5 reasons why Apple's new HomePod didn't inspire me

Tim Cook has finally brought us Apple's answer to the Echo device from Amazon, which is credited with creating the new

categories of smart devices, namely the creation of a smart speaker for home use.

1. Apple's lack of faith in Siri's capabilities

It seemed to me that Federici was just trollingus when he announced that the name of the new macOS operating system was “High Sierra”, and didn’t expect things to get even worse from there. “Siri Spekear” could have been a completely appropriate name for a new smart device, but apparently, Apple management’s fear that this name would be more often associated with the digital assistant Siri, which has recently received unflattering reviews from users, led to the fact that it was necessary give it the name "HomePod".

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Even in his interview with Bloomberg, TimCook categorically several times voiced the idea that behind the creation of a new home device lies an attempt to rethink the concept of home listening to music, similar to what was done in the era of portable music devices. When the host of the program, Emily Chang asked if it was possible to make a phone call, order a taxi or deliver food from the nearest grocery store using the new HomePod device, Tim repeated again, saying that the main focus was on listening to music at home. The absence of any mention of the presence of a development kit for speakers further reinforces doubts about the ability of HomePod speakers to support third-party applications.

But what was said in the interview contradicts the fact thatPhil Schiller had to speak during a conference presentation about the new device. In the first minutes of the presentation, he claimed that the company was looking for breakthrough solutions in the field of home speakers, because at the moment, companies such as “Sonos” produce speakers that can play wireless music in excellent quality, but lacking intelligence in the form of Siri or Alexa, and the Amazon Echo smart speakers allow you to talk to them, but have disgusting music playback quality and none of the companies have been able to present at the moment the complete concept of such smart devices for use at home.

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If Apple intended to introducerethought concept, the HomePod device should not only deliver amazing music playback quality, but should also become an indispensable virtual assistant. Apple doesn't seem to have enough faith in the ability of the latter.

2. Design

Tim Cook's words when he said “and more aboutone device ”, immediately led me to extreme excitement, because all those present immediately realized that now we will talk about Siri speakers. But the look of the HomePod device did not cause me any enthusiasm, from the word at all. It has a very unpretentious and unpretentious appearance, is covered with a metal mesh in a circle and looks too bulky for smart home speakers.

The chosen design of the device has already generated a lot of jokes on this topic, that the device looks like a roll of toilet paper, no less.

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As it turns out, I already have a #HomePod

Amazon Echo user posted a photo of the device wrapped in toilet paper, which he received from Apple under the name HomePod.

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Apple just got a new #Homepod device. Envy suckers

3. Lack of screen

Although on the top surfaceThe device displays an image of sound waves, signaling that Siri is ready to work, it looks great, but one of the items on our wish list was the presence of a screen. I believe that having a screen would affect the experience of using the device for the better, or at least reduce the feeling of disappointment if Siri would not answer your request.

4. Support multi-user mode

It doesn't look like the HomePod wasready to support multi-user mode, if only because Apple has not said a word about it. I believe that the multi-user mode in the device, which is supposed to be used in the family, like the TV, is the most important function.

5. Price

The only practical value from smartdevices like Amazon Echo is the fact that they can be placed in every room. To do this, they must be cheap. Speakers with a virtual assistant like Amazon Echo have gained popularity precisely because of their low price. But for $ 350, the HomePod is unlikely to be cheap. Placing such devices in all the rooms of my home would cost me a very tidy sum of money. Apple tried to justify the price by the fact that this device embodies the best of both worlds, but I'm not completely convinced about Siri, and I already have Sonos speakers, so I really see no reason to spend more on HomePod speakers.

If I bought HomePod just for reasonsreceiving very high quality music playback, then this device should be positioned at the level of devices such as Bose. We have yet to wait for the device to enter the market and compare whether the quality of music playback in this device is really comparable to its too steep price.

It also seemed strange that Apple didn’tprepared a working demo on the occasion of the conference. All that could be done was to shoot a couple of photos or shoot a video with a picture working Siri, which still looked wretched. All of these facts are somewhat not typical of Apple’s actions when it announced its readiness to release a product that clearly doesn’t look like it is ready to enter the market and which, according to the company's management, has been under intense work over the past four years. For me, an old and long-loyal user of the products of this company, all this looks like a very disturbing sign.

Personally, I have not yet found a worthy application by smartcolumns, although the popularity and success of Amazon Echo is somewhat astounding and surprising. But I patiently waited for the announcement from Apple about the release of HomePod, as I thought that it would become something revolutionary, which should have convinced me to purchase it. But looking at the HomePod device, I somehow still remain in deep doubt. What is your opinion? Will you buy this device if it goes on sale in December?