Hello Everyone, First, the following is just my musings as to my recent discovery regarding using Homepod with Siri and Echo with Alexa.
Second, this is the first time, since September 27th, that I have felt calm enough and comfortable enough to write anything other than tech support questions (smile). Okay, it has long been my goal to begin using Apple Music on my HomePod in order to have ambient music throughout my home. One reason why I have not yet done this is because of the lack of a device-specific audio equalizer for HomePod. For the most part, I had kind of given up on setting up any kind of audio ambient system in my house if for no other reason than doing so seemed less and less important. Okay, now we go back to September 27th, 2021; the day upon which my beloved Windows 7 PC virtually blew up; while it did not explode, it did, in fact begin to smoke (smile), no kidding. For the next two weeks or so, I began my long journey into the world of Windows 10 on a new desktop PC, Fusion, a new version of iTunes for Windows, and more. Add to this the fact that my primary router, which I had been using for over 10 years, also stopped working during this period. You know? They say that bad things come in threes; I think this is true because I could not update my beloved iPad Pro 10.5 to iPad 15.1 because it would not / could not get passed the software verification screen. I write all of this so that you may begin to understand my mind-set which lead me to the Apple Music / Amazon Music decision. Now let's jump forward to the present. 1. I purchased a new, bigger better primary router and successfully integrated it into my system. 2. While I do miss my old beloved Windows 7 PC, although it pains me to admit it, I am definitely beginning to appreciate all of the accessibility advancements made since Windows 10. Be that as it may, I will never be a big fan of any Microsoft product newer than Office 2007 for a host of reasons that are too far off-topic for this forum. I am now running the latest version of iTunes for Windows and it's not bad; seems to work well with Fusion, I Guess. What I like most is that I can, once again, backup my Apple products without fear of a loss of support. As an F Y I, as my iTunes library is located on a network drive, I did not lose any data due to the loss of the old computer. 3. As difficult as it is to believe, Apple tech support provided some excellent feedback which enabled me to update my beloved iPad Pro to iPad 15.1. In light of these few but very significant recent successes, I decided that it was time to get this home music playback issue, settled, once and for all. Essentially, I want to use my HomePod for something other than an overpriced paperweight (smile). Now keep in mind that all I want, in terms of music, is the ability to say to Siri, or Alexa, or Hank (for all I care), something like, "Play popular songs from the 70s." After Apple's announcement that it was launching an Apple Music voice-control-only subscription, I thought this would be a perfect fit for my needs. List member Ed informed me that, although there is still not a device-specific equalizer for HomePod, there is the ability to reduce the bass via a new setting introduced in recent versions of the OS. Let me say that I have not used my HomePod in over a year; I had to update the software and, in my opinion, this was not a pleasant experience, not in the slightest. In fact, I found it slow and extremely frustrating. By the time I got it working, correctly, I was already feeling negative and thinking, for the hundredth time, "Why did I buy this thing????" Finally, I was able to test this new reduce bass option but, still, I find the sound a little too bass-heavy for my personal taste. Don't get me wrong, were I hosting a party, HomePod would be perfect. But for casual ambient listening? Not so much. I am an Amazon Prime subscriber. So, I fired up my Echo, for the first time in over 18 months or so. After it powered on, it informed me that there was a new update and that it was installing. I did not have to do anything, just let it do its thing. After a few minutes, I was ready to go. When I looked in the device-specific settings, there was an excellent equalizer. I had been afraid that Amazon would have removed it but, no, it was still there. I said to Alexa, "Play 80s dance music," and the dance began (smile). I discovered that my Prime membership includes the ability to play Amazon Music curated playlists which, after all, is exactly what I want. So, there you have it. For now, I am firmly in the Amazon Music camp if for no other reason but that I can adjust the audio output, of its hardware playback devices, to my specific comfort. By the way, I composed this post on my new Windows PC with Fusion. I will say that while I am currently interacting with you via a Microsoft Window, the view from that proverbial Window faces the Apple Orchard of which I will always call home. Mark -- 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: mk...@ucla.edu and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- 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 macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/001e01d7cd17%244637e890%24d2a7b9b0%24%40ucla.edu.
