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by alfonsodev 2041 days ago
Yep, seriously, I was shocked too when buying my first (and last) Sonos, there was a list of apps, and a list of FM stations that worked with the Sonos app, and some had arbitrary restrictions like Spotify needing premium account.

I don't own an Apple HomePod, but I'm assuming the situation is similar because I read Spotify is not supported yet. If that's the case "The speakers of the house."[1] slogan might be miss-leading for many customer that expect bluetooth speaker behaviour or a jack input to play whatever you want in "your" speakers.

[1] https://www.apple.com/homepod/
3 comments
reaperducer 2040 days ago
might be miss-leading for many customer that expect bluetooth speaker behaviour or a jack input

It's not a Bluetooth speaker. At no time does Apple claim it's a Bluetooth speaker. If someone wants to believe it's a Bluetooth speaker, that's their fault for failing reading comprehension.

I don't expect Apple to put a big red sticker on HomePod boxes reading, "THIS IS NOT A BLUETOOTH SPEAKER!" any more than I expect an electric car to have a big red sticker on it reading, "THIS WILL NOT RUN ON DIESEL FUEL!"

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alfonsodev 2040 days ago
The slogan is literally "the speaker of the house" and is wireless, so OK they don't use Bluetooth word, but you get my point, is just my opinion, I can't claim how many people expect Bluetooth like behaviour, just personal anecdote, I would.
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closeparen 2040 days ago
Current Sonos accepts arbitrary audio from Airplay. That's how I use mine most of the time, streaming via podcast websites in mobile Safari or using my local NPR affiliate's app. In these cases my phone is handling the audio stream, so its battery is draining and if I step out of the apartment it will cut off. Deeper app integrations like Spotify are nice because my phone isn't in the signal path.
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crooked-v 2040 days ago
HomePods have AirPlay, so you can use that to stream arbitrary audio from anything that supports it (officially Mac and iOS devices, but there are various apps that have reverse-engineered the protocol to stream from Windows and Android).

It's not Bluetooth, but as long as you don't literally need Bluetooth hardware specifically you can use it the same way.

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