The news that Sonos will support Air Play2 now means that an iPad Poort gets one more major audio partner, when 200 Million (uninvited) legacy iPads join the smart home shakedown. Eventually users may realize that they don’t have to buy into the contrived ecosystems these pillboxes are pointing you to…Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 are equal opportunity, sound protocols not limited to voice or proprietary music streaming.
Here’s some PREMIUM SPEAKER SPECIFICATIONS (courtesy of CNET) of the three major high-end options for premium audio. Note that all four options can now provide audio from iPads, as can the improved Amazon Echo.
These blind but solid blowhards enable iPad Poorts to be the very smartest Hubs, with independent web browser capability to cleanly run any videos or movies you choose – no strings attached. 😉
COMPARING HIGH-END SMART SPEAKERS
| Google Home Max | Apple HomePod | Amazon Echo Plus | |
| Price | $399 | $349 | $150 |
| Color | Chalk, charcoal | White, space gray | Black, white, silver |
| Voice control | Google Assistant | Siri | Alexa |
| Weight | 11.7 pounds | 5.5 pounds | 2.1 pounds |
| Dimensions (height, width, depth) | 13.2 x 7.4 x 6 inches | 6.8 x 5.6 x 5.6 inches | 9.3 x 3.3 x 3.3 inches |
| Speaker | Two 4.5-inch high-excursion woofers and two 0.7-inch tweeters | High-excursion woofer and 7-tweeter array | 2.5-inch woofer and 0.8-inch tweeter |
| Ports | USB-C, 3.5-millimeter jack, AC power | Information not yet released | 3.5-millimeter jack, AC power |
| Protocol type(s) | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee |