Deals: HomePod Mini Drops to $79.99 at Simply Mac ($19 Off)

Not a bad deal. Good Father’s Day gift?

Are these good as stereo desktop speakers?

They have a 2-second delay with macOS, so you can’t use them as desktop speakers with live content on the Mac. I returned mine once 11.3 came out with the stereo pair for HomePods feature. The stereo pair feature didn’t eliminate the 2-second lag.

This is a really good deal. Curious to hear what your experience is with HomePod. We have Amazon Echo's around the house but looking at HomePod. I like the privacy/homekit integration but Alexa is so much better than Siri from a voice recognition/assistant. Let me know your thoughts?

I have 4 Homepods and 1 Mini. I love the Homepods. I value their sound quality much more than I care about Siri and Homekit integration. If you're willing to sacrifice some sound quality -- definitely bass capability and ability to 'fill a room' -- the Minis are actually a good value, especially at this discounted price. The only other thing I don't like about the Mini is the power supply is external. With the USB cable attached it looks a bit big and clunky sticking out of a wall socket.

If you don't have one of these yet, you should pull the trigger on this price.

Not a bad deal. Good Father’s Day gift?

I would say that depends on the father. Personally, for me, I would say yes. I just got one and I love it.

I’d snap one up if you’re curious to try it. If you like it and want better sound get two to play things in stereo. My wife and I love our HomePod but didn’t want to spend the money to get a second one at the time we bought it, sight unseen. We were going to purchase a second had they not been discontinued.

We got a mini when they first came out for our bedroom that my wife uses when she’s getting ready. It does everything the original could but doesn’t sound as good. It’s perfect for a kitchen, bedroom or low cost speaker for your living room but you really do need to subscribe to Apple Music to get the most from it and play just about any thing at any time. It can play your library if you don’t subscribe to Apple Music but use the feature that lets you match your music to Apple Music and upload what Apple Music doesn’t have to the cloud. It used to be called iTunes Match but I forget what they call it now. I think that’s only $25 a year. I had a huge existing library so when iTunes Match came out I jumped at it and have never stopped using it. They are good speakers for the Apple TV as well if you don’t have an existing sound system or sound bar. It can also act as a HomeKit hub if you want to dip your toes into HomeKit.

I do miss the quality of the sound of the original though. I hope they end up coming up with something around the $199 price point for those of us willing to pay for better sound quality. At that price I’d have two of those in the living room with a mini in the bedroom and kitchen. They have to be planning something or they wouldn’t have left “Mini” as a part of its name when they discontinued the original.