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HomePod Mini

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Re: HomePod Mini

#371

Post by 72deluxe »

TYPE_FASTER wrote: post #96
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.

Yeah, that'll be a differentiator for me. We have a few Echo Dots, which are pretty neat devices, but I'm not a huge fan of providing audio to Amazon and Google. Also, my neighbor was getting swatted and narrowed it down to his Echo Dots.

I find it odd that you say you're not a huge fan of providing audio to Amazon, yet have bought a few devices that actually do that and then have proceeded to put them into your home...?

For someone who isn't a fan of providing audio, you seem to have willfully done so.

I am genuinely confused.

Re: HomePod Mini

#372

Post by 72deluxe »

jen729w wrote: post #313
Angostura wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I was gonna say it, but then you did. My non-tech partner 100% agrees. “Love it” is a term that I’ve heard. I do have a few (literally a few) custom shortcuts for weird things that it just couldn’t figure out, like playing specifically our local radio station, but other than that it’s amazing. “Hey Siri, play ” while we make dinner. “Hey Siri, turn it up!” Hey Siri good morning, turn the lights on, set a timer, she m…

I must be getting old because playing an audio track, looking up some information or changing the volume seems a first world "problem" and is still incredibly easy just by using the device that is performing the task, eg. playing music. Back in the day, using my CD player or cassette player didn't seem like hard work.

The gulf between the "issues" that these devices solve and real problems in the world (starvation, war, death by covid) has never been wider.

I honestly am happy that they're useful for people but they feel like devices looking for a real purpose. I know someone with 70+ "smart" lightbulbs and cameras and devices all over his house and I do not understand how turning the light on or off can be considered too difficult for him to do.

I think reading through this thread confirms it! Didn't mean to target your comment in general but this is as far as I've got reading through this thread.

Like you, I wouldn't trust the Google or Amazon devices at all!

Re: HomePod Mini

#373

Post by simon1573 »

rossjudson wrote: post #370
systemvoltage wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Please note that is is a blog post and not an "actual" Forbes article.

Re: HomePod Mini

#374

Post by HJain13 »

INTPenis wrote: post #363
tensor wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well to my knowledge, Apple doesn't even have a similar page; That instills my confidence in Google rather than Apple, as I know for sure Apple can't be foolproof with false positives

Re: HomePod Mini

#375

Post by Thlom »

schrodinger wrote: post #310
haswell wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty deep into the Apple ecosystem (iPhone, Watch, iPad, MBP), but when it comes to smart speakers, I've always used a combination of Echo and Alexa-compatible Sonos devices. The Alexa devices have always bothered me. Not just because of the baseline privacy concerns, but because it seems so damn easy to activate the trigger word on accident. The absolute worst part being a false positive activation of my Sonos…

Can Homepod Mini control Sonos?

The new generation Sonos support airplay2, so I guess so. To an extent at least.

Re: HomePod Mini

#376

Post by kaishiro »

AlphaSite wrote: post #329
baggy_trough wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad you're happy about it, but for me, Siri is a disaster. It only has about a 75% chance to get a simple music command right. Pretty hopeless.

Google assisted has a 40-59% success rate for simple alarm and timer commands in my home.

That is a surprisingly exact percentage range. How are you tracking this?

Re: HomePod Mini

#377

Post by rcarmo »

rcarmo wrote: post #170

It’s nice, but I wish it had a line out jack for an external amp. I would love to replace my Echo Input with one, and keep the nice speakers I have... Oh wait, it’s not available in my country...

Both of my comments were factual. Why the downvotes?

Re: HomePod Mini

#378

Post by rcarmo »

gnicholas wrote: post #215
rcarmo wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just asked Siri on my iPad to “tell everyone to go to bed” and it told me you can only intercom from one HomePod to another.

From Apple's website: > Intercom offers a quick and easy way to send messages to everyone in a household — from one HomePod to another, or across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and CarPlay. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/10/apple-introduces-home...

Still not working on my iPhone. Same message.

Re: HomePod Mini

#379

Post by alelos »

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 should look into Logitech Media Server (open source with community forks/support). You can install it on your NAS, I have it on a synology.

It also supports syncing music with multiple devices at a fraction, if any, of sonos or similar costs.

There is a plethora of plugins available including an AirPlay bridge to stream to your Apple tv.

You can use the excellent iPeng app (paid but recommended) as a phone remote (and even a source with an IAP).

I use the LMS ecosystem to stream from my NAS to my linux workstation (using squeezelite), to my tv/speakers on an nvidia shield, to my phone via iPeng and to another chromecast.

Re: HomePod Mini

#380

Post by rahoulb »

jshen wrote: post #354
conception wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds much better and privacy

Privacy is an interesting dimension. I definitely wouldn’t trust google, but why trust Apple over Amazon?

Because Apple is making privacy a key differentiator across their entire product line. How private they actually are is a different matter, but certainly they talk a lot about how the data that is sent to their servers doesn't include IDs and can't be tracked back to you, even if it does get stored.
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