Amazon echo o apple homepod

There are Apple products I’ve been more excited to receive, but I can’t think of any that I’ve awaited with such impatience. The reason? Curiosity about that audio quality! I wrote last time that it was Home hub and voice control of HomeKit devices for my partner that really sold it to me, and I wasn’t expecting too much from it on the audio front. Sure, it was going to beat out other smart speakers, but I didn’t see it as serious competition to proper HiFi brands. But as the reviews came in , I started to wonder … When What HiFi gave it a 5-star review, and The Verge’s Nilay Patel – a self-described speaker nerd – said that it ‘sounds incredible,’ then it did start to look like Apple might be onto something. But let’s start with the design … Look & feel This is clearly a Jony Ive design. Apple’s design head said that his ambition for the iPhone was ‘a single slab of glass,’ and it’s clear that his vision here was similar: a single speaker grille. I … [Read more...] about HomePod Diary: Hands-on, and this thing is a Sonos Play 5 killer

Apple’s HomePod has faced two consistent criticisms right from the start. First, people said, it’s the dumbest of the smart speakers — that both Amazon Echo and Google Home speakers can do more. Second, it was said to be way too expensive. If you want a smart speaker, the thinking went, you could get an Amazon Echo Dot for $50, and sometimes as little as half that during promotions. Why pay Apple $349 then (and $299 now)? Hearing both criticisms repeated recently, I couldn’t let it pass… There is truth to the first claim, especially when you compare Siri to Alexa. However, as I discovered when trying the Echo Dot, there is a very large rider to that statement. Alexa is not inherently smarter; instead, it allows third-party developers to add “skills” to the platform. I noted then the two big drawbacks of this approach. First, because anyone can add a skill, there are lots of competing skills, many of which are worthless. And the required syntax means you can’t … [Read more...] about Comment: Two years on, the HomePod is still a widely misunderstood product

I’ve played around a bit with Alexa, and even considered buying an Echo Dot or two before the launch of HomePod , but in the end decided to wait it out. However, while Hunter Douglas is still promising HomeKit support for our Luxaflex Duette blinds , and was expecting to get there by now, certification has been delayed until later in the year. In the meantime, it’s gone ahead with the launch of the new bridge which brings voice control to the blinds – but so far only for Alexa and Google Home … Rather than wait for HomeKit, we decided to get an Amazon Echo Dot as an interim solution – which also provided an opportunity to pit Siri against Alexa in a real-life smart speaker test. Note that I say ‘Siri versus Alexa,’ not HomePod versus Echo Dot. As speakers, the two devices aren’t even in the same league. HomePod is a $349 device which gets into what I think of as semi-HiFi territory. It doesn’t compete with traditional HiFi brands, but is definitely into Sonos territory … [Read more...] about Smart Home Diary: An update to our blinds revealing that Alexa is no smarter than Siri