Price is $469 elsewhere.
Space grey and silver available. Seems a decent price.
It's recently been updated for multi-user support with voice recognition.
Space Grey: https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/apple-home…
Silver: https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/apple-home…
Sounds like it's an event aimed at apps and games primarily but here's to hoping there's a surprise.
Is there an event scheduled? I cant spot it?
Is this the same kind of event they held last year where they announced the iPad with Apple Pencil support?
@BurgerCommaPlease: I hope they announce apple tv support for the home pod cos currently its rubbish.
Apple still owe us a 6th gen Apple TV. It’s related to apps so hopefully at the next app centric mini event.
This is not very smart speaker. Good quality but Siri is the worst assistant (Google rules:)
Also overpriced RRP compared to street price of Google, Amazon, & other multiplatform speakers.
How does this compare to say Sonos?
Sound quality is better but connectivity is limited. Depends heavily if this suits your ecosystem use.
'Better' than what? It's not even close to the same league as a Play 5, and is significantly more expensive than a One.
Just to clarify hands free operation is limited.
With an iOS device, the limitation is more of an annoyance. You have to AirPlay everything that isn't Apple Music.
Without an iOS device, do not buy it.
Boggles the mind it has no cabled input ports or at the very least Bluetooth speaker functionality… Would we well worth it with either of those.
@Hybroid: No doubt, would have been great to use in replace of a sound bar on my TV. What can you do, Apple be Apple.
So for Spotify/Audible- it would be a pain? It wouldn't be usable without my phone being directly connected to it? So no different to an ordinary bluetooth spekaer?
@ONEMariachi: Yep it would be no different to any speaker and limited to iOS.
Honestly, most people who are not everything Apple are going to find it disappointing.
HomePod is smaller than the Sonos 5 and cheaper than it.
It's a bargain price for a product that's cheaper than anywhere else. Literally the purpose of the site.
$6 bottle of water discounted to $3 is still not a bargain.
Bargain is in the eye of beholder
Yes it is, if that’s the cheapest price available for the item. Regardless of your opinion or preference on the item itself.
Same could be said to those that never post deals.
You haven't been here a month, you are not a seasoned OzBargainer yet.
lol did u check my profile? that's creepy
Yes checking your public profile is creepy. Wait until you get onto Facebook kid.
Are there any place you can buy discounted gift cards for officeworks?
Lumo Ameego for actual Officeworks. But I think you can buy Coles cards from plenty of other providers and use them there, not 100% sure for the eGiftcards though.
Ok thanks, I had a look. If JBHIFI does price match and getting JB gift cards from AGL Rewards (6.5% off) would bring the price to $342.
Thanks for posting this, I’m about to leave the country on work and can claim the TRS. I can finally make a stereo pair.
You’re may already be aware but if you’re thinking of travelling with one of these they are heavy speakers, 2.5kg.
Just bring the box. Once you've cleared TRS you could flatten the box for easy baggage, or just dispose of it.
Hi too heavy, don’t think it’s worth the effort for the extra $33.09 savings!
I travelled with one last year and didn’t have any issues with my baggage limits. However I do appreciate the concern for my back and heavy cases. Hahaha
The saving depends on where they are going
Any good as a speaker for the Mac? Don’t care about the Siri stuff.
There are so many other options that I don't know why you'd pick a Smart Speaker if you don't care for the Siri stuff.
If you love the apple ecosystem then sure, it's a great speaker. Sound quality can depend where you place the speaker (in reference to where you're seated/standing) and the room you're in (eg. carpet, room size etc.).
If you're not as fussed around it being an apple product and happy for something that is a similar price, I would recommend the Edifier s2000Pro's which are usually on sale in the high 300's / low 400's. Usually pretty popular on here.
All this being said, sounds is subjective so, if possible, do yourself a favour and check out a few different items in store with your own music and get your own comparison :)
From what I heard compared to a decent conventional bookshelf speaker design, the HomePod’s upper-mids to highs sound muffled & are lacking clarity.
This makes sense when inside the 7x BMR tweeters are individually inside these plastic casings and are all pointed inward (yes they all point-inward, toward the centre of the speaker). This and also the fact they are placed at the bottom is an odd design, especially given high-frequencies are the most directional and you would ideally want their sound to be directed at your head.
There is some ‘clever’ DSP-processing going on correcting the speakers sound & directionality depending on where it is placed.
But I would have to say it’s clear the HomePod is far-from being recommended to / by audio-evangelists.
It has decent punch in the bass from its woofer & gets loud, but the upper-range is lacking in clarity and gives it that “smart-speaker” sound.
Some may be satisfied with its compromises given its Omni-directional ability etc, but combine the lack of flexibility with inputs & its original pricing, and it’s clearly a bit of a flop for Apple (slow sales I imagine).
Upper-range is a common problem for 360 degree speaker.
You can AirPlay to the speaker from your Mac and it will sound great, but it may not be the most convenient option.
Worst case you end up using it as a living room, kitchen, bedroom, or shed speaker.
If you're interested in trying it you can pick it up from Apple for full-price and return before ~8th January (usually 14 days but currently extended holiday returns) even once used.
I've used Airfoil to enable Airplay on everything in a Mac and whilst it works 99% of the time, I don't know why anyone would choose to do this for their everyday speaker unless they really really really needed wireless… but even then, a conventional 2.1 setup may still be superior.
As a speaker for an iOS household, it's great. I actually use it as a soundbar with my bedroom TV/Apple TV, and also as a baby white noise speaker (yes an expensive one at that) too. The sound quality really impressed me when I got it for an all in one cylindrical device.
Whilst the functionality/featureset at launch was very limited, there have been some improvements in recent updates (eg multi user support) and a half-baked Spotify on Homepod implementation (https://www.the-ambient.com/how-to/play-spotify-with-siri-ip…). It's nowhere near as good as say a Google speaker and playing Spotify music there in terms of integration, but it works (i.e. you don't HAVE to rely on Apple Music).
That being said, in hindsight, if I could go back in time I probably wouldn't buy it and would've just bought a Google speaker instead since they seem far better integrated and would save me the headache of having an Apple Music subscription (which I've since cancelled).
Sound quality wise, is this better or on-par with Sonos? taken into account the AI smart sensing sound etc. (I don't really need siri)
You call always Apple Sales to price match from Officeworks.
Apple will only price match up to a 10% difference.
Yep. Gone are the days when they did "real" price matching.
double post
I would love to have the HomePod as the smart speaker around my house, but I’m not buying 4 or 5 of these to fill my rooms - here’s hoping for a $99 mini option soon.
This is getting towards the cheapest a good smart speaker can realistically get. I think the $300 RRP Sonos One pretty much is the absolute minimum viable product for this kind of thing.
Apple won't be releasing a tinny sounding budget option.
Honestly the new Nest Mini's (the v2 of the Home Mini) are surprisingly decent and you can pair them to create a stereo set, and set multiple into a "group" to get simultaneous playback in multiple rooms.
Obviously not going to sound as good as the bigger speakers (or a HomePod), but you can usually get them pretty cheap either through promotions (eg Telstra) or just on Gumtree (the going rate seems to be a substantial discount to RRP thanks to everyone getting the promotions).
New one coming out soon I bet
Is anyone else getting a "sorry we could not add this to your cart" error? Trying to get the silver speaker, but it won't let me!
I have two of these and they're excellent. We're a completely iOS/Mac house, though. I use them to control my lights etc with HomeKit.
I have one in-between my lounge and dining. I use it to control all my lights. And we listen to a lot of music through it. My kids, my wife & I all love it.
I tried Alexa, she now sits unplugged on my TV cabinet and the second Alexa I bought is still in it's box. If you are an Apple house like me it fits in really well.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that isn't Apple.
Even as Apple users (I have Mac, airport, iphone/ipad, appletv), I still don’t want this. Apple has been way behind in this area for a long time. Google & Alexa works better and has better integration. I use Apple music too, with Alexa :)
Question - what effort is required to hook these up to your lights? ie cost
I use Philips Hue - Very easy through Homekit
I also have a Yale front door lock, Eve power points & motion sensors.
All running through homekit.
If your iCloud Keychain ever becomes corrupted for whatever reason (which it did in my case), you lose the ability to control your Homekit devices. That being said, and I raised this in the other Apple vs PC thread, I had a dedicated case manager who helped work through it with me and now it all works great again without me having to recreate my keychain/passwords or home.
Also FYI, Hue works well with Google and Apple simultaneously. I do this with my Google Home Hub. Eve stuff however I think is Homekit exclusive from memory - I have two Eve power monitor/plugs which I used to use for portable AC and to monitor my PC (when it was mining). These worked well enough in the Apple world and AFAIK connected to the Apple TV as a 'Homekit' base station rather than my wifi network directly.
I use Philips Hue too, very well integrated but costlier than other solutions.
There are cheaper options now with Homekit, Yeelight for example.
Also Xiaomi Aqara products have Homekit integration, I have their door/window sensors and temperature sensors. All working through the Apple Home app.
Plus iSmartGate is an easy way to add garage door control through Homekit.
I think I'd still go with a Sonos or similar over one of these - and I own a lot of Apple (not the crunchy kind).
If this has cable in it’d be a no brainer. Still, my only streaming service is Apple Music so I might get one anyway.
Any idea if you can price match at JB? got some gift cards to burn through
Give it a try and let us know ;)
I love how the item description weirdly says "It's automatic." as a selling point
Sounds good for airplay content or if you have a Apple music subscription but buying a sonos one will give you more streaming options
We have Sonos plays 5's and 3's around the house and a playbar, sub and rear play 1's in lounge room. All works seamless wouldn't swap any for a HomePod and we have all apple gear. Got most of mine off this guy for great prices, back when the $$ was good too.
What’s the better colour to buy? It’s like material over it? Concerned about what colour would be best of dust and maybe heat changing the colour?
Is this nesspresso machine compatible….ohh wait..
Good, but only if you're in the Apple ecosystem. Also, the product has been out for ages so maybe a refresh is imminent…
Great Deal!
Almost buy one yesterday! Even cheaper than AirPods Pro …
Out of stock online? I get that and I non of my local stores have any of any color
Another pricing error?
I think they are simply struggling to sell them.
Considering they are already out of stock, it appears to be another “Mavic Pro” from OW… 😬
I can still add to cart, and it says click & collect available from multiple stores.
If you have the budget to buy two then pairing them gets you to a different level. A single HomePod sounds quite good but it's really not in the same ballpark as two that are paired. This is based on a continuous experience with both configurations over the past 15 months. Also, since purchasing the HomePods I have been listening to music much more than before, which I guess can also be attributed to the convenience of just telling Siri to "Play Something" as "she" usually picks something in line with my taste.
I smell another mavic pro :)
Seems to be out of stock for WA.
This should be free. Like every other smart device that sucks in our data….
Has anyone picked their’s up yet? Mine has been sitting at “preparing your order” status since yesterday afternoon.
Has it moved from this status yet?
Yep, picked it up Friday
Out of stock in ACT but just went to JB HiFi who were happy to price match and had plenty of stock.
Also price matched with JB HiFi.
Awesome, going to use a GC on one of these. Did you just show the online link for them to price match?
Seems to be out of stock in QLD?
Has anyone successfully click and collected theirs yet? Or had it delivered?
Mine says dispatched for delivery tomorrow
I managed to order one last week and click and collected it on Friday.
Picked mine up on Tuesday - interestingly the worker that went to grab my product from the back asked how much i paid for it in a inquisitive way.
He goes "How much did you pay for this by the way?….i just need to know as it will help with where its stored in the back"
It doesnt appear to be a price error as they surely would have changed it by now and not honored as many orders. But it is strange that officeworks is the only supplier offering this around $100 cheaper than anywhere else - which is odd for an apple product.
Apple was offering a $60 or $80 Apple Store gift card* with HomePod purchase during Black Friday sales.
I think that has something to do with it.
Apple have some announcement scheduled for this coming Monday, is there a slight chance there will be a new speaker? This is a huge discount for an apple product.