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Music Apple

Apple Discontinues Original HomePod (techcrunch.com) 38

Posted by msmash from the PSA dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple has discontinued its original HomePod after four years. It says that it will continue to produce and focus on the HomePod mini, introduced last year. The larger HomePod offered a beefier sound space but the mini has been very well received and clearly accomplishes many of the duties that the larger version was tasked with. The sound is super solid (especially for the size) and it offers access to Siri, Apple's assistant feature.
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Apple Discontinues Original HomePod More

Apple Discontinues Original HomePod

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  • Apple got caught with their pants down. Almost Zero innovation since Jobs, and absolutely zero invention.

    Alexa, what's my schedule timorrow?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by saloomy ( 2817221 )
      I am pissed. I just bought two of these. I think they sound stellar, and Siri, while not as versed in skills, seems to do a much better job differentiating which words I speak. Alexa does everything, but enunciation is more important with her; she is hard of hearing.

      Plus, I prefer the privacy-focus of Siri over Alexa.

      • Re:I always forget homepod exists (Score:4, Informative)

        by drhamad ( 868567 ) on Monday March 15, 2021 @10:21PM (#61163324)
        My wife and I say this constantly. We mostly use HomeKit to control our house, not for any per-se "smart features", but have couple devices that are Alexa-only, so we have an echo dot as well. While it may have more functionality, it absolutely sucks at actually understanding us. And when it doesn't, it likes to make up what to do. The HomePod is much more reliable for understanding us, which is what matters for what we use it for (control).
        • So one thing I did in my firewall is set up a VLAN with its own Wifi called -hk which only allows one Apple TV to talk to the internet. All other devices on that network are not able to. Home kit devices use Appleâ(TM)s cloud and device as a relay. The rest of the gizmos only need to talk to the Apple TV. You can still control them from anywhere because the Apple TV acts as a relay, from any other allle device. Occasionally I will permit all devices to talk to the internet to process all the firmware u

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by EvilSS ( 557649 )
          Yea I don't know what Amazon has been doing to the Echo devices, but they seem to get worse as time goes on. My Gen2 Echo Dots still have the best voice recognition of any echo's I have. My Homepods are always spot on though.

        • That's interesting.... I don't doubt what you're saying, but as a long time Apple user over here? I found Siri has always been a weak spot in their ecosystem, at least vs the competition. And HomeKit itself needs more work.

          I tried to use entirely HomeKit automation in my old house since our whole family owned iPhones, iPads and Macs. But truthfully, it was an inferior experience in many ways. The devices that worked with it reliably were very costly (Lutron's Casetta was my favorite for light switches/dim

          • I hear you. The reason HomeKit devices are expensive is that they require communications to be encrypted end to end, which can require special hardware if you do not use a GPCPU, and there are protocols and software to implement for it, and get Apple to certify it. HomeKit means it only needs Apple devices to work, and not the cloud. I have focused on only buying HomeKit devices anyway, because if the manufacturer (like August) stops supporting your lock, youâ(TM)ll lose remote functionality. Amazon an

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

              And that's why HomeKit devices are more expensive.

              Devices stay on your network, not to the cloud where they're at the whim of a manufacture. Sure you need a bridge device like a Mac or AppleTV to get it hooked to the Internet and allow remote access to your devices over the Internet.

              It's where HomeKit is superior - people complain about their devices needing cloud for everything - Apple makes it so you don't need the cloud, but of course, it's also more expensive because Apple makes it more secure. And manu

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by vlad30 ( 44644 )
        Agree Just bought one as well and it sounds and works great and as for the hacker comment below it is at least less of a spy then Alexa or Google (after 4 months nothing appears out of what is expected and on my logs) and currently isn't spewing ads like those 2 do when I am over friends places or like some other "smart" android devices I have. I haven't tried homekit yet but I am looking forward to it after seeing friends struggle with Alexa and Google versions just looking for Non-cloud products and devic

      • Re:I always forget homepod exists (Score:4, Informative)

        by altp ( 108775 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @05:55AM (#61164028)

        Only the original HomePods are being discontinued. My guess is that they will be continued to be supported for years. The Homepod Mini's are great, they don't sound quite as good, but are good enough. But, since they are "lower powered" versions of the original Homepod, I suspect that the original HomePod will be supported as long as they the current HomePod Minis.

        I agree, Siri does a great job at voice recognition, especially in hearing you over ambient sounds of kids playing and listening to TV and Music.

        While watching TV, i can speak in a normal volume and Siri hears me and does her thing.

        And the HomeKit integration is fantastic. I've been replacing all the switches in the house with Eve switches, and adding plugs, even ceiling fans, and motion sensors on lights on the stairs to turn them on and off as you approach/leave the stairs.

        I know that I can do all the same with HomeAssistant. But, honestly, after a full day of programming and dealing with Tech at work I don't have the motivation to fiddle with HomeAssistant. And HomeKit just works (well, the motion sensors turning lights on and off mostly work 95% of the time. everthing else is great).

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Joce640k ( 829181 )

        I am pissed. I just bought two of these. I think they sound stellar.

        Luckily you'll still be able to use them as speakers after Apple pulls the plug.

        Oh, wait...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dohzer ( 867770 )

      I'd never even heard of it.

  • Not surprised (Score:3)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Monday March 15, 2021 @09:42PM (#61163248)

    While Apple always tries to take existing technologies and 'make it more awesome and more mainstream', they kinda fell flat on this product - while it sounded awesome, it was limited in functionality compared to the competition re: integrations, wasn't quite "finished" when it came out (promised stereo feature took a while for an update to come out to enable it), and generally was overpriced for that limited functionality, even the Apple sheeple. It was kind of the Cube version of smartspeakers, but with less 'gotta have it' factor (I'd still grab a Cube for display around the house if I could - definitively not for the original Homepod).

    The current Homepod mini is a better price/fit, especially considering the limitations it still has.

  • If they really want it to sell (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ddtmm ( 549094 ) on Monday March 15, 2021 @11:07PM (#61163406)
    they should incorporate Alexa and Google Assistant. No one gives a shit about Siri.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Pieroxy ( 222434 )

      Out of curiosity, what does Alexa and Google Assistant have that Siri doesn't ?

      • I say this as someone who has still chosen to use the HomeKit ecosystem for home automation, but Alexa-enabled home automation devices are more numerous, and generally much less expensive than their HomeKit-enabled equivalents.

    • Re:If they really want it to sell (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Tom ( 822 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @01:14AM (#61163636) Homepage Journal

      You're joking, right?

      The reason why I have a HomePod and none of the others is exactly that it doesn't sell me out to advertisers.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Nobody gives a shit about digital assistants anyway except kids who don't know how to type yet

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by djb ( 19374 )

      They are never going to do that, but Aux In, Bluetooth and U1 would have greatly broadened the appeal if they would just keep the price at 200 now that the development cost has been written off.

  • I'm still Bitter (Score:4, Funny)

    by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Monday March 15, 2021 @11:25PM (#61163444) Homepage Journal

    that they cancelled the Apple ][+

  • 'Home Assistants' = (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Jarwulf ( 530523 )
    paying big tech companies to spy on you and harvest your data and refine their machine learning algorithms for them.

  • Never heard of it.

  • When it first came out I didn’t really understand it as a product, as it was too expensive to compete with Alexia and too limited to compete with Sonos.

    Price wise it was on par with the Sonos Play:3. A product Sonos has given up on, it seems the market for a 350 dollar speaker is the tweener that no one wants, although I did used to own one.

    However, once the HomePod Mini came out and the price came down to 200 on Black Friday I brought four of them, along with HomePod Minis for the other rooms. At tha

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