nhughes

Soli said:

bluefire1 said:

Ordered mine with February 9th delivery but pissed that two days earlier, the Apple online chat gal assured me preorders would begin 3:01am EST. 

What are you pissed about? Isn't that when pre-orders start? Aren't you getting it on the first day?

AppleZulu said:

nhughes said:

gatorguy said:

nhughes said:

rogifan_new said:

gatorguy said:

mjtomlin said:

rogifan_new said:

Where are the reviews?

They'll start coming out today. Here's two...

Digital Trends - Apple's HomePod delivers on brilliant sound, but Siri still has room to grow
Refinery29 - One Hour With Apple's New HomePod

Oddly the time allowed with the unit was limited (to an hour?) and the reviews are not at all detailed, just describes the Home Pod in broad strokes. IMO unusual for a new Apple release where there's typically a plethora of detailed reviews on sites like Wired & ArsTechnica un-embargoed just before the device goes on sale. 

Makes me wonder how confident Apple is in this product considering the rollout. 

I wouldn't sweat it. Apple took a similar approach with the iPhone X, letting some websites and YouTubers get controlled hands-on time with representatives watching over their shoulder. The product doesn't launch for two weeks, they are probably just spacing out their media strategy to remain in the news cycle.

Neil, I didn't pay attention the the X review timing but you're saying they didn't supply review units to anyone before the pre-orders began? Now that I've gone back to look the first REAL in-depth X reviews didn't happen until a couple days after pre-orders began. So in-depth reviews of the Home Pod should probably start hitting the main sites next week. Thanks!

Yes, reviews of the iPhone X (and 8) didn't hit until after preorders began. That's normal practice for Apple. For example, iPhone 8 preorders began Sept. 15, but review embargo did not lift until the next week, on Sept. 19.

Also worth noting that the iPhone 8 officially launched on Sept. 22, just 7 days after preorders began. And the reviews arrived three days before launch. With HomePod, there is a two-week window. So we may not see review embargoes lift until Feb. 6-7-ish.

(I haven't been asked to sign an embargo, so I'm not withholding any inside info, just speculating.)

If you think about it, this is probably a good strategy for Apple. As seen on this very thread, initial sales for a pre-order are already built in. Apple has a good enough track record that a lot of people will buy the thing sight-unseen. Out in review world, even if a product is flawless, there is a decent chance that some reviewer will seek attention (and clicks) by writing a bad review. If that sort of thing is written before preorder sales and manages to generate enough negative buzz, it could dampen those sales, as some people decide to 'wait and see.' Then, even if the negative review is based entirely on false or distorted information or just plain made up criticisms, the next big news after that is about how pre-order numbers are disappointing. The result is a perfectly good product fighting an uphill battle on release. Heck, there are people who have already posted plenty of negative information about the HomePod on sites like this one, having never seen or heard the thing. Some appeared out of nowhere just to do that, which is at least potentially the dirty work of competitors.

So by tightly controlling access to the device until well after pre-sales begin, Apple can limit the potential damage of an attention seeker or of intentional sabotage. With that delay, even if someone puts out that misleading review and it gets some buzz, Apple follows it with a report of robust pre-order sales, and next, all those pre-orders start arriving and the customers themselves generate buzz about how much they like the thing. Mind you, this strategy wouldn't help if Apple were to actually produce a real turnip, but if the product is a good one, this way limits their exposure to negative opportunism, and primes the pump for positive buzz.

directhacker said:

I updated to 11.3 on my iPhone 6s, but I can’t find the performance option in the battery settings... 

epicurus said:

At first i was excited by this possible new drone and while I do like it overall i prefer an actual controller, to get this plus controller i’m looking at a $1k price point. This has definitely pushed me into a different direction either a bigger, slower Yuneec q500 or a Walkers Vitus, or best probably just wait and see for something else to come out. 

StrangeDays said:

nhughes said:

StrangeDays said:

Strange headline. There were two different 8 models and they’re more affordable than the X. 

The iPhone 8 outsold the iPhone X, while the iPhone X outsold the iPhone 8 Plus. The two different models are clearly addressed in the story. Headline is accurate.

I didn't say it was inaccurate, I said it was strange -- because it's expected that the 8 outsells the premium, much more expensive X.