Originally, I tried buying a battery for my Titanium PowerBook with the money Dad sent for Christmas. But when the eBay seller didn’t come through, I got a refund. I’ve been at a bit of a loss as to what to do. I wanted to get something that I probably wouldn’t for myself.
When Apple discontinued the HomePod two weeks ago, I just shrugged. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I wanted one. There have been a lot of podcasts discussing the axing of the original HomePod in favor of the newer HomePod mini. The consensus was that the HomePod sounded exceptional (compared to the Amazon and Google smart speakers) but were expensive and always were a little difficult to use with Siri as the digital assistant. One podcaster I listen to shared that he’d gone out and bought two more when he heard about the discontinuation.
I know that when it came out, I was really interested. I ended up getting Amazon Echo devices because they were inexpensive enough to scatter around the house. There was no way I was buying a half-dozen HomePods at $400+ a pop. The Echoes are fine. We use them a fair bit for music, alarms, home automation, shopping lists, timers. But I wanted to get the smart speaker that wasn’t just “fine”.
I looked online, and within a week of the announcement I couldn’t find any for sale. But when Miranda and I were waiting in line outside the Apple Store this morning to drop her laptop off for keyboard replacement, I spotted a black HomePod next to the Apple TV display inside the store. I mentioned it to her. Why did they have a HomePod out on display when they weren’t selling them anymore? She pointed out that there was another over by the iPhones. I asked the Genius (same guy as when I dropped off Ian’s a couple weeks ago!) about it and he craned his neck and said that it’s probably because there’s still a few for sale. There were four boxes on the shelf. White only.
Yeah, it’s not the smartest time to buy one, but I wanted one. I also was pretty confident I could return it if I didn’t like it. But it sounds really nice. And it does handoff from an iPhone like nobody’s business.
At this rate I’m really not going to want to go back to the office. I’ve got my great monitor, microphone and now a nice speaker to listen to tunes on.
