Probably there will be no more companies like Apple, and the products haven't been released to cause people to continue to pay attention. Even when there are many competitors on the market and there are already giants with 10 million shipments, Apple still takes out the products it has prepared for a long time-HomePod.
From June 2017 to February 2018, this half-year ticket-hopping product, which made people look forward to half a year, was finally officially released on February 9th. Will it become the next 'Apple explosion model'? How do users who have obtained the product and use it evaluate this product? Is HomePod another revolution in smart speakers? Perhaps we can find the answer from some of the experiences we have obtained so far.
A low-key designAs you can see at the press conference, the physical appearance of HomePod is almost exactly the same as the press conference. Similar to most smart speakers on the market, HomePod is still a product that needs to be plugged in all the time to meet the wake up. The power cord is designed on the side of the fuselage instead of the bottom, so it looks like a wireless speaker from the front, but the side will be See a 'tail'.
Youtube digital blogger Jonathan Morrison said during the experience that HomePod is still Apple's consistent exquisiteness and simplicity. Even the packaging material of the power cord has been selected, using woven materials similar to HomePod's exterior. In addition to being softer to touch, it is also for better integration into the family environment, thanks to the support of the 'Soft Materials Team' team specially formed by Apple for this purpose. The foreign media TheVerge is curious whether the design team did not consider cats, because they may also Would like this material.
If it is not necessary to have a power cord, HomePod looks very simple on either side. However, one drawback is that without other interfaces, this speaker cannot be connected to other devices. It is a very independent smart speaker.
The top of HomePod is a layer of glass material covered with LED backlight. The glass panel itself is like a 'touch screen', long press can bring up Siri (speech can also wake up), click once to pause, and the volume plus / minus symbol will be displayed, double click to switch For the next song, tap three times to return to the previous song.
All interactions will have LED lighting changes (somewhat similar to awakening Siri on iPhone), but this area is not a display itself, it will not display a specific interface or even text. As for the bottom of the fuselage, in order to increase the friction with the desktop, HomePod uses plastic materials.
For a speaker that is only 7 inches tall, HomePod does not feel as stunning as it is, but fortunately, when it is placed at home, the simple design and the unobtrusive figure give a solid feeling. While trying to weave materials to make the product less cold, we still see the glass material Apple loves, Jonathan said that its height is not much different from the iPhone X, and there are similar design elements. This makes us more concerned about the music experience part. Is the HomePod worth $ 349 worth it?
Products full of musical factorsIf Apple is a music giant, some people may hold different opinions, but it is perhaps the answer to say that it is the most music company among all technology giants. The company ’s series of products over the years have almost changed people ’s understanding of music life. Whether it ’s iTunes, iPod Shuffle, iPod Classic, iPod Touch, many products explain to people how Apple brings music to more scenes. At one time, HomePod was naturally unwilling.
In order to understand HomePod's performance in music, TheVerge reporter Nilay Patel went to Apple's audio laboratory in Cupertino and spent some time to experience the difference between HomePod and other products, and gave an 'Incredible' evaluation, overall , HomePod can make people enjoy music more freely in many places, this freedom is reflected in the following aspects.
First of all, the use of HomePod is simpler and faster than the past smart speakers. After turning on the device, you can receive the matching signal just by bringing the iPhone close. Similar to AirPods, this is a device that can be used without troublesome operation. During the connection process, the speaker will play music twice in ten seconds. One process detects the surrounding environment and uses 'beamforming' technology to build a unique model of sound being played here and now.
Secondly, when playing music, HomePod's microphone and speaker work together, while playing the sound, while constantly adjusting, so as to achieve better music effects. As a result, the music played by HomePod has more bass and midrange details. Patel believes that it has better sound than the same size Sonos One and the same price Google Home Max.
Such an excellent music experience benefits from HomePod's sufficiently good hardware foundation, because a 7-inch woofer, 7 surround tweeters, and a specially customized A8 chip (the same as the iPhone 6) are plugged into the 7-inch height. For the sake of the chip), HomePod has gained more powerful music capabilities from the inside out, which is also the key to its ability to quickly optimize the sound for different room environments.
Of course, this is not over yet. HomePod's ability to recognize speech has also been improved to a very convenient level. The 6 microphone elements inside the fuselage can receive voice commands with sufficient distance from the room. You don't need to be able to do this. Increase sound volume. In Jonathan's test, even when you are away from HomePod and calling 'Hey Siri' against your back, HomePod can perform very sensitively. Such excellent effects are naturally the necessary foundation for smart speakers.
Smart but not so smartThe HomePod that people are expecting should be an amazing product both in terms of intelligence and music, but just as it was introduced on the stage at the time, while HomePod pursues the perfection of the music part, the smart part does not have much to show off ability. It is almost the same as Siri on the mobile phone. In terms of function and intelligence, this product has not opened a gap with the current smart speaker products of other giants.
Picture from Apple's official website
As a product with music as the main selling point, HomePods supports but only supports Apple ’s own Apple Music music service. You can use voice to order the songs / singer / style you want to hear, although this service currently contains tens of millions of songs. Song, but does not support SopTIfy but very unfriendly. However, digital blogger Jonathan Morrison still uses SpoTIfy to play music in the experience. You can cut songs and control the volume through voice. In the process of voice control, no matter how loud the HomePod music is playing at this time, it can receive voice commands, which is actually very rare.
Thanks to the operation of the HomeKit platform over the past years, HomePod has performed well in smart home control. Use it to control HomeKit-supported bulbs, air conditioners and other products have a good experience, but this is not a strong point of HomePod, because in this regard, Amazon Echo series products support far more devices than Apple, although this is not HomePod Question, but it is necessary for anyone who wants to get started with the device.
Picture from Apple's official website
In terms of cleverness, HomePod is no better than Amazon Echo and Google Home. The Wall Street Times said after the evaluation that HomePod ca n’t answer some simple questions, and its functions of reading text messages and voice replies appear to be tasteless. After all, most people have this effort. You may have finished typing on your phone. Finally, HoemPod is currently unable to identify who is calling it, so it is currently not an ideal product that will satisfy any member of the family.
'Late' counterattackIn June 2017, at the end of the WWDC conference, as the finale product of 'One More Thing', HomePod clearly had high expectations from Apple. After a long jump, it was finally officially released, although there was no China in the starting area, although it was not amazing. Appearance, but we can still see Apple's view of this type of smart speaker from this product.
In Apple's view, the premise that HomePod can enter people's homes and continue to be used is that the music part provides a sufficiently good experience. This direction is also derived from Apple's research on the habits of users using smart speakers. Therefore, in the music-related part, it cannot be said that the experience is good enough (after all, it is still a pity not to support SpoTIfy), but in the overall process, HomePod's musical characteristics have its own advantages over other smart speaker products.
From the current point of view, in the context of rising overall heat of smart speakers, Apple's belated HomePod does not have the "anti-sky" ability we expected, it is more like a basic part to be good enough, waiting Subsequent continuous polishing of the products that make the "mind" stronger is not a perfect product. Previously, Bloomberg reported that Apple ’s planned sales of 4 million units in 2018 may also explain its uncertainty about the product.
But this reminds me of the situation before Apple released AirPods in 2017. Under the same unpopular situation, AirPods became a well-received and popular product due to its smooth use and trend judgment of wireless headphones. Now, under the price of $ 349, how many people are willing to pay for Apple's speaker counterattack is indeed unknown.
The castings produced by the Silica Sol Casting process have high dimensional accuracy and can reach the CT4-8 level specified in GB/6414-1986. The surface roughness value is low, which can reach RA0.8-6.3μm. No machining; the silica sol casting process also produces castings with more complex geometries
Investment Casting,Lost Wax Casting,Steel Investment Casting,Stainless Steel Investment Casting
Tianhui Machine Co.,Ltd , https://www.thcastings.com