HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday

#1

Post by robrichard » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 2:30 PM UTC

HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday
apple.com

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

#2

Post by ratsimihah » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:10 PM UTC

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

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

#3

Post by BadassFractal » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:11 PM UTC

Will be interesting to see a feature comparison with all of the other existing voice-controlled speakers out there. Seems like a couple of recent blogs posts linked on HN were saying that Apple was starting already behind the competition in this space.

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

#4

Post by draw_down » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

ratsimihah wrote: post #2

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

I don't know. I don't understand why people like these devices generally. And the less said about Siri the better.

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

#5

Post by apeacox » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

ratsimihah wrote: post #2

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

Hopefully without mining and selling user data. This might be the real killer feature.

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

#6

Post by germinalphrase » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

I feel exited about home assistants in the same way I am excited about home automation: the premise seems useful in a general way, but I struggle to think of use cases that have a meaningful effect on my lifestyle. Also - I can't shake the privacy concerns.

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

#7

Post by oceanghost » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

How can you release a music player when your music ecosystem is completely broken? iTunes is so bad I have to pay for an app (Waltr) to put music on my phone.

And Apple music sounds like garbage. I don't need a high-quality speaker to stream garbage.

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

#8

Post by firloop » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

>Coming this year in a free software update, users will be able to play music throughout the house with multi-room audio.

Interesting that a key feature that the competition already has won’t be shipping at launch. I wonder if this is related to the Homepod’s previous delays.

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

#9

Post by epicide » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

ratsimihah wrote: post #2

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

I don't know that it's particularly innovative, but it is nice having the option.

Personally, I use Apple Music and am looking to do more with HomeKit, so it adds a few things there.

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

#10

Post by e1ven » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:19 PM UTC

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.