Apple's HomePod Speakers Leave White Marks on Wood

Apple's new smart speakers can discolour wooden surfaces, leaving a white mark where they are placed, the firm has acknowledged. From a report: The US company has suggested that owners may have to re-oil furniture if the HomePod is moved. The device went on sale last week after having been delayed from its original 2017 release date. Apple told Pocket-lint that it was "not unusual" for speakers with silicone bases to leave a "mild mark." But the gadget review site told the BBC it had never seen anything like this problem. The website's founder, Stuart Miles, told the BBC that a speaker left a mark on his kitchen worktop within 20 minutes.

Feature, not a bug

[Anonymous Coward]

This is simply the mark of awesomeness and will totally get you laid if chicks see it.

Re: Feature, not a bug

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of them Chinese speakers have been doing that for years, but of course Tim Cock is innovating a unique mark, and the rest are all copycats.

Re:Feature, not a bug

[hey!]

Come back to my place and we'll put on some White Stripes.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a feature. Once the speaker is optimized for the room, you will always want to return it to the same position. Apple smart! Users dumb!

Re:

[tonique]

They could have made it leave a mark in the shape of the Apple logo. Apple fanbois wouldn't complain!

Re:

[EETech1]

They must be setting it down wrong!

You need the HomePod iCoaster!

[Blinkin1200]

Only $29.95 at your local Apple store.

It makes your table more more valuable

[goombah99]

They should make the bottom have the contour of the apple logo. then you could sell it for a profit.

Re: Oiled wood. end of story

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you read the summary, the report mentions that other speakers don't do that. Or is it too painful for you to learn about shabby engineering from Apple?

Re:Oiled wood. end of story

[Anonymous Coward]

Woodworker here, goombah99 is talking out of his ass. Go ahead and put a heavy piece of plastic on your oiled wood cutting board and see how it won't leave a circle. I find it amusing that some asshole on slashdot can now just lie right through their teeth and be upvoted for it.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

That has been the pattern here since forever with apple cultists here.

Re:

[Gilgaron]

What oil are we talking here? Mineral oil maybe, but BLO shouldn't get marked up by a silicone whatever sitting on it...

Re:

[Oligonicella]

everything leaves a mark on oiled wood

Bullshit. You do not know what you're talking about. That, or you do and you're lying.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Guess what, everything leaves a mark on oiled wood. Guess what, the nice thing about oiled wood is you can re-oil it and marks go away.

I assume that you don't own anything with oiled wood if you think that everything marks it. Personally I've never re-oiled any of the nice shiny furniture I have in my house and nothing I place on it seems to leech out the colour either.

I guess you're too busy staring at pictures to read the bits about no other devices causing the problems, reviewers never having seen similar things, and this specific problem being a material incompatibility with silicone and oil.

Speaking of. Can we stop making consumer dev

Re:

[Swave An deBwoner]

He's probably just not oiling it right.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

That's what she said.

Re:

[arth1]

I assume that you don't own anything with oiled wood if you think that everything marks it. Personally I've never re-oiled any of the nice shiny furniture I have in my house and nothing I place on it seems to leech out the colour either.

If it's shiny furniture, it's not oiled.
It could be shellac, but that gets marks even easier, so my bet is that it isn't. Chances are that you have urethane finishes, which do not get stains and stays shiny. But also doesn't get the deep glow.

Re:

[Gilgaron]

That and you don't have to sand shellac to get marks out, just a quick wipe with ethanol.

Re:

[thegarbz]

If it's shiny furniture, it's not oiled.

There's shiny and there's *SHINY*. Oiled wood definitely shines more than many others.

Re:

[LynnwoodRooster]

The polyurethane ring on the bottom of most other speakers don't have that issue. Most grades of silicone will consistently leach a small amount of oil, as compared to urethanes or other polymers. Sounds like a poor choice of materials...

Re:

[PmanAce]

"But the HomePod appears to need contact with the surface that it's on to resonate and create the powerful bass."

Use a coaster you say? I think I'll replace my picture under the "fanboi" definition in the dictionary with yours.

Re:

[blind biker]

Parent is choke full of lies and misdirection. Apple sockpuppet?

DESIGNED to damage.

[sehlat]

Lawsuits starting in 3... 2...

20 minutes?

[Lisandro]

Do they have an hydrochloric acid reserve or something?

Re:

[flightmaker]

No, it'll be concentrated Malic acid.

Not possible

[Anonymous Coward]

They must be holding the speaker wrong, Apple can not be doing anything wrong.

Setting it down wrong

[Scarred Intellect]

The users are obviously setting it down wrong.

Re:

[sinij]

According TFA, they are not oiling their wood properly.

Re:Setting it down wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm oiling my wood right now.

Re:

[Khyber]

The funny mod was probably maxed out for that post.

Here come the excuses

[ArhcAngel]

Tim Cook has released the following statement... The Homepod should be levitated as it was designed to do. Sitting it on any surface will void the warranty and produce unsatisfactory sound.

sticky problem

[kencurry]

The speaker has to sit directly on the surface to get good base response. Using a coaster affects listening. So ironically, a glass iBass(@TM- I'm calling dibbs) for $49.99 might be the best solution.

Re:

[SeaFox]

The speaker has to sit directly on the surface to get good base response.

It think the chemical response from the wood to the base is exactly the problem here.

Re:sticky problem

[AmiMoJo]

I'm starting to think that apple's secrecy is causing them not to test stuff properly.

iSkidMark?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cook can help.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL they think using oil is green compared to poly, but guess what, you have to oil about twice a year. Poly will last 20 years at least.

As for these homepod things, I bet it's a chemical reaction with the rubber on the oil. I've seen it happen in urethane floors with the rubber carpet padding under old carpet. The rubber leaves visible spots in the wood that do not sand away without taking off nearly an 1/8 inch of wood. In some cases the spots will look darker than the rest of the wood but other times it'

All the Single Speakers...

[93 Escort Wagon]

If you like it, you should'a put a ring on it
If you like it, you should'a put a ring on it

(I'm not sure if Slashdotters would typically know a Beyonce song - but this one was featured in an XKCD comic a few years ago)

It's user error

[kelemvor4]

Jizz, improperly cleaned, after apple users masturbate over their new shiny apple product.

An unfinished product

[Kokobaby39]

Maybe this is the sha of doom. Without the new spray anyway. Perhaps the prob is the dent in the brain that Amazon Echo and the Google product leave by simply moving the damn thing around. Hopefully they won't have to ban/outlaw/rage/can the entire product.

Like Jobs, Tim Cook Has Finally Made A Mark

[dryriver]

On your furniture. It could have been worse. Now oil it, or take your furniture to the nearest and let an Apple genius do it for you for only 149 Dollars.

Steve Has Appeared On My Furniture!

[dryriver]

If the mark left were shaped like Steve Jobs's visage, Apple users would be jumping for joy around the world. "My God! Steve has appeared in my living room!" The furniture would then be worth 10 times what it was worth before - because Apple users would buy it when sold. What Apple should go for in V 2.0 of the Homepod is leaving more than just a "mark". The Homepod should blast the wood it sits on in pieces, then send you to Apple's iFurniture website for a replacement, which is again blasted to pieces by your Homepod, and so on and so forth. The economics of this gets even more fantastic than you might think, because when the furniture gets blasted to pieces, the Homepod lands on the floor. So you need new furniture AND a new Homepod each time. Homepod V 3.0 may also blast your children to pieces. You can then go to the iChildren website and order robot children made by Apple. Those children will in turn play with the Homepod V 3.0, blasting the furniture, themselves and the Homepod to pieces. You can then go to iEverythingHasGoneToShit website and order replacements. Apple are geniuses.

You know what this means

[SuperKendall]

Next month Samsung selling speakers with chalk pre-applied to the bottoms.

Re:

[dryriver]

In Soviet Russia YOU are the chalk applied to the bottom of speakers. =)

Re:

[Bing Tsher E]

Apple has ventured into a market that Samsung isn't really interested in. Speakers? Really?

White marks on wood

[richrz]

Usually mean a good time was had.

Ibviousky racist

[mschuyler]

White privilege in action.

Re:

[nwaack]

There's probably some whiny SJW's out there that actually believe you.

Apple Logo

[sixsixtysix]

They're doing it wrong if the bottom doesn't have a reverse Apple Logo to leave its mark.

It will also .....

[MerlTurkin]

Cause your wallet to smoke once you purchase it!

You're holding it wrong

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Errr, I mean "you're placing on the table wrong."

One word

[alfredo]

Doilies