Poll: ** The Official Apple HomePod/HomePod mini thread **

Are you going to buy an Apple HomePod

  • Yes

    Votes: 28 13.8%

  • No

    Votes: 115 56.7%

  • Possibly, I'll wait and see what the reviews are like first

    Votes: 44 21.7%

  • HomePod mini - Yes

    Votes: 18 8.9%

  • HomePod mini - No

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • HomePod mini - Possibly, I'll wait and see what the reviews are like first

    Votes: 3 1.5%
  • Total voters
    203

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Feek

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With the Apple HomePod expected to be available in December (probably early December), I thought it might be interesting to see who's considering one.

Details here.

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I'm honestly not sure. My lad very often switches the telly on and has music playing gently via the Apple TV so it would be a decent alternative to that. One of these sitting on the mantlepiece would probably work reasonably well but at what cost? Although there's been no official announcement of the UK price, I believe it's expected to be around £350. That's a lot.

Are you going to buy one?
 
I'm going to preorder one (when available). Need a speaker to one of my rooms and I assume it's going to beat everything:) Isn't so bulky like google max, crappy like Amazon. Sonos might be ok but I don't want to start new ecosystem.
 
I like the idea but I'm too married to my high end speakers for music playback. Fancy room correction can only take you so far. Pity you can't use it like a DAC w/room EQ for your existing speakers.
 
I love Apple products, but I don't like Apple Music. Buying an Apple speaker implies being locked into only using Apple Music, which I'm not interested in. Much better to go with Sonos, which just got Alexa support, and supports every single music service under the sun. Next year Sonos are also getting AirPlay2 support, which will help with streaming stuff directly from your phone.
 
We’re talking about the HomePod. I’m a Spotify subscriber and I use it on my
iPhone, my Mac, and on my Sonos speakers. The HomePod won’t have Spotify (or any other streaming service) support.
 
I'm seriously considering one. I haven't tried Apple Music but I do use iTunes Match and apparently it can access that service as well.

The improvements to Siri in iOS 11 with machine learning really will be the test of this product. Apple lost their lead in this field and are playing catchup a bit.
 
I just got an Echo Dot for £25 (Sonos sent through a coupon), and it's been pretty fun. I don't know how useful it'll be in the long term, but for £25 I'm willing to have a play.
 
I reckon its success will lie in what apps, software etc its compatible with, amazon, google etc already have many many services and core services obviously I'm not sure what services of theirs will run on this..........just having apple music won't do it any favours.
 
rotor said:
We’re talking about the HomePod. I’m a Spotify subscriber and I use it on my
iPhone, my Mac, and on my Sonos speakers. The HomePod won’t have Spotify (or any other streaming service) support.
Click to expand...

I thought we were talking about Homepod as well:confused: Whatever audio you have playing through your apple device you'll be able to sling it across to the Homepod via airplay surely?

Do you have a source for "no other streaming service support"?
 
It will work with AirPlay playing from another device but I guess the point rotor is making is that you likely won't be able to do the whole "Hey Siri, play <insert track here>" with your Spotify account, it'd be restricted to an Apple Music account
 
Jimbeam3678 said:
I thought we were talking about Homepod as well:confused: Whatever audio you have playing through your apple device you'll be able to sling it across to the Homepod via airplay surely?

Do you have a source for "no other streaming service support"?
Click to expand...
Sure, AirPlay will work, but 2 things:

- It requires the app to support AirPlay (not all apps do)
- Your device (iPhone, iPad) has to be in range of the AirPlay device; in other words, the content is streaming through your device. This eats battery, and obviously if you are out of range, then the content will stop playing. Not ideal.
 
shiver said:
It will work with AirPlay playing from another device but I guess the point rotor is making is that you likely won't be able to do the whole "Hey Siri, play <insert track here>" with your Spotify account, it'd be restricted to an Apple Music account
Click to expand...
Yep, one of several points. The main point being I don't want to be restricted to only Apple's services.
 
Let me add that I don't have any information about what services the speaker will support. I am just commenting based on my assumptions which are based on how Apple generally operates.
 
rotor said:
The speaker needs to be able to handle it itself. In other words, the speaker needs Spotify/Amazon Music/Apple Music/etc support directly. Not via the phone.
Click to expand...
Speaker is going to be based on the same system, you guys don't know what is it going to be capable of. It's obvious on their website apple will not advertise spotify.
 
I own a bunch of Sonos speakers. For them to support Spotify I have to add my Spotify credentials. It actually handles multiple Spotify logins, so that my wife uses hers and I use mine (on the same set of speakers). The point is that Sonos have put a lot of thought and effort into supporting many many different services over the years (including Apple Music!). If Apple were to support Spotify, they would want us to know that, as that is a major selling point. Not saying it's impossible (at all), just saying it's unlikely. Apple really really really wants people to use Apple Music. The speaker is a way of enticing people who either already use Apple Music or who don't use any music streaming service and who don't already own a speaker and who may be on the fence about Apple Music.

Siri is rubbish as far as understanding what I ask it, compared to Alexa and Google Now -- and I mean it's not even remotely in the same ballpark. So let's recap: a proprietary system that will (at least initially) only support a proprietary streaming service, controlled via the worst voice control system out there.

And by the way I'm happy to be surprised. I'm a huge Apple fan, but in this case I'm waiting it out.
 
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