Thoughts on the Apple HomePod thing. Buy or pass?

49:27This is what I'm looking at. And now in order to make that compelling, you're putting a lot on the talent. You're putting a lot on the performer. And if they can do it, it's kind of magical. Next question. This question is coming in from David Brady in New York City, New York. Thoughts on the Apple HomePod thing. Buy or pass? Myself, I'm a homey pro user and love the flexibility of it compared to other ecosystems.

49:51systems. Yeah, and this is something that I know a lot of people that have tried to get into the home control, smart home sort of thing I have taken a look at. And where it's relevant to our discussion, I think, is that whether it's in a home studio or a home office, or if we're trying to build something for someone else to use on a day-to-day basis,

50:16one of the most powerful things you can do is get all of the thinking out of the way ahead ahead of time and program a macro or program a series of some sort of multi-action so that all you have to do, like, for example, when I walk into this office, I say the magic words, you know, hey, I can't say it, turn CJ's office on, all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom, the lights turn

50:41on, the computers turn on, everything connects, and then I'm, it's ready in 30 seconds. That's That's really powerful. And so while it's not a professional show control solution, there's also a market for people who either don't have the budget or the experience to get into that highly technical solution that these sorts of home control devices can start to approach. Now for this particular one, I don't think it's extensible enough or customizable enough

51:11to put it into a solution like that. But I wonder what some of the other folks on the panel think or if Chris's slide of Apple shame is going to grow. Chris? No. You know, I like the little speakers. I have two of them here at the apartment. I have one of them at the house, I think, which is my – you know, the whole thing about the smart stuff is it's fun.

51:35It's great. When it doesn't work, it's infuriating, and all it takes is the slightest sun flare to disconnect your house from the world. It's just – I'm not a big fan of it. What I'm most interested in the new HomePod thing – The HomeView with the screen. The HomePod is the little screen thing, right? The HomeView. Yeah, the thing with the screen.

51:59Listen, there's no way in forever my wife and her sister would allow me to put something that recognize who they are when they walk in the room, even if it doesn't have a camera on it. The little speakers, though, the new speakers, you could do four of them and do surround sound. Kind of cool. Kind of cool. And if there's enough smarts in it that it actually will, I think it could map it.

52:28I think Apple could do a good enough job of having the onboard microphones listen to the output of all the speakers and figure out where they are in the room and then have it show up, but I'm not sure. That's what it does, and it figures it out, and it, like, adjusts some. I'm super interested to try. So the Apple magic, which drive?

52:46Courtney? Yeah, it depends. You know, if you live in the Apple universe, it may be great for you because it may require connecting to your iPhone and not your Android phone to get some of its functionality. I think the new Home View, which mimics what Amazon has had out the Echo Show for six years, seven years. So it's useful in the kitchen, a lot of people are saying, you know, because it will present recipes.

53:19And the Siri AI, and I seriously doubt it, is going to take you through step-by-steps through a recipe in preparation of a meal perhaps. perhaps, but my problem is when I go and buy smart lights and things on the internet, I look at what it works with as far as remote control, and it always says works with Google Home and works with Amazon Echo. I don't see Apple on there anywhere in the it works with,