Perhaps some third party will eventually offer a wired connection kit that will allow it to be a “dumb” speaker indefinitely regardless of changes to wireless technology.
^^^ This ^^^ If the HomePod had audio-in, then I'd have already bought a couple of them. That was their failing. They are only good for Apple-eco-system content. And, given they weren't that 'smart' and are fairly expensive, they didn't sell nearly as well as they should have.
That said.... I wonder how hard that would actually be? Would there be a clear place to inject the audio in where the HP would still use all it's audio-processing magic on that signal?
iMaK said: ... It blows my mind how they discontinued the HomePod. Yes it was 300 dollars, but it was a great sounding speaker. My AirPod Pros are nearly the same price, but don’t come anywhere near the HomePod. It’s odd how the AirPod Pros are selling like hotcakes, but god forbid you spend 50 dollars more for a speaker than rocks the room??
My magic iPad keyboard was 50 dollars more than the HomePod too, and those are selling just fine.
I’m just confused here how the HomePod can be a failure while it’s more expensive, less competent family members are doing just fine.
Not to mention, the HomePod Mini cannot fill the missing hole that the HomePod has left. the whole purpose of HomePod was to be able to drop the thing wherever you wanted to, and it would sound great. the HomePod mini does not do that. It’s just a speaker made by Apple. What entices someone to buy it over any other speaker out there?
I like the HomeKit integration and all, but the spacial recognition of the HomePod was the key selling point. ...
Well, the AirPods Pro can work with all your Apple equipment as your earphones, so more versatile. The AirPods Max even has direct audio-in, I think. The HomePods would have been well worth it if they had that feature. (Same for iMac, iPhone, etc. ... not sure when Apple will learn what a legacy port really is!)
I guess the HomePod mini could be cool for someone wanting a home smart-speaker with more of a focus on privacy. I'm just not in that market. I doubt they sound good enough I'd be interested in them, and they still have the no audio-in limitation.
MplsP said: I also find it interesting how people argue a device isn't obsolete just because it isn't being manufactured any more, yet they argue that USB A and the 3.5mm headphone jack are obsolete despite the fact that they are still bing produced. There's a bit of logical inconsistency going on here...
I wonder if the same fate awaits the AirPods Max a few years from now. I bought them and like the APM a lot, but see similarities to the HomePod: a great product, but likely not "better" enough compared to top competitors to justify the much higher price tag to enough people. Despite their initial sell-out, Ming-Chi Kuo, arguably the top Apple analyst, estimates that the APM annual sales will only total 1% of all AirPods sales.
You'll probably be OK, as they have audio-in, right? So, even if Apple dropped them, they'd be as good as they are now for a long, long time, right?
Sort of a lot of parsing and nuancing with words here. No woke culture from me here: ...
Who was talking about "woke culture"?
I think 'woke culture' has become a synonym for 'playing with words and terms to win a debate among the gullible' or maybe just 'wacky.'
Rayz2016 said: Rene Ritchie pretty much called it.
Apple started work on the HomePod tech long before Google and Amazon had come up with their smart speakers.
Apple focussed on sound quality, while the other two focussed on smarts. By the time Apple realised that smarts was going to win the day, they had the speaker with the best sound, but not the best smarts. This is astounding considering that Siri was first out of the gate: they should’ve won on both counts.
Good points, and this makes sense. It's sad that cheap/smart has won the day, but as George said, people seem happy with way overpriced crappy soundbars, too. Most people seem just fine bad sound, so long as it is personal (ie. THEIR speaker they get to control). Most don't seem interested in a room-filling system where the family listens to the same thing. I have little buy-in in our house to get something better than the TV speakers, as everyone is on their devices with headphones, or worse... just playing their iPad speakers (until someone tells them to put the headphones on).
I also wonder, then, how much capital Apple will make with their privacy angle. Does the average person even care anymore? Even tech people that know better, seem to talk about their 'person in the tube' systems on every podcast I listen to, so it seems they know and do it anyway.
Then, there is the potential parallel with the Apple Car here. Will Apple spend most of their time with the fail of AI, trying to make a road-able vehicle for the driving-challenged, rather than just making a world-class EV? I have my concerns.
Resurrecting the Home Pod: 1: It should cost $50 at most. 2. Siri should be greatly upgraded with most of the voice recognition on the device. 3. HomeKit should become an open standard that can be used with out a license.
And Tim Cook should announce it from Mars while farting rainbows.
How can the Mini ever become a success. They threw out the best part (sound quality) and kept the worse part (Siri) of the original HomePod.
I’m not convinced Apple has a viable strategy and long term vision for the Smart Home market.
They probably determined that the smart-speaker crowd doesn't care about sound quality (at least enough to pay for it). If that's the case, then their only option is to go for Siri improvement and push the privacy aspect in terms of marketing.
There seem to be rumors now of a new member of the HomePod family on the horizon, perhaps better than the wee one and as good as the HomePod but with a screen.
The issue for me is the it creates/continues the feeling that Apple cannot be trusted for consumers to invest in an ecosystem - an ecosystem that is really the heart and soul of the company - because for completely opaque reasons and unpredictable timeframes can just go away. It doesn't matter if the next big thing is revolutionary - it doesn't matter (as with floppy disks, multiple ports, etc.) if they push the industry past comfort - it is just bad policy. Maybe if Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, it would be necessary. If the HomePod sales were even close to pay for its production and updates - it would be worth the PR 1000-fold. Either that or at least be transparent. The "secret reveal" and "wait for the rumor" style of marketing is no longer as innovative as it has been.
HomePod works like crap with Apple TV and the Siri Remote. I hope they fix it very soon
If you want the Apple TV to play something to the HomePods, talk to the Siri remote, and you get the cut-down Apple TV Siri. If you want the HomePods to play something, just talk to it, and don't whack the Siri Remote button.
This appears to be a bump on an older article in honor of the now- "sold out" status. I guess that means the 5-year clock starts today.
I predicted up-thread that Apple would likely be introducing lossless audio and Dolby Atmos at some point, and that's happened since. Ironically, this may be what hastened the original HomePod's demise. The apparent challenges for it to fully deliver those formats may have made continued sales of the device untenable. Perhaps this suggests a gap in this space, rather than a full abandonment. Maybe a HomePod Pro or some such thing is in the offing, which will deliver full lossless audio and have some greater integration and implementation of the HomePod's computational audio features and the Atmos/spatial audio output. Timing of all this is a bit of a mystery, but so was the bumpy rollout last week of lossless and spatial audio. It seems like they needed to get that out even if (like the original Apple maps) it wasn't quite ready. It feels a bit like there is an unseen missing piece of the puzzle yet to emerge in the middle of all this. We can see some contours, shapes and shadows, but not quite what that missing piece is, yet.
I suppose this is true by definition, but I’m still pretty sure we are still in June. “ By July 14, Apple sold out of all stock of its original HomePods in the United ”
I would say the negative tone on support is a bit much. The HomePod and HomePod mini basically require the same OS so keeping one going means keeping the other as well. Now with tvOs 15, you can set minis as default speaker, play lossless and atmos on them , which is an upgrade because the did not support atmos prior. I’d say there is little difference at all in the software
i heard google used to make a speaker almost as good as the HomePod, the google home max. That is no longer made either. While a pair of minis sounds great for a tv in the bedroom, the HomePods have a much bigger sound (surprise). I hop Apple come out with a home sound bar and a replacement for the HomePod. But if they don’t sell well enough maybe we can make do with Sonos and maybe the integration in imply ecosystem will improve. Who knows, time moves on
HomePod works like crap with Apple TV and the Siri Remote. I hope they fix it very soon
If you want the Apple TV to play something to the HomePods, talk to the Siri remote, and you get the cut-down Apple TV Siri. If you want the HomePods to play something, just talk to it, and don't whack the Siri Remote button.
Talking to Siri is not the issue, the lag and odd behavior of how Homepods work with AppleTV is the issue. Volume and Mute are horrible. I have stereo HomePods and 4K ATV.
Someone should tell AppleInsider that the iPhone 5C was obsolete in 2017, not 2020. The iPhone 5C was cut off in 2017 with the release of iOS 11. AppleInsider is confusing software support with hardware parts repair support. Once the software isn't supported, the product is pretty much useless. Sure Apple could provide repair parts in 2020, but developers and Apple stopped supporting iOS 10 three years earlier.
The HomePod uses the outdated A8. Apple hasn't used this chip since 2015, 6 long years ago. The mini uses the Watch CPU and has hardware not present in the HomePod. Apple does not support discontinued products for long. Look how they killed off the original iPad with iOS 5.1.1, making that model quickly obsolete.
I get that the very small group of people that bought HomePod are upset, but it was abundantly clear that it was always half-baked, Siri is awful, and it was a heavily restricted product designed to sell Apple Music subscriptions. $349 was a joke, and they could not unload them at $199. But Apple won't be supporting it for long, and it will be an overpriced AirPlay speaker. My 25 year old JBL floor-standing speakers sound incredible, and they cost less than two obsolete HomePods. Apple is famous for burning a few customers here and there. Remember the term, IIvx'd? (Even on day one, the HomePod never sold out because enough people knew it was a turd of a product).
I wouldn't be surprised if the AirPods Max suffer the same fate as the HomePod.
Comments
If the HomePod had audio-in, then I'd have already bought a couple of them. That was their failing. They are only good for Apple-eco-system content. And, given they weren't that 'smart' and are fairly expensive, they didn't sell nearly as well as they should have.
That said.... I wonder how hard that would actually be? Would there be a clear place to inject the audio in where the HP would still use all it's audio-processing magic on that signal?
Well, the AirPods Pro can work with all your Apple equipment as your earphones, so more versatile. The AirPods Max even has direct audio-in, I think. The HomePods would have been well worth it if they had that feature. (Same for iMac, iPhone, etc. ... not sure when Apple will learn what a legacy port really is!)
I guess the HomePod mini could be cool for someone wanting a home smart-speaker with more of a focus on privacy. I'm just not in that market. I doubt they sound good enough I'd be interested in them, and they still have the no audio-in limitation.
I think the term is Apple Fanboy
You'll probably be OK, as they have audio-in, right? So, even if Apple dropped them, they'd be as good as they are now for a long, long time, right?
I think 'woke culture' has become a synonym for 'playing with words and terms to win a debate among the gullible' or maybe just 'wacky.'
Good points, and this makes sense. It's sad that cheap/smart has won the day, but as George said, people seem happy with way overpriced crappy soundbars, too. Most people seem just fine bad sound, so long as it is personal (ie. THEIR speaker they get to control). Most don't seem interested in a room-filling system where the family listens to the same thing. I have little buy-in in our house to get something better than the TV speakers, as everyone is on their devices with headphones, or worse... just playing their iPad speakers (until someone tells them to put the headphones on).
I also wonder, then, how much capital Apple will make with their privacy angle. Does the average person even care anymore? Even tech people that know better, seem to talk about their 'person in the tube' systems on every podcast I listen to, so it seems they know and do it anyway.
Then, there is the potential parallel with the Apple Car here. Will Apple spend most of their time with the fail of AI, trying to make a road-able vehicle for the driving-challenged, rather than just making a world-class EV? I have my concerns.
I predicted up-thread that Apple would likely be introducing lossless audio and Dolby Atmos at some point, and that's happened since. Ironically, this may be what hastened the original HomePod's demise. The apparent challenges for it to fully deliver those formats may have made continued sales of the device untenable. Perhaps this suggests a gap in this space, rather than a full abandonment. Maybe a HomePod Pro or some such thing is in the offing, which will deliver full lossless audio and have some greater integration and implementation of the HomePod's computational audio features and the Atmos/spatial audio output. Timing of all this is a bit of a mystery, but so was the bumpy rollout last week of lossless and spatial audio. It seems like they needed to get that out even if (like the original Apple maps) it wasn't quite ready. It feels a bit like there is an unseen missing piece of the puzzle yet to emerge in the middle of all this. We can see some contours, shapes and shadows, but not quite what that missing piece is, yet.
I would say the negative tone on support is a bit much. The HomePod and HomePod mini basically require the same OS so keeping one going means keeping the other as well. Now with tvOs 15, you can set minis as default speaker, play lossless and atmos on them , which is an upgrade because the did not support atmos prior. I’d say there is little difference at all in the software
i heard google used to make a speaker almost as good as the HomePod, the google home max. That is no longer made either. While a pair of minis sounds great for a tv in the bedroom, the HomePods have a much bigger sound (surprise). I hop Apple come out with a home sound bar and a replacement for the HomePod. But if they don’t sell well enough maybe we can make do with Sonos and maybe the integration in imply ecosystem will improve. Who knows, time moves on