Originally published at: Apple Discontinues Original HomePod, Focuses on HomePod mini - TidBITS
Apple has announced that it is discontinuing the original HomePod to focus on the HomePod mini. The company will continue to service and support the HomePod, and it will remain available while supplies last.
Iām already dreading the day when they stop receiving software updates. The spatially aware, truly high-grade sound is really compelling, and with stereo mode, my great room is bathed in gorgeous sound that holds up for hours and hours. I have four of them, none of which I paid the original $350 for, and I hope to keep using them for years.
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I started s discussion on this here:
https://talk.tidbits.com/t/homepod-discontinued/15178/8
Maybe they could be merged?
Yes, how do we go about that? Iām new here.
Well that sucks. Iāve always lusted after a pair, but was (initially) put off by nil 3.5 audio input so I could run my iPods through it (I know, old school), but everyone else seems to be going with Bluetooth, so Iām fine now with that. But it was the pricing that I couldnāt come at, and just checking the Apple Australia website, they are selling for AU$469 each, so a pair for stereo would set me back AU$938. Ouch. Disappointed, to say the least.
I excitedly bought two homepods and have been nothing but disapointed. Iāll list my frustrations here;
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Wifi is spotty and really there should be an ethernet option. Wifi is not production ready afaic. Anyone who really cares about their network connection uses a wired/cabled one. The HP wifi kind of sucks. Lotās of drop outs and just failures to do what you expect; like a play a song, or answer a siri question. Often the homepod is just not available to play things on.
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HP is very slow to respond to changes from the source. e.g. one ends up overshooting or undershooting volume changes all the time. Song changes feel like they didnāt happen, then just as you click another song, the prior song starts playing.
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Stereo pairing really only reliably works with Apple Music. Iām a Spotify user. Stereo paring doesnāt work at all from a Mac running Spotify. This is probably the single biggest failing, and fu to users.
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Siri is a joke. Iāve been waiting for what feels like a decade for Apple to deliver on the supposed promise and smarts of Siri. It lags far behind other assistants.
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Inability to change default music service. My $350 homepod canāt play a song on Spotify if I ask it to, but my $29 alexa sure can.
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Sound quality is not that great. I bought the pair on the promise of the sound quality, and tbh, itās just not that great. Maybe if they did Stereo it would help.
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I hate Bluetooth even more than I hate wifi, but itās the de facto standard for connecting to audio output devices. I get the the whole airplay thing but the hoops users and developers have to go through to make it work end up really hurting the usability of the product. As the appointed ātech personā in the house, after finally getting everyone trained up and used to the idea of using bluetooth for playing audio, the mind-f* of explaining a different protocol and philosophy to connecting is like asking cats to screw in a light bulb.
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The home app for controlling homepods is awful just an awful shoveled together grouping of weird and unresponsive ui features. The worst of which being the essentially hidden update option. āupdateā was important to me because I kept hoping Apple was going to make things better so I updated as often as possible.
In summary, HomePod just doesnāt live up to the hype. I wish it did, I really do and I held out for years hoping Apple would fix most/all of the problems above. They didnāt and thatās their prerogative, and Iām disappointed.
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Seems like you have Homepod wifi issues. The Homepod has a bad reputation with āsmartā wifi. Try different (simpler) router settings.
Stereo only works from iTunes/Music on a Mac which is irritating. I works with Airplay on iOS devives.
I agree that Siri is disappointing but hopefully It will be fixed.
Over the weekend Apple has discontinued the original Homepod. In Australia orders are still being taken āwhile stocks lastā.
I feel the rug has been pulled from under me, like the time Apple abandoned Airport hardware.
It has taken years for Apple to get tvOS and Homepod OS to behave as an integrated home theatre system. Now there will be no replacement Homepods from Apple if there is a hardware failure.
Grrr!
Iād like to feel more upset about this, because Iāve been wanting to buy HomePods for years now. But Apple never released them in New Zealand at allāgoodness knows why.
Theyāre stilling the mini though. Is there anything it canāt do that the regular HP did?
I have two HomePods used as a stereo pair and a HomePod mini. Aside from not sounding quite as good, I canāt think of anything the mini canāt do. From what Iāve read, it has an extra radio intended for controlling āInternet of thingsā type stuff, so it can actually do more.
Homepod vs Homepod Mini:
- Full sound capability, with a good bass speaker
- Auto-calibration for the room
- Home Theatre integration with Apple TV 4K
- According to reports, more reliable as a Homekit hub
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is it possible there is a newer version in the works? HomePod2 Pro or something?
I doubt it - this Macrumours article reports that sales of the original Homepod have been poor. Maybe cutting the price would have helped!
Anyway, I have placed an order with Apple Australia to make sure I have a spare (which can be used downstairs). I guess they will become popular on ebay.
I just purchased a HP Mini to try out, and it looks like its ācomputational audioā is going to be a deal breaker for meāat least until they supply them with some form of tone control or EQ. I want to use it primarily as an intelligent radio for my kitchen, but its reproduction of NPRās male speaking voices is to my ears very unpleasant, chesty and boomy. At first I thought I might be dealing with boundary effect, but itās the same no matter where I put it (or my head). I suspect itās too smart for that sort of tactic and that whatever ābass extensionā algorithm theyāre using to make (pop) music sound (fairly) good wherever you put it is somehow overemphasizing the 125Hz octave. Too bad, I guess Iāll be returning it.
We have a stereo pair of HomePods with our AppleTV 4K. And theyāre stunning. Iām sorry to see them go. Hopefully Apple keep their focus on audio and the technology behind it.
Yes, thatās easy and Iāve done it. Spaced on doing it yesterday.
@khoi has a great post pointing out that Apple might have done better if it had pushed the HomePod as a home theater accessory from the start.
I have the Apple TV 4K & a pair of homepods and was using it with great joy until the last tvOS and HomePod OS update.
The link to the homepods stopped and then one of the homepods got bricked. It no longer turns on. So now Iām left with only one HomePod without the Apple TV 4K connection.
I contacted Apple for support to be advised to bring in the broken HomePod to my local store (Edinburgh) whenever they open again.
I have been using Apple kit since the Apple // and over the years I have noticed the failure of software on all my devices. The quality of work is appalling. I also have a Dell laptop with windows 7 Pro and MS Office etc. And I donāt get nearly as many failures, crashes or freezes. I was going to replace my MBP 17ā with the latest MBP 16ā with the newer M1 chip but I think I may just got for a Dell.