This is the big differentiating feature, along with the seamless integration within the rest of Apple's product line.
EDIT: HomePod does this too but it was not at a price point nor size that competed with other assistants.
For my family members that already have Apple products for their tablet, phone, etc., but have either Amazon Echo or Google Home smart assistants, I'm definitely looking that these as an option for holiday presents.
One thing I've learned is the identity is absolutely everything in (mass) surveillance.
The more places we can disconnect or obscure this as end users (or ideally consumers) the better.
The Alexa devices have always bothered me. Not just because of the baseline privacy concerns, but because it seems so damn easy to activate the trigger word on accident. The absolute worst part being a false positive activation of my Sonos system while watching a movie/show. When this happens (and it happens a lot), the audio volume of the show is lowered significantly to allow Alexa to hear the rest of the command.
Pause the show, wait til "she" stops listening, rewind the show very slightly because I missed whatever was just said due to the volume shift, resume the video, instantly pause again at the moment she was originally triggered until she stops listening, resume the show, this time without having to rewind since I paused soon enough not to miss any dialog.
Maddening.
And the fact that all of these false positives get sent straight to Amazon doesn't make me feel great.
I didn't need a HomePod for its audio quality since I already have great quality with the Sonos system, and couldn't justify the original HomePod's price as a command/control-focused smart speaker with a home already filled with Alexa devices.
All of that to say, HomePod mini is perfect for me.
I can throw out my Echos, disable Alexa on the Sonos system, and scatter a couple of Minis to replace the Echos.
This is something I didn't realize I wanted.
South Park, being; well, South Park - actually did an episode taking advantage of this and trolling thousands of viewers:
https://mashable.com/2017/09/14/south-park-alexa-google-home...
(not really SFW content, strong language)
I suspect that the device is constantly recording the audio in your room, and sending that to Amazon’s servers in the cloud. Because I doubt that the little puck has enough processing power inside it to handle speech recognition.
This allows Amazon the ability to continually upgrade their servers, without the need to upgrade the puck.
And only when the server detects it’s prompt, “Alexa”, will it send a response back to the puck. This is how the little device appears to be so responsive.
And not surprisingly, this bit of functionality is not marketed by Amazon. After all, who the hell in their right mind, would want to be constantly monitored, and have all their private conversations at home be secretly recorded by Amazon.
In fact, I suspect that all the voice assistant devices from other manufacturers, like Google, are doing exactly this.
I have no issues personally with using cloud services like this but they very much used weasley language in the presentation and website to obscure the fact that Apple's cloud absolutely will get access to your unencrypted raw utterances following their wakeword detection, and cause people to conclude that that wasn't happening.
As a side-note I find it a bit surprising that with all the history Apple has with Siri and the meaningfully powerful on-device ML acceleration that they still can't download and run a recognition model on-device that wouldn't require streaming your speech to Apple's servers...
On device you can only ask it to play songs on the device, calling people in the phone book etc.
He cited several real incidents where vendors like Amazon had been caught listening in and sending audio clips to random subcontractors for analysis.
Several huge companies, including Facebook, Google, and Amazon have made it their business to maximally violate the privacy of the general public.
This rubs off on companies like Apple that treat customer privacy seriously.
The "free market" doesn't stop rampant abuse, and doesn't stop damage to unlucky bystanders. If everyone cheats, then the incentive will be to cheat also. If everyone violates privacy, then there will be little to no benefit in not also violating privacy. Certainly not if consumers simply won't believe you.
It's the same logic as: "Every politician is corrupt, so why should I vote for you Mr Honest Guy? You must be corrupt also! I'd rather vote for Mr Clearly On the Take, I like the way he smiles".
Apple's privacy stance is really just marketing, like "There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it."
You don't have to use an apple device for more than a minute to realize this.
For example, you cannot use a new apple iphone without activating it with apple.
In the first screen or two, you are presented with their privacy policy, with is literally hundreds of pages long.
The rest of the setup is full of dark patterns, and even though it is GDPR compliant, it is very hard not to come out of the process without signing in or allowing them access to your data.
I think all of this comes from "business common sense" which is based on fear. They want data (and control) because it is an easier and more guaranteed way to make and sell things.
The only way out of this (for all of us) is actually robust competition by someone who will do it right and not collect data in the first place. (hint: it will help if they use rounded corners, gradients and transparency)
Here's the thing -- by circumstance they are like arms dealers stuck selling arms to both sides. They must entice app developers to develop for their platform, and they must also entice consumers to buy their products.
Personally I think if apple was concerned about privacy, they would let you see what your phone is doing, and let you firewall your phone (one that could block apple traffic).
Maybe this is better in practice than other ad platforms, but they explicitly say that they use information about you to serve you targeted ads such as: location, age, gender, purchases from the App Store, what news you read, etc etc.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/06/08/apple-c...
there's no way to delete photos from icloud immediately and I was also googling a bit and there's some article from infosec company and they were able to recover deleted photos few months after they should be deleted forever (I was googling about how to delete those photos immediately).
now, I don't have anything useful there but it pissed me off a lot and I'm definitely not going to use devices from one company, no matter what they say I'm missing
I solved this problem for my HomePod by denying it outgoing internet access on my router. Bonjour-based AirPlay support works great, and if Siri somehow became activated by accident despite my disabling it on the device, nothing could be sent to Apple.
This is the way to do it ...if you insist on putting smart microphones in your house.
The HomePod Mini uses Apple S5, which was in the Apple Watch 5 (2019)
Remember when we were freaking out about the unprecedented performance of the A7, the first 64-bit mobile chip? And now it's in a speaker.
I wasn't expecting new Homepod hardware until after they announce on-device Siri. That seems like the only thing that would warrant a better CPU.
If I say "Hey Siri, turn on my lamp" it turns it on within a second or so of asking.
For someone who isn't a fan of providing audio, you seem to have willfully done so.
I am genuinely confused.
I've tried their intercom feature on an iPhone using Hey Siri. The message doesn't get recorded if you don't speak english. It works fine if you press and hold side button tho (my preferred way to use Siri anyway).
I would probably consider Homepod or Homepod mini if they've got batteries and bluetooth. Heck they could've even used MagSafe chargers for them. Now I've got two Soundcore Motion+ that got amazing hifi sound.