A new leak indicates Sonos will release its new Sonos Era 100 and 300 smart speakers in March with a slew of features that challenge Apple’s recently relaunched HomePod.
Of the two new Sonos speakers, the pricier Era 300 features a version of spatial audio. Both support Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB-C line-in for versatile connectivity. The Era 100 is likely to replace the much-liked Sonos One, launched in 2017.
The first reviews of the updated HomePod say the new smart speaker sounds excellent but doesn’t break much new ground.
Compared to Apple’s original smart speaker, the second-generation HomePod is more of an asset in a smart home than before. However, the device’s limitations on playing music from third-party sources mean that the home in question better be an Apple household.
Apple unveiled HomePod 2 on Wednesday, bringing its full-size smart speaker back from the dead. The new model offers high-quality audio and new smart-home features, but comes in at the same price as its predecessor.
“With the popularity of HomePod mini, we’ve seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We’re thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing, in a press release.
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The company sent me one of the handsome, wood-paneled speakers to test out. Though it’s not the smartest smart speaker on the block, it looks and sounds great for the price. I’ll get into more detail below.
A replacement for the original, full-size HomePod is reportedly in development. The smart speaker is expected to provide better audio performance than the current HomePod mini.
And it might debut as early as fall 2022.
Apple’s share of the global smart speaker market grew considerably as HomePod shipments increased by almost 30% year over year.
HomePod, which once had only a tiny sliver of this market, has gained considerably on Amazon and Google.
Apple plans to produce an updated version of the HomePod as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022 or the first quarter of 2023, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Friday.
As reliable as Kuo can be, little other information exists beyond speculation. But that’s part of the fun.
A lot of folks are jonesing for an Apple smart speaker that goes beyond the HomePod mini. The original HomePod, while much more expensive, earned a great reputation for sound quality before Apple killed it in 2021. So naturally, Apple fans are interested in a successor, possibly with new features.
Apple today confirmed that its new color options for HomePod mini are now available to order in a small number of markets, including the U.S., Canada and Mexico. They will roll out in more territories, including the U.K., later this month.
HomePod mini is still priced at $99 in yellow, orange, and blue. The new color options are functionally identical to the earlier white and space gray models, with no internal alterations to the device.
HomePod mini’s new color options, which were introduced during Apple’s big MacBook Pro event on October 18, will go on sale in the U.S. next week, according to a new report. Fans in Europe will have to wait a little longer.
The new color options include orange, yellow and blue. Aside from the fresh lick of paint, however, the new smart speakers are identical to the original.
HomePod shipments in the United States increased 180% year-on-year in the last quarter, eclipsing the growth of smart speaker makers Amazon and Google during the period, market intelligence firm Omdia reports.
While Apple still lags behind the other two companies on shipments, it is looking more competitive than it has at any point in the history of the HomePod so far. That’s particularly impressive when considering that this was a rough three-month period for smart speakers in the US, whose growth is stalling.
The Sonos Roam is a new high-end smart speaker with support for Apple AirPlay 2, so it plays nicely with iPhone or other Apple computers.
The tubular accessory weights in just under a pound, but Sonos says, “precision-engineered acoustics deliver the clarity, depth, and fullness you would expect from a much larger speaker.”
“Hey Siri” can be inadvertently activated by other wake words including “A city,” “Hey Jerry,” and more, reveal researchers from Germany’s Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Bochum Max Planck Institute.
Siri’s far from the only voice assistant with a weakness when it comes to false triggers, however. The study compiled a list of over 1,000 words that can accidentally activate different A.I. assistants.
Sonic loaded its newest soundbar with high-end features, including Dolby Atmos. But the Sonos Arc is intended for more than home theater. It includes Apple AirPlay 2 so it can handle music, podcasts and radio when the TV is off.
Apple sold just 2.6 million HomePods into the retail channel worldwide in the last three months of 2020, a new report claims. While that is up from the 1.6 million units it shipped the same quarter a year earlier, it’s still a fraction of the total shipped by market leader Amazon.
“The price is still very high,” David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics, told Cult of Mac. “That closes the door to a huge swathe of potential customers.”
One of the most useful travel features from Google Assistant is ready for the iPhone.
After bringing its real-time translation feature to Assistant-enabled smart displays and speakers earlier this year, Google is finally adding to the feature to the Google Assistant app on Android and iOS today.
If you’re on the hunt for a good portable speaker, look no further than this pair from Vizio. Each is a solid, sleek wireless speaker with great features and eye-catching design. Even better, they’re both discounted by more than half, so you can get them for a song.
Apple didn’t mention HomePod during yesterday’s iPhone 11 event — but it certainly didn’t forget about it, either.
Following the keynote, Apple quietly updated HomePod’s webpage. In doing so, it added exciting details about improvements being lined up for Apple’s smart speaker this fall.
18 months after it first went on sale in the U.S., Apple’s HomePod speaker is finally launching in Japan.
Having teased that it would launch sometime this summer, Apple has now revealed that HomePod will be available to buy August 23. The Siri-powered device opened for pre-orders this week.
A drop in the price of the HomePod hasn’t helped Apple grow its share of the smart speaker market. It still has just a tiny percentage of all the units in use in the US, according to new figures from a market-research firm.
Amazon’s Echo is annihilating Apple’s HomePod when it comes to smart speaker sales. But Jeff Bezos’ retail giant clearly knows a great idea when it sees one.
According to a new report, Amazon is developing a new Echo device that will measure up more favorably to Apple’s audiophile HomePod.
There’s a new challenger to the smart speaker throne — and, no, it’s not Apple’s HomePod.
According to the latest data from IDC, in Europe Google has overtaken Amazon as the market leader in smart speakers. Google Home devices accounted for 45.1% of shipped smart speakers in the region in Q1. That beats Amazon’s 41.8%. Apple’s HomePod doesn’t even even get a mention.
The number of smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s HomePod in use around the world is expected to keep growing strongly for years to come. It could pass 200 million in 2019, and pass 500 million in 2023.
Analysts from Canalys indicate the installed base of these devices is now surpassing the number of smartwatches in use. And smart speakers could even outnumber tablets before the end of 2021, they say.
Apple permanently slashed the price of HomePod in the United States and a number of other countries. The company’s first smart speaker now lists for $299 — a full $50 less than its original price.
The smart speaker market continues to explode — and Apple’s expected to carve out an ever-growing piece of it.
According to a new report published by IDC, the global smart speaker market will grow 26.9 percent in 2019. In total, the research firm thinks that 832.7 million total smart speakers will ship this year.
Sonso revealed today that it is coming out with an updated version of its popular Sonos One smart speaker over the next few weeks.
While the new speaker doesn’t feature any design or acoustic changes, it does pack some updated internals that should make it more future-proof.
