Why is AI comparing HomePod to Echo and Home when Apple is positioning it as a high quality speaker first, with some smarts, second? Why not compare to Sonos instead?
I addressed this a little in the conclusion. It is unavoidable - speakers with smart assistants in them are going to be compared with other speakers that ship with smart assistants. That means, no matter what, Google's assistant, Amazon's assistant, and Siri are going to be compared. We aren't comparing in this piece the audio quality from each, but instead, what their capabilities are. That is, the thrust of this piece compares the smart assistant capabilities rather than talking about audio quality across the devices.
As you say, I wrote: "There's a lot of discussion framing the HomePod as a speaker that happens to be smart (with assistants), versus Google Home and Echo products that are smart assistants that happen to be in the form of speakers." That is, do you think of this as a high quality speaker first with an assistant tacked on, or an assistant first with a speaker tacked on. I went on to say that the future is one that is going to be driven by Voice-First interfaces. The assistant can't be secondary.
Apple historically sells a ton of high end speakers in their stores. They tried to capture some of that revenue with iPod Hi-Fi years ago. It didn't work. This time, the audio quality is significantly better than it was then, and they will probably capture revenue from Bose, B&W, B&O, and others on their retail floor. Honestly? This is the same reason they bought Beats - Beats was making a lot of money in Apple's stores, and rather than try and compete with them, they bought them to capture that revenue for themselves.
Google: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Amazon: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Apple: built on trust and aren't going to jeopardize that trust for money they don't technically need
I won't have a single google device in my house, and I dislike the amazon ones I have. HomePod WILL replace the echo when I can get one. Then hopefully there is a "dot" competitor from Apple in the short term so I can replace those as well.
Google: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Amazon: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Apple: built on trust and aren't going to jeopardize that trust for money they don't technically need
I won't have a single google device in my house, and I dislike the amazon ones I have. HomePod WILL replace the echo when I can get one. Then hopefully there is a "dot" competitor from Apple in the short term so I can replace those as well.
*sigh* Another example of posting fiction as fact. No way to stop it either as FUD has a way of taking on a life of its own.
"The HomePod is not a Halo product. The iPod was a Halo product. The iPhone is a Halo product. If the HomePod were a Halo product, it would be one you could purchase stand-alone and use out of the box without anything else. And that's sort of true, but with a lot of caveats."
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True, but the iPod WAS not a Halo product… it required FireWire, was a Mac only device that required iTunes. When they opened it up to Windows uses buy replacing the FireWire with a USB connection, THEN it had a larger audience, yet still required iTunes.
"The HomePod is not a Halo product. The iPod was a Halo product. The iPhone is a Halo product. If the HomePod were a Halo product, it would be one you could purchase stand-alone and use out of the box without anything else. And that's sort of true, but with a lot of caveats."
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True, but the iPod WAS not a Halo product… it required FireWire, was a Mac only device that required iTunes. When they opened it up to Windows uses buy replacing the FireWire with a USB connection, THEN it had a larger audience, yet still required iTunes.
At some point, everything requires electricity.
You're right. Although in the early days, there was PC support that wasn't initially sanctioned by Apple, and then they shipped MusicMatch with it, but it was still using Firewire as the interconnect. The Apple retail stores sold Belkin PCI cards so that PC users could add Firewire to their PC.
The iPod was that much of a Halo product that Apple sold PCI cards to PC users. The Switchers ad campaign came after this. The iPod drew PC users to alter their computers to work with a music player, and then change computing platforms altogether. THAT is a Halo product.
Halo isn't about the size of audience, it's about what it caused people to do in terms of reconsidering the rest of the product line.
Why is AI comparing HomePod to Echo and Home when Apple is positioning it as a high quality speaker first, with some smarts, second? Why not compare to Sonos instead?
I addressed this a little in the conclusion. It is unavoidable - speakers with smart assistants in them are going to be compared with other speakers that ship with smart assistants. That means, no matter what, Google's assistant, Amazon's assistant, and Siri are going to be compared. We aren't comparing in this piece the audio quality from each, but instead, what their capabilities are.
As you say, I wrote: "There's a lot of discussion framing the HomePod as a speaker that happens to be smart (with assistants), versus Google Home and Echo products that are smart assistants that happen to be in the form of speakers." That is, do you think of this as a high quality speaker first with an assistant tacked on, or an assistant first with a speaker tacked on. I went on to say that the future is one that is going to be driven by Voice-First interfaces. The assistant can't be secondary.
Apple historically sells a ton of high end speakers in their stores. They tried to capture some of that revenue with iPod Hi-Fi years ago. It didn't work. This time, the audio quality is significantly better than it was then, and they will probably capture revenue from Bose, B&W, B&O, and others on their retail floor. Honestly? This is the same reason they bought Beats - Beats was making a lot of money in Apple's stores, and rather than try and compete with them, they bought them to capture that revenue for themselves.
HomePod is an iPhone accessory. I’d love to see someone write an article with that angle and discuss the pros/cons. Should Apple create a Siri domain for music/podcasts? I think so. Apple TV isn’t locked down. Why should HomePod be?
Google: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Amazon: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Apple: built on trust and aren't going to jeopardize that trust for money they don't technically need
I won't have a single google device in my house, and I dislike the amazon ones I have. HomePod WILL replace the echo when I can get one. Then hopefully there is a "dot" competitor from Apple in the short term so I can replace those as well.
*sigh* Another example of posting fiction as fact. No way to stop it either as FUD has a way of taking on a life of its own.
Just for me, and the only time I'll ask you to do this for this example: will you take apart the FUD? I have a few examples of my own in mind that contradict the Google and Amazon contentions, but I want to hear yours.
Google: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Amazon: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Apple: built on trust and aren't going to jeopardize that trust for money they don't technically need
I won't have a single google device in my house, and I dislike the amazon ones I have. HomePod WILL replace the echo when I can get one. Then hopefully there is a "dot" competitor from Apple in the short term so I can replace those as well.
*sigh* Another example of posting fiction as fact. No way to stop it either as FUD has a way of taking on a life of its own.
Just for me, and the only time I'll ask you to do this for this example: will you take apart the FUD? I have a few examples of my own in mind that contradict the Google and Amazon contentions, but I want to hear yours.
OK. Here's a good basic starting point: What personal data does Google sell to the highest bidder? What personal data does Amazon sell to the highest bidder? Can we work from there and expand out as necessary? Eliminate the low-hanging fruit so to speak.
Google: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Amazon: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Apple: built on trust and aren't going to jeopardize that trust for money they don't technically need
I won't have a single google device in my house, and I dislike the amazon ones I have. HomePod WILL replace the echo when I can get one. Then hopefully there is a "dot" competitor from Apple in the short term so I can replace those as well.
*sigh* Another example of posting fiction as fact. No way to stop it either as FUD has a way of taking on a life of its own.
I've never had a product I spoke about in the presence of my phone offered up to me in an ad, except with facebook. Literally the SAME WEEK I got my first Echo I began getting emails from Amazon about items I never searched on their app but talked about around my house.
And Google just has never had a single iota of goodwill from me.
So please take your *sigh* drama garbage and ignore what I post if you have such an issue with it.
Google: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Amazon: Will sell your data to the highest bidder Apple: built on trust and aren't going to jeopardize that trust for money they don't technically need
I won't have a single google device in my house, and I dislike the amazon ones I have. HomePod WILL replace the echo when I can get one. Then hopefully there is a "dot" competitor from Apple in the short term so I can replace those as well.
*sigh* Another example of posting fiction as fact. No way to stop it either as FUD has a way of taking on a life of its own.
I've never had a product I spoke about in the presence of my phone offered up to me in an ad, except with facebook. Literally the SAME WEEK I got my first Echo I began getting emails from Amazon about items I never searched on their app but talked about around my house.
And Google just has never had a single iota of goodwill from me.
So please take your *sigh* drama garbage and ignore what I post if you have such an issue with it.
Some less knowledgeable readers than yourself, and we have a whole lot of drop-ins, might mistake your original comment for fact rather than "I just don't like 'em", so there's always a benefit to clarification.
You can’t imagine a difference between user identifiable data and user data?
Obviously if that data can be connected back to your Siri use to be marked for deletion when you stop use of the service then by definition it would be identifiable wouldn't it? I believe the random numbering that makes each of those recordings unique and trackable is maintained for about 6 months before being disassociated and the recordings at that point becoming non-identifiable(?) but still retained for another 18 months. In any event Siri does not use differential privacy anyway AFAIK which is the takeaway even if the article may imply otherwise.
It’s the size of the Sonos Play:1 and sounds better than the Play:5 and Google’s high end speaker. At the end of the day, if you care about music, the choice is easy to make.
Yes you wouldn't buy any smart speaker at all, I think that is what you meant.
You could stick a Chromecast audio in your £1000 plus speakers is the best sound option, and don't use streaming services at all as quality inferior to your cd.
Having worked with pro audio engineers I can tell you that your CD versus high quality streaming argument is false.
Mind you your suggestion to use Chromecast is proof of your knowledge...
You can’t imagine a difference between user identifiable data and user data?
Obviously if that data can be connected back to your Siri use to be marked for deletion when you stop use of the service then by definition it would be identifiable wouldn't it? I believe the random numbering that makes each of those recordings unique and trackable is maintained for about 6 months before being disassociated and the recordings at that point becoming non-identifiable(?) but still retained for another 18 months. In any event Siri does not use differential privacy anyway AFAIK which is the takeaway even if the article may imply otherwise.
Read Rayz2016’s post
What, you don't think I did? He just hasn't replied yet.
It’s the size of the Sonos Play:1 and sounds better than the Play:5 and Google’s high end speaker. At the end of the day, if you care about music, the choice is easy to make.
Yes you wouldn't buy any smart speaker at all, I think that is what you meant.
You could stick a Chromecast audio in your £1000 plus speakers is the best sound option, and don't use streaming services at all as quality inferior to your cd.
Having worked with pro audio engineers I can tell you that your CD versus high quality streaming argument is false.
Mind you your suggestion to use Chromecast is proof of your knowledge...
It’s the size of the Sonos Play:1 and sounds better than the Play:5 and Google’s high end speaker. At the end of the day, if you care about music, the choice is easy to make.
Yes you wouldn't buy any smart speaker at all, I think that is what you meant.
You could stick a Chromecast audio in your £1000 plus speakers is the best sound option, and don't use streaming services at all as quality inferior to your cd.
Having worked with pro audio engineers I can tell you that your CD versus high quality streaming argument is false.
Mind you your suggestion to use Chromecast is proof of your knowledge...
I checked a little bit - Chromecast can take FLAC and it can pass AC3 to a receiver via mini toslink. I still feel a little uncertain that the 30 dollar Chromecast Audio is all it takes to do high end audio through 1000 pound speakers. FLAC over wifi to toslink would be local streaming, because no service I know of streams FLAC - it's MQA if we're aiming higher. This was why I interviewed Michal of Mytek digital on the latest podcast.
Comments
As you say, I wrote: "There's a lot of discussion framing the HomePod as a speaker that happens to be smart (with assistants), versus Google Home and Echo products that are smart assistants that happen to be in the form of speakers." That is, do you think of this as a high quality speaker first with an assistant tacked on, or an assistant first with a speaker tacked on. I went on to say that the future is one that is going to be driven by Voice-First interfaces. The assistant can't be secondary.
Apple historically sells a ton of high end speakers in their stores. They tried to capture some of that revenue with iPod Hi-Fi years ago. It didn't work. This time, the audio quality is significantly better than it was then, and they will probably capture revenue from Bose, B&W, B&O, and others on their retail floor. Honestly? This is the same reason they bought Beats - Beats was making a lot of money in Apple's stores, and rather than try and compete with them, they bought them to capture that revenue for themselves.
Google: Will sell your data to the highest bidder
Amazon: Will sell your data to the highest bidder
Apple: built on trust and aren't going to jeopardize that trust for money they don't technically need
I won't have a single google device in my house, and I dislike the amazon ones I have. HomePod WILL replace the echo when I can get one. Then hopefully there is a "dot" competitor from Apple in the short term so I can replace those as well.
Another example of posting fiction as fact. No way to stop it either as FUD has a way of taking on a life of its own.
You're right. Although in the early days, there was PC support that wasn't initially sanctioned by Apple, and then they shipped MusicMatch with it, but it was still using Firewire as the interconnect. The Apple retail stores sold Belkin PCI cards so that PC users could add Firewire to their PC.
The iPod was that much of a Halo product that Apple sold PCI cards to PC users. The Switchers ad campaign came after this. The iPod drew PC users to alter their computers to work with a music player, and then change computing platforms altogether. THAT is a Halo product.
Halo isn't about the size of audience, it's about what it caused people to do in terms of reconsidering the rest of the product line.
And Google just has never had a single iota of goodwill from me.
So please take your *sigh* drama garbage and ignore what I post if you have such an issue with it.
Mind you your suggestion to use Chromecast is proof of your knowledge...
https://www.cnet.com/products/chromecast-audio/
https://www.whathifi.com/google/chromecast-audio/review