I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
Good instinct, don't waste your money. The benefits of the amazing speaker quality and design are significantly outweighed by the frustrations with siri.
Even if you want to use it as an airplay speaker, that fails to, at least for me, although I doubt I'm the only one. I have regular problems with HP dropping the connection with my iPhone.
Horrible advice. Since its primary use case is playback of music and streams, the amazing speaker quality are of significant weight, compared to the parlor games of digital assistant queries. Do not care if I can't order more toilet paper or whatnot.
While I primarily use it as an Apple TV endpoint or for initiating its own playback of music & radio (as opposed to being an AirPlay endpoint), I have no dropouts on the occasions I do use it as an Airplay endpoint. Router problems?
Worshipping at the Church Market Share doesn't really interest me, as long as the device continues to delight. For the size and price, the HP is hard to beat IMO. I tried the larger and more expensive Sonos Beam, we A:B tested it (blindly for my SO) and felt the HP sounded better, both for music and dialog. So for music and movies, HomeKit commands (it hears me from two rooms), and the normal, mundane digital assistant tasks, HP is great. If they continue to improve Siri stuff, great. If not, no biggie.
This is not to say its without faults. One annoying UX bug -- if you set the HP as your output device on your Apple TV, it will remember it, which is great. But, then when the ATV is sleeping and you ask the HP to start playing a radio station, it won't be able to...not until you un-set it from the ATV, which you can do by setting it as the output for your iPhone or iPad. Weird little problem and work-around, to be sure. Have submitted, hope they fix it sometime.
(I'd also love to see the HP developed into more home theater use cases, but if they don't and leave that to Sonos, I'll live...clearly, as so far I'm happy with a single HP for my content viewing)
Market share has never been a business goal for Apple, but the comparisons are made with every Apple product, usually to paint Apple as being at a disadvantage. If only we were all in such a precarious position as Apple.
Worshipping at the Church Market Share doesn't really interest me, as long as the device continues to delight. For the size and price, the HP is hard to beat IMO. I tried the larger and more expensive Sonos Beam, we A:B tested it (blindly for my SO) and felt the HP sounded better, both for music and dialog. So for music and movies, HomeKit commands (it hears me from two rooms), and the normal, mundane digital assistant tasks, HP is great. If they continue to improve Siri stuff, great. If not, no biggie.
This is not to say its without faults. One annoying UX bug -- if you set the HP as your output device on your Apple TV, it will remember it, which is great. But, then when the ATV is sleeping and you ask the HP to start playing a radio station, it won't be able to...not until you un-set it from the ATV, which you can do by setting it as the output for your iPhone or iPad. Weird little problem and work-around, to be sure. Have submitted, hope they fix it sometime.
(I'd also love to see the HP developed into more home theater use cases, but if they don't and leave that to Sonos, I'll live...clearly, as so far I'm happy with a single HP for my content viewing)
Market share has never been a business goal for Apple, but the comparisons are made with every Apple product, usually to paint Apple as being at a disadvantage. If only we were all in such a precarious position as Apple.
Apple mention market share all the time, when favourable. Only a certain type of Apple fan denies it.
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
What do you wish Siri to do so that you can enjoy it as a loud, clear speaker?
Personally I find voice-only music commands rather limited IRL. I much prefer to use my iPad or iPhone as a remote for the HP, browsing my library for desired music. This is not streaming *to* the HP, rather you can connect the Music GUI to the HP and manipulate & queue the music it is playing.
To be able to answer questions accurately, and not reply with random crap that is not related to the query. To do more than function as a timer, and even that Siri fails 1/30 times.
You didn't answer his question. The question was not "what's your wish list for Siri" it was about Siri as a front end for a music device. I don't ask my stereo to set timers nor do I ask it trivia questions.
Bingo. Those types of things are silly parlor games for nerds. I'm nor ordering a pizza with my music & movies speaker. (To be clear, I'm never ordering a pizza with a digital assistant lol)
66 million smart speakers would be approx half of all US households. Not just nerds.
What a dumb comparison. Homepod was in development before the release of any smartspeaker. It was developed as a high quality Bluetooth speaker to enjoy room-filling music.
What??
According to what I remember reading it wasn't in active development as an Apple product prior to other smart-speakers. It was a side project from one of the engineering groups, with no plans by Apple to turn it into something sellable.
Apple decided to turn it into the HomePod AFTER other smart-speakers were finding success unless I'm not remembering correctly.
Yep. Apple was playing catchup. That's why it was released incomplete (sans stereo and Airplay 2).
Worshipping at the Church Market Share doesn't really interest me, as long as the device continues to delight. For the size and price, the HP is hard to beat IMO. I tried the larger and more expensive Sonos Beam, we A:B tested it (blindly for my SO) and felt the HP sounded better, both for music and dialog. So for music and movies, HomeKit commands (it hears me from two rooms), and the normal, mundane digital assistant tasks, HP is great. If they continue to improve Siri stuff, great. If not, no biggie.
This is not to say its without faults. One annoying UX bug -- if you set the HP as your output device on your Apple TV, it will remember it, which is great. But, then when the ATV is sleeping and you ask the HP to start playing a radio station, it won't be able to...not until you un-set it from the ATV, which you can do by setting it as the output for your iPhone or iPad. Weird little problem and work-around, to be sure. Have submitted, hope they fix it sometime.
(I'd also love to see the HP developed into more home theater use cases, but if they don't and leave that to Sonos, I'll live...clearly, as so far I'm happy with a single HP for my content viewing)
A 5.1 HomePod system would be killer. Charging them would be a pain but conventional speakers already have a messier wire setup so having 5 Homepods always charging isn't so bad I guess.
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
What do you wish Siri to do so that you can enjoy it as a loud, clear speaker?
Personally I find voice-only music commands rather limited IRL. I much prefer to use my iPad or iPhone as a remote for the HP, browsing my library for desired music. This is not streaming *to* the HP, rather you can connect the Music GUI to the HP and manipulate & qeue the music it is playing.
Would a HomePodOS be too grandiose? I'm sure Siri will get smarter soon.
I having the ability to do 3.0 or 5.0 Home Theater Audio from the Same HP would be great. I'm not sure how they would really do the base Part without also making a subwoofer.
Yes please Apple make Siri better. I consider Siri the biggest Drain on Apple Products. (if you think Apple makes something worse other than iTunes let me know).
I posted this question on another thread with no answer:
What exactly makes Alexa so much better than Siri? (I personally do not have issues with Siri and have never owned an Alexa device to compare). This is the narrative but I never see specific reasons. Like, what does Alexa offer that is the game changer?
I posted this question on another thread with no answer:
What exactly makes Alexa so much better than Siri? (I personally do not have issues with Siri and have never owned an Alexa device to compare). This is the narrative but I never see specific reasons. Like, what does Alexa offer that is the game changer?
Alexa understands more stuff and produces better answers - never a redirect to the web. Its strange that Apple haven't fixed that.
I still can’t believe this is even a market category. It’s just more pathological tech fad garbage in search of a problem to solve. Apple is just following trends here, regardless of what that trend is in the scope of consumer needs. Let speakers be speakers and let “smart assistants” be... actually useful some day??
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
Why? Does Siri impact the sound quality or the ability to use it for music or podcasts? If all you are looking for is a home automation assistant only yes there are plenty of cheaper alternatives. That is not what HP is about. Yes they tout Siri functionality, but Apple has been up front since the beginning with this speaker being about music first.
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
Good instinct, don't waste your money. The benefits of the amazing speaker quality and design are significantly outweighed by the frustrations with siri.
Even if you want to use it as an airplay speaker, that fails to, at least for me, although I doubt I'm the only one. I have regular problems with HP dropping the connection with my iPhone.
HP is basically a glorified homekit input device at this point. I think I might just make it my Apple TV output to get some more use out of it.
There is something going on with your home network possibly? I have multiple iPhones in my home that use HP daily and do not drop or have connection issues? I have had to unplug my HP twice in the last year because it didn't show up as an airplay device.. Once after I changed routers and and once after the Airplay 2 update. I have my HP to accept all connections so my personal Xs Max is usually Airplaying to HP using my TMobile data, and not my home Wifi and I still don't have the dropping and connection issues you mention?
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
Good instinct, don't waste your money. The benefits of the amazing speaker quality and design are significantly outweighed by the frustrations with siri.
Even if you want to use it as an airplay speaker, that fails to, at least for me, although I doubt I'm the only one. I have regular problems with HP dropping the connection with my iPhone.
Horrible advice. Since its primary use case is playback of music and streams, the amazing speaker quality are of significant weight, compared to the parlor games of digital assistant queries. Do not care if I can't order more toilet paper or whatnot.
While I primarily use it as an Apple TV endpoint or for initiating its own playback of music & radio (as opposed to being an AirPlay endpoint), I have no dropouts on the occasions I do use it as an Airplay endpoint. Router problems?
I hate to say it, but that's been my experience: choosing between the obnoxious mess that siri is, or having to wonder when the the HP is going to drop my music and drop off of the airplay options menu. Maybe it's a router problem, but doubtful; I use an airport extreme.
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
Good instinct, don't waste your money. The benefits of the amazing speaker quality and design are significantly outweighed by the frustrations with siri.
Even if you want to use it as an airplay speaker, that fails to, at least for me, although I doubt I'm the only one. I have regular problems with HP dropping the connection with my iPhone.
HP is basically a glorified homekit input device at this point. I think I might just make it my Apple TV output to get some more use out of it.
There is something going on with your home network possibly? I have multiple iPhones in my home that use HP daily and do not drop or have connection issues? I have had to unplug my HP twice in the last year because it didn't show up as an airplay device.. Once after I changed routers and and once after the Airplay 2 update. I have my HP to accept all connections so my personal Xs Max is usually Airplaying to HP using my TMobile data, and not my home Wifi and I still don't have the dropping and connection issues you mention?
So frustrating that it just disappears as an option like that. Thanks for the idea about tinkering with the connection options, I'll definitely give that a try.
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
Good instinct, don't waste your money. The benefits of the amazing speaker quality and design are significantly outweighed by the frustrations with siri.
Even if you want to use it as an airplay speaker, that fails to, at least for me, although I doubt I'm the only one. I have regular problems with HP dropping the connection with my iPhone.
Horrible advice. Since its primary use case is playback of music and streams, the amazing speaker quality are of significant weight, compared to the parlor games of digital assistant queries. Do not care if I can't order more toilet paper or whatnot.
While I primarily use it as an Apple TV endpoint or for initiating its own playback of music & radio (as opposed to being an AirPlay endpoint), I have no dropouts on the occasions I do use it as an Airplay endpoint. Router problems?
I hate to say it, but that's been my experience: choosing between the obnoxious mess that siri is, or having to wonder when the the HP is going to drop my music and drop off of the airplay options menu. Maybe it's a router problem, but doubtful; I use an airport extreme.
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
Good instinct, don't waste your money. The benefits of the amazing speaker quality and design are significantly outweighed by the frustrations with siri.
Even if you want to use it as an airplay speaker, that fails to, at least for me, although I doubt I'm the only one. I have regular problems with HP dropping the connection with my iPhone.
HP is basically a glorified homekit input device at this point. I think I might just make it my Apple TV output to get some more use out of it.
There is something going on with your home network possibly? I have multiple iPhones in my home that use HP daily and do not drop or have connection issues? I have had to unplug my HP twice in the last year because it didn't show up as an airplay device.. Once after I changed routers and and once after the Airplay 2 update. I have my HP to accept all connections so my personal Xs Max is usually Airplaying to HP using my TMobile data, and not my home Wifi and I still don't have the dropping and connection issues you mention?
So frustrating that it just disappears as an option like that. Thanks for the idea about tinkering with the connection options, I'll definitely give that a try.
Just for reference my router switch was from a 6th gen Extreme to a 6th gen Extreme 2tb Time Capsule. I have also had some wonkiness with airplay showing connected but with no sound. I think I have narrowed it down to another app like Youtube or a webpage that is playing a video that is trying to control the sound on your device while you are trying to use airplay with Apple Music. It's as though the device isn't sure which app it should allow the sound to come from.. hopefully that makes sense?
I still can’t believe this is even a market category. It’s just more pathological tech fad garbage in search of a problem to solve. Apple is just following trends here, regardless of what that trend is in the scope of consumer needs. Let speakers be speakers and let “smart assistants” be... actually useful some day??
Amen..which is why I use and enjoy my HP for music!
Worshipping at the Church Market Share doesn't really interest me, as long as the device continues to delight. For the size and price, the HP is hard to beat IMO. I tried the larger and more expensive Sonos Beam, we A:B tested it (blindly for my SO) and felt the HP sounded better, both for music and dialog. So for music and movies, HomeKit commands (it hears me from two rooms), and the normal, mundane digital assistant tasks, HP is great. If they continue to improve Siri stuff, great. If not, no biggie.
This is not to say its without faults. One annoying UX bug -- if you set the HP as your output device on your Apple TV, it will remember it, which is great. But, then when the ATV is sleeping and you ask the HP to start playing a radio station, it won't be able to...not until you un-set it from the ATV, which you can do by setting it as the output for your iPhone or iPad. Weird little problem and work-around, to be sure. Have submitted, hope they fix it sometime.
(I'd also love to see the HP developed into more home theater use cases, but if they don't and leave that to Sonos, I'll live...clearly, as so far I'm happy with a single HP for my content viewing)
A 5.1 HomePod system would be killer. Charging them would be a pain but conventional speakers already have a messier wire setup so having 5 Homepods always charging isn't so bad I guess.
I won't have any interest in this device until Siri sees some major improvements.
What do you wish Siri to do so that you can enjoy it as a loud, clear speaker?
Personally I find voice-only music commands rather limited IRL. I much prefer to use my iPad or iPhone as a remote for the HP, browsing my library for desired music. This is not streaming *to* the HP, rather you can connect the Music GUI to the HP and manipulate & qeue the music it is playing.
Would a HomePodOS be too grandiose? I'm sure Siri will get smarter soon.
I having the ability to do 3.0 or 5.0 Home Theater Audio from the Same HP would be great. I'm not sure how they would really do the base Part without also making a subwoofer.
Yes please Apple make Siri better. I consider Siri the biggest Drain on Apple Products. (if you think Apple makes something worse other than iTunes let me know).
Or as someone her has mentioned before. A proper Apple soundbar with HP technology. If they can produce bass with the soundbar like they are able to with the HP there may not even be a need for a subwoofer.
I posted this question on another thread with no answer:
What exactly makes Alexa so much better than Siri? (I personally do not have issues with Siri and have never owned an Alexa device to compare). This is the narrative but I never see specific reasons. Like, what does Alexa offer that is the game changer?
There is so much to unpack in this area. The whole "smart speaker" market was way overhyped, because "tech media". It is what they do - always searching for the next thing (that doesn't involve Apple), regardless of the actual use cases. Not unsurprisingly, there was little hype about this category at CES, and the tech media has moved on. It didn't help that most devices purchased are the low end "Dots, Minis" that list for maybe $50, but in reality are purchased on sale in the $20-$30 range. Basically, the price for a premium pizza. In other words, not much of a market.
Alexa is prized for its skills, which in theory enable it to handle more tasks, but in practice those really aren't being used by most people. Reasons - you have to remember the specific phrasing, you have to setup devices to use it - and that is more than most will do. So it is used for music playback, timers, some questions...and in a small % for home automation.
Google Assistant is best at overall trivia / answers (no surprise, given the search engine).
Siri (especially on HomePod with its better microphones) is quite good at what it claims to do - music, weather, sports, timers, reminders, etc. It is not as good at topics it doesn't claim to support.
Overall, a voice only interface is limited, so I don't expect my speaker to provide me with great details on the answer to a question.
Worshipping at the Church Market Share doesn't really interest me, as long as the device continues to delight. For the size and price, the HP is hard to beat IMO. I tried the larger and more expensive Sonos Beam, we A:B tested it (blindly for my SO) and felt the HP sounded better, both for music and dialog. So for music and movies, HomeKit commands (it hears me from two rooms), and the normal, mundane digital assistant tasks, HP is great. If they continue to improve Siri stuff, great. If not, no biggie.
This is not to say its without faults. One annoying UX bug -- if you set the HP as your output device on your Apple TV, it will remember it, which is great. But, then when the ATV is sleeping and you ask the HP to start playing a radio station, it won't be able to...not until you un-set it from the ATV, which you can do by setting it as the output for your iPhone or iPad. Weird little problem and work-around, to be sure. Have submitted, hope they fix it sometime.
(I'd also love to see the HP developed into more home theater use cases, but if they don't and leave that to Sonos, I'll live...clearly, as so far I'm happy with a single HP for my content viewing)
Market share has never been a business goal for Apple, but the comparisons are made with every Apple product, usually to paint Apple as being at a disadvantage. If only we were all in such a precarious position as Apple.
Comparing Home Pod and echos is like saying a Bentley can be compared o a VW as they are both cars.
I posted this question on another thread with no answer:
What exactly makes Alexa so much better than Siri? (I personally do not have issues with Siri and have never owned an Alexa device to compare). This is the narrative but I never see specific reasons. Like, what does Alexa offer that is the game changer?
There is so much to unpack in this area. The whole "smart speaker" market was way overhyped, because "tech media". It is what they do - always searching for the next thing (that doesn't involve Apple), regardless of the actual use cases. Not unsurprisingly, there was little hype about this category at CES, and the tech media has moved on. It didn't help that most devices purchased are the low end "Dots, Minis" that list for maybe $50, but in reality are purchased on sale in the $20-$30 range. Basically, the price for a premium pizza. In other words, not much of a market.
Alexa is prized for its skills, which in theory enable it to handle more tasks, but in practice those really aren't being used by most people. Reasons - you have to remember the specific phrasing, you have to setup devices to use it - and that is more than most will do. So it is used for music playback, timers, some questions...and in a small % for home automation.
Google Assistant is best at overall trivia / answers (no surprise, given the search engine).
Siri (especially on HomePod with its better microphones) is quite good at what it claims to do - music, weather, sports, timers, reminders, etc. It is not as good at topics it doesn't claim to support.
Overall, a voice only interface is limited, so I don't expect my speaker to provide me with great details on the answer to a question.
Love my two HomePods in the living room. Collectively they sound better than my tower speakers they sit on and Siri Can pretty much hear you whisper from across the room.
I do wish Apple would come out with smaller / cheaper ones or let Siri work on other non-Apple devices (not the ultra cheap ones). I would like to have multiple Siri listening devices all over the house. Right now that would cost a small fortune with just the current model Apple sells.
Comments
Horrible advice. Since its primary use case is playback of music and streams, the amazing speaker quality are of significant weight, compared to the parlor games of digital assistant queries. Do not care if I can't order more toilet paper or whatnot.
While I primarily use it as an Apple TV endpoint or for initiating its own playback of music & radio (as opposed to being an AirPlay endpoint), I have no dropouts on the occasions I do use it as an Airplay endpoint. Router problems?
I having the ability to do 3.0 or 5.0 Home Theater Audio from the Same HP would be great. I'm not sure how they would really do the base Part without also making a subwoofer.
Yes please Apple make Siri better. I consider Siri the biggest Drain on Apple Products. (if you think Apple makes something worse other than iTunes let me know).
What exactly makes Alexa so much better than Siri? (I personally do not have issues with Siri and have never owned an Alexa device to compare). This is the narrative but I never see specific reasons. Like, what does Alexa offer that is the game changer?
It’s good enough that I’m buying a second HomePod for my private office
So frustrating that it just disappears as an option like that. Thanks for the idea about tinkering with the connection options, I'll definitely give that a try.
Or as someone her has mentioned before. A proper Apple soundbar with HP technology. If they can produce bass with the soundbar like they are able to with the HP there may not even be a need for a subwoofer.
Alexa is prized for its skills, which in theory enable it to handle more tasks, but in practice those really aren't being used by most people. Reasons - you have to remember the specific phrasing, you have to setup devices to use it - and that is more than most will do. So it is used for music playback, timers, some questions...and in a small % for home automation.
Google Assistant is best at overall trivia / answers (no surprise, given the search engine).
Siri (especially on HomePod with its better microphones) is quite good at what it claims to do - music, weather, sports, timers, reminders, etc. It is not as good at topics it doesn't claim to support.
Overall, a voice only interface is limited, so I don't expect my speaker to provide me with great details on the answer to a question.
I do wish Apple would come out with smaller / cheaper ones or let Siri work on other non-Apple devices (not the ultra cheap ones). I would like to have multiple Siri listening devices all over the house. Right now that would cost a small fortune with just the current model Apple sells.