1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:07,520
after months of delays and tens of millions of devices shipped by their

2
00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:13,519
competitors apple's late entrant to the home smart speaker game has finally

3
00:00:10,559 --> 00:00:18,720
arrived but can it possibly compete with the google home max a speaker twice its

4
00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:21,359
size armed with the almighty google assistant

5
00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:25,540
yes but it's also a little more complicated

6
00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:28,590
than that

7
00:00:31,679 --> 00:00:38,719
cablemod pro series cables use extra thick wires for a fuller more robust

8
00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:41,760
look merged terminals on the component side of each cable have also been

9
00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:44,800
eliminated for a cleaner build check them out below

10
00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:49,440
despite some people's observations that it looks kind of like a giant toilet

11
00:00:46,719 --> 00:00:54,559
paper roll subjectively i would still say that the homepod wins on the design

12
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:58,079
front the seamless 3d mesh fabric looks great from any angle though i would

13
00:00:56,399 --> 00:01:03,280
recommend washing your hands before you touch it the capacitive glass top is an

14
00:01:00,559 --> 00:01:06,640
elegant haptic and visual interface displaying volume buttons when you're

15
00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:10,960
playing music and a beautiful listening animation when you're talking to siri

16
00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:15,040
and we even found the physical interface more pleasing to use

17
00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:18,880
tapping or holding volume buttons feels more intuitive than the slide gesture

18
00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:23,840
you have to do on the google home max and it's nice to be able to hail siri

19
00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:29,600
without using your voice a feature that google removed from all of its home

20
00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:32,079
devices wrong now the homepod is small

21
00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:35,759
but don't let that fool you it's much heavier than it looks at five and a half

22
00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:40,079
pounds and this is thanks to the incredible amount of hardware that apple

23
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:44,159
packed inside it it's got a four inch subwoofer at the top

24
00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:48,640
six microphones around the middle and seven tweeters at the bottom

25
00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:52,799
and not just regular tweeters these are really cool for one thing they are horn

26
00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:57,119
loaded which allows them to more efficiently turn mechanical energy into

27
00:01:55,119 --> 00:02:01,360
acoustic energy increasing their effective radiating area and making them

28
00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:06,479
sound bigger than they are and for another their diaphragms are balanced

29
00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:12,239
mode radiators meaning that they can produce high frequencies by rippling or

30
00:02:09,599 --> 00:02:17,120
low frequencies by moving the diaphragm in and out the old-fashioned way so if

31
00:02:14,879 --> 00:02:21,840
the homepod senses that the base demands will make the subwoofer distort it will

32
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:25,520
actually offload work to the tweeters and

33
00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:29,520
there is more to this technology than just

34
00:02:26,319 --> 00:02:31,840
using good speakers both homepod and

35
00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:37,280
google home max use special low frequency calibration microphones to

36
00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:41,840
give themselves spatial awareness this functionality does allow these devices

37
00:02:39,519 --> 00:02:45,680
to map the room around them and then apply automatic base correction to

38
00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:49,840
increase clarity now apple said in their keynote that the

39
00:02:47,519 --> 00:02:54,319
homepod would direct certain musical assets like the main vocals to the

40
00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:59,720
center of the room and ambient sounds and backup vocals to the side which is

41
00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:06,560
really good news because otherwise an omnidirectional wired speaker would not

42
00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:08,319
be ideal a lot of the time

43
00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:12,319
so i guess it's all of that stuff combined that made this thing take so

44
00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:18,319
darn long and also what allow the homepod to avoid

45
00:03:15,519 --> 00:03:25,519
distortion even when it's turned way up so the rumors are true it sounds really

46
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,319
really good especially for its size

47
00:03:25,519 --> 00:03:33,440
but what about the elephant in the room the google home max

48
00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:38,400
from our evaluation it actually sounded just as good but

49
00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:43,519
with a different sound signature while the homepod has pronounced mids and

50
00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:46,080
highs that are very forward max offers a

51
00:03:43,519 --> 00:03:51,120
wider sound stage with deeper chest bumping bass thanks no doubt to its dual

52
00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:56,879
four and a half inch high excursion subwoofers although this is interesting

53
00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:02,159
while max gets significantly louder before it starts to compromise on sound

54
00:03:58,879 --> 00:04:05,120
quality at lower volumes the homepod can

55
00:04:02,159 --> 00:04:10,640
actually deliver surprisingly strong and pleasing bass compared to the max due we

56
00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:16,400
think to its ability to transfer sound down into the surface it's resting on

57
00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:19,519
okay then so they both sound great but

58
00:04:17,359 --> 00:04:23,440
these aren't just speakers they're smart speakers which brings us to the next

59
00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:28,880
question we have to answer which one is smarter

60
00:04:26,639 --> 00:04:32,720
while both assistants offer the usual fare weather stock prices

61
00:04:31,759 --> 00:04:38,400
news we were disappointed to learn that

62
00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:40,479
unlike her competitors sirion homepod

63
00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:44,960
doesn't search the web so while she can rely on native API

64
00:04:42,639 --> 00:04:49,199
hooks to answer questions like who is the president of france the answer i

65
00:04:47,199 --> 00:04:53,919
found is emmanuel macron at this time she stumbles on novel

66
00:04:52,479 --> 00:04:58,720
queries like how long is the average ferret i can't

67
00:04:56,479 --> 00:05:01,600
get the answer to that on home pod ferret typically has a length of 15

68
00:05:00,639 --> 00:05:05,440
inches it's very gebo of you siri

69
00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:12,320
sad although your mileage may vary since some people have reported it working but

70
00:05:09,759 --> 00:05:17,360
while that's a clear disadvantage today the two devices are about equal when it

71
00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:22,160
comes to response time latency and their ability to hear your commands over loud

72
00:05:19,759 --> 00:05:26,960
music and homepod does have one awesome

73
00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:30,960
feature that google home doesn't have yet siri

74
00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:34,720
send a text message what do you want to say

75
00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:40,000
with that said homepod does not have voice recognition profiles like google

76
00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:41,840
home does so in theory anyone could ask

77
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:46,560
your homepod to read out your last text message whenever they want i found your

78
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:49,360
most recent message from edsel hey fire buns

79
00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:54,160
last night was amazing speaking of privacy while both devices allow you to

80
00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:57,120
turn off the microphones max is the only one that lets you do it with a physical

81
00:05:55,840 --> 00:06:02,320
switch so which one should you buy then

82
00:06:00,479 --> 00:06:07,680
we actually think the answer is pretty simple and comes down to whether or not

83
00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:10,639
you use apple music see with a google

84
00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:14,800
home or amazon echo you can use all the major music platforms spotify google

85
00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:18,080
play music pandora iheartradio you pretty much name it including apple

86
00:06:17,039 --> 00:06:23,280
music and the same goes for the homepod

87
00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:28,720
so why did we bring that up ah because it's how you can interact with

88
00:06:26,639 --> 00:06:33,039
those services that makes all the difference here

89
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:36,080
with google or amazon solution you get

90
00:06:33,039 --> 00:06:38,400
full voice control with everything but

91
00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:43,280
apple music which is limited to next song and pause with the google assistant

92
00:06:41,039 --> 00:06:49,039
and even then only if you are casting your entire device via bluetooth

93
00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:54,479
by contrast the homepod does feature voice control with apple music

94
00:06:51,759 --> 00:07:00,160
but only apple music so if you're using spotify the only way to control it even

95
00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:04,639
if you have an iphone will be through the buttons on your device

96
00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:09,680
and there's some more general inflexibility like we've come to

97
00:07:07,199 --> 00:07:13,599
expect from apple unlike the max the homepod does not include a three and a

98
00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:20,080
half millimeter jack for third party speakers and it requires an iOS 11

99
00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:25,280
device for its initial setup that's right Android users and even

100
00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:29,280
those of you with older iOS devices you will need to go buy an ipod touch on

101
00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:32,800
craigslist to get your home homepod working

102
00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:37,120
well mostly working which brings us then to the features

103
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:42,479
that apple promised that aren't out yet and won't be until airplay 2 launches

104
00:07:39,599 --> 00:07:46,400
later on this year one the ability to connect multiple home pods in stereo and

105
00:07:45,599 --> 00:07:51,520
two multi-room playback from airplay 2

106
00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:56,960
devices be they homepods or apple tvs or whatever

107
00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:59,280
max can do both of these things today

108
00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:05,360
so then that answer wasn't so simple after all but it's okay i have a summary

109
00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:07,440
if you don't have any wooden tables and

110
00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:11,039
you're already deep into apple's ecosystem with an apple music

111
00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:15,120
subscription and a bunch of money sunk into itunes

112
00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:19,280
homepod is a beautiful piece of hardware and a fantastic speaker

113
00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:24,720
but if you are almost literally

114
00:08:21,759 --> 00:08:30,639
anybody else you're probably better off with a competitive offering like a

115
00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:33,200
google home max and alexa enabled sonos

116
00:08:30,639 --> 00:08:37,440
or even some regular dumb speakers plugged into an echo dot

117
00:08:35,919 --> 00:08:41,839
hey siri tell me a joke

118
00:08:41,839 --> 00:08:49,040
well this whole experience wasn't very funny at all so this has been quite the

119
00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:53,760
project so far yeah i know hey siri read out my last text message i

120
00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:58,320
found your most recent message from edsel hey fire buns last night was

121
00:08:56,399 --> 00:09:02,800
amazing thanks to audible for sponsoring this

122
00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:09,200
video audible is your one-stop shop for audiobooks original audio shows news

123
00:09:06,399 --> 00:09:14,560
comedy and more from leading audiobook publishers broadcasters entertainers and

124
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:18,880
more audiobooks are great to listen to when you're busy whether you're driving

125
00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:22,959
working out running errands or you're just looking to

126
00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:27,360
learn it's a fantastic solution to not having the time to sit down and hold a

127
00:09:24,959 --> 00:09:31,760
physical book and stare at it maybe check out a song of ice and fire which

128
00:09:29,279 --> 00:09:36,640
the hbo series game of thrones is based on and if you're not already signed up

129
00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:40,959
for audible you can get a free trial which gives you 30 days of membership

130
00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:46,880
just go to audible.com forward slash Linus or text Linus to 500 500 to get

131
00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:51,519
started if you like the service and you want to sign up membership includes one

132
00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:57,279
free audiobook a month exclusive sales 30 off all regularly priced audiobooks

133
00:09:54,880 --> 00:10:03,680
awesome so again that's audible.com Linus or Linus to 500 500. go for it

134
00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:06,800
we've got it linked below so thanks for watching guys if this

135
00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:09,920
video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that

136
00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:13,839
like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in

137
00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:17,279
the video description also link down there is our merch store which has cool

138
00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:21,920
shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally join