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MplsP said:

Can’t really call them a parasite, but unless there’s a specific contract,  Apple can change its products however it sees fit. It’s not unlike a company that designed products for the 30 pin connector only to have Apple change to the lighting port. 

Yes, Apple can remove a port from a future product or change it. The distinction here, is they changed the product after the customer bought it. Imagine the outcry if Apple turned off the headphone jack on all existing Lightning-equipped phones after they removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7? Granted the headphone jack was an advertised feature, and the "diagnostic port" wasn't. Nevertheless, the idea is the same -- Apple changed the hardware after you bought it, advertised or not.

That to me is the important part of this story. I couldn't care less if a startup business model was trashed after Apple removed a port on a future product; but altering a product after the customer owns it, really redefines "ownership" for modern times, and speaks more to customers rights than Apple's here.

It's amazing he number of people on these forums who dismissed the need for adding a cellular radio to the Apple Watch.

However, in this case the reality is, unless her phone was destroyed in the accident, or buried under something blocking it's microphones, she could have likely just as easily "commanded" the phone to call 911 and it would have been just as effective, even if she couldn't actually locate it. That said, it wouldn't be that unreasonable for the phone to have been thrown from the vehicle, or thrown to the flow and buried under a backpack or something.

So yeah, for all those who said there was no need for a cellular radio in an Apple Watch, welcome to the real world.

saltyzip said:

dick applebaum said:

bitmod said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

rain22 said:

So let’s recap...
Sounds good for an Apple Music Only - Must Have Subscription - Smart Speaker. 
If audio quality is your only concern, there are true audiophile speakers that blow HomePod out of the water - but for a much higher price.

So the HomePod is a made in China, budget consumer-level speaker that sounds pretty good - and has a nifty voice command feature for 1 person only - who is willing to pay for an Apple Music Subscription and already owns Apple devices - who doesn’t value their privacy. 

Im sure there is a market for that. 

The market is most of the AppleInsider readership.

And, you don't need to have Apple Music. You just need something (say, an iPhone) capable of streaming AirPlay to it.

Wrong.
For it to be a 'Smart Speaker' you have to have an Apple Music subscription. 
If you don't have an Apple Music Subscription - it's just a speaker. 

 Bullshit. I don't have an Apple Music subscription.  I run it from my Mac and Siri finds the songs in my Library.  This is an .mp3 downloaded from the web:

Using airplay to this speaker does seem a little last century and not forgetting inconvenient. Does airplay also affect the sound quality?

How is AirPlay last century? It wasn't even around last century. AirPlay uses wifi which allows full bandwidth vs. bluetooth compression codecs, and offering much better audio quality with the right sound files.

gatorguy said:

SpamSandwich said:

This might be a ridiculous question, but will a HomePod work in a location with no WiFi network and only a Bluetooth streaming source?

The HomePod does not do bluetooth streaming. 

Yup. That ensures you only have the highest quality bandwidth for streaming, and won't use it with a cheap Android phone, which could affect, and negatively impact the sound reviews. Once it's achieved its desired reputation, they might open it up to inferior Bluetooth? iFixit thinks there is a BT radio in it, but if there's no antenna it's not likely it could be added via Firmware, so probably HP 2.0.

Chuckit said:

I wonder more and more why I need my Apple TV?  Has anyone noted the new smart tv’s?

If I could have paid less and gutted my 2017 Sony 900E's smart features I would have happily. As it is, I never use my TV's smart features. Android TV OS is pure rubbish. Tizen's barely better. Nobody supports Web OS. And, margins are so tight in the fiercely competitive TV market that the manufacturers use cheap, underpowered processors that can barely handle the TV navigation and settings interface, much less the smart apps. And what happens when your smart TV gets left behind when it no longer supports updates?   No thanks. I'll keep using my Apple TV 4K. It's not perfect, but far better than any smart TV I've ever used.