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HomePod Mini

apple.com

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Re: HomePod Mini

#361

Post by hjnilsson »

krrishd wrote: post #188
ValentineC wrote: post #66

It doesn't look like the HomePod Mini would support Bluetooth devices as an audio source [1] (the older HomePod has the same issue), even though it lists Bluetooth 5.0 as a connectivity option. [1] https://www.apple.com/homepod-mini/specs/#specs:~:text=Audio... [2] https://www.apple.com/homepod-mini/specs/#specs:~:text=Wirel...

Am I the only one that finds this astounding? Not to mention the inability to take an aux cord. It's one thing for phones to have these lock-in properties, but not being able to aux in audio into a speaker feels wild to me.

Sonos has not supported this for over 10 years, and seem to be doing quite well.

It is a “smart speaker”, not a speaker, so expectations are different.

Re: HomePod Mini

#362

Post by izacus »

seabrookmx wrote: post #232
threatofrain wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has Google ever abandoned consumer hardware, or their obligations to Nest customers?

The Nexus player was a bit of a debacle. But I agree with you.. they're generally better about hardware support than software. The "Nest" rebrand of the Google Home devices to me signifies that they're really investing in this consumer IoT product line. That and they're (arguably) the dominant player in the space.

> The Nexus player was a bit of a debacle.

Nexus Player still works though.

Re: HomePod Mini

#363

Post by INTPenis »

tensor wrote: post #159
dmix wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

The problem is that Google's voice recognition results in false positives. I've seen a few recordings on my Google privacy page with nothing but ambient noise from my apartment.

Re: HomePod Mini

#364

Post by snyp »

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…

How was the sound quality though? I don’t care much for the smart assistant features but would definitely consider getting it for good sound quality

Re: HomePod Mini

#366

Post by actuator »

Nextgrid wrote: post #274
lern_too_spel wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> forcing you to enable location history

Not defending them but is it forced? I remember being asked about it. I used to keep it off for a long time but keep it on now to keep track of places I visit.

> there is no technical reason for this.

I have seen them give you best time to leave from home/office for/after work based on developing traffic as notifications. Same for reminders of events in calendar with location context.

Also, just my assumption but they might be adding locality context to searches.

Re: HomePod Mini

#367

Post by tupputuppu »

Angostura wrote: post #198
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…

Whereas my family say that it is the best Apple gizmo we own. It sits in the kitchen and typically only gets used for Playing music setting timers adding things to the shopping list answering stupid google queries during dinner. All of which it does with aplomb. But it was bought because wanted a great sounding smart speaker

For me, asking Siri on my iPhone 11 Pro to play music from Spotify is always an adventure. Last it played me Spanish female singers, and before that I got acquainted with Japanese jazz! Then there's the 20% of times it freezes for around 20 seconds before replying, and the other 20% of time it just says "there's an error, please retry".

Re: HomePod Mini

#368

Post by aemreunal »

hjnilsson wrote: post #361
krrishd wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one that finds this astounding? Not to mention the inability to take an aux cord. It's one thing for phones to have these lock-in properties, but not being able to aux in audio into a speaker feels wild to me.

Sonos has not supported this for over 10 years, and seem to be doing quite well. It is a “smart speaker”, not a speaker, so expectations are different.

Are you talking about aux? Because Sonos Move supports plain bluetooth audio connections; I use it all the time.

Re: HomePod Mini

#369

Post by aikinai »

rsanheim wrote: post #298
aikinai wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea this was still a thing! Does it work well? And what does it do if it can’t find a match? Will it let you play your unique song?

Still works for me. If it can’t find a match it will just upload your mp3s to apples servers and then I presume they can stream to a HomePod. I mostly use Roon or my phone to control my music, so I haven’t really tested the match stuff in a long time.

Great, thanks for the answer. I'll try out iTunes Match then. It sounds like exactly what I need.

Re: HomePod Mini

#370

Post by rossjudson »

systemvoltage wrote: post #346
m463 wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a naive (and demonstrably false) assertion. Apple's privacy stance is really just marketing, like "There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it." You don't have to use an apple device for more than a minute to realize this. For example, you cannot use a new apple iphone without activating it with apple. In the first screen or two, you are presented with their privacy po…

I’m not convinced. Fundamentally, Apple is a services and a hardware company. They have no business in advertisement. Do you follow Stratechery (Ben Thompson)? He writes about Apple’s privacy fundamentalism here (midway through the post): https://stratechery.com/2019/privacy-fundamentalism/

You are funny. According to this article Apple makes a great deal of money from search and advertisement:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/06/08/apple-c...

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