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Description
In this episode, Michael unboxes the 2023 HomePod with Michael, Debbie, and Jason.
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Transcription
[0:00] Music.
[0:16] And welcome to another unboxing on the IACast network. All right, we’ve got a few folks with us today.
I’m just going to go through names because some folks are here, but listening and they’ll come in in a bit.
We have Michael Babcock, we have Debbie Hazelton, and Jason Castingway.
Did I say that right, Jason?
Jason You did. Jason Great.
And we have Lauren Flinner listening out on Team Talk. We’re back on team talk, folks. Imagine that.
So we’re here to unbox a new thing. And I’ve been excited about this. I got it yesterday.
I have put off unboxing it for a day, which is amazing for me.
So it’s a home pod. It’s a white home pod.
And the shipping box, I took it out of the shipping box, but it was interesting.
The shipping box from Apple doesn’t have tape, guys.
It just has a little cardboard pull tab that you pull apart and then the box just splits down both sides. You pull it down.
I was like, wow, that’s cool.
[1:30] I think my iPhone, I think my 14 Pro might have been that way.
And it looked like it would look like it was in a flat rate box, but it wasn’t.
Right. interesting, isn’t it? Yeah. And then, you know, Apple started putting these pull tabs, on all of their products. It’s very interesting. And so there’s no tape. And all you got to do is just find one of these pull tabs and yeah, gotta love that binaural sound right there. You know, oh yeah, Apple packs things in such a way that I often say they could pack my lunch. I wish they would. I would love for Apple to pack my lunch.
[2:13] You guys are hearing this in binaural audio, or you should be. If you’re not wearing good headphones, I would. So I just pulled these two pull tabs off, and that’s all I had to do. Like no tape, no nothing, just pull tabs. Then I turned the box over to be right side up because the pull tabs are on the bottom and then all I have to do is lift up and the top part of the box comes off and there’s a home pod underneath. The inside of the top part even has some supports to hold the home pod in place so it doesn’t move around in there too. Now the top of the home pod where the screen is so it is, is definitely indented and it has a little pull tab.
You pull the little protective area off.
And the difference on this HomePod is I’ve heard that it has two volume buttons, but I can’t see those.
[3:16] Hmm. It says they’re engrained or engraved or something, but I can’t visually see those.
But it’s definitely in, like, it’s in the screen is definitely like indented into the machine, into the HomePod. And it is definitely shorter. It’s not as tall.
[3:42] Okay, so that’s interesting. And the bottom also has a pull tab as well.
Now I have heard reports, there we go, just something satisfying about that.
I have heard that these home pods have a different base to them.
So they’re not supposed to leave a white ring on wooden surfaces.
However, I’ve heard that after a day or so they still do.
But this is definitely a bit smaller. It’s still pretty heavy, but it has two less speakers and two less microphones and a slower processor and Wi-Fi.
Maybe not so a processor, but an older Apple watch processor.
So below the home pod, we have where it sits in the box.
We have a little removable plate and the power cable is wrapped around this little area.
Under the box, like where the instructions would normally go.
[4:41] So you just open this up and I don’t want to rip this because I don’t like ripping Apple boxes. There we go.
You do that and then you have the power cable, which is completely detachable by the way, folks.
It does not come attached to the HomePod. And what I like is it’s very easy, once you get everything out, to put everything back in the box, way it belonged. That’s really nice because sometimes boxes you get stuff out and it’s just difficult to put back in. Also, yes one thing that’s interesting, that’s true, is there’s no twist ties or cable ties on this cable.
[5:28] The other thing that’s interesting is this cable looks like it belongs like when you plug it in, the end of it looks like it’s built into the home pod so it’s to mimic how it looked on the previous home pod. Kind of like they would do with the iMacs too the the cable was molded in such a way that, when it was plugged into the iMac it would look like one piece. Right. They’re so smart.
There are Apple.
Does this go in? They are.
Now it does appear to only go in there one way so you cannot reverse it. It will go in, from what I can tell, only one way. Yeah.
[6:20] Yeah. But you plug it in and it just feels like it belongs with the HomePod.
[6:27] Okay. Very nice. So I mean, it’s smaller.
Let’s see. I’m going to put this down and I’m going to go try to get the other HomePod if my headphones once we’ll let me go that far.
[6:47] And it’s interesting, you can squeeze it and it does have some give.
[7:00] Oh, that’s interesting. The base on the old one is…
…declined. Like, it’s inset.
[7:13] And the cable feels very similar. And this one’s quite old and it looks a little off white with age.
And are they using a power cable that looks proprietary or at least it’s not USB-C I’m guessing right? No it’s kind of that figure eight kind of look. Oh okay. So I’ve, officially stacked two home pods one on top of the other to compare them and the.
[7:56] They are very similar in size they really are. The old one has a screen on on the top, like it just looks like they slapped a plastic, piece down on top, whereas the new one, it’s kind of inset into the device.
The old one has more of a hole at the bottom, kind of like you would expect, like a subwoofer to kind of have that little area to kind of breathe bass out of.
The new one does not.
So I think that the reason why I’ve heard the old one is a little more bassy, is because it has that room to have that base come through.
Have that base come through. The old one is definitely heavier, which is interesting.
[8:49] Also, interestingly, the mesh has a little more give on the new one than the old one does.
Like, if you press on it, it will kind of give a little more.
Hmm. Hmm. But the bottom of the old one is definitely heavier.
That’s very interesting.
Okay, so…
We’re gonna see if we can plug these things in. Have you ever heard two HomePods together, like two of the originals together?
I’ve heard that’s really cool. I have not.
I’m never gonna.
[9:32] I have not heard that yet.
Jason, you don’t have one, do you? I don’t, unfortunately.
Okay, so we’re going to plug in the new one first and we’re going to set it up.
Oh, can’t wait to hear the sounds. I know.
It’s all about the sound. It’s booting up.
[10:29] Okay. Did y’all hear that? Yep. Yes. That very bassy sound.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[10:44] We’ve got so many cables over here for work management and all tha…
