Apple‘s Worldwide Developers Conference had its famed keynote presentation this morning – the time when the company announces all their fresh new shit – and there was a whole heap of cool stuff announced. The one that everyone’s probably gonna be talking about was Apple’s entry into the world of home audio: the HomePod.
Get it? It’s like an iPod, but for your home. Truly staggering how Apple’s branding geniuses could come up with a name so simple and striking.
Bluetooth speakers are nothing new, and the current generation tend to provide pretty solid sound quality for their size. But the new hotness when it comes to mobile speakers is that they act as big microphones for whatever voice assistant you happen to use – think the Amazon Echo.
Apple’s entry was rumoured over the past few weeks as a Siri speaker. And that’s what it is – you can use it to activate Siri features like asking for the weather and news, set alarms and control whatever smart home features you’ve got hooked up to your network.
But Apple’s really pushing the music aspect too. “Just like iPod reinvented music in our pockets, HomePod is going to reinvent music in our homes,” VP of Marketing Phil Schiller said.
The HomePod is about 17cm tall and has seven tweeters and a large woofer. It’s powered by the A8 chip, the same chip that’s in the iPhone.
The response from journos present was pretty good, but people also called out the steep price of the device. It’s an Apple product, after all.
The speaker lands in December, if you’re keen.
Source: Apple.
Photo: Getty Images.
