The worst? For your particular use case perhaps an Echo is better. I gave my Echo to my daughter months ago, using Google Home instead which for me is a better device. Also sounds a bit better IMO, tho a tad on the bass-y side. All depends on what you use it for I guess.
How to trigger Gatorguy: say something bad about Google and your done. What a joke.
Yup, I think hes the first human on earth born with a preset event trigger.
Apple's problem is software. It is ridiculous hundreds of millions of iPhone users have to install and updates new iOS weekly. Monthly may be a more reasonable period. I refuse to install iOS 11 because I hate the constant reminder from Apple to install new OSs which are mainly to fix bugs and some are not ever related to my phone.
yes, its absolutely ridiculous that Apple fixes their OS. Maybe they should be like Android and just drop support 2 months after the phone comes out.
Not sure why some folks are working themselves into a lather about a product that few ordinary consumers fully understand. It's not like people are sitting around wondering how they can possibly get through one more day, much less a couple more months (OMG!!!), without being able to talk to their speakers. If there's not a clear need or demand (outside of hard core Apple geeks) why does it being delayed by a couple of months really matter? Amazon's been pushing these things out for years with the expressed purpose of getting people to buy more crap on Amazon. Yeah, yeah, yeah they throw out some toy apps and gadgetry to make you feel a little better about having an Amazon sales dude listening in on your household conversations, but the "why" part of Echo's existence is exactly to make it easier for you to buy more stuff more often on Amazon. Apple is very big on "whys" but I'm not totally clear on the "why" for HomePod. I think it might be about music and the attention to detail they've given to HomePod bears this out to some degree. But there has to be more because Apple could simply build a kickass speaker system if audio quality was their only goal.
I believe the HomePod is just one more piece of the puzzle for Apple to advance towards an Apple product & services enabled ambient intelligence (AmI) environment. Apple's primary computing devices are quickly (or slowly depending on your expectations) migrating from stationary -> mobile -> handheld -> worn -> ? (embedded?) while still scaling upwards in processing and sensory capabilities. The sum of computing/intelligence is what matters, not just the computing/intelligence of single devices. The "why" of Apple's product initiatives is to move you, the customer, towards an AmI environment that is is structured around the things that matter to you in your life, like music, interaction, and knowledge discovery. All built around Apple and Apple partner products & services - of course. Everything Apple does must complement their ecosystem.
What Amazon is doing is somewhat similar, but the end game for Amazon is not an AmI environment structured around you and your life experiences, but an AmI environment structured around a global marketplace/bazaar for discovering, acquiring, and consuming products (and everything on the supply side as well). And there's nothing wrong with Amazon's approach. At all. It's a great thing for buyers and sellers and fills a huge consumer need. It's probably an easier goal for Amazon to achieve than what Apple is trying to do because Amazon is further along, is incredibly focused, has a salient vision, and is damn good at what they do - at scale. Apple has loftier goals that are more abstract, softer, emotional, and and human centric. All that intersection of art and science stuff. Not that Amazon doesn't understand human emotions, like greed, lust, and retail therapy, but that's another story.
When all is said and done, the HomePod slipping a couple of months is like a few pixels being delayed in a much bigger picture that Apple is painting. It also make no difference in Apple's "response" to whatever Amazon and Google are doing with smart speakers. Apple is playing an entirely different game.
If it's delayed, that has to mean they haven't even started manufacturing yet. And yet from the previews, it seemed totally designed. So something must be wrong with it and I'll ask the question I've asked before: sales and marketing aside, what exactly is it that everyone else at Apple actually does? It seems like an awful lot of employees for the relatively few products and operating systems that Apple has.
Numbers can be deceiving. While there are roughly 120,000 employees at Apple, there are only a couple dozen designers. Maybe multiply that by 5-10 for hardware engineers and then on a quick search it looks like there are 16-20 software engineers. But even that doesn’t tell the whole story. Garuntee for NPD like home pods there are only a couple dozen people working on this total knowing Apple. If something isn’t up to their insanely high standards, guess what? It’s not going to ship. Shit happens.
I said it before, Apple announced HomePod too early.
I had a bad feeling about the December date and the lack of mention/hype from Apple since announcement.
Same could be for iMac Pro.
They should have waited for the September iPhone8/8plus/X event. They gave their competitors too much time to react to the technical features of the homePod.
Hopefully the extra time is so that Craig Federighi can whip Siri software into shape after it languished so long under Eddy Cue. They really should include Zwave and Zigbee brides in the homePod to make setting up Smart appliances. Alexa is really hot there; Apple could lose the HomeKit market. I really like the ease of my EchoPlus. Delighted me the way my first iphone and iPad did.
Apple's problem is software. It is ridiculous hundreds of millions of iPhone users have to install and updates new iOS weekly. Monthly may be a more reasonable period. I refuse to install iOS 11 because I hate the constant reminder from Apple to install new OSs which are mainly to fix bugs and some are not ever related to my phone.
You have a choice: go for Android. Bugs are expected in every new released OS on new handsets. It’s good that Apple takes care of it in a week. For Android, you’ll wait for months!
There is a good article at theVerge by Vlad Savov about how horriblely behind android phones are in terms of the latest version. And new phones are being released now with last years software not 3 month-old Oreo. Basically when you buy an android phone you are stuck with that software. That's part of why Android reviewers rave about the Pixel phones - they get updates .
I get really annoyed by Apple always pushing updates but it's better than the alternative.
If it's delayed, that has to mean they haven't even started manufacturing yet. And yet from the previews, it seemed totally designed. So something must be wrong with it and I'll ask the question I've asked before: sales and marketing aside, what exactly is it that everyone else at Apple actually does? It seems like an awful lot of employees for the relatively few products and operating systems that Apple has.
Numbers can be deceiving. While there are roughly 120,000 employees at Apple, there are only a couple dozen designers. Maybe multiply that by 5-10 for hardware engineers and then on a quick search it looks like there are 16-20 software engineers. But even that doesn’t tell the whole story. Garuntee for NPD like home pods there are only a couple dozen people working on this total knowing Apple. If something isn’t up to their insanely high standards, guess what? It’s not going to ship. Shit happens.
im just curious what the issue is.
How is that even remotely possible?
Cook himself has stated they have over 1000 engineers to answer questions.
We've got over a hundred sessions planned for you and over 150 labs so that you can get your hands on our latest technologies. And we've got over a thousand Apple engineers to answer just about any question that you might have.
Delayed because of FaceID module shortage perhaps?
1) That was never listed as one of its features, even after the iPhone X launched, and I’m not sure how that would be useful for a device designed to be spoken to across a room.
2) It would be very, very low volume compared to any iPhone X sales making it an unlikely reason, even if you had an excellent use case for it in a speaker.
Apple's problem is software. It is ridiculous hundreds of millions of iPhone users have to install and updates new iOS weekly. Monthly may be a more reasonable period. I refuse to install iOS 11 because I hate the constant reminder from Apple to install new OSs which are mainly to fix bugs and some are not ever related to my phone.
You have a choice: go for Android. Bugs are expected in every new released OS on new handsets. It’s good that Apple takes care of it in a week. For Android, you’ll wait for months!
There is a good article at theVerge by Vlad Savov about how horriblely behind android phones are in terms of the latest version. And new phones are being released now with last years software not 3 month-old Oreo. Basically when you buy an android phone you are stuck with that software. That's part of why Android reviewers rave about the Pixel phones - they get updates .
I get really annoyed by Apple always pushing updates but it's better than the alternative.
I reckon this is nothing to do with the number of bugs, and a lot to do with a more agile development strategy adopted at Apple. Look at the rate they’re churning out betas to testers. Smaller changes released more often are easier to test and manage and are less likely to cause regression problems.
It's a speaker. At the end of the day, regardless how good it is, it is a speaker with WiFi/easy pairing. Given Google and Amazon are pumping these out left and right???
Really? Delayed?
There's speakers and there's SPEAKERS.
The early Google and Amazon ones don't have particularly good sound.
Steven N speaks as a man with no concept of acoustic design. Not uncommon
Apple's problem is software. It is ridiculous hundreds of millions of iPhone users have to install and updates new iOS weekly. Monthly may be a more reasonable period. I refuse to install iOS 11 because I hate the constant reminder from Apple to install new OSs which are mainly to fix bugs and some are not ever related to my phone.
So you would rather wait a month, rather than say a week for a bug or a security hole to be fixed... Because as soon as possible is too inconvenient for you ? You also won’t update to IOS 11 simply because their is a reminder that pops up and this annoys you ? You also believe that because that IOS 11 is mainly a bug fix update and the dot updates since 11.0 only address issues with other models of iPhone ? This is your belief of ALL updates of IOS ?
Did this make sense in your head when you typed it ? Because it makes zero sense to me and I read your comment 3x before posting. There are quite a few Android phone that you can buy that will receive no new OS updates so you won’t have to worry about bug fixes or ever being reminded to update again.
I swear some posts I have come across lately are just bizarre ... sheesh.
Comments
”Tim cool”? I get it. He’s not liked by some.
-MAS
Didn’t Jobs release the iPod HiFi and a delayed white iPhone? What excuse are you gonna make now?
A good leader gets his/her team to follow the same roadmap To a successful outcome.
I believe the HomePod is just one more piece of the puzzle for Apple to advance towards an Apple product & services enabled ambient intelligence (AmI) environment. Apple's primary computing devices are quickly (or slowly depending on your expectations) migrating from stationary -> mobile -> handheld -> worn -> ? (embedded?) while still scaling upwards in processing and sensory capabilities. The sum of computing/intelligence is what matters, not just the computing/intelligence of single devices. The "why" of Apple's product initiatives is to move you, the customer, towards an AmI environment that is is structured around the things that matter to you in your life, like music, interaction, and knowledge discovery. All built around Apple and Apple partner products & services - of course. Everything Apple does must complement their ecosystem.
What Amazon is doing is somewhat similar, but the end game for Amazon is not an AmI environment structured around you and your life experiences, but an AmI environment structured around a global marketplace/bazaar for discovering, acquiring, and consuming products (and everything on the supply side as well). And there's nothing wrong with Amazon's approach. At all. It's a great thing for buyers and sellers and fills a huge consumer need. It's probably an easier goal for Amazon to achieve than what Apple is trying to do because Amazon is further along, is incredibly focused, has a salient vision, and is damn good at what they do - at scale. Apple has loftier goals that are more abstract, softer, emotional, and and human centric. All that intersection of art and science stuff. Not that Amazon doesn't understand human emotions, like greed, lust, and retail therapy, but that's another story.
When all is said and done, the HomePod slipping a couple of months is like a few pixels being delayed in a much bigger picture that Apple is painting. It also make no difference in Apple's "response" to whatever Amazon and Google are doing with smart speakers. Apple is playing an entirely different game.
im just curious what the issue is.
Hopefully the extra time is so that Craig Federighi can whip Siri software into shape after it languished so long under Eddy Cue.
They really should include Zwave and Zigbee brides in the homePod to make setting up Smart appliances. Alexa is really hot there; Apple could lose the HomeKit market. I really like the ease of my EchoPlus. Delighted me the way my first iphone and iPad did.
I get really annoyed by Apple always pushing updates but it's better than the alternative.
Cook himself has stated they have over 1000 engineers to answer questions.
2) It would be very, very low volume compared to any iPhone X sales making it an unlikely reason, even if you had an excellent use case for it in a speaker.
From the TechCrunch article:
According to a brief statement issued by the company, the production process needs “a little more time” to bake.
So it looks like a manufacturing problem … as usual.
Did this make sense in your head when you typed it ? Because it makes zero sense to me and I read your comment 3x before posting. There are quite a few Android phone that you can buy that will receive no new OS updates so you won’t have to worry about bug fixes or ever being reminded to update again.
I swear some posts I have come across lately are just bizarre ... sheesh.