Deals: Get the HomePod for $199.99 at Best Buy ($99 Off)

$99 would be the correct price for this device IMO.

Not meant to be a TV speaker. Plain and simple.

Apple made it to go hand-in-hand with Apple Music. Bought it with that exact use case in mind a long time ago (maybe right when they first came out?) and have loved it ever since. This is a great price and if I actually had the money I’d love a studio pair in my room so much.



On this note—this genuinely sounds like something you should contact Apple Support about.

Is this something along the line of "You are not holding it right"?

It's a SPEAKER. In this Market Segment, it should do the job of a SPEAKER - you know, like SONOS, BOSE, JBL, Amazon, Google, Sony, LG and everyone else who somehow - manages to do all this, and do it reasonably well. At the price point it's at, it should provide similar capabilities - you know, seperate EQ's for Movies, TV, Sports, Concerts, spoken word - just like the competition.

Somehow, the iPhone and iPad have EQ settings built into the OS. Yet, mysterously, the SINGLE DEVICE that has a single purpose of making sound - doesn't have this basic feature. Please explain how lack of features is a good thing, I'm all ears.

I have one, have had it for a few years - ever since they were $199 on Black Friday at Best Buy. Color me UNDER whelmed, way, way, way UNDERwhelmed.

Why? You would think I would pair it just ONCE with the AppleTV that sits just 36 inches away. You would be wrong. It disconnects randomly. I bought it to be an "improved TV speaker" for the downstairs 50" Plasma (yeah, old TV but it works just fine). Thing is, there is absolutely no such thing as an EQ settings for movies, music, concerts, news, sports, sci-fi movies or action movies on the Apple HomePod. So, dialog is often WORSE than what I have on the TV. Yeah, worse than that found on a stand alone TV.

Siri is unaware of multiple instances - so when I tell my watch to set a time for the BBQ grill off the deck, the HomePod used to chime in (cancelling my watch's instance of Siri) and announce that it had no timer. Now, it sets a time without saying anything else - still cancels my watch's timer. And this is the awesome part - when the HomePod timer goes off, no amount of "Siri, Stop Timer", "Siri, Stop that", "Siri, Be Quiet", or "Siri, Cancel Timer" works. The timer goes off chiming constantly without a chance to stop it. Touching the top just has Siri say "Stop Timer", and the chiming continues. So - yank the cord.

The HomePod is a joke. Not a funny, ha-ha joke. An irritating, expensive speaker that barely does what it's designed to do, doesn't play well with your Apple devices (2 Macs, 2 Watch's, 4 AppleTV's , 2 iPads and 2 iPhones) type of joke. It cannot tell when you are talking to your watch, phone or if you are addressing it. It seems blissfully unaware of the networked Music Library of MY SONGS that I like to listen to - I mean, I have tens of thousands of songs on my home network - so when it plays music - and I have songs from the 1960's through today - it plays RAP. And I can assure you I own exactly ZERO Rap. So, it doesn't even recognize the music collection associated with my AppleID, on the network it's associated, with the iPhone it's tied to.

Spend your money on a Google or Amazon device. Sure, they may record you having sex; but at least their products work as advertized.

I suspect people who have one, and wanted two, will think this great.

So.. $400 for stereo?
Worth no more than $99. I doubt I would even pay that much..

Y’know... all you people saying this thing is too expensive for a speaker don’t get it.

It’s like saying “Why should I pay $100K for a BMW M5 when a $20K Honda Civic can get me from A to B perfectly fine? Sheesh. The M5 should be $30K instead.”

Solution: If you don’t get or want what an M5 can do that a Civic can’t, and if the Civic does what you need, then buy the Civic and be happy. Don’t go trolling the BMW forums complaining that the M5 is too expensive.

And all you people complaining that it sucks because it doesn’t do some specific thing you want it to do but it isn’t designed to do also don’t get it.

That’s like saying the BMW M5 sedan sucks because you can’t fit a couch in the back like you can with a Ford F-150 truck.

The HomePod is awesome for what it’s designed to do. And yes, it does pretty much suck at the things it wasn’t designed to do. Imagine that!! If you need/want what this is designed for then buy it. If you want something this isn’t designed for then get something else that does do what you need.

And all of you, either way, contribute something positive to the universe instead of all this negative complaining.

Looks like it's time to purchase my 4th HomePod.