noraa1138

Japhey said:

The word “immersion” is the key. I really think this show is meant to be experienced with AirPods and Spatial Audio. I watched the trailer on Apple TV+, both with and without AirPods, and the difference was striking. 

Wow, that does make a huge difference! I initially watched the trailer on my iMac (with some good external speakers), and it felt immersive, but nowhere near what it likes with the AirPods Pro and Spatial Audio.

JPPennypacker said:

Why roll out testing. Why not roll out vaccinations. Geesh. How thick headed can you be?  I’ve never understood why anyone would want to get tested. It’s not like you can got get a Covid relief pill. It’s called treating symptoms and now getting the dang vaccines out to as many people that want to take them as possible. Let everyone and anyone give and take it. Where is common sense when it’s needed the most. 

Because the two aren't mutually exclusive, and the companies doing the vaccines and the tests are completely different entities. Furthermore, while vaccine rollouts are happening, it is still going to take months to vaccinate the whole of the U.S. (let alone the rest of the world). In the meantime, people are still going to get Covid. If said people can quickly and easily determine if they have Covid or not, they can then immediately quarantine themselves and upload their info to Apple's and Google's Covid notification API to aid in contact tracing and to help prevent further spread.

Blah, just wrote a whole past the disappeared on me!

In short, I think Apple will be introducing a whole new line of chips vs. using the A series in a Mac. My reasoning is that the A series is heavily customized for mobile purposes - specifically in power usage (i.e. lower power usage) to keep heat generation down and increase battery life. Neither of these will be as much of a concern even on a MacBook that will have both active cooling and a bigger battery.

I'm not sure if the A series is flexible enough to be reconfigured with a higher TDP (thermal design power), or if maybe Apple is going to choose to go with efficiency vs. raw power at the outset.

Regardless, we will find out soon!

rikipedia said:

Apple is soooo late to the game with this product. Many of us have already found similar non-Apple solutions that work very well.

Better late than never I suppose... I for one plan to buy one the minute it's available. I refuse to use a Google Home or Amazon Echo purely because of privacy, as both have been shown to have major bugs that record you when they're not supposed to - and even have those recordings be directly linked to your account and your name.

laytech said:

That's a shame I was hoping to have my large HomePod play music in one part of the room and the mini HomePod at the other side.

You can absolutely do that "That said, multiple HomePod mini and HomePod units can be linked to form a connected whole-house system. Users can ask Siri to play different songs in each room or play one song throughout the home, with sound synchronized across all speakers."

What you can't do is link a regular HomePod and a HomePod Mini as a stereo pair - where one HomePod is the left channel and the other the right channel.