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HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

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Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#71

Post by vinceguidry »

spike021 wrote: post #57
vinceguidry wrote: post #42

Things I want from HomePod: 1) To work with only the tracks I have downloaded in my iTunes library. Currently I have to use a 3rd party music player because the stock music player won't respect my wishes in this regard. 2) To be able to turn Siri off 3) To sync with an existing audio system, so that I can play music through my home audio system in my living room, and HomePods in my bedroom and bathroom 4) To avoid th…

For your first point is this from a Mac or iOS device? At least on my iPhone there's a Downloaded Music section that I use just to play anything I already have. Not sure if there's an equivalent for Mac's iTunes, though.

It's not that Apple doesn't have solutions to my problem, they just don't work very well. I used to get on with the checked songs feature in iTunes, but the software would regularly lose the checks. Given that those checks were effectively "my music library," this means that Apple would arbitrarily alter my library. After loading up iTunes enough times where my library suddenly all became checked, I had to find another solution.

Setting Music on my phone to only play downloaded music worked... until it didn't. Suddenly getting a gap between songs (while one was downloading) and then hearing a song that I took off my library 4 years ago was jarring enough and it happened frequently enough that I couldn't find an alternative player fast enough.

Apple doesn't understand just how central music is to my life. It used to, but I think they got so caught up in chasing the gold pot at the end subscription music rainbow that they let what made them so huge in the first place go straight into the shitter.

Overnight, they went from the only company that gave a damn, to the only company that didn't. And it happened right after Apple Music.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#72

Post by [deleted] »

saagarjha wrote: post #59
robert_foss wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try launching a new browser on the iStore. You're free to compete, as long as you don't compete against Apple. Microsoft was fined 561 million Euros for doing the same.

Literally on the homepage right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16213280

[deleted]

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#74

Post by vinceguidry »

jaxondu wrote: post #66
vinceguidry wrote: post #42

Things I want from HomePod: 1) To work with only the tracks I have downloaded in my iTunes library. Currently I have to use a 3rd party music player because the stock music player won't respect my wishes in this regard. 2) To be able to turn Siri off 3) To sync with an existing audio system, so that I can play music through my home audio system in my living room, and HomePods in my bedroom and bathroom 4) To avoid th…

Actually I'm hoping what HomePod can do: when I come home listening to Spotify/Audible/podcast on my earphone+iPhone, HomePad auto turn on when I walk into house, the song/audiobook/podcast I'm halfway listening to on my iPhone will automatically transfer to HomePod to continue playing.

When Bluetooth is in a good mood, it'll do that. I'll have music going on my Bluetooth headset, then my home receiver will come into range and the sound will jump over. Requires my receiver to be set to the Bluetooth channel, so if it's been on the TV channel I won't hear the music.

Also sometimes it just doesn't want to switch and I'll have to do it manually.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#75

Post by BatFastard »

danso wrote: post #58

I already have and am satisfied with Alexa, but HomePod interests me because of Apple's general stance towards privacy. Has there been extensive discussion on how Apple plans to differentiate Siri's data usage/sharing vs Google and Amazon? But honestly, the main obstacle for me is Apple's lack of 3rd-party integration. For example, it appears that Siri can't be used to access Spotify. With Alexa, I can scope music re…

I love having Spotify hooked into my Alexa. I have totally abandoned my iTune lib.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#76

Post by mikestew »

Bhilai wrote: post #61

Amazon already has a better sounding Echo and so does Google so I am not seeing a value prop from HomePod. This round has been clearly won by Amazon with Google inching very close and based on reviews, Google assistant seems way better than other assistants in general. Since Siri uses Google search now, it may only be slightly better than Alexa. Too late and too little by Apple, they missed this boat. Cortana seems p…

Amazon already has a better sounding Echo and so does Google so I am not seeing a value prop from HomePod.

Google and Amazon could project a 3D hologram of the band as the song plays, and I still wouldn't let one of those things in my house. From my POV, it boils down to two camps: "I'll trade some privacy (for arbitrary and ever-changing values of "privacy") for better sound" vs. "I'll listen to a tinny 1" speaker as long as it isn't spying on me". You sound like you're in the former, myself in the latter.

Besides, you don't know if the competition sounds better or not, at least not until February 9th.

Too late and too little by Apple, they missed this boat.

In an age where "no wireless, less space than a nomad, lame" is a meme, I'm surprised you'd let that one slip. OTOH, even someone like myself whose only debate is "buy two, or try just the one out first?" has to allow that there's yet no guarantee that this isn't iPod Hi-Fi 2.0.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#77

Post by alexashka »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #38
dljsjr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has been pretty up-front from the start that they don't want to make the best possible home assistant, they want to make a really incredible speaker that has home assistant stuff built-in. Whether the "incredible speaker" part is true remains to be seen since the thing hasn't released yet but you can look at a lot of the features and they're very music-focused. It's more competing with a Sonos than it is with a…

> they want to make a really incredible speaker Incredible by what standards? It's not even stereo. Nowhere does it mention perhaps the most important metric for audio quality, namely RMS audio power output. The tiny size alone pretty much guarantees that the amplifier will suck. I'm very confident that e.g. a combination of Klipsch R-15M speakers, Yamaha R-S202 amplifier and a Chromecast Audio will knock its socks o…

I think you've answered your own question: who would know to buy 3 separate products, glue them together, make it work, as opposed to buying 1 product from apple, that works right out of the box?

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#78

Post by saagarjha »

untog wrote: post #70
saagarjha wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally on the homepage right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16213280

You have to use the Safari rendering engine, though - Apple will not allow any others in the App Store. I don't think that's as big of an issue as others do, but it is still a restriction.

Which is the same one that Apple itself uses. This was an issue a couple years ago when Apple kept the fast Nitro rendering engine for itself, but now that they've provided it to everyone else I wouldn't call it anticompetitive.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#79

Post by kitotik »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #38
dljsjr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has been pretty up-front from the start that they don't want to make the best possible home assistant, they want to make a really incredible speaker that has home assistant stuff built-in. Whether the "incredible speaker" part is true remains to be seen since the thing hasn't released yet but you can look at a lot of the features and they're very music-focused. It's more competing with a Sonos than it is with a…

> they want to make a really incredible speaker Incredible by what standards? It's not even stereo. Nowhere does it mention perhaps the most important metric for audio quality, namely RMS audio power output. The tiny size alone pretty much guarantees that the amplifier will suck. I'm very confident that e.g. a combination of Klipsch R-15M speakers, Yamaha R-S202 amplifier and a Chromecast Audio will knock its socks o…

RMS dscribes ‘loudness’, not quality.

The current breed of class D amps are shockingly small and and have pretty decent audio specs(thd, rms, etc). Unless you are expecting a 50lb analogue >500w audiophile quality amp, I’m not why you would assume the size == low quality.

Re: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#80

Post by jaxondu »

e1ven wrote: post #10
ratsimihah wrote: post #2

What’s innovative about this? I feel like I’m reading an Amazon Alexa or Google Home ad.

I’m interested in one as a new speaker. I don’t expect I’ll enable Siri. I want to use it as an AirPlay target. I was previously considering a Sonos, but the Airplay2 support will be baked into the OS so I don’t need to use a clunky 3rd party app.

> but the Airplay2 support will be baked into the OS so I don’t need to use a clunky 3rd party app

Do not expect everything smooth sailing with Apple software. Currently when I AirPlay video to AppleTV, I can not use the remote controller to pause and play as there will be no sound. I suspect one reason for the HomePod delay is due to bugs.

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