MacQuadra840av

Someone should tell AppleInsider that the iPhone 5C was obsolete in 2017, not 2020.  The iPhone 5C was cut off in 2017 with the release of iOS 11.  AppleInsider is confusing software support with hardware parts repair support.  Once the software isn't supported, the product is pretty much useless.  Sure Apple could provide repair parts in 2020, but developers and Apple stopped supporting iOS 10 three years earlier.

The HomePod uses the outdated A8.  Apple hasn't used this chip since 2015, 6 long years ago.  The mini uses the Watch CPU and has hardware not present in the HomePod.  Apple does not support discontinued products for long.  Look how they killed off the original iPad with iOS 5.1.1, making that model quickly obsolete.

I get that the very small group of people that bought HomePod are upset, but it was abundantly clear that it was always half-baked, Siri is awful, and it was a heavily restricted product designed to sell Apple Music subscriptions.  $349 was a joke, and they could not unload them at $199.  But Apple won't be supporting it for long, and it will be an overpriced AirPlay speaker.  My 25 year old JBL floor-standing speakers sound incredible, and they cost less than two obsolete HomePods.  Apple is famous for burning a few customers here and there.  Remember the term, IIvx'd?  (Even on day one, the HomePod never sold out because enough people knew it was a turd of a product).

bluefire1 said:

So Apple is sacrificing quality of sound for a smaller size and a lower price. For me, when it comes to music, quality trumps all else.

Now that is funny.  Here is a guy that claims quality trumps all else, yet he buys a HomePod with no tone controls and listens to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps.  Sorry, you have no idea what good sound quality is.  I bet you think Bluetooth music sounds good too.  Apple killed it because it was overpriced, heavily restricted, and no one bought it.  It never sold out, ever, even on day one.  One great thing about Steve Jobs is that he admitted their mistakes, and killed off products quickly that consumers didn't want.  Tim Cook leaves them around for years hoping someone might buy one or two.

Remember when HomePod first came out and Apple said, "You are placing it wrong" and suggested not to place it on wood furniture because it will damage the surface and leave a ring.  Even Apple's support document said if you don't want HomePod to leave a ring, don't put it on wood surfaces.  

rcfa said:

People who mock the HomePod obviously never had a pair.

Wrong.  People heard them.  Agreed they were far too boomy and no way to adjust tone control.  And they weren't dumb enough to spend $349 for a heavily restricted speaker, let alone two for $700.  You could buy a full home theater surround set up for about the same price or less, sound a million times better, and listen to anything you want on it.  Sorry you got ripped off.  I am sure it will be a cute AirPlay speaker in a few months since it uses a CPU that Apple stopped supporting over two years ago, and was three years outdated when they created the HomePod.

Steve Jobs said it best when he canceled all speaker products....everyone else does it better, and does it for less, so we are leaving this space.  The only speakers that Apple sold that sounded good were the Pro speakers and iSub made by Harman Kardon.  Why?  Because Apple didn't make them.  

slurpy said:

darkvader said:

Hi Homepod, this is iPod Hi-Fi!  Welcome to the discontinued overpriced garbage club!

It was a stupid product when it was new, it never improved, the price never dropped to anything even remotely close to reasonable, Apple discontinued it. 

Why would anybody be surprised?  It was a failure from minute 1.

What an idiotic post. 

The vast, vast majority of reviews proclaimed the sound quality to be incredible, and the price was actially resonable when compared to other speakers in its class with the same quality. It's not "garbage" , and Im not sure what universe the price "isn't even remotely close to reasonable". The fucking Google speaker is the same price. Apple discontinued it because it because it wasn't selling at the levels of Apple's other products (ie. astronomically high). Doesn't mean it was a "garbage" or "stupid" product.

I'm curious why you have such passionate hate towards it? What did it do to you? Pretty much everyone who cared about good sound quality and was in the Apple ecosystem loved it. Your post just sounds like a tired troll. Funny how you have to go back like 2 decades to find another discontinued product to pretend there's some kind of pattern. 

Bloggers and journalists are paid to say that, when in reality the sound quality was far too boomy and no way to adjust it.  A bunch of clueless millennials that have no idea what good speakers sound like.  Apple is so arrogant that they do not even include bass or treble controls in the software.  Anyone buying a speaker under that premise is an idiot.  The price was excessive compared to other speakers that offered a ton more features, let you listen to whatever you want, and control the quality of the sound.  It was garbage.  Siri is garbage.  It ran on a four year old processor that Apple stopped using three years earlier.  Apple dropped it because it was a sales disaster.  Retailers could not blow them out for $199.  It was never out of stock, even on day one of release.  Sorry, but people that care about sound quality, do not listen to heavily compressed Apple Music at 256Kbps.  His comparison to the iPod Hi-Fi is dead on accurate.  Apple claimed how great it was for the iPod, yet the remote did not even allow you to choose what music you wanted to listen to.  All you could do with the remote was play, pause, volume, and skip.  The HomePod was heavily restricted.  No bluetooth, no audio in, no audio out, Apple Music only, no stereo sound for six months, no way to control the sound quality, and you had to use other devices if you wanted to hear anything other than Apple Music.  Sorry you don't seem to get it, but the HomePod was a joke, just like the iPod Hi-Fi.  But I guess you are cool because you have to use the F word in your comment.