Apple has always been at the forefront of revolutionizing how we consume music, starting with iTunes, the first iPod, to the very capable iPhone that many of us use to listen to our music. Despite pioneering and shaping how we consume music today, Apple is playing a bit of catch up. Major players like Amazon and Google have solidified their presence in the smart speaker market, leaving Apple behind.
That’s about to change later this year, as Apple has announced their new HomePod at the 2017 WWDC. Designed to fill your home with music just like the original iPod did with your personal music experience, HomePod is a smart speaker that promises to “revolutionize your music experience at home.”
Standing at less than 7-inches tall covered in 3D mesh with remarkable acoustic properties, the HomePod is controlled by Apple’s A8 chip and features 7 beam-forming tweeter array at the bottom and a 4-inch upward facing woofer for amazing sound. It even has spatial awareness, automatically detecting the space around it to adjust the audio for a voluminous sound.
Controlled by Siri, HomePod works with an Apple Music subscription to act as your in-home musicologist, allowing you to control and discover music directly from the cloud. Like most other smart speakers, it will also act as your home assistant and control your compatible Home Kit devices.
Priced at $349 and available in white and space gray, the new Apple HomePod will be drop later this December just in time for the holidays.