Notsofast

Time for celebration- Costco now accepts Apple Pay !   Use it this past week when noticing the new symbol.  Par for the course,  the checker didn't know anything about it, but it worked super fast.  Another employee told me that Costco was rolling it out slowly.

chasm said:

This is why several reviewers have said this thing is bargain-priced if you prize great sound above all.

As mentioned in the source report, I expect a fair number of users — maybe a majority — will not use Siri at all except to control volume and music playback, which all works fine. Which is exactly what Apple reckoned for the initial release.

If you are primarily interested in talking to household objects all the time (but with decent sound), get the Sonos One. If you want incredible sound, get a HomePod.

You're continuing to unintentionally spread the false narrative about Siri.   The fact is that Siri on the Homepod already does what most people use their smart speaker for.  The article below has the research that demonstrates that most Echo users haven't even activated one "skill," and the number one reason that the majority of all smart speaker owners use their speakers for is to listen to music, and then it's limited to checking and sending messages, checking on traffic/weather, hearing news, etc., all things that Siri can already do!.  Not to mention the Homepod will be getting over the air upgrades, and most of all, the Homepod is the only smart speaker that will protect your privacy and security.  Google and Amazon load everything they hear or see up to the cloud identified to YOU.  Google links that info to your "universal identifier' number that they try to assign to every person to link with your photos, emails, web searches, documents, etc. That dossier is available not only to Google and its subsidiaries and successor companies, but to law enforcement, intel agencies, governments, and hackers.  Ouch!

https://qz.com/1105740/the-majority-of-smart-speaker-owners-use-their-devices-for-a-small-set-of-functions/

Good to emphasize that everything that the Google speaker hears is uploaded, unencrypted to Google's servers where it is associated with your "universal identifier" number, so you are just adding to the dossier that has everywhere you drive (Google Maps), every photo you take or receive (Google Photos), every email sent or received (Gmail), every document you upload (Google Docs), every web site you visit (Google Analytics via almost every single website unless you use tracking blocking), every post you make, etc., etc.  All of that is available to law enforcement, intel agencies, hackers, and of course to Google and its subsidiaries or any company it chooses to sell to in the future.  Choose wisely.

fallenjt said:

I'm torn by this. I really want wait for 2nd generation of the HomePod, but my heart says: it's now. damn it.

Second generation won't be for several years.  There's  a reason they put an super powerful processor in it, the A8, that can get updates over the air.  Your safe buying now as the hardware in it is already top in industry so that won't need to change. 

rogifan_new said:

Apple needs to get some positive HomePod reviews out there fast. This is a sample of what I’m currently seeing on Twitter:

Marco Arment (@marcoarment) 1/23/18, 10:21 AM Nothing about the HomePod release shows Apple’s confidence in it, which makes it hard for any of us to get excited about it.  Christina Warren (@film_girl) 1/23/18, 3:28 PM @djgeoffe For me, the value prop is non-existent. Siri doesn't have the ecosystem or willingness to spy on you to be smart enough. And it wont work with third-party music services. A Sonos One is cheaper and works with Alexa and also works with the sonos app for apple music, spotify, etc Christina Warren (@film_girl) 1/23/18, 11:37 AM Last HomePod thought for now: the price is why it will fail. You can have a feature-limited, inexpensive product. You can have a feature-rich, expensive product. It is very difficult to find success in an established market when you are both overpriced and under-featured. Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) 1/23/18, 8:43 AM HomePod is only mysterious if you’re still hoping it has secret features Apple hasn’t announced; reality is it’s just a straightforward, ‘boring’ product that does just what it says on the marketing page (and, 8 months later, still unable to ship with all features advertised) Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) 1/23/18, 10:04 AM If HomePod were a mesh-network AirPort replacement, I would be all over it. As it is, it's just another outlet-taker-upper, and I've run out of outlets ߘ⦬t;br> Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) 1/23/18, 9:44 AM On the HomePod audio point, lots of products and services tried to sell on sound quality alone and none sold in high volume. MP3s confirmed to us consumers are fine with good enough audio. The value has to be in Siri/personal assistant for Apple’s long term strategic ambitions.

Don't panic because of a few posts that 99.9 percent of people won't read anyways.  Apple isn't worried.  The fantastic sound , and Apple ecosystem, and better design and privacy, etc., will drive sales, not some negative comments from a few bloggers that 99% of folks have never heard of outside of the tiny tech community.  Marco Arment has lost credibiilty as he has become just a crank.  Could be a hormone problem, but something is going on.  Can't listen to ATP anymore as every show is a negative stream about Apple.  Some are speculating that it has to do with Apple improvements to Podcast app is making his irrelevant.   Christina Warren has no credibility as her analysis is very superficial as shown by her silly post. She doesn't do basic research to understand that from Day 1, the Homepod will do what 99% of people use it for--play music, check weather and set a timer.  The NYT just wrote an in-depth article that the vast majority of features that the Echo has are irrelevant to most all

users.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/technology/virtual-assistants-alexa.html