{"id":7320,"date":"2018-01-29T15:28:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T15:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/?p=7320"},"modified":"2018-01-29T15:28:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T15:28:42","slug":"tech-will-i-be-getting-an-apple-homepod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2018\/01\/29\/tech-will-i-be-getting-an-apple-homepod\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech: Will I be getting an Apple HomePod?"},"content":{"rendered":"

tl;dr – Yes\u2026eventually but not right now.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Our use-case in the household is one Apple Fanboy and one Apple Purist. We have an Echo Dot in the spare bedroom for guests to use when they want some music while they sleep or to set an alarm. It\u2019s a minor convenience for them and we have house guests at least once a month. There\u2019s an Amazon Alexa Gen-2 in the kitchen. I don\u2019t use it but Heather does and I have to deal with her painfully asking it to set timers and going through all of the mumbo-jumbo required to interact with it. Yesterday, Heather was baking potatoes, cheesecake, bagels and re-heating meat for Potatoes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAlexa, start a 30 minute timer\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexa, start a 2nd time for 60 minutes\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexa, how\u2019s my timer\u201d \u201cwhich one?\u201d \u201cthe 1st one\u201d \u201cthe 30 minute timer or 60 minute timer?\u201d \u201cthe 30 minute one\u201d \u201cYou have 2 timers, a 30 minute timer with 10 minutes remaining\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026..<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the stupidity like \u201cset a 1 hour timer\u201d \u201chow long\u201d \u201c1 hour\u201d \u201chow long would you like the timer?\u201d \u201c60 minutes\u201d \u201cOkay, 1 hour timer set\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026..<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Anyway, the device is stupid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We also have a Sonos Play:3 next to my iMac that is connected via Cat6 to the Internet. We have authenticated Pandora, Apple Music, Spotify, Last.FM and Amazon Prime Music to it but I only use Apple Music. Because I have an iMac always-on with the Sonos Controller, I generally trigger music that way and use the physical pause button on the Sonos to interrupt playback if a phone call comes in. I like that a week later, I can hit Play again and it is right where I left off. It also sends played music stats to Last.FM which is a service I still love for tracking and run Last.FM on my iMac to track music I listen to on iPhone, iPod and iTunes\u2026the HomePod won\u2019t have that functionality as far as I can tell which is a bummer.<\/p>\n

We have an AppleTV in the Bedroom & Living room but since audio goes into the TV And out through external speakers, the televisions each use about 65 watts of power when on so it\u2019s not aesthetically or energy conscious to listen to music via AppleTV. I never do it. If music is playing, the television is turned off which is preferred. I don\u2019t needlessly leave the television on when I\u2019m not actively watching something although Heather does. She\u2019ll pause a show, work for 4 hours and forget to turn the TV off..it \u00a0drives me crazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, we have the record player and a growing collection of vinyl as well as my iPod Classic 160GB hooked into the AudioEngine A5+ speakers so we can listen to that on shuffle and it sounds better than the Sonos or a record (usually oldies) and while the quality is great, this is a disconnected experience. No Internet connection and it works well. I still have a huge music library and yes Sonos is connected to my Plex server in the basement with 25,000 songs so I use that to shuffle my music and occasionally detest the experience only because I have some questionable teen-pop music from 2001 in iTunes still to this day but I find my music is fairly eclectic and tracks that the Apple Music Algorithm will never knowingly recommend.<\/p>\n

Finally, in the services world we pay $14.99 a month for Apple Music and $9.99 a month for a 1 terabyte iCloud account which is shared between 14 Apple devices and one Windows notebook. The iPod Classic does not benefit from Apple Music which is really unfortunate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

So why add a HomePod? Well, I think eliminating the Alexa would be our preference along with selling the Sonos Play:3. That\u2019d net us $100 and we\u2019d have significantly better music. The Sonos is our music device when people are over for dinner..vinyl takes constant management that disrupts the party and again, I\u2019m not leaving the TV on when people are over to have dinner. This would also allow me to eliminate the main personal invasion recording device in our house. We\u2019d still have the Echo Dot in the spare bedroom for guests but that area is walled off from the rest of the house. I trust Apple in regards to my privacy far more than Amazon and always will. The additional convenience features of iCloud \/ HomePod integration for reading my calendar and composing messages..I already have an Apple Watch for that. I generally issue HomeKit commands to my Apple Watch. The iOS devices are always docked when I\u2019m at home so the Apple Watch is my telephone, SMS device and HomeKit command center all in one at home. I won\u2019t stop wearing the watch but sometimes on Sunday I don\u2019t put it on if I\u2019m home all day and suddenly can\u2019t turn a light off or lock the basement door and am stuck yelling \u201cHey Siri\u201d into the air and one of the 8 devices will wake up and hear my voice (wish the iMac had Hey Siri but I\u2019m not really starving for more devices that listen to me).\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll finalize our use case by saying we don\u2019t have anything connected to Alexa\u2019s services. Every interaction with devices is through HomeKit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

Why not a HomePod right now? Well, for the more practical reasons that I think spending $300 now might be a waste because<\/p>\n