MacQuadra840av

cloudguy said:

darkvader said:

starof80 said:

What about the rumors of the second HomePod? I was going to buy that when it came out.

Maybe you can buy the first one at fire sale prices.  It would be worth buying for $50.

(And by that I mean $50 for a pair.  $50 for one is far too much.)

I am hoping that you are joking. In case you aren't, the discontinued Google Home Max costs $160 refurbished. No way the HomePod is going to be anywhere near that cheap.

Retailers have tried blowing out extra HomePods for $199 multiple times.  No one buys them.  Apple knocked $50 off the price, still no one buys them.  That is why they are discontinued.

repressthis said:

I use my HomePods in stereo for a home theater, paired with an Apple TV. 

Two HomePods does not make a 'home theater'.  2-channel stereo is not a home theater.  You have no idea what home theater is.  

So the few hundred people that bought a HomePod are disappointed.  Don't feel sorry for them at all.  HomePod was a failure from day one.  It featured a four-year old A8 CPU that was discontinued by Apple three years earlier in 2015.  Left over parts, and then charged a premium.  That would be your first clue.  Second, it could not support stereo sound for six months, yet Apple claimed they were reinventing music in the home.  No one listens to mono music.  Stereo sound then required a $700 investment.  Receivers and speakers can be half that price, sound a million times better, and allow you to listen to anything you want.  Siri AI after 10 years is still the worst on the market.  Period.  Every tech review agrees that Siri is awful, in all of its forms, which is different in every Apple product.  It is severely limited.  No bluetooth, no audio out, no audio in, Apple Music only, no tone control - cannot even adjust bass or treble for better sound, and the sound quality is highly subjective as most agree it is far too boomy and you cannot adjust it.  Apple's solution for other music sources...use another device to play music to it via AirPlay.  Then what is the point?  Might as well play music to another stereo that everyone already owned.  They designed it to sell Apple Music Subscriptions and it flopped.

When Apple suddenly drops a product, they don't support it for long, especially when they cut off support for the A8 two years ago.  Remember the original iPad?  Apple intentionally cut it off at 5.1.1, when the iPhone 4 with the same CPU could run 7.1.2.  HomePad lacks the hardware for new features.  Won't ever happen.  The original HomePod will soon be a brick and Apple's solution will be to only use it as an AirPlay speaker.  Sorry, but that is the reality.  And no, they have no value.  Apple and retailers could not even sell any at clearance for $199.  Everyone else does it better, and for less.  Apple placed too many restrictions on it, and overpriced it.  It will be in a grave with iPod Hi-Fi, a speaker that had a remote that did not even allow you to choose music from the iPod.  You had to get up and manually pick music from the iPod because the remote only supported play, pause, skip, and volume.  Just because HomePod sat on the price list for 3 years, doesn't mean people bought it.  When it was finally released, after months of delays, it never sold out of stock, ever.

mjtomlin said:

That disclaimer doesn't in fact mean they're handing over your personal data for other to dig through and use.

Oh, but it absolutely does mean Apple can and will do that, and have OTHERS do that too.  Thoroughly READ the entire Privacy Policy on Apple's Legal page.  Read EVERYTHING that Apple defines as 'Personal Data'.  Apple clearly identifies 13 different types of Personal Data that they collect about you, including USAGE - "Data about your activity on and use of our offerings, such as app launches within our services, including browsing history; search history; product interaction; crash data, performance and other diagnostic data; and other usage data."

Then read Apple's Sharing of Personal Data, and specifically this statement under 'Others': "We may also disclose information about you if we determine that for purposes of national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary or appropriate. We may also disclose information about you where there is a lawful basis for doing so, if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or to protect our operations or users, or in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale."

Apple also includes this particularly disturbing statement, "You are not required to provide the personal data that we have requested. However, if you choose not to do so, in many cases we will not be able to provide you with our products or services or respond to requests you may have."  So in other words, you have to agree to share your personal data with Apple, or not use any of their products.

It is intentionally vague enough to allow them to collect and share whatever and whenever they want.  They even collect all your Health and Fitness data when you agree to use their apps.  It is all there in black and white, so don't pretend they are not doing it because you have to agree to it to use their products and services.

I would love it if Apple stopped bombarding their own customers with their own ads in tvOS, iOS, and macOS.  Even with 'Show Apple Music' turned off, you are still bombed with Apple Music ads in the Music app, and CarPlay does not work until you dismiss the advertisement in the Music app after every major software update.  The Music app in Catalina and Big Sur was bombarded with an Apple Music advertisement (even with the settings to hide and block Apple Music selected) and the program was unusable until you acknowledged the advertisement.  Even the App Store is riddled with advertisements targeting you.  Search for an app and you get advertisements first, which usually direct you to the wrong app.

So basically Apple wants to do what they want with their ads, but they don't want third parties to advertise.  Remember when Apple pushed iAd?  They still use that technology for their own advertisements.  I tried to use the IMDB app to look up a movie and the app was covered with an AppleTV+ ad.  It would be nice if you could opt out of all Apple ads in their software and other sites or apps you visit or use.