It might be a good speaker but that’s it. Siri is not a selling feature, Apple is woefully behind in the voice assistant realm. Worse, their software launches have been google-like. I hope iOS12 focuses on improving the software, not adding features to have features. Like gimmick Animojis.
Siri is not a selling feature on the iPhone either yet that sells hundreds of millions. There is no such thing as voice assistant “realm”, that is an urban legend. If you need a voice assistant there it is, in the palm of your hand.
One of those “Apple can do no wrong people” eh? Even voice dictation is poor against google now.
If there is no such thing as a voice assistant, then why does Siri exist? What is Siri? But you know what Steve Jobs would ask? “What should Siri be?”
I love my Apple products but to pretend everything about them is better than everyone else’s product is moronic.
Still loving my HomePods! That it is the best sounding smart speaker goes without saying and my HomeKit and Apple Music experience with the platform has been top-notch. I'm hoping this product stays around for a long time and I'm inclined to believe that rumored Siri improvements (hopefully announced at WWDC) which have been indicated by reports of Apple beefing up the personal assistant's team should go along way to ensure that. Fingers crossed!
Seriously? Fingers crossed? Many of us are still waiting for FaceTime to become an open standard...like Jobs promised back in 2010.
"We're going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we're going to make FaceTime an open industry standard."
I remember a quotation from Dr. John Warnock, the founder of Adobe Inc. and the creator of Postscript. It goes like that: “Today the most compelling job appears to be a member of a standard’s committee. True standards rise in the market.” After three decades, his point is still valid.
I couldn't care less if HomePod had Siri. It is simply an unbelievably good sound system for a remarkably low price and I prefer to use my MacBook Pro to scan through my massive iTunes Match library and select music manually.
99% of Apple users probably dont know the HomePod exists. It launched quietly in 3 English only speaking countries. No one except Apple know their projections vs. actual sales. Even if they sold 2-3million in the 1st year with limited country availability, limited feature rollout, no 3rd party apps, no ‘ports or bluetooth’, and everyones fav whipping horse, Siri, being so ‘awful’ (🙄) they would have like 5% of the voice asst market share (I thought I seen that their were 40m voice asst sold last yr? Please correct if I am wrong). This when Apple doesnt even try to market this as a voice asst.
The constant ‘Apple is doomed’ narrative is just straight up click bait.
Sounds like the usual FUD regarding Apple and supply chains. There's an established market for wireless speakers/headphones in this price range, and I doubt Apple thought they were going to have blockbuster sales right off the bat.
I see no nail in a coffin for HomePod at this point, but Apple is going to have to fix whatever internal issues they're having with their Siri team(s) if they want to compete with the major players.
It might be a good speaker but that’s it. Siri is not a selling feature, Apple is woefully behind in the voice assistant realm. Worse, their software launches have been google-like. I hope iOS12 focuses on improving the software, not adding features to have features. Like gimmick Animojis.
Siri is not a selling feature on the iPhone either yet that sells hundreds of millions. There is no such thing as voice assistant “realm”, that is an urban legend. If you need a voice assistant there it is, in the palm of your hand.
One of those “Apple can do no wrong people” eh? Even voice dictation is poor against google now.
If there is no such thing as a voice assistant, then why does Siri exist? What is Siri? But you know what Steve Jobs would ask? “What should Siri be?”
I love my Apple products but to pretend everything about them is better than everyone else’s product is moronic.
Stop tweaking what I am saying: I didn’t say there is no such thing as voice assistant. You talked of “realm” and I said “no such realm”. Indeed voice assistants exist, Siri is a proof of that, proven 21 times in 21 languages. And yet it hasn’t to sit in the kitchen to “assist” you.
... If this was not an Apple product people would be saying how great it is!
HomePod is a well-engineered product with fairly poor market fit + a terrible launch strategy.
The market fit is phenomenal. What the HomePod is supposed to do is be the multiroom audio controller for a wide variety of vendor products. As of now the system with the most vendor support is DTS Play-fi and it's software is some of the weakest out there but it's nice to have a choice of hardware.
The HomePods value increases sharply when we understand how many existing products can be upgrade to Airplay 2 and how the benefits of audio support in HomeKit play out. Right now it's hard to see the value over a more mature platform like Sonos.
How can a very expensive family device have a decent value if half of my family cannot use it because they have chosen to use Android phones and if it has a very crappy voice assistant?
I see no nail in a coffin for HomePod at this point, but Apple is going to have to fix whatever internal issues they're having with their Siri team(s) if they want to compete with the major players.
What do we want Siri to be? Apple’s version of a voice asst is going to be different to Amazon/Google. Amazon needs Alexa to sell more products. Google? They need to surveillance you and mine your data to sell it to make money. Having a voice asst in people’s homes is vital to the future of both companies.
I have never got the sense that Siri was supposed to be a money making tool for Apple. So, there approach will be different. Esp with security and privacy a top priority.
Idk, I think we are way to early in the voice revolution to be saying Apple are doomed. When reading objective reviews you get people saying that all voice asst’s are flaky. Yes, alexa and google are better but still have plenty of flaws.
Siri does need to improve. It's what most of the reviews are focusing on despite the fact that people don't really use voice assistants except for setting a few timers and alarms. It was late to market, overshot its own release date and is lacking features. As a speaker it sounds great and as soon as Apple bother their collective arses to sort out stereo pairing, I'll buy another one.
I see no nail in a coffin for HomePod at this point, but Apple is going to have to fix whatever internal issues they're having with their Siri team(s) if they want to compete with the major players.
What do we want Siri to be? Apple’s version of a voice asst is going to be different to Amazon/Google. Amazon needs Alexa to sell more products. Google? They need to surveillance you and mine your data to sell it to make money. Having a voice asst in people’s homes is vital to the future of both companies.
I have never got the sense that Siri was supposed to be a money making tool for Apple. So, there approach will be different. Esp with security and privacy a top priority.
Idk, I think we are way to early in the voice revolution to be saying Apple are doomed. When reading objective reviews you get people saying that all voice asst’s are flaky. Yes, alexa and google are better but still have plenty of flaws.
You just have to learn the idiosyncracies of every add-on domain with Alexa. That is similar to abandoned AppleScript, in which you had to learn a specific set of "verbs" as soon as domains were added to AppleScript. AppleScript didn't hold just because of that, people were to lazy to learn a new set of "verbs" every time. This is exactly what Alexa imposes but they are just newcomers. We saw that movie before...
You just have to learn the idiosyncracies of every add-on domain with Alexa. That is similar to abandoned AppleScript, in which you had to learn a specific set of "verbs" as soon as domains were added to AppleScript. AppleScript didn't hold just because of that, people were to lazy to learn a new set of "verbs" every time. This is exactly what Alexa imposes but they are just newcomers. We saw that movie before...
Are you seriously trying to say that Alexa will not last as a product because of the need to use verbs?
The HomePod is a case study in how NOT to launch a product. They pre-announced early for an awkward shipping month (December). This date was missed and a few months later they deliver missing a bunch of features (Airplay 2, stereo pairing, HomeKit access)
The HomePod should have been kept on ice until all the features were ready and all the Airplay 2 partners were within 2 weeks of firmware updates for Airplay 2. This way the HomePod could have been marketed as a stand alone product or the "must have" accessory for your Airplay 2 compatible AVR or system .
For a company that has delivered scale in iOS device distribution it's perplexing that they've made so many gaffes outside of the iPhone/iPad ecosystem.
It sure seems like the focus is on iPhone and everything else takes a back seat.
That's because they sold almost 217 million iPhones last fiscal and another 77 million in the first quarter of this fiscal. Everything else pales in comparison.
I think the problem with HomePod is that it's too limiting. It shouldn't have been only tied to Apple Music and Siri should have been vastly improved before releasing it - they've certainly had enough time since Siri was first released. (Sometimes I have to wonder what all those 70,000 employees at Apple actually do, especially when I hear how small some of the development teams are). One also should have been able to Bluetooth other devices (like songs on a friend's phone) to it and what really would have been great is if one could use it as a control device for a traditional A/V or stereo network connected receiver. It also should have been available with a second "box" that only had amp, speakers and network or bluetooth receiver to be the second stereo channel for a much lower price. Why do all these devices walk away from stereo reproduction?
From a mass market perspective, when consumers see that Alexa will answer general questions or enable product ordering, etc. and that it's less expensive, they go with that (or other similar devices). Most don't care about the security issues.
The lesson should have been learned from the iPod HiFi. The HomePod is a premium priced speaker that plays 256kbps compressed music. If Apple Music had lossless audio, then I would consider buying one.
I see no nail in a coffin for HomePod at this point, but Apple is going to have to fix whatever internal issues they're having with their Siri team(s) if they want to compete with the major players.
What do we want Siri to be? Apple’s version of a voice asst is going to be different to Amazon/Google. Amazon needs Alexa to sell more products. Google? They need to surveillance you and mine your data to sell it to make money. Having a voice asst in people’s homes is vital to the future of both companies.
I have never got the sense that Siri was supposed to be a money making tool for Apple. So, there approach will be different. Esp with security and privacy a top priority.
Idk, I think we are way to early in the voice revolution to be saying Apple are doomed. When reading objective reviews you get people saying that all voice asst’s are flaky. Yes, alexa and google are better but still have plenty of flaws.
You just have to learn the idiosyncracies of every add-on domain with Alexa. That is similar to abandoned AppleScript, in which you had to learn a specific set of "verbs" as soon as domains were added to AppleScript. AppleScript didn't hold just because of that, people were to lazy to learn a new set of "verbs" every time. This is exactly what Alexa imposes but they are just newcomers. We saw that movie before…
Are you actually saying that Apple isn't allowing Spotify or SiriusXM because saying "play Sirius" is too much of a hassle for the user? That has to be the worst excuse I've ever heard to defend the anemic feature set of Siri while pooh-poohing every other digital personal assistant ecosystem.
I see no nail in a coffin for HomePod at this point, but Apple is going to have to fix whatever internal issues they're having with their Siri team(s) if they want to compete with the major players.
What do we want Siri to be? Apple’s version of a voice asst is going to be different to Amazon/Google. Amazon needs Alexa to sell more products. Google? They need to surveillance you and mine your data to sell it to make money. Having a voice asst in people’s homes is vital to the future of both companies.
I have never got the sense that Siri was supposed to be a money making tool for Apple. So, there approach will be different. Esp with security and privacy a top priority.
Idk, I think we are way to early in the voice revolution to be saying Apple are doomed. When reading objective reviews you get people saying that all voice asst’s are flaky. Yes, alexa and google are better but still have plenty of flaws.
Google doesn’t sell your individual data to anyone. People throw privacy out there as a way to excuse Siri’s limitations. But one thing Siri can’t do is set multiple timers which is one thing some HomePod owners have complained about. WTF does that have to do with privacy? The fact that Apple just hired a senior Google exec to oversee their AI/ML efforts tells me Tim Cook knows Apple needs to improve in this space. It would not surprise me at all if this new hire takes over responsibility for Siri.
I see no nail in a coffin for HomePod at this point, but Apple is going to have to fix whatever internal issues they're having with their Siri team(s) if they want to compete with the major players.
What do we want Siri to be? Apple’s version of a voice asst is going to be different to Amazon/Google. Amazon needs Alexa to sell more products. Google? They need to surveillance you and mine your data to sell it to make money. Having a voice asst in people’s homes is vital to the future of both companies.
I have never got the sense that Siri was supposed to be a money making tool for Apple. So, there approach will be different. Esp with security and privacy a top priority.
Idk, I think we are way to early in the voice revolution to be saying Apple are doomed. When reading objective reviews you get people saying that all voice asst’s are flaky. Yes, alexa and google are better but still have plenty of flaws.
I wish I had a succinct answer to your first question, but the issues with Siri, as well as how it affects the HomePod, are just too colossal to tackle in a forum post.
I held out for a long time but I'm very happy with the purchase. Excellent sound quality!! What I find most amazing about the sound quality is how the sound fills the room evenly regardless of where the speaker is placed in the room. I hear everything.
The Siri functionality works well enough for me.
Besides Music, I use the HomePod as my audio source for my AppleTV. It's a huge improvement over my TV branded sound bar. One extremely useful tip for this setup is learning how to switch the AirPlay Audio Source... Switch to the home screen, hold down on the Play/Pause button (appleTV remote).
I'm looking forward to AP2 and support for multiple HP's. Regardless, If you want great sound and to really enjoy music again, the HP is a worthwhile investment.
Comments
Even voice dictation is poor against google now.
If there is no such thing as a voice assistant, then why does Siri exist? What is Siri? But you know what Steve Jobs would ask? “What should Siri be?”
I love my Apple products but to pretend everything about them is better than everyone else’s product is moronic.
The constant ‘Apple is doomed’ narrative is just straight up click bait.
I have never got the sense that Siri was supposed to be a money making tool for Apple. So, there approach will be different. Esp with security and privacy a top priority.
Idk, I think we are way to early in the voice revolution to be saying Apple are doomed. When reading objective reviews you get people saying that all voice asst’s are flaky. Yes, alexa and google are better but still have plenty of flaws.
It was late to market, overshot its own release date and is lacking features.
As a speaker it sounds great and as soon as Apple bother their collective arses to sort out stereo pairing, I'll buy another one.
I think the problem with HomePod is that it's too limiting. It shouldn't have been only tied to Apple Music and Siri should have been vastly improved before releasing it - they've certainly had enough time since Siri was first released. (Sometimes I have to wonder what all those 70,000 employees at Apple actually do, especially when I hear how small some of the development teams are). One also should have been able to Bluetooth other devices (like songs on a friend's phone) to it and what really would have been great is if one could use it as a control device for a traditional A/V or stereo network connected receiver. It also should have been available with a second "box" that only had amp, speakers and network or bluetooth receiver to be the second stereo channel for a much lower price. Why do all these devices walk away from stereo reproduction?
From a mass market perspective, when consumers see that Alexa will answer general questions or enable product ordering, etc. and that it's less expensive, they go with that (or other similar devices). Most don't care about the security issues.