Probably no longer a company such as Apple, the product is not yet on sale will trigger continued concern.Even when the market is full of competitors, there are already shipped tens of millions of giants exist, Apple still 'calmly' come up with their own Prepare for a long time - HomePod.
From June 2017 to February 2018, this bounce ticket for six months, and let people look forward to six months of the product, finally on sale on February 9, it will not become the next 'Apple explosion models'? How to evaluate this product after getting the product and using it? Is HomePod another change of smart speaker? Perhaps we can find the answer from some of the present experience.
A low-key design
As you can see in the conference, HomePod physical appearance almost exactly the same conference.Similar to most smart speakers on the market, HomePod is still a need to plug in to meet the wake-up products, the power cord is designed to The side of the fuselage rather than the bottom, so from the front as if it is a wireless speaker in general, but the side will see a 'tail'.
Image from TheVerge
Youtube digital blogger Jonathan Morrison said in an experience that HomePod is still Apple's usual sophistication and simplicity, even the power cord wrapping material has been selected, using a similar woven material and HomePod. In addition to feel softer, but also In order to better integrate into the family environment, which is due to Apple 's dedicated support for the' Soft Materials Team 'team, the foreign media TheVerge curious design team is not without regard to cats, because they may also like this material.
Picture from Apple's official website
The HomePod looks simple on either side, unless it's necessary to have power cords, but one downside is that with no other interface, the speaker is less likely to be connected to other devices and is a very independent intelligence Speaker.
Picture from Forbes
The top of the HomePod is a layer of glass material, covered with LED backlight. The glass panel itself is like a 'touch screen', long press to bring up Siri (voice of course can also wake up), tap once to pause and will Shows the volume plus / minus symbol, tap twice to switch the next song, click three times to return to the previous one.
Image courtesy of Youtube digital blogger Jonathan Morrison
Image from TheVerge
All interaction will have LED lighting changes (a bit similar to the wake-up iPhone Siri), but this area is not the display itself, it does not show the specific interface or even text.As for the bottom of the fuselage, in order to increase the friction with the desktop HomePod is made of plastic.
Image courtesy of Youtube digital blogger Jonathan Morrison
For a 7-inch-tall speaker, the HomePod does not feel as stunning, but it's a solid design and unpretentious look when placed at home. While trying to weave materials to make the product less cold, we still see Apple's favorite glass material, Jonathan said, not much difference in height and iPhone X, but also have similar design elements, which makes us more concerned about the music experience part, HomePod price of 349 dollars is worth?
Full of music factor products
If Apple is a music giant, there may be disagreements, but it may be considered the answer to one of the most 'musical cells' of any tech giant, whose products over the years have changed almost everyone's perception of music The understanding of life, whether it is iTunes, iPod Shuffle, iPod Classic, iPod Touch, many people explain to Apple how to bring music to more scenes, this time, HomePod naturally unwilling.
Image from Apple
To understand HomePod's music performance, TheVerge reporter Nilay Patel gave an 'Incredible' rating after traveling to Apple's Audio Labs in Cupertino and spending some time experimenting with HomePod and other products, in general , HomePod in many places can make people enjoy the music more freely, this freedom is reflected in the following aspects.
First of all, HomePod is easier and faster to use than the smart speakers of the past, just open and close the iPhone to receive the matching signal, just like AirPods, a device that can be used without any hassle and the connection process , The speakers will play the music twice in a matter of seconds to detect the surroundings and create a unique model for playing sounds here and now using 'Beamforming' technology.
Image from Apple
Second, while playing the music, the HomePod's microphone works in conjunction with the speakers, playing the sound while constantly adjusting for better music performance, resulting in more bass and midrange music being played on the HomePod, Patel thinks it is better than the same-sized Sonos One and the same price as Google Home Max.
This excellent music experience benefits from the excellent hardware foundation of HomePod thanks to a 4-inch woofer, 7 surround tweeters, and a specially customized A8 chip at 7 inches Chipset), HomePod gained even greater musical power from the inside out and the key to its ability to quickly optimize sound for different room environments.
Picture from Apple's official website
Of course, to get around these things, HomePod's voice-recognition capabilities have also been enhanced to the point where six microphone elements inside the fuselage receive voice commands at a sufficient distance from the room. You do not need to be able to Improve the sound quality in the Jonathan test, HomePod can be very sensitive even when you are away from the HomePod and call it 'Hey Siri', so the excellent effect is naturally essential for smart speakers.
Intelligent but not so smart
The expected HomePod should be a product both smart and musical, but as the original introduction on the stage, HomePod in the pursuit of perfect music section at the same time, there is not much smart part worth showing off Capabilities and Siri on the phone is almost the same, both in function and degree of intelligence, this product is not with the current other giants of the smart speaker products to open the gap.
Picture from Apple's official website
As a music-based product, HomePods supports but only supports Apple's own Apple Music service, which allows you to voice-play the songs / singers / genres you want to hear even though this service now contains tens of millions of songs Song, but does not support Soptify but very unfriendly.But digital blogger Jonathan Morrison still uses Spotify in the experience to play music, you can cut the song through the voice and control the volume.In the voice control process, no matter at this time HomePod music player How loud the voice can receive voice commands, this is actually very rare.
Benefiting from many years of experience with the HomeKit platform, HomePod has performed well in smart home control, using it to control HomeKit-enabled bulbs, air conditioners and other products, but this is not HomePod's strength because The Amazon Echo family of products supports far more devices than Apple, though this is not a HomePod issue, but it's something people who want to get started with their devices need to know.
Picture from Apple's official website
On the smart, HomePod is also no stronger than Amazon Echo and Google Home, the Wall Street Journal said after the evaluation that HomePod can not answer some simple questions, and it read text messages and voice response function is also tasteless, after all, most of them have this kung fu It's possible that typing on your phone is over.Finally, HoemPod currently does not recognize who is calling it, so it's not currently an ideal product for any family member.
'Late' counterattack
In June 2017, at the end of the WWDC conference, finally, as the finale of 'One More Thing', HomePod was obviously placed high on Apple's promise and finally finally went on sale after a long bounce. Although it did not have China in the starting area, it did not have a stunning Appearance, but we can still see Apple's view on this type of smart speaker from this time of product.
In Apple's view, HomePod to enter people's homes, and the premise of continued use, is that the music section to provide a sufficiently good experience, this direction is also derived from the study of Apple users using smart speakers, so in the music-related part , Can not say that the experience is good enough (after all, does not support Spotify is still a pity), but the whole process, HomePod music performance compared to other current smart speaker products have their own advantages.
From now on, with the overall increase in the overall smart speaker temperature environment, Apple's late HomePod does not look forward to our 'Guards' ability, it is more like a basic part of the excellent enough to wait Follow-up continued to make 'mind' become stronger products, this can not be regarded as the perfect product, after Bloomberg reported earlier that Apple plans to sell 4 million units in 2018 may also explain their own product uncertainty.
But this reminds me of Apple's release of AirPods in 2017 before the situation, the same is not good, AirPods by virtue of the smooth use of the wireless headset and the trend to judge as a product of acclaim and now in Under the $ 349 price, in the end how many people are willing to pay for Apple's speaker counterattack, which is indeed an unknown.
