Hi, Just called Sonos to give some general feedback on the new Apple Homepod and the recently announced capabilities of Airplay2 which will allow users who have compatible Airplay devices to send music throughout the house similar to what Sonos can do. I just wanted to give them the opinion of one of their loyal customers because I have always thought the lack of native Airplay support once Apple announced it is a mistake. Now I think so even more because people will be able to buy all sorts of speakers at a number of price points from relatively inexpensive to high-end and of course Apples own Homepod will I think be a serious competitor to the Play 3 and Play 5 offering but it will also be smart and while it may initially be not as smart as Alexa or Google Home it will still be a lot smarter than a Play 3 or Play 5 which may have done Kindergarten when it comes to smartness, but not much more.
In any case, during my call the Sonos rep told me that they are currently focusing on Alexa integration so I guess those who do have an Amazon Echo as well as one or more Sonos players can by the end of the year tell Alexa to "Play the top hits of 1986 on Sonos Bedroom", not sure exact what one would have to say and I guess it depends a bit on whether you use Spotify or another service which you may have to specify in your command as well. This will add a lot of third-party smartness to Sonos, but of course it benefits only customers in the US and as far as I know the UK and Germany which are the only countries where the Amazon Echo is officially available. I understand that quite a few people here in Canada have an Amazon Echo, but I for one am not really interested in bending over backwards to buy one in the first place and then maybe do whatever else is required to take full advantage of it. As far as I am concerned if Amazon is not interested in making this available in Canada then whichever other company does will get my business. The Echo has been around for 3 years now and I don't quite get it when it comes to making it available elsewhere. I also again mentioned that I am very disappointed that Sonos still has not released truely audio file quality headphones which act as a Sonos player meaning they would show up in the Sonos app as a player just as any other Sonos device so you can play something to them, group them with other Sonos devices etc. The rep told me they have been focusing on "home audio played out loud" and now with their Playbar (soundbar) and the new "Playbase" which is a speaker the TV can stand on they are really trying to cover the living room so that both people who mount their TV have an option (the pLaybar) and those who want it standing on a cabinet can put the Playbase underneath it. However, given the explosion of headphones and headsets and all of that I still think it's a mistake Sonos hasn't tackled this yet, they should have headphones which are a Sonos device as well as support bluetooth and Airplay. I haven't heard anythig as to whether Apple's Homepod has bluetooth which would allow you to connect a bluetooth headset to it for private listening or if maybe it even has a 3.5mm headphone jack. Best regards, Sieghard which you can group with other devices or use by themselves and -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone 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 V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list 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 "VIPhone" 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/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
