Apple HomePod

Ouch… that is pricy. Probably the only thing on Amazon that I’ve seen only increase in price…

Ahhh that’s what I use… didn’t know if it was something different! :stuck_out_tongue:

So, peoples thoughts?

I am not an owner of one

The reviews seem rather positive so far, but Siri is gonna be it’s downfall. The sound seems to be up there with the Sonos Play:3 from what I have read too, which is impressive.

Can’t see me buying any, I’d need to replace 4 Sonos so it wouldn’t be practical for me.

I picked one up this morning. Thought best way to find out what ask to try. Impressed so far.

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Pretty impressed so far.

:white_check_mark: Sound quality is pretty good.
:white_check_mark: One power cable to plug in. That’s it. Better than 1x power for Airport express and 1x power for Speakers plus associated 3.5mm cable to connect the two.
:white_check_mark: Useful for giving voice commands to operate Philips Hue Lighting
:white_check_mark: Useful for FaceTime Audio so that the whole family can speak to remote friends/family
:white_check_mark: Remote friends and family say sound quality their end is excellent from our using HomePod as, essentially, a conference speaker phone

:neutral_face: Siri is a bit hit and miss. Some great results and sometimes just completely misunderstands what I’ve said.

:x: I listen to some music from France and some from French-speaking African countries. Siri just will not understand French names and I’m sure my pronunciation isn’t that bad.
:x: My daughter can say ”Hey Siri, stop!” whilst I’m listening to my music. An eight year-old’s music choice is not yet as eclectic or varied as mine.

Is it Siri on phone or better Siri?

On the iPhone I only ever ask Siri to set a timer for five minutes. And it’s not always so reliable at getting that.

:joy: Similar experience with saying Jay Park, but Siri hearing J Pop… But as a result I did discover a few interesting tracks.

Anyways, I’m indeed impressed with sound quality. Siri is generally ok, also it has made all my HomeKit accessories to respond so much faster, I think that’s because it is essentially home kit hub.

The only thing so far that left me a bit disappointed is that it cannot be used inside scenes (it can be used to start scenes though, that’s different)… I was already having mental notes for which song to make me feel more positive while waiting for my morning coffee.

Agreed. Siri’s inability to understand some words is a great music discovery feature!

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Just discovered this track, probably too mainstream to boast about it, but still worth the share:

Faster for sure.

Siri is the weakest part of it, but it’s the best version of Siri as far as responsiveness/understanding goes.

I’m actually not too bothered by this because the hardware is incredible, and software can be improved over time.

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Are the locks HomeKit enabled?

Nope, not yet at least!

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My fiancé complained that I was always talking to Alexa and not her. So I said “Helen, turn off the lights”. She told me to (rude word) off!

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Never thought of it in that way, especially as mine is echo.

However you make an interesting point. And I agree with the logic fully. Though I’m certain the engineers did not have malice at heart.

These tech behemoths really do have a huge amount of responsibility on their hands, and I think it’s great you can change it from Alexa if you have that view, however I’d say it’s pushing it to say using a name of gender is an issue.
Second edit: on further thought, at an engineer level it’s asking too much, at a business level I believe you are right and Echo with a neutral voice would have been a better choice.

Tried to do some research, not much detail.
Edit: read the article you posted, a good viewpoint.

On the HomePod front, I think for many the lack of Spotify is a major issue, and Siri has a long way to go… I had vowed to purchase, but these killed it for me…
I have a large set of floor standers and one is now a stand for a sonos play 5 simply because having to turn on the speaker system is too old school.

V2 HomePod or an expanded line will hopefully be more interesting. A Spotify integration would also change it for me.

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I’m surprised google didn’t call theirs Majel because that was the name of the initial voice recognition project, direct from star trek.

The reason they used female voices is the same reason satnavs, smoke alarms, etc. do - people respond better to them. I’m not convinced anyone is going to ignore their satnav because it sounds like a bloke, but marketing talks… I think these days it’s a become so expected that even on hollywood films the computer pretty much always female, unless it’s evil, and sometimes even then.

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“Hey Siri, stick on the startup…”

House doors locked
Blinds down
Lights to red
Roomba docks
iPhones on do not disturb
Tv on, startup kicks off on Apple TV
Kettle starts
Lights flicker on kettle completion
Window opens momentarily when air quality in room dips
Heating increases to counteract

… are we there yet

Anyone got a photo of the power cable?

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