravura »

seabrookmx wrote: post #228
myrandomcomment wrote: post #146

So 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…

NAS -> Plex -> Nest Audio (or other Google speakers) would achieve this. If your NAS doesn't support Plex, you could easily run it on a Raspberry Pi if it's just for music. You'd have to look at alternatives for the media server (Plex) if you want to use a Homepod though .. I'm pretty sure Plex doesn't support AirPlay. If it's just wireless audio you're after and not a "smart speaker" then there's some not-too-tricky…

I have nice speakers I don't want to change. I used to control spotify and soundcloud through them using chromecast audio which is discontinued and the second one I bought off ebay doesn't work. I am open to playing MP3s off my NAS. I would even consider bluetooth since I rarely fiddle with the playlist.

What is the best way to remote control a device that is wired to my mixer (XLR or 1/4 in or 1/8in jack)

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