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HomePod Mini

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Re: HomePod Mini

#421

Post by ksec »

gnicholas wrote: post #101
jagger27 wrote: post #23

The coolest part to me is that they're using the S5 watch SoC to power it. Pretty cool that Apple's various hardware teams can just grab a part off the shelf to use in a completely different class of device. I'd love to see them reintroduce AirPort routers powered by an A-series chip.

I'd love to see them put AirPort tech inside their smart speakers. That's one great way to differentiate from Alexa devices. We're still running AirPorts at my house, though I know eventually they'll die and we'll have to find something else. In the meantime, they're super convenient for having my Time Capsule back up my Mac, and for piping audio via an Airport Express to the speakers I use with my projector setup.

This is such a great idea! HomePod / HomePod Mini Acting as WiFi Mesh system.

May be Apple TV in the living room should take the job of Routing as well. ( They said the AirPort Extreme team were folded into Apple TV team. )

I want a WiFi 6 AirPort Router.

Re: HomePod Mini

#422

Post by rockinghigh »

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...

Does that mean it only works with Apple devices?

Re: HomePod Mini

#423

Post by boublepop »

Cute, an Apple themed Google Home. Is it still the case that Spotify won’t work with it? Because that really makes the device worthless to me and many others like me.

Re: HomePod Mini

#424

Post by iamatworknow »

sevencolors wrote: post #223
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…

There's a project called HomeBridge that lets other wifi/smart devices be seen on HomeKit and then can be controlled. Lots of user created plugins for a variety of things https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge

Thanks for mentioning this. I've been using a HomePod/HomeKit for a while already, but was curious if there was a way I could get my cheapo IP cameras' feeds into the Home app. I was using Zoneminder, but that was kind of overkill and a pain to use for my use case.

After seeing your comment I setup HomeBridge and the homebridge-camera-ffmpeg plugin in about 10 minutes, and now I've got what I wanted. Thanks!

Re: HomePod Mini

#425

Post by lacogubik »

snyp wrote: post #364
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

It's pretty good, obviously not as good as high end speakers, but for the price (I got mine for £200) it's really good value and effortless to use. Main feature is it can adjust to any room or place you put it. I find it bit bass heavy, though I prefer more neutral sound. I bought it just for listening of music while I work and I'm very happy with it. I want to get another one to pair them into stereo setup.

Some reviews:

https://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.php?subaction=showfull&i...

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16976906/apple-homepod-rev...

Re: HomePod Mini

#426

Post by ehsankia »

occamschainsaw wrote: post #390
ehsankia wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A very limited version of this feature is used in AirDrop with U1 equipped iPhones. Just point your phone to the phone you are transferring to and it shows up in the AirDrop share sheet.

Was that actually implemented / tested? I remember hearing about it but I never saw anyone mention or test it in any reviews. Does it actually work well?

Re: HomePod Mini

#427

Post by seabrookmx »

bravura wrote: post #280
seabrookmx wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Did you click my snapcast link? It natively supports Spotify connect and Airplay, so you'd connect your mixer to the Pi's 3.5mm jack (or use a supported DAC).

You can also fashion a Chromecast audio out of a normal (video) Chromecast and an HDMI->audio adapter if you're looking to preserve the same experience.

Re: HomePod Mini

#428

Post by cztomsik »

systemvoltage wrote: post #326
jiggawatts wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile a friend of mine flat refused to even consider buying any such device, from any vendor, because he's concerned about being spied on. He cited several real incidents where vendors like Amazon had been caught listening in and sending audio clips to random subcontractors for analysis. Several huge companies, including Facebook, Google, and Amazon have made it their business to maximally violate the privacy of…

Everyone is cheating (they’re adtech companies) but Apple isn’t. Apple doesn’t have to cheat. They just charge it upfront, sure Siri won’t ever catch up because of the lack of data (knowledge graph like Google), but I’m fine with a crappy Siri than evil smart Alexa.

this WTF happened to me few weeks ago https://twitter.com/cztomsik/status/1309377749962960897

there's no way to delete photos from icloud immediately and I was also googling a bit and there's some article from infosec company and they were able to recover deleted photos few months after they should be deleted forever (I was googling about how to delete those photos immediately).

now, I don't have anything useful there but it pissed me off a lot and I'm definitely not going to use devices from one company, no matter what they say I'm missing

Re: HomePod Mini

#429

Post by cztomsik »

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/

see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24782678
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