russw

repressthis said:

I use my HomePods in stereo for a home theater, paired with an Apple TV. Really love the experience. An excellent product and I’m so pleased to have ditched my old jumbo sized 3.1 sounds system, never wanting to go back. But in 5 years when the HomePods are vintage, I wonder what’s next? Sonos... eh, maybe. 

Yes, this is a cool functionality that would go away. You can’t even use a single mini as he default output for an AppleTV so maybe Apple will add this ability. Sure won’t match your stereo HomePod setup quality but I use one Apple TV in my garage for exercise (Zwift in my case but could be fitness+ for others. Don’t need the best quality sound for that.  

bonobob said:

Quote:  The biggest new feature is Bokeh and Depth Control, which allows you to adjust the background blur and depth after taking photos. This feature alone is going to convince a lot of people to upgrade, simply because it makes photos look noticeably better. 

The iPhone X is capable of doing both of these features. The only question is whether iOS 12 Photos app will allow it on the X.  The third party Focos app can adjust both depth of field and plane of focus on a portrait mode photo on an iPhone X.

The answer appears to be no, they won't add "bokeh" adjust in photos at least not yet. There is also an app called Slør that's been out almost since the X came out. Works really well and allows you to move the focus point around in addition to changing depth of field.

This seems like a marketing money grab from Apple. Pretty disappointing and I'm an Apple fanboy for sure. I've only skipped one other iPhone (the 7) for the last 10+ years but will be skipping the Xs as well, I think.

JWSC said:

I suppose everyone who takes part in these COVID-19 tracking solutions feels good about this work. And I’m sure it’s good work. But getting it deployed to the masses, many of whom will not voluntarily submit to tracking, is just too little and too late.

It may be a prepackaged solution for the next pandemic though.

I hope you’re wrong but fear you’re right about the US. So funny when you realize your cell company is tracking you already, not to mention Google and Facebook. 

Once you have more HomeKit automation, the HomePod becomes more useful to turn on and off devices or enable scenes. Hey Siri, set scene dining (or just say hey Siri, dinning) to setup a set of lights in our home. Sure, you could do that with your iPhone but when you're scrambling around in the kitchen it's a lot easier to just talk. Not saying it's worth the expense but it's a nice extravagance. I'd like a smaller HomePod that cost 1/2 as much so I could add to a few more areas in our home. It's nice they started high end but they are expensive.

Using on 11” iPad. At first I thought both iPad speakers and AirPods were both on. It sounded like sound was coming from iPad as I moved my head around but much better sound. Such an amazing improvement in experience.