Apple HomePod Speaker Upgrades Sound, Siri Smarts for $299

Apple unveiled its second generation HomePod speaker on Wednesday.
Apple

Apple announced its second generation HomePod on Wednesday, almost two years after it discontinued the first HomePod. The new version is a full-size smart speaker with improved acoustics and smart-home capabilities, including temperature and humidity sensors as well as the ability to notify users if it hears a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm. Both the new HomePod and the existing HomePod Mini rely on Siri, the company’s voice assistant, to listen for and execute “Hey, Siri” commands.

Called HomePod, the new speaker is now up for preorder at the Apple Store for $299 and will be available Friday, Feb. 3. It comes in black or white.

Apple Store: Check out the new HomePod

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Although the design looks similar to the original full-size HomePod speaker that was discontinued in 2021, the new HomePod is said to offer a range of key upgrades. Inside is a custom woofer and five tweeters that use beamforming to direct audio and improve immersion, according to Apple. You can link two HomePod speakers to create a stereo pair, although doing so requires two HomePods of the same model (you can’t combine an original HomePod and a new one to create a pair, for example). Multiple HomePods can be linked throughout the home for multiroom audio with AirPlay 2. 

The speaker also supports spatial audio, Apple’s term for 360-degree effects that include Dolby Atmos music available on Apple Music. Atmos is a surround-sound standard used both in movie theaters and the home, and more recently has been used to remix albums.

Inside the Apple HomePod, showing the high-excursion woofer internal bass-EQ mic, and beamforming five-tweeter array.

Apple

The speaker has a couple of new smart-home extras up its sleeve, too. A feature called Smart Recognition, coming via software update this spring, “can listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and send a notification directly to the user’s iPhone if a sound is identified,” according to Apple. The speaker also has sensors for temperature and humidity, and users can set up triggers to close the blinds or turn on a fan automatically when the room reaches a certain temperature. 

In addition to supporting Apple’s HomeKit, the HomePod also supports the new Matter standard, an open-source protocol that works with numerous smart-home devices.

Bringing an iPhone near the HomePod allows you to hand off songs, voice calls and more to the speaker.

Apple

Users can bring an iPhone close to the speaker to hand off whatever is playing, from a song to a podcast to a voice call, to the speaker (that feature requires iOS 16.3). The phone will also surface personalized song and podcast suggestions when held near the speaker. The HomePod supports Apple’s Find My feature so you can ask Siri to play a sound on a misplaced device, or ask for the location of friends or family who share via the Find My app.

Owners of the Apple TV 4K streaming device can make the HomePod their TV speaker for all devices connected to the TV, thanks to eARC linking via HDMI. Siri voice commands heard by HomePod can also control the Apple TV hands-free.

Apple has been rumored to be working on a speaker dubbed the “HomePod 2” since at least June 2022. The company has only released three other speakers in the last 20 years — the iPod Hi-Fi, the original $350 Apple HomePod and the $99 HomePod mini, which remains on sale for $99. 

The $299 HomePod will compete with higher-end smart speakers like the Amazon Echo Studio and Sonos One, both of which cost $200. Meanwhile, the current HomePod mini is price competitive with Google’s larger Nest Audio, though it is undercut by the $49 Google Nest Mini and most Amazon Echo models.

Apple’s digital assistant Siri may be dominant in the mobile space but the company has struggled to translate this success to smart speakers. In terms of smart speakers, Amazon’s Echo series and Google Nest speakers jostle each other for first and second place. 

We look forward to reviewing the new Apple HomePod soon.