Apple’s HomePod sales copy is so bad I bought a Google Home Max
thenextweb.com
thenextweb.com
>a person with extensive or specialised knowledge about a subject; an expert.
As in, 'Joe is the authority on the history of computers'
Given that's the first example I'm not sure it's worth continuing to read.
Your instinct was correct, it is a terrible article, not worth the time to read... and it doesn't even mention the Google Home Max anywhere in the article. Only in the title, and never again.
Actually, come to think of it, this article was useful. It's reminded me to add The Next Web to my Block list on my Google News & on my router.
The opening sentence lets you know up front the author is biased and was never strongly considering a HomePod. I read the article and the copy was poor compared to Apple but par for the course conpared to the field.
This device clearly isn’t aimed at somebody whose “gadget ecology” isn’t entirely Apple-branded (expressed another way, unless Apple already owns your ass because of switching costs), and if somebody can countenance opting for a Google Home Max (or anything else), then one is clearly not in this unhappy category.
I am left wondering, however, if anybody at Apple thinks this device is aimed at somebody: the desperation that seems to be transpiring through this copy to find it a purpose, an intended audience, a use-case, would seem to indicate otherwise. This is particularly telling as when it was announced I also thought to myself “oh, who gives a toss?”, followed by “ah, but this is Apple they must have done tons of market research and identified a target niche desperate to part with their well-earned cash, so even if I don't care about it, it's virtually guaranteed that somebody out there does”. Now I’m starting to wonder otherwise.
I am one of those happy slaves that toil within the walled garden of all things Apple: Macs, iPhones, iPads, and AppleTV. I have a couple of ancient iPod HiFi speakers hooked up to AirPort Express units so I can stream music over AirTunes and have been doing so for close to half a decade. My house is not ‘automated’ because the existing systems are those that were installed when it was built and I don't give a toss about home automation; that said, I've recently replaced the thermostat with a Nest unit (because it was given to me) and added on a couple of Nest devices beyond that too (security cameras, smoke alarm). I find myself both wishing Nest would add support for HomeKit but also entirely satisfied with the day-to-day experience of using the non-canonical Nest app to manage them, if and when I need to.
Like the author, I consider Siri (and most other vocal assistants that I’ve never used, but am just prejudiced against) to be garbage: unworkable, and a flawed user interface paradigm (I'm of the command line and late-nineties-style GUI persuasion). I don't use it on any of my devices except for getting the time when I'm in bed in the dark. I cannot imagine anybody would want to do anything with it.
I take one look at that mesh fabric cylinder and shudder at the thought of what my cats would do to it if they ever came within a parsec of it.
I just don't understand this thing. I don't want this thing. I'm starting to suspect I might not only be in the typical majority (even in the sub-population of Apple ecosystem captives), but that there might not exist a minority that does want it.
My god are you wrong. I could try to meticulously refute each of your points, but honestly you are soo off, I can't even start. Just put a pin in your current world view and get back to me in 6 years when you as the last of your social circle begrudgingly get a voice assistant and realize how awesome they are in all their simple glory.
Their primary usages are simple but effective. My google home allows me just say in kitchen while I'm cutting vegetables and have both my hands full "Hey google play music" I don't have to tell it what music, it just goes on spotify and continues what I've been playing. I can tell it something specific if I want though, a genre or playlist and it'll find it, and I've never experienced it get it wrong.
Then when I'm done in the kitchen I can walk in with plates in hand, tell it to switch to romantic music on the way and "Hey google set the light in the living room to cozy", or if you're the lonely type, perhaps just tell it "Hey google play Rick and Morty" and it pops up on the chromecast on the tv.
And this isn't some futuristic expectation of what will come. This is how I'm using it right now.
Its obvious that Apple wants a piece of the action and it looks like they've gotten the memo that playing music is an important part of the apeal of these devices and actually put quality hardware in the box, that might win them a noticable market share.
I already know how this ends.
I swear something is broken at Apple. How after all these years Siri can still be so bad is unexecusable.
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