"Protecting customer privacy is one of Apple’s core values. All smart home communications are always end-to-end encrypted so they can’t be read by Apple, including camera recordings with HomeKit Secure Video. When Siri is used, the audio of the request is not stored by default. These features give users peace of mind that their privacy is protected at home."
You know what, fuck you. And from Gizmodo no less. A lawsuit means nothing. Anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and bozos like you will jump on it to allege Apple is no different than Google or Facebook, in fact worse. So why don’t YOU file a lawsuit against Apple for false advertising and see if you can prove it?
Too late. I bought Sonos SLs for Christmas when they went on sale for $329 a pair. Super happy with them with no microphones on the speakers.
Does not having mics mean no beam forming tech?
A pair can still be fine-tuned and sound-balanced via TruePlay, so yes to what's essentially beam-forming. I use them in tandem with the Sonos Beam and Sub Mini and it fills a relatively large space with nicely-nuanced sound.
"Protecting customer privacy is one of Apple’s core values. All smart home communications are always end-to-end encrypted so they can’t be read by Apple, including camera recordings with HomeKit Secure Video. When Siri is used, the audio of the request is not stored by default. These features give users peace of mind that their privacy is protected at home."
You know what, fuck you. And from Gizmodo no less. A lawsuit means nothing. Anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and bozos like you will jump on it to allege Apple is no different than Google or Facebook, in fact worse. So why don’t YOU file a lawsuit against Apple for false advertising and see if you can prove it?
I somehow missed that post when going through the thread, and I had no idea there were any class-actions involved. I'm a little surprised Apple hasn't responded at all.
Still hoping they will now enable setup - 2 HomePods as soundbar + subwoofer + dolby atmos + 2 HomePod minis as rear surround speakers. That would make it for me 😎
I'd like them to allow the Apple TV (hardware) to work in Target HTS Mode — i.e., the Apple TV (hardware) + HomePods would work as an HTS for your TV/Cable box, similar to the Target Display Mode iMacs used to support or Target Disk Mode.
As far as I know, there's no way to get sound from your TV (or cable box) to a single or pair of HomePods, so if it doesn't make sense for you to use your Apple TV (hardware) for everything, HomePods don't work as a general purpose HTS, and who wants to have separate speakers for your TV/Cable box and your Apple TV (hardware). If the Apple TV (hardware) could accept sound input from your TV/Cable box and play it on HomePods that would solve that problem.
Of course I meant while connecting it to my Apple TV
We have connected 2 HomePods (stereo) to our smart TV using Bluetooth and it worked perfectly.
How did you do that? My HP does not accept Bluetooth for input.
"Protecting customer privacy is one of Apple’s core values. All smart home communications are always end-to-end encrypted so they can’t be read by Apple, including camera recordings with HomeKit Secure Video. When Siri is used, the audio of the request is not stored by default. These features give users peace of mind that their privacy is protected at home."
You know what, fuck you. And from Gizmodo no less. A lawsuit means nothing. Anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and bozos like you will jump on it to allege Apple is no different than Google or Facebook, in fact worse. So why don’t YOU file a lawsuit against Apple for false advertising and see if you can prove it?
I somehow missed that post when going through the thread, and I had no idea there were any class-actions involved. I'm a little surprised Apple hasn't responded at all.
Thanks for pointing it out.
You must be getting old — you usually never miss an opportunity to falsely equate Apple with Google and Facebook.
It was amusing how the chattering tech media seemed to think that since Siri couldn't answer questions like Alexa or Google then the HomePod was a failure.
Now look at Alexa - Amazon is/was losing many millions selling them below cost and is cutting the Alexa team.
The VAST majority of users use their smart speakers for a few things which Siri does perfectly well.
- turning on smart home devices - playing music - setting alarms and timers
I think Apple has reintroduced the large HomePod as most people have worked out they just want the above, no need to ask for baseball scores.
"Protecting customer privacy is one of Apple’s core values. All smart home communications are always end-to-end encrypted so they can’t be read by Apple, including camera recordings with HomeKit Secure Video. When Siri is used, the audio of the request is not stored by default. These features give users peace of mind that their privacy is protected at home."
You know what, fuck you. And from Gizmodo no less. A lawsuit means nothing. Anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and bozos like you will jump on it to allege Apple is no different than Google or Facebook, in fact worse. So why don’t YOU file a lawsuit against Apple for false advertising and see if you can prove it?
I somehow missed that post when going through the thread, and I had no idea there were any class-actions involved. I'm a little surprised Apple hasn't responded at all.
Thanks for pointing it out.
You must be getting old — you usually never miss an opportunity to falsely equate Apple with Google and Facebook.
This gives me hope we'll see a $199 sale at Best Buy one of these days. I'll be in for at least one at that point.
Bingo! These, like the OG’s, are overpriced where they are at. But at $199 or less, these are a fantastic value. I have 3 OG’s and 2 minis, but will wait until they are eventually $199 or less to get more.
I had the impression the Mini version did not have Bluetooth, which made it hard to use for me as I travel a lot and wanted to bring it along without hooking to Hoel wifi.
Although apparently the large HomePod did have Bluetooth 5.0, you could not use it to play music…. So if someone came to your house with a phone that is not from Apple, they could not share their music. The biggest reason not to get one.
Why would that matter? If they wanted me to hear something, they could just tell the HomePod to play it.
Not really concerned with how my home interacts with visitor's devices.
My understanding is that its limited bandwidth makes bluetooth inferior to wi-fi as a music transmission protocol. Apple apparently had do do some pretty impressive voodoo to make AirPods sound as good as they do, and even they can’t handle lossless audio at present. So I think Mike1 is right. Have your Android friends tell the HomePods what to play, ask you to play it for them, or keep a cheap bluetooth boombox around for them. (I mean that seriously. May daughter used to keep a JBL pill around just for that purpose.)
I had the impression the Mini version did not have Bluetooth, which made it hard to use for me as I travel a lot and wanted to bring it along without hooking to Hoel wifi.
Although apparently the large HomePod did have Bluetooth 5.0, you could not use it to play music…. So if someone came to your house with a phone that is not from Apple, they could not share their music. The biggest reason not to get one.
Why would that matter? If they wanted me to hear something, they could just tell the HomePod to play it.
Not really concerned with how my home interacts with visitor's devices.
At some point Apple will stop supporting software updates for HomePods just like they do for every product they make. Once that happens they will become large bricks. Having Bluetooth support for streaming from other devices would allow them to continue being useful.
Not a concern. By the time Apple stops supporting, I will have moved on to something newer, better more capable anyway. I have BT speakers that are 'bricks" because of old batteries. It's a speaker, not a lifetime commitment.
Not a concern for you. Some of us are not fans of wasting money to replace things that are perfectly functional. Speakers can have a fairly long life span, certainly longer than the seven years before Apple obsoletes a product.
I had the impression the Mini version did not have Bluetooth, which made it hard to use for me as I travel a lot and wanted to bring it along without hooking to Hoel wifi.
Although apparently the large HomePod did have Bluetooth 5.0, you could not use it to play music…. So if someone came to your house with a phone that is not from Apple, they could not share their music. The biggest reason not to get one.
Why would that matter? If they wanted me to hear something, they could just tell the HomePod to play it.
Not really concerned with how my home interacts with visitor's devices.
My understanding is that its limited bandwidth makes bluetooth inferior to wi-fi as a music transmission protocol. Apple apparently had do do some pretty impressive voodoo to make AirPods sound as good as they do, and even they can’t handle lossless audio at present. So I think Mike1 is right. Have your Android friends tell the HomePods what to play, ask you to play it for them, or keep a cheap bluetooth boombox around for them. (I mean that seriously. May daughter used to keep a JBL pill around just for that purpose.)
Bluetooth is a convenient music transmission protocol and should be fine for most users.
It's about flexibility. There is no good reason for not supporting existing music playback profiles.
Apple just hasn't wanted users to have that option. Just like it doesn't want you to be able to use Bluetooth for simple phone to phone file transfer.
No one is suggesting they limit things to Bluetooth but it is a perfectly capable music transmission protocol for getting a simple job done.
I had the impression the Mini version did not have Bluetooth, which made it hard to use for me as I travel a lot and wanted to bring it along without hooking to Hoel wifi.
Although apparently the large HomePod did have Bluetooth 5.0, you could not use it to play music…. So if someone came to your house with a phone that is not from Apple, they could not share their music. The biggest reason not to get one.
Why would that matter? If they wanted me to hear something, they could just tell the HomePod to play it.
Not really concerned with how my home interacts with visitor's devices.
At some point Apple will stop supporting software updates for HomePods just like they do for every product they make. Once that happens they will become large bricks. Having Bluetooth support for streaming from other devices would allow them to continue being useful.
I have decade-plus old AirPort Expresses that still work just fine. What makes you think HomePods would get bricked somehow?
Ordered. I loved my old original HomePod, albeit it died unexpectedly last year, and I had to pay to have it replaced by Apple as it was out of warranty. Amazing they still had one for me to replace.
The new one should be able play music in sync with the original home pod and any other around the house, I assume. Whilst, not in stereo it should, I hope work.
I had the impression the Mini version did not have Bluetooth, which made it hard to use for me as I travel a lot and wanted to bring it along without hooking to Hoel wifi.
Although apparently the large HomePod did have Bluetooth 5.0, you could not use it to play music…. So if someone came to your house with a phone that is not from Apple, they could not share their music. The biggest reason not to get one.
Why would that matter? If they wanted me to hear something, they could just tell the HomePod to play it.
Not really concerned with how my home interacts with visitor's devices.
At some point Apple will stop supporting software updates for HomePods just like they do for every product they make. Once that happens they will become large bricks. Having Bluetooth support for streaming from other devices would allow them to continue being useful.
I have decade-plus old AirPort Expresses that still work just fine. What makes you think HomePods would get bricked somehow?
I have an old AirPort Express as well and it still works but it's a bit different in that it's functionally isn't dependent on internet based services like the HomePod. The HomePod is more similar to the original AppleTV than the AirPort Express. The AppleTV was made obsolete and over time they stopped connecting to Apple services. They are still usable in limited form. You can still put media on it but it no longer connects to internet based services. It isn't unreasonable to assume that at some point Apple will stop updating the OS of it and overtime the services that it uses (Siri, Apple Music) will be updated and will no longer be supported on the device. I assume it will retain some functionality such as AirPlay but it would be nice if Bluetooth worked as well.
I kinda suspect that when Apple EOLs the HomePod it will do a software update that opens it up as a bluetooth speaker but what actually happens is anyone's guess.
Too late. I bought Sonos SLs for Christmas when they went on sale for $329 a pair. Super happy with them with no microphones on the speakers.
Does not having mics mean no beam forming tech?
A pair can still be fine-tuned and sound-balanced via TruePlay, so yes to what's essentially beam-forming. I use them in tandem with the Sonos Beam and Sub Mini and it fills a relatively large space with nicely-nuanced sound.
Beamforming requires feedback, ie, sampling, from at least two spatially separated points. From my understanding of TruePlay it can get feedback from a speaker that has sampling microphones built into the device or use an external device with a microphone, eg, an iPhone, to provide the sampling. Having the person perform the tuning move around the space during sampling provides the required spatial separation.
Having sampling microphones built into a speaker that does beamforming doesn’t infer anything at all with respect to the speaker using voice based interaction or listening and interpreting human speech.
The HomePod is especially well designed for auto tuning and dynamically adapting its beamforming because it has multiple microphones and multiple highly directional tweeters. They could have omitted the Siri function altogether if they wanted to, assuming they’d provide an alternative control mechanism. But everything that Apple put into the HomePod makes it an excellent fit for its intended functionality.
Perhaps the next version of HomePod will include a camera and LiDAR to provide something akin to Audio Center Stage.
I had the impression the Mini version did not have Bluetooth, which made it hard to use for me as I travel a lot and wanted to bring it along without hooking to Hoel wifi.
Although apparently the large HomePod did have Bluetooth 5.0, you could not use it to play music…. So if someone came to your house with a phone that is not from Apple, they could not share their music. The biggest reason not to get one.
Why would that matter? If they wanted me to hear something, they could just tell the HomePod to play it.
Not really concerned with how my home interacts with visitor's devices.
My understanding is that its limited bandwidth makes bluetooth inferior to wi-fi as a music transmission protocol. Apple apparently had do do some pretty impressive voodoo to make AirPods sound as good as they do, and even they can’t handle lossless audio at present. So I think Mike1 is right. Have your Android friends tell the HomePods what to play, ask you to play it for them, or keep a cheap bluetooth boombox around for them. (I mean that seriously. May daughter used to keep a JBL pill around just for that purpose.)
Bluetooth is a convenient music transmission protocol and should be fine for most users.
It's about flexibility. There is no good reason for not supporting existing music playback profiles.
Apple just hasn't wanted users to have that option. Just like it doesn't want you to be able to use Bluetooth for simple phone to phone file transfer.
No one is suggesting they limit things to Bluetooth but it is a perfectly capable music transmission protocol for getting a simple job done.
You’re not wrong, but we’re actually discussing different use cases. I like HomePods precisely because of their limited options. They have everything I need and nothing I don’t. The use case you’re defending is perfectly valid, but it has no appeal for me. I don’t need to get “a simple job done,” but I do need high quality audio at a decent price without having to buy an audio receiver. For me the Swiss Army Knife model of speaker design is overkill, the same way that a current convertible touch screen Windows laptop is, or back in the late 90s, a Dell PC with a floppy drive, a serial port, a parallel port, AND a PS/2 port was. YMMV, and that’s perfectly fine..
This gives me hope we'll see a $199 sale at Best Buy one of these days. I'll be in for at least one at that point.
That's when I bought mine as well.
But I would hold my breath waiting for that sale again. Apple over produced those original HomePods and had to clear them out of stock, which is why they stopped making them altogether - demand died off. They won't make that mistake again.
Comments
Thanks for pointing it out.
- playing music
- setting alarms and timers
I think Apple has reintroduced the large HomePod as most people have worked out they just want the above, no need to ask for baseball scores.
(As we all hopefully will be.)
It's about flexibility. There is no good reason for not supporting existing music playback profiles.
Apple just hasn't wanted users to have that option. Just like it doesn't want you to be able to use Bluetooth for simple phone to phone file transfer.
No one is suggesting they limit things to Bluetooth but it is a perfectly capable music transmission protocol for getting a simple job done.
The new one should be able play music in sync with the original home pod and any other around the house, I assume. Whilst, not in stereo it should, I hope work.
I kinda suspect that when Apple EOLs the HomePod it will do a software update that opens it up as a bluetooth speaker but what actually happens is anyone's guess.
The HomePod is especially well designed for auto tuning and dynamically adapting its beamforming because it has multiple microphones and multiple highly directional tweeters. They could have omitted the Siri function altogether if they wanted to, assuming they’d provide an alternative control mechanism. But everything that Apple put into the HomePod makes it an excellent fit for its intended functionality.
That's when I bought mine as well.
But I would hold my breath waiting for that sale again. Apple over produced those original HomePods and had to clear them out of stock, which is why they stopped making them altogether - demand died off. They won't make that mistake again.