Anyone have experience with switching from echo devices to these? I'd like to drop Amazon and switch to apple one or whatever it is. Mostly used for home control, music, and room to room intercom and household announcements.
The main things is not all devices are home-kit compatible. There are ways around the issue, but I would research. Having said that with Costco you can buy the homepod mini and figure it out later.
Voice commands are compatible with Apple Music only which sucks.. Spotify works but only via casting it to the speaker.
It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
Voice commands are compatible with Apple Music only which sucks.. Spotify works but only via casting it to the speaker.
It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
Deezer and Pandora, as well as some smaller services, officially support HomePod and voice commands.
We currently are pretty invested in the Amazon ecosystem (echo show 8, echo show 5, 2x echos, 2x echo dots, ring doorbell), but I'm getting so fed up with the echos. They are a huge PITA to use and the Alexa app is absolute TRASH. How can a $1tn company like Amazon make an app that is so garbage? We almost exclusively play Spotify and Audible. Wondering if I should just go a completely different path.
New HomePod less of a rumor and more of a developer heads-up. Came from their dev conference this appears to be the source
For the privacy concerned, a VERY trivial overview (of what you can find out from a basic search):
This has a microphone and is a SIRI device.
Apple has a stated privacy policy and an advertising opt-out information sharing (same as other siri devices like the iPhone)
Data is encrypted
The basic takeaway is that it's a standard "smart speaker" with a general basic effort to not be leaky with private data.
Pick your level of paranoia: I mean this earnestly because it's your choice and there's no wrong answer with regard to keeping your mind at ease . . .
For price, at $300, these are a joke but at this price, if you have to scratch the "gotta buy it" itch, pretty good deal.
A 'better sound option' used to be the Airport Express with a 3.5mm jack and AirPlay where you could send it music via AirPlay, but, alas 2018 they discontinued them.
I have the last Gen airport expresses in every room including as an airplay target for my outdoor speakers.
Voice commands are compatible with Apple Music only which sucks.. Spotify works but only via casting it to the speaker.
It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
This is my exact experience. It's great for playing music in a small room, but trying to do anything beyond that can be frustrating. Often I have to shout at it from only a few feet away and talk super slow for it to understand anything. Also, it's always trying to send more information to my iPhone...only I don't have one!
Voice commands are compatible with Apple Music only which sucks.. Spotify works but only via casting it to the speaker.
It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
Link multiple music services and it can play from Apple Music/pandora/Spotify/and tidal hi-fi at least, along with SomaFm, I heart radio, Sirius XM, and probably a few others I have not used. If you have multiple music services configured, Siri may ask you which one you want to listen to the song from if more than one have it. If only one provider has the song you want, Siri will automatically find it and play from that provider. You can also listen to thousands of podcasts… well worth $80
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If it's just a home hub the Apple TV is way more reliable
This page comes up as an Amazon 404
The main things is not all devices are home-kit compatible. There are ways around the issue, but I would research. Having said that with Costco you can buy the homepod mini and figure it out later.
It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
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For the privacy concerned, a VERY trivial overview (of what you can find out from a basic search):
This has a microphone and is a SIRI device.
Apple has a stated privacy policy and an advertising opt-out information sharing (same as other siri devices like the iPhone)
Data is encrypted
The basic takeaway is that it's a standard "smart speaker" with a general basic effort to not be leaky with private data.
Pick your level of paranoia: I mean this earnestly because it's your choice and there's no wrong answer with regard to keeping your mind at ease . . .
For price, at $300, these are a joke but at this price, if you have to scratch the "gotta buy it" itch, pretty good deal.A 'better sound option' used to be the Airport Express with a 3.5mm jack and AirPlay where you could send it music via AirPlay, but, alas 2018 they discontinued them.
I have the last Gen airport expresses in every room including as an airplay target for my outdoor speakers.
Nothing really compares.
It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
This is my exact experience. It's great for playing music in a small room, but trying to do anything beyond that can be frustrating. Often I have to shout at it from only a few feet away and talk super slow for it to understand anything. Also, it's always trying to send more information to my iPhone...only I don't have one!
Nothing really compares.
HomeDepot is bigger...
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It's good for music, sounds great for the kitchen & has decent bass, however the Siri function is garbage.
Anytime I ask a simple question to something, it says something like "Open your phone to see more". Google & Alexa are miles ahead in terms of hands-free help
Link multiple music services and it can play from Apple Music/pandora/Spotify/and tidal hi-fi at least, along with SomaFm, I heart radio, Sirius XM, and probably a few others I have not used. If you have multiple music services configured, Siri may ask you which one you want to listen to the song from if more than one have it. If only one provider has the song you want, Siri will automatically find it and play from that provider. You can also listen to thousands of podcasts… well worth $80