Following months of anticipation Apple has released HomePod, a product promised to have “the power to rock the house” thanks to its use of seven beamforming tweeters, and a large bass woofer. The device will tasks as a “Siri Speaker”, being able to perform asks for a user via voice command.
HomePod was first announced in June at Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), and was given the release date of December 2017 which was later pushed back to “Early 2018”, a move believed to of been made due to a delayed approval from the US Federal Communications Commission.
The speaker is available now from Apple.com for customers in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, with the company confirming the device will additionally launch in to France and Germany ‘in the spring’.
What is HomePod?
HomePod is a new wireless speaker with built-in Siri controls by Apple. Customers will be able to speak to the device and use voice commands to perform actions such as “Send a text to Deanna”, “Set a timer for 10 minutes”, “Play songs by Flume”, and more. – The speaker features an Apple-designed 4-inch woofer and unique array of seven beamforming tweeters to provide deep base and pure high frequency acoustics.
What will it do?
The device has two main purposes… One, a home speaker that Apple hopes will “reinvent home music” and 2, an intelligent home assistant to help perform tasks such as playing music, reading the news, sending and receiving iMessages, setting reminders, providing answers to general questions, checking the weather and more.
How much will it cost?
HomePod is priced at $349 in the United States, £319 in the United Kingdom and A$499 in Australia. – An additional $39 AppleCare+ warranty service can be purchased additionally for an extra year of AppleCare coverage.