Remember Apple’s HomePod, its smart-assistant speaker hybrid? If you were ever curious as to what happened to the product line, the Cupertino-based company announced a successor to its smart home product line, in the form of the HomePod 2nd generation.
The new product release follows the announcement of several other Apple products, which includes the new Macbook Pro 14 and 16-inch versions, new Mac Mini, which were revealed alongside the company’s newest processors, the M2 Pro and M2 Max.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing states:
“Leveraging our audio expertise and innovations, the new HomePod delivers rich, deep bass, natural mid-range, and clear, detailed highs. With the popularity of HomePod mini, we’ve seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We’re thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world.”
Apple says that it has equipped the new HomePod with “advanced computational audio” for a better listening experience, alongside support for immersive Spatial Audio tracks. Users can of course use it with Siri, and even integrate it with other smart home products to enable automations, such as smoke or carbon monoxide alarms, and even check temperature and humidity in a room. It’s also compatible with other software features like Apple’s “Find My” for iPhones for example, and bringing an iPhone close to the HomePod itself will bring up a menu on your device, which adds more functionality in order to provide a more cohesive ecosystem experience.
In terms of design, the HomePod comes with recycled mesh fabric and a backlit touch surface, and is available in white and midnight colors. It’s pretty similar to the earlier HomePod designs, and one would probably hard-pressed to tell the difference otherwise.
A lot of differences from its predecessors take place internally, however. Inside, the device also features a high-excursion woofer, as well as a powerful motor that powers the diaphragm with a 20mm, built-in bass-EQ mic, and five tweeters around the base. Inside is Apple’s S7 chip which is designed to blend smart assistance and great-sounding audio.
In addition to full and easy compatibility with Apple products such as Apple TV and iPhones, as well as software such as Apple Music, the new HomePod also comes with support for Matter-enabled products. Matter has been making efforts in developing smart home technology to be more efficient and intelligent, as well as more secure, and Apple itself is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which complies the Matter standard, along with other industry leaders.
With that said, Apple’s HomePod competes mainly with similarly-designed products like Google’s Nest series of hardware, Amazon’s Echo and Alexa Products, as well as other dedicated smart home technology from other brands.
The 2nd Gen HomePod (2nd generation) is available to order for £299 (GBP) from the Apple store, and in the Apple Store app in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK, the US, and 11 other countries and regions starting today, with availability beginning Friday, February 3.
