To be fair, most of my annoyances are minor ones. The one big one may be user failure on my part (I probably need to look up the correct syntax). After setting up Homebridge, I asked Siri to set my alarm system to home mode. Instead of doing that, it set off the alarm.
Fortunately, I was near the keypad, so I could shut it down immediately.
We are so frustrated with our quirky Google Home devices. I don’t think my wife would have a problem at all replacing most of them with HomePod mini. I’d probably disable the mic on most of them and just us an Apple Watch for control.
I don’t do a lot of conversing with voice assistants. I think the novelty wears off for most people beyond kids. We generally set timers, turn lights on/off and get weather forecasts via voice. Rarely do we do much querying beyond that.
I like my Sonos One but even they are a bit on the large size. I hope the mini is tiny so that they can be tucked into places and look unobtrusive
I’ve got 4 HomePods (all acquired substantially below list price) so I don’t really need another one. For $99 I’m tempted to get one just to play with the UWB integration.
We’ve been holding off on HomePod because the price point is hard to justify as a replacement for our good-enough playing-music-out-of-the-TV set up right now. (I know, I know.)
But at $130 CDN, it might be nice to put one in several rooms, just so we don’t have to blast the volume on the TV to hear it while cooking in the kitchen or whatever.
We’ll see. Thankfully we have a couple weeks to think about it!
Siri on my HomePods understands me better if I talk in a high, valley girl accent. I guess that reflects its roots in California.
The announce and intercom features would be nice. I hope that’s coming to the regular HomePod too.
Ha, valley girl accent, will try that 
Lots of places to practice here in San Diego. It seems though that Siri has gone through some changes affecting her ability to understand me. In the beginning the HomePod Siri was smack on but as of late she is rather more likely to misunderstand me and direct me to the internet for various reasons. She is also more prone to have heard “hey Siri” in our regular talk than before. Perhaps Apple’s tweaks to improve the algorithm(s) aren’t working for my family so well.
Funny, because in our house with four teenage girls it never, like, understands them except for, like, when they speak in a deep, monotone, voice!
Might not be too little but it is too late for us. Five Amazon Echos here that work with everything including Apple Music but unfortunately not Apple Reminders but we use our iPhones for that. OTOH we don’t have anything that is Homekit enabled. (And Echo Dots are $19 each on Prime Day!)
I have two HomePods at the house but a HomePod mini might be nice for the office.
I was going to add 4 more Sonos to my home but the reality is I really just need something the size of the HomePod mini and quite honestly Sonos has been pretty flakey.
I think I’m going to do at least two HPm in my boys room and if I like’em I’ll do a stereo pair in the Master Suite and leave the Sonos for the Living Room and Kitchen so far.
I have 8 in-ceilings that I’m swapping out so I don’t want to go too crazy on voice assistants for speakers.
I have a scene called ‘potty’ that turns on yard lights for our dog. In my regular voice, Siri is about 50/50 on running the scene or not understanding or doing something random.
With higher pitch and ‘valley’ inflection, I can say, ‘Hey Siri, like potty’ and it works every time.
Strange.
I skipped the HomePod. Sound didn’t impress me.
) I think I will get one because of Siri. HomeKit is nice, but sometimes the Iphone is in another room (“Hey Siri, turn on the lights…” OK, left the phone in the bedroom…) or in the jacket… I’d put one in the living room and could voice-command HomeKit, get weather, etc.I really want Ultra Wide Band support sprinkled throughout the house. I think this is what is going to make AirTags a popular product. We’ve used Tile for couple of years now and the UX just isn’t what I want. I want a unified family account to track all the devices that we want.
Putting a handful of HPm across the home isn’t cheap but it isn’t exorbitantly expensive either given the functionality of Intercom features (which I do use on my existing Google Homes) and the potential of UWB.
The Thread support is nice as well. I believe this is Apple’s first Thread product and Thread support means the HPm is likely to make a smooth transition to Connected Home over IP.
I think Apple will rev the larger HomePod with a less ambitious product (read less speakers, cheaper price)
AirPlaying stereo system audio from macOS to a stereo HomePod pair still doesn’t work, right? 
It’s interesting that you said the sound didn’t impress you. That seems to be the one thing most people think is good about the HomePod. The rest, well…
Last night I recorded two minutes of a conversation with the HomePod because I knew my kids would laugh.
‘Hey, Siri, when do the Missouri Tigers next play?’
‘Which team? Auburn Team, Clemson Tigers, LSU Tigers, Memphis Tigers, or Missouri Tigers?’
‘Missouri Tigers’
‘Which team? Auburn Team, Clemson Tigers, LSU Tigers, Memphis Tigers, or Missouri Tigers?’
‘Missour-uh Tigers’
‘Which team? Auburn Team, Clemson Tigers, LSU Tigers, Memphis Tigers, or Missouri Tigers?’
‘LSU Tigers’
‘Which team? Auburn Team, Clemson Tigers, LSU Tigers, Memphis Tigers, or Missouri Tigers?’
‘Detroit Tigers’
‘Which team? Auburn Team, Clemson Tigers, Grambling State Tigers, Jackson State Tigers, LSU Tigers, Memphis Tigers, Missouri Tigers, Pacific Tigers, Princeton Tigers, Tennessee State Tigers, Texas Southern Tigers or Towson State Tigers?’
‘Kansas City Chiefs’
‘The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team located in Kansas City, Missouri. Shall I keep going?’
The same question to my phone gets the same answer but provides a list on the screen (complete with university logos). Which then is followed by ‘I found this on the web’.
Apparently Siri wasn’t aware that she wasn’t presenting a list. So should the next one be a HomePod Show?
I think I’ll get a mini for the kitchen and to compare the sound.
Yeah, i am with you on the “sound quality”. The sound is nice in a Bose kinda way, i.e. not true represnation of what was recorded but an attempt to make a prettier sound. As a single speaker, for just general sound, it is great. But as an audiophile, no i cannot like it. Set up in a stereo configuration is worse as the sound stage/image is not clear at all.
(We also have some google devices and the sound quality of those are terrible, no comparisson to Apple)
Still i like these pods for not too serious music and siri connectivity - as long as the latter works well enough.
$99 is great for me - I’ve been in the market for a little speaker and it’s bound to sound great.
Not a Siri “power user” or HomeKit user - I’ll probably use it for the weather and reading messages out loud to me. Probably the two things Siri actually does correctly all of the time 
Hmm. (Conversation captured using dictation on my Mac)
“Alexa when’s the Missouri Tigers next game”
“The football game between Vanderbilt and Missouri kicks off on Saturday, October 17 at 4:30 PM the game will be played at Memorial Stadium at four field in Columbia on SEC network.”
(Another reason I’m sticking with the Echos. Note that it doesn’t like “play next” apparently thinking that I’m referring to some song I want it to play!)
Which is wrong, by the way. COVID at Vandy postponed the game to December. I don’t think I’d take points off for that, though.
I have a stereo pair of HomePods in my living room and one in my bedroom. mixed with multiple sonos speakers. I will be getting 1 HomePod mini for my kitchen.