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Topic: Are you gonna get an Apple HomePod?
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 02-20-2018 12:52 AM
I listened to it in an Apple store. On recently recorded material, it sounded pretty good for a small device, especially if you like a strong bass. On older material that was originally analog, it only sounded fair, but that might have partially been a function of everything coming from Apple Music and the digital quality of those old tracks might not have been all that great. Of course, without an A-B test with the same source material in a quiet environment, it's really hard to tell whether it's better than other small systems or not.
Surprisingly, even in the noisy store environment, Siri worked pretty well. I asked it first to play Killing Floor and it played the Jimi Hendrix version of that track. I then asked it to play the Butterfield Blues Band and it played tracks from the first album. It recognized "next" and "louder" and "lower". In the same store, I tried using voice commands on the Apple TV and it was far less accurate.
Note that it takes two units to play in stereo, but the software doesn't yet support stereo playback.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 02-22-2018 04:29 PM
Well, you see, it's all about "privacy creep". I guess when somebody would've proposed about 20 years ago, to put a microphone in your kitchen and record everything you potentially say, then this would've created some repulsive reactions.
Right now, we're doing just that. We're giving a bunch of big corporations access to our inner lives.
The argument is: I've got nothing to hide and what are those big corporations going to do with it anyway?
The problem is: There is no reason to trust those corporations, beyond their somewhat vague promises not to do anything evil with it (if those promises even do exist, because Amazon, for example, promises nothing).
Quite a few of those bigshot corporations have leaked our personal information in the past to God knows who and they will do in the future.
Maybe a good example of what could go wrong... V-Tech is a big Hong Kong based corporation with world-wide sales in the billions which markets "intelligent" children's toys. Many of their latest concoctions connect to the internet. They push almost anything they can capture to some cloud, somewhere. This includes supposedly private pictures taken by 8 year olds, etc. Most parents don't even know anything about it.
About a year or so ago, they got hacked. So, some hackers got access to practically all the data they stored, including pictures, voice recordings, etc. This almost certainly included a lot of very private data that really should not have leaked to any third parties. And those hackers, they're mostly in it for the money. They'll exploit what they get...
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-23-2018 11:32 AM
Just recently police in Arkansas were demanding Amazon turn over data from a murder suspect's Echo device. In this case Amazon is refusing to do so until the police satisfy a number of legal requirements beforehand. Here's the bigger question: why is Amazon storing this audio data and/or transcripts from it on their servers? Both Amazon and Google are doing that with their smart home devices. Both companies have a pretty deep reach into our buying habits. Google goes even farther with its search engine, Android OS and ability to document our comings and goings. I don't know how far Apple will go in storing customer audio data or transcripts from it on their servers. But it's a sure bet they'll take some steps to keep up with Amazon and Google.
Amazon, Google and Apple all have some very serious responsibilities with how their devices can affect the privacy rights and overall civil rights of their customers.
Last November critical Bluetooth flaws were discovered that affected 20 million Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. This stemmed from similar flaws that affected billions of Android, iOS, Windows and Linux devices. White hats developed proof of concept hacks showing various ways how the devices could be hacked. Security updates have been released to eliminate the problems. Still, these companies will have to be on the lookout for new threats.
Then there's the issue of governments wanting increased access to consumer data, using ploys like keeping the public safe from terrorists, criminals, etc. That's a very slippery slope, one our currently hysterical general public seems all too willing to enter for a giant belly slide. We may trade freedoms and privacy for the illusion of greater security. The consequences could be further erosion of democracy, governmental abuse of new found powers and even outright tyranny.
There has to be checks in place on all this digitally connected stuff. Even with the technology out there now (smart phones, proliferation of surveillance cameras, etc) if our government was operating as a police state it wouldn't have a difficult time stomping out any political dissent.
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