The Homepod does not have an aux cord.
The Homepod does not allow you to use its onboard bluetooth 5.0 hardware to play music from another device
The Homepod does not allow you to play spotify, unless you play it from an airplay-equipped device (so not android without a workaround), which means you cannot ask it to play spotify at all, or for that matter, play any other service except their own.
Many reviews are reporting a lack of features in the homepod's Siri, as well as poor performance of existing features.
I agree with you when you say apple is great at getting people to care about things that nobody cared about before. Are you suggesting that those things actually matter? Do you believe apple is getting people to care about these things out of an abundance of compassion and drive to educate the masses? I think it's more plausible that Apple will get their customers to care about whatever leads them to purchase products from Apple.
It's a consumer speaker, priced on par with professional (albeit entry level, but still professional) hardware. It's no wonder apple is offering these at 50% off to employees. That is the only reason there is one sitting at my house right now, because at that price it's worth it as a speaker, despite the shortcomings.
Just not worth it for almost everyone else.
I also think this. Apple definitely do not want to truly educate, as that would lead to people moving off their products into the genuine enthusiast space.
Also it's $350, so should logically be compared to speakers that cost $350.
I don’t see the word “audiophile” appear even once.
> We completely reimagined how music should sound in the home. HomePod combines Apple-engineered audio technology and advanced software to deliver the highest-fidelity sound throughout the room, anywhere it’s placed.
Give me strength. I'd need a bucket to read any more.
Basically Apple's formula: take something from an 'enthusiast' level of a product. Build a reasonable quality thing around that, slap on a 'upper consumer/lower enthusiast' price on it and market it as the 'the coolest thing of these ever made' and...
You get all the mostly regular consumers suddenly arguing in the between space: they are better than all the other regular consumers but too cool to be an enthusiast nerd. GG Apple.
It's a consumer speaker, so why all of a sudden are people demanding full audiophile/studio precision in speaker testing and reviewing?
I love how Apple's product messaging gets people debating the flaws evident in the review and experiences of their product categories because Apple has introduced terminology to people that they a) never cared about previously (though already existing) and b) don't likely understand or appreciably recognise going forward otherwise. Apple are very good at making people suddenly aware of important things they had no idea about, would not recognise/understand, or cared for previously...