Please wait...
Oh look! Siri in a box!
So it looks like Apple has designed a "meee tooo" product instead of inventing a new category, brought it to market late in the game, and even failed to bring it to market in time for Christmas 2017.
The Steve would never have executed this badly, or this blandly. Amazon got this one right, and got it right first. I still won't buy one, but they executed and succeeded here where Apple is demonstrating that they'll only make money on this piece of marshmallow-like crap because the $350 price tag multiplied by the number of Apple cult members will push it over the profitability line.
Where's the wow factor? Where's the "one more thing"? Where's the game-changer that makes everyone else scramble to catch up?
[ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/18/apple_homepod_christmas/ if you're interested in reading more, but the above basically covers it. ]
Here's a photo of Crapple's new headquarters:
Apparently they've designed the interior like an Apple product, and a lot of people are getting injured (bruises, lacerations, etc) from walking into unadorned glass walls and doors.
I also have to call into question why Apple, as a supposedly socially-conscious company, would produce the significant environmental impact of such a large building instead of moving into existing vacant office space.