Rumored new HomePod coming out (not the sad Mini)

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Yay! One of my Homepods stopped working and the only possible solution offered was buy a new one (well after they stopped manufacturing them, assholes).

I never understood the decision to stop manufacturing them. Yeah, maybe they were a little overpriced and that could probably account for a large part of poor sales, but offering a smaller model as the only possible replacement isn't appealing at all. If anything I was thinking they would release a sub to pair with an array of minis but that didn't happen.

So hopefully this rumor is true and maybe they learned their lesson and will lower the price.

 

[Nycturne]

I would welcome it’s return.

I think the only thing I really want from mine is a mode for falling to sleep with. Even at the lowest volume and bass reduced, it’s still a bit loud if you have a quiet neighborhood.

Competitors like Sonos aren’t any better.

 

[fooferdoggie]

We have two minis and they are the worst. seldom hear us anymore and most of the time get it wrong. they forget your voice and are just plain crappy.

 

[Roller]

In other news, I hear the Newton is coming back.

 

[fooferdoggie]

In other news, I hear the Newton is coming back.

ya I think both are failed products. the mini was a lame version that got even worse.

 

[Citysnaps]

We have four originals (as two stereo pairs), the last three I bought for $199 at Best Buy - a good deal. And two minis. The originals are superb; the Minis a little less, but a good value at $100. We listen to them all the time; mostly with Apple Music.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing the new one. If it's as good as or better than the original HomePod, I'll buy it. Maybe two for a pair.

 

[Joe]

They failed because they were too expensive.

 

[tomO2013]

I don’t think it was solely that they were necessarily too expensive….
My opinion is that they failed because they initially launched as a smart speaker but compared to the rest of the landscape…. they weren’t that smart in what they could do (e.g. integration with Homekit or non Apple apps such as Spotify etc..).
This hung over them in reviews despite improvements, updates etc…
All in all, I think Apple shipped really amazing hardware before the software was fully baked and the initial reviews haunted them - especially for the price.
For what it’s worth, I have a household of Sonos and Homepods…. for their size the original homepods as a stereo pair are darn near impossible to beat for the quality of sound given their size and footprint.
Small improvements I’d like to see added in a revision 2….

1. please Apple , give us a detachable power chord. The permanent power chord makes placement of my homepods tricky.
2. Allow me to hook up multiple homepods in a room for Dolby Atmos (yes you can do that with two homepods and an apple tv and it works well) but I’d like to have a 5.1 setup with homepods - surely it is something Apple could do with an AirPlay 3 protocol and homepod 2!
3. release an apple sub (this is more a pipe dream after inhaling a bong full of hopeium ) but hey… don’t ask, don’t get!

Outside of that I’d like to see the core engineering principles applied to gen1 also applied to a gen2 version and NOT see Apple build it to a lower price point if it means lesser sound quality.

Just my 0.02.

 

[fooferdoggie]

the problem is is that Siri is so bad and getting worse. so the smart pairt is a failure. my wife is blind and uses siri and alexa and google a lot and siri is always the looser al;ways does the worst never learns.

 

[DT]

Small improvements I’d like to see added in a revision 2….

1. please Apple , give us a detachable power chord. The permanent power chord makes placement of my homepods tricky.
2. Allow me to hook up multiple homepods in a room for Dolby Atmos (yes you can do that with two homepods and an apple tv and it works well) but I’d like to have a 5.1 setup with homepods - surely it is something Apple could do with an AirPlay 3 protocol and homepod 2!
3. release an apple sub (this is more a pipe dream after inhaling a bong full of hopeium ) but hey… don’t ask, don’t get!

I would've considered Apple for general use + home theater, but they needed your #2 and #3, otherwise for the latter, it's not even close. I'd love to have groups of homepods for handling 5.x or 7.x, they could even make neat little stands to handle orientation - and of course, a proper sub.

A Sonos Arc is ~$900, so if Apple could offer a maybe a 5 speaker array (of separate pods) for about the same, a sub in the same price range as a Gen 3 Sonos sub at $750 (maybe a bundled 5.1 setup for $1695 ...)