$500 in austrailia and not even available here in nz. Think I'd go for the amazon version rather than the home pod.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of M. Taylor Sent: Saturday, 27 January 2018 4:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Apple's $349 HomePod speaker is now available to preorder - The Verge Apple's $349 HomePod speaker is now available to preorder Stereo pairing and multiroom audio won't arrive until later, though By Thuy Ong, Jan 26, 2018, 8:38am EST Apple's $349 HomePod smart speaker is now available to preorder through the Apple Store app, with shipping slated to start on February 9th. Despite the delay in the speaker's launch, the HomePod will ship without features like AirPlay 2, which allows pairing and multiroom audio. Apple says those features are "coming this year in a free software update." HomePod is powered by Apple's A8 chip (that first appeared in the iPhone 6) and features built-in Siri, six microphones, HomeKit support to control your compatible smart home devices, and the ability to automatically optimize sound for a given room. We briefly played with the speaker last year. My colleague Dieter called it "a cute little ovoid thing" that "sounds really good in the demos" with "more bass than you expect from such a small speaker." But we'll need to spend some real time with it before we can say it's worth $349. Apple's smart speaker offering is the most expensive of its rivals at this size. The much larger and more powerful Google Home Max costs $399, while the standard Google Home is $129, and Amazon Echo is $99.99. HomePod is also rivaled by the Sonos One smart speaker. To ruffle Apple's feathers, Sonos is offering two Sonos One speakers for $349, the price of a single HomePod. Sonos One supports Amazon Alexa integration, and it's promising Google Assistant integration sometime later this year. The HomePod is available for preorder now in the US, UK, and Australia in black or white. The smart speaker will be available in France and Germany this spring. Original Article at: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/1/26/16935664/apple-homepod-spe aker-pre-order-price-release-date -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
