tehgeo

When I first scanned the headline, my first thought was “WiFi mesh routers in HomePods”. 

MrBunside said:

Interesting - just got a popup on my iPhone telling me PR wasn't compatible with my eero network. Had been running fine for weeks.

Mike - Can you please comment a bit more on this little statement that caught my eye:

 "The enclosure is designed to prevent casual removal of the media. To Disk Utility, it identifies as PCI-E storage. Nekteck is properly identified as the vendor in the macOS System Report."

 I presume, despite the paragraph that follows, that this doesn't have much to do the with physical enclosure/cable, but rather the manner it communicates.

So the computer is addressing the SSD drive directly, rather than a bridge (like USB/Firewire/etc)?

 Do most other Thunderbolt drives not do that?

 And how does that "prevent casual removal of the media"?
 
Would this make it a more stable boot drive option, then?

 You call this out, so I presume it is unique enough to merit comment, but there is no further detail provided.

georgie01 said:

As good as the HomePod may be for what it is, it was intended for either the average person who thinks their low-end audio system doesn’t sound too bad and/or the person who enjoys the convenience and technology of the HomePod.

I think you miss the point of the HomePod. (And the article confuses things by diverting from a question of FUNCTIONALITY into QUALITY questions. Sloppy, really.)

i dont think anyone is arguing arguing this is a replacement for a high-end system, as it just isn’t. 

And, although it could be perfect for a small apartment or dorm, you aren’t going to have high end audio in those cases, anyway. 

But it it does sound very good FOR WHAT IT IS. 

And it does an excellent job at providing whole house sound (with, obviously, multiple units).

im not going to put a high-end system in the garage/kitchen/whatever. 

You probably have premium audio in... living room? Home theater?? Any way, it is optimized room-specific and for A SPECIFIC LISTENING POINT. 

But what about the the rest of the house?

The HomePod is better than most “secondary systems” people put in as solutions for other rooms. 

I can walk through the house and great audio from room to room as I’m busy doing things. 

Or, even walk around in the SAME room. I can be doing chores in the garage, for example (a notoriously difficult room) and get the same audio anywhere I am. There is no sweet spot. 

So, for sitting and listening, a high-end system wins. Like listening to an opera. Or a movie. 

But the HomePod wins for whole-house casual listening. 

In terms of loyalty cards and the like, you’ve overlooked a few other options. 

I’ve used CardStar since the very beginning (one of the early apps I downloaded once Apple finally turned the AppStore on).

It manages its own database of cards and I haven’t found much it won’t track (other than mag strip cards for obvious reasons).

Has a scanner, and templates for most vendors, and generic template for the rest. 

It has a lot of long time users, and was highly regarded by its users. (Almost all of the negative reviews seem to be long-time users, upset at changes within an update.)

It doesnt talk to Apple Wallet (at this time), so it does mean two apps. But, the purpose of the artical was “how to ditch physical stuff that one carries”, not “how much stuff can one cram in Apple Wallet.”

There are other apps out there that have about the same features. I just mention the one I’ve used that works great.