Why Does the Apple HomePod Exist? #Helpful Post

hey guys doston this is the Apple home

pod and at three hundred dollars I have

exactly one question why does it exist

now no I'm not trying to say this is

some useless product or there's not

meant for anyone when you consider that

the world is filled with Amazon echoes

and Google homes that cost 40 or 50

dollars a $350 speaker that has Syrian

side that's a little bit of a hard sell

for most people so in classic Apple

fashion the unboxing is super simple

no giant stabbing knife needed so this

has come out today and it's a little bit

late I think this is originally supposed

to come out late last year but the idea

here is that this is a very high-end

very good sounding speaker that just

happens to have Siri you know I'll say

this looks really nice so it has this

fabric mesh all the way around it's nice

and soft it's definitely a little bit of

a different look although the power

cables built-in okay we also have

designed by Apple in California with

what I assume is yes a single Apple

sticker not a lot of accessories with a

3m $50 smart speaker but what really

matters is how does it actually sound

all right so 350 dollars a lot of money

but I will say there actually are some

nice things about the hardware so like I

was saying this fabric finish feels

pretty nice and it even comes across to

the power cable there's a little bit

tension to detail here but you won't

find what the whole pod is anything

besides this power cable so there's no

USB there's no Bluetooth there's not

even going to be any kind of aux input

which now just think about it apples

killed the headphone jack and everything

else

makes sense to kill it on the speakers

which you will see however is a little

tiny grid of LEDs that are below the

sort of frosted panel on the top so it's

kind of cool but there's not a proper

screen it's more for kind of giving you

notifications and sort of a little bit

of a colorful thing when series

listening like ear pods the setup is

going to be pretty straightforward so if

you have an iPhone and yes you're

probably gonna want to have a lot of

Apple products with a home pod to make

sense you can see a little setup icon

right here do that and it should sync

with the Apple ID one thing you probably

will want with the whole pod is Apple

music so it does support airplay so

things like Spotify and YouTube will

work however if you actually want it to

work properly just using your voice

you're going to want to use Apple music

they're very specific the home pod is

for people who have everything Apple

before we get started I'm gonna give

everyone a warning new words hey Siri

and hey Google about to be spoken many

many times you've been warned

sorry I can't search the web the main

reason to pick up the whole pod though

is from music and at least on paper this

sounds pretty good so you're getting

seven microphones that are paired up

with an Apple a8 chip which no they are

going to be listening for you to call

Siri but also it's going to be able to

tune the music for your specific room

now to do that it uses the total of

eight speakers inside this guy so there

are seven small tweeters they're spread

out all the way around to be able to

give you a full 360 sound there's also

going to be a single four inch subwoofer

so at this point if you have Apple music

you can just tell it to play a song

however if you're like me and you

Spotify you're gonna have to airplay it

from your phone so of course you're

gonna be listening to this on YouTube so

everything is going to be compressed we

do have a microphone here to hopefully

give you a decent idea of what this

sounds like in person

let's give it a try I will say one thing

this does a really good job of giving

you that full 360 sound no matter really

where this is placed your printer is

gonna hear the same thing around

something else is immediately apparent

this guy even though it's obviously a

very small speaker has a lot of things

it's also really apparent that they're

doing a good job of making sure that

doesn't bottom out so even though there

is a lot of base it's not really

overpowering the rest of the music I

mean when you crank it up to higher

volumes it stays surprisingly well put

together may guess 4-3 or $50 speaker

you hope it sounds pretty good but I'm

pretty impressed pause one thing I will

say that the microphones do a really

good job even when you're cranking it to

be able to actually hear you pretty well

however I think the best way of actually

being able to properly test how well

this sounds is put it up against this

biggest competitor

when I say biggest I mean biggest the

Google home max so you guys are not

familiar the Google home max is very

much the sort of Google competitor to

the home pod yes it is much larger but

there's a lot of things that are going

to be very similar so this has Google

assistant whereas this has Siri they

both have multiple speakers inside that

are going to be working together and

they both also do have a version of the

sort of room sensing technology that

will tune the sound based on what kind

of environment that your end there are

some advantages to the Google home

though including the fact that knowledge

is a have a USB port but it also

supports bluetooth as well as aux end so

you know if you're not living a 20-18

yet this has got you covered however the

price difference is kind of surprising

whereas the whole pod runs a pretty

expensive $350 Google will charge you

$400 for the Google home max a Google

Play Hotel California okay Hotel

California by Eagles

so at first glance they're actually

surprisingly different so the Google

home acts is louder kind of expected

with it being a much larger speaker

however it completely lacks that 360

directionality of the home pod so from

the side it's kind of okay but from the

front it is very very loud now the home

pod

even though it's a little less bass II I

think does a much better job of making

sure that you really hear all the

different instruments there's a lot of

separation between the two but let's do

a few other songs and kind of fully

actually test to see what these guys

sound like although to be fair Hotel

California is the only song anyone

actually needs to listen to but I guess

I can play like two or three other songs

you really want me to some weird reason

he google play like whoa from logic like

whoa by logic sure playing on Spotify

okay so after listening to these both

for a little while my impressions are

pretty firm this sounds good it's decent

in a vacuum but there's a lot of bass

and it is very directional the whole

pods there's just so much more

separation you're all the different

instruments you hear the different

vocals like everything is very sort of

layered whereas this it feels a little

bit flat in comparison it's a good

speaker but there's no doubt the whole

pod sounds phenomenal however that's

just one piece of the puzzle so sure if

you're just going to buy one of these

for pure audio quality you can stop

watching now but I think what a lot of

people are interested in is how the

actual assistance on these guys work in

Google when did the Olympics started

competitions at the Pyeongchang 2018

Olympic Winter Games began on Wednesday

February 7th 2018 and ends on Sunday

February 25th 2018 PST hey Siri when did

the Olympics start the 2018 Winter

Olympics will be held February 9th to

the 25th in Pyeongchang South Korea hey

Google how many cups in 42 gallons 42 US

liquid gallons equals 672 US customary

cups hey Siri how many cups are in 42

gallons 42 gallons is 672 cups something

I'm noticing is that Siri is a little

bit more Curt and it gives you like much

shorter answers where Google wants to

give you all the details hey Google

what's the news

here's the latest news

from NPR news now at 3:00 p.m. today

live from NPR news Siri what's the news

here's the latest news from NPR hey

Google Play the latest episode of reply

all okay playing the latest episode of

reply all

number 42 blind spot rebroadcast this

episode of reply oh hey Siri play the

latest episode of reply all

sorry I couldn't finally apply all in

your music if you have an Apple musical

subscription podcast hey Google what do

you think about Siri full respect being

an assistant is hard work

hey Siri what do you think about Google

assistant I think the acquisition of

information and intelligence by human

beings through virtual assistants is a

very good thing Google's like serious

great I think the acquisition of

information by human-like beings is

excellent alright so what have we

learned well I think that they're

actually fairly evenly matched as far as

the assistant side so for the basic

stuff they're gonna be very similar for

things like turning on and off your

lights or kind of figuring out traffic

or the basic kind of things and I think

as you get to be a little bit more

advanced I would give this slight edge

to Google assistant I think a lot of

people have sort of been complaining

about Siri at least based on this

they're not that far off now as far as

the music set goes it's definitely a

home pod win but for me if you're not

gonna be really serious about music I

think it's hard to recommend either of

these so my house alright like using the

Google home minis as well as a standard

Google home they're much less expensive

and unless you're really serious about

the music they sound totally fine

especially if you're really focused on

the assistant side so should the Apple

home pod exist in 2018 yeah it's

actually not bad so be fair you need to

be totally into the Apple ecosystem so

I'm talking Apple music iPhones Macs the

whole thing but if you are this is a

really really good sounding speaker so

I'm curious what do you guys actually

think about home pod let me know in the

comments below and I won't catch you in

the next one