It has been doing the rumour mill rounds for some time now but Apple has finally taken the wraps off its second-generation smart speaker today, introducing the HomePod mini alongside the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro series of smartphones.
The regular HomePod hasn’t seen an update since it first appeared three years ago in June 2017, so it’s good to see it finally get some company in the form of this smaller, neater, cuter product. The best news, however, is that the new HomePod Mini speaker will be priced at a level that will see it compete with smart speakers from rivals such as the Amazon Echo and Google Nest Audio where previously the HomePod started out in price as a decidedly premium product.
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Apple HomePod Mini: Specifications, release date and price
- Spherical shape
- Touch-sensitive display and touch panel
- Mesh fabric covering
- Computational audio
- UWB chip (ultra wideband)
- Price: £99
- Release date: Pre-orders from November 6th, shipping from November 16th
Apple HomePod Mini: Design and key new features
The most obvious design change for the HomePod Mini is its new diminutive stature and spherical shape. It’s around half the height of the bigger HomePod and much rounder than the taller, more cylindrical HomePod.
HomePod fans will be glad to discover, however, that Apple hasn’t changed the look and feel too much. The new HomePod is covered in a familiar-looking mesh fabric in grey or white, just like the HomePod, and it has a similar touch-sensitive, multi-coloured ‘display’ on the top, as well, which lights up to indicate Siri is listening to you. You can use this to adjust the volume, and pause/play audio at the touch of a finger.
Under that mesh fabric, is a full-range dynamic driver, mounted in a 360-degree acoustic waveguide and a pair of “high-excursion, force-cancelling passive radiators”. No mention, however, was made of the HomePod mini inheriting the automatic room EQ feature from the original HomePod, which is a disappointment as that was one of HomePod’s best features. Using a new Apple technology called “computational audio”, however, the HomePod Mini can analyze the music playing through it and adjust the tuning in real-time at a rate of 180 times a second.
And there is another feature the original HomePod doesn’t have, however: Apple’s ultra-wideband technology. This is a technology that helps the speaker know where other Apple devices with a UWB chip on board are in space. What Apple didn’t demonstrate, however, was exactly how this would improve the overall smart speaker experience.
As you might expect, however, the new HomePod Mini can do pretty much everything else the old HomePod can do. It can answer voice queries triggered by the ‘Siri’ wake word, from general trivia questions like “Hey Siri, what’s the weather going to be like today?” and “Hey Siri, what’s in the news?” You can ask Siri to play music from Apple Music and Podcasts. And, just like the HomePod, you can pick up a pair of HomePod Minis and set them up as stereo pairs, or get more and set them up so they all play your music in sync across the house.
In what is possibly the biggest news, however, the price starts out at a very reasonable £99. That puts it in the same league as rival smart speakers like the new Amazon Echo and the Google Nest Audio.
The new Apple HomePod Mini will be available to buy from November 16th.
The post Apple HomePod Mini: Apple launches smaller, rounder smart speaker and it's only £99 appeared first on abangtech.
source https://abangtech.com/apple-homepod-mini-apple-launches-smaller-rounder-smart-speaker-and-its-only-99/
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