I already have and am satisfied with Alexa, but HomePod interests me because of Apple's general stance towards privacy. Has there been extensive discussion on how Apple plans to differentiate Siri's data usage/sharing vs Google and Amazon?<p>But honestly, the main obstacle for me is Apple's lack of 3rd-party integration. For example, it appears that Siri can't be used to access Spotify. With Alexa, I can scope music requests with "Alexa, play some jazz <i>from Spotify</i> (as opposed to Amazon Music)". I can even configure Alexa to use Spotify <i>by default</i> -- e.g. prioritized over Amazon's own offerings.<p>I've a pretty large iTunes library from back in the day but I've completely stopped buying from iTunes (and haven't bothered to check out Music) because of lack of interoperability.
I feel exited about home assistants in the same way I am excited about home automation: the premise seems useful in a general way, but I struggle to think of use cases that have a meaningful effect on my lifestyle. Also - I can't shake the privacy concerns.
Things I want from HomePod:<p>1) To work with only the tracks I have downloaded in my iTunes library. Currently I have to use a 3rd party music player because the stock music player won't respect my wishes in this regard.<p>2) To be able to turn Siri off<p>3) To sync with an existing audio system, so that I can play music through my home audio system in my living room, and HomePods in my bedroom and bathroom<p>4) To avoid the weird situation where latency causes music to not sound synced, so that if I'm listening in one room, I'm not hearing music from the other room with a half-second delay.<p>I am hopeful on all counts except for the first one. Apple seems dead set on forcing their idea of music enjoyment onto me. Then again, perhaps the behavior forcing me onto a third party player is/was just a bug.
>Coming this year in a free software update, users will be able to play music throughout the house with multi-room audio.<p>Interesting that a key feature that the competition already has won’t be shipping at launch. I wonder if this is related to the Homepod’s previous delays.
Amazon already has a better sounding Echo and so does Google so I am not seeing a value prop from HomePod. This round has been clearly won by Amazon with Google inching very close and based on reviews, Google assistant seems way better than other assistants in general. Since Siri uses Google search now, it may only be slightly better than Alexa.<p>Too late and too little by Apple, they missed this boat. Cortana seems pretty fun on the surface but is nowhere to be seen in this AI race. Guess Microsoft got their strategy wrong yet again.
I have a Sonos Player 1 in my room, and I play Spotify on it (Spotify can dectects it). The setup is a headache but the music quality is quite good but it keeps disconnecting even though I have really Wifi connection (I wish the device supports Bluetooth as an alternative). I still recommend it to my friends but I always warn them about the unstable connection.<p>> HomePod can also be used as a speakerphone with iPhone for crisp and clear audio quality.<p>I hope this means I can play anything from my iPhone like car because that’s a dealbreaker if I can’t Spotify or podcasts.<p>That being said, I hope there is a way to test HomePod live at Apple store. I don’t want to spend a couple hundred dollars for something turns out to be bad. My Sonos was a gift from my company so I didn’t have to worry about it (fwiw... not realky important, but I work for a music company, my boss owns two, and he said it was :) so I guess I should believe him right?)
My 2 big things with home automation devices (and we can argue if this is really one of those) is:<p>1) Full voice coverage (I shouldn't have to redirect my voice or scream for it to hear me in any room).<p>2) Enough devices that talk to it so that it is habit-forming to use it for lights/tv/etc<p>I can see the HomePod doing 2 as that's more about what you have aside from the HomePod but I'm worried about #1 due to the price tag.<p>If I have a 3 bedroom house and a large enough Kitchen/Living Room we are talking about 5 devices. For HomePod that is $1,750. For ALL Echo's it's $500. If you were smart and did a mix of say 2 Echo's and the rest Dot's: $320 (At the $40/dot price point, I picked mine up at $30/ea). That is a HUGE price difference. The Dot's were so cheap that I stuck a few in bathrooms as well for even better coverage and it's awesome.
I was (and still am) looking forward to HomePod but at $350 I just can't really afford it. I have a series 1 echo, 2 dots Smartthings Hub, 3 bulbs, 2 power outlets, and 1 wall switch. In total I paid somewhere in the range of $400 TOTAL for all of that. HomeKit approved devices have been, on average, more expensive (and yes I understand why) than their Smartthings counterparts. I love being able to control the majority of lights I need to switch on/off with just my voice and having Alexa in every room makes life easier for setting alarms/reminders/music/lights/etc.<p>I'm not saying I will never buy a HomePod but for me: control > sound quality. And when price IS an issue you can't beat the Amazon ecosystem.<p>PS: Also writing skills and the like for Alexa is pretty easy from my experience
Will be interesting to see a feature comparison with all of the other existing voice-controlled speakers out there. Seems like a couple of recent blogs posts linked on HN were saying that Apple was starting already behind the competition in this space.
HomePod costs $349. I know Apple products are pricy but 3.5x is insane. I have a (Google) Home mini and its fun - it isn't really that useful but ok for $30-50.
While history has proof that Apple is able to extract higher prices, I feel this product will fail at this price point.
Is this supposed to compete more with Sonos, or with Google Home / Alexa? I can't tell.<p>I have a Sonos setup for my home and I absolutely love it. The sound quality is great, and the Play:1 speakers are less than half the price of the HomePod.
Too late to the game IMHO. A three year lead has let Alexa integrate itself into hundreds of products. And if you want a better speaker just buy the Sonos version.
How can you release a music player when your music ecosystem is completely broken? iTunes is so bad I have to pay for an app (Waltr) to put music on my phone.<p>And Apple music sounds like garbage. I don't need a high-quality speaker to stream garbage.