Don’t make the mistake of comparing HomePod to rival smart speakers and lamenting its $349 price tag. There are good reasons why the device costs more than three times as much as an Amazon Echo — and yet is still an absolute steal.
Siri is now “actively” used on more than half a billion devices, Apple has revealed. The virtual assistant, which will be used to control HomePod, has been attracting users at a rapid rate despite falling behind its competitors in features and accuracy.
Tim Cook talked up the audio quality of Apple’s HomePod smart speaker during a recent interview, while taking a shot at the competition.
“We think one thing that was missing from this market was a quality audio experience, a very immersive audio experience,” Cook said. “Music deserves that kind of quality as opposed to some kind of squeaky sound.”
HomePod, the first new Apple product of 2018, is about to arrive. And as a huge Apple fanboy, I couldn’t care less.
Apple’s been hyping its smart speaker ever since unveiling the device last June at the Worldwide Developers Conference. And yet HomePod has failed to really excite fans (except through leaks that gave us early details about the iPhone X). Apple bills HomePod as a powerful speaker that packs Siri to take your listening experience to an all-new level. But with its Feb. 9 release just weeks away, HomePod is looking more like Apple’s next big bomb.
After confirming HomePod will finally make its debut on February 9 — with preorders starting this Friday — Apple has revealed new details about its hotly anticipated smart speaker.
Here’s what you need to know about HomePod gesture controls and more.
Apple today confirmed it will release its $349 HomePod on February 9.
Fans will be able to pre-order the smart speaker from the Apple online store this Friday, January 26 — but only in three regions.
Apple’s HomePod speaker has once again leaked new information about its self ahead of its launch, including how you’ll manage its settings once you finally get one.
Screenshots from HomePod testers in France have leaked out online showing the different settings options you’ll be able to choose from in the HomePod iOS app.
New icons uncovered in the latest iOS 11.2.5 developer build confirm that, yes, HomePod owners will be able to disable the microphone on Apple’s smart speaker should so they wish to do so.
Given Apple’s privacy-conscious policies, and the fact that rival speakers made by Amazon and Google allow the same to be done, it’s no surprise that Apple would make that an option on HomePod. Still, it could help ease fears among customers concerned about the risk of housing an “always listening” speaker in their homes.
Apple suppliers have begun shipping the first HomePod units ahead of the smart speaker’s much-anticipated launch. Just 1 million devices are on the way initially. However, Apple is expected to receive as many as 12 million by the end of this year.
Apple’s eagerly anticipated HomePod smart speaker will launch in the next four to six weeks, claim tech analysts at the research firm GBH Insights.
The artificial intelligence-infused smart speaker, powered by Siri, was originally supposed to launch in December 2017. However, with just weeks to go, Apple wound up delaying the launch until an unspecified time in early 2018, saying that “we need a little more time before it’s ready for our customers.”
We’re only five days into the new year and I’m personally already itching to see what Apple has planned for this year.
While 2017 was a disappointment of a year in general, Apple released some brilliant products. But what better way to get excited about the year than rounding up all of the rumors for what to expect this year.
Amazon and Google’s aggressive pricing of smart speakers could hurt Apple’s HomePod, claim analysts.
A new report notes that both Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Google Home family of devices were so heavily discounted over the holidays that they likely lost their companies a few dollars per unit. This is in sharp contrast with the kind of pricing that Apple plans for its $349 device, when it goes on sale in early 2018.
2017 was a pretty damn good year for the world’s most profitable tech company.
Apple did much more than rake in more cash than any company this year. Cupertino also pushed out its most impressive product lineup ever, laid the groundwork for the future of augmented reality, moved into a new spaceship campus, battled other tech giants and got tossed into the political spotlight.
Apple dominated the tech scene in 2017 more than any other company. Here’s a recap of some of the year’s most memorable Apple moments.
2017 was a killer year for new Apple products — and it’s not all because of the iPhone X.
Apple’s design team spun out updates in nearly every single category while also popping out a few all-new products. The Mac Pro and Mac mini were pretty much the only machines that got no love from Apple this year. But with all the new stuff, it’s hard for Apple fans to complain.
Here’s a recap of every new Apple product of 2017.
Apple fans and enthusiastic gadget reviewers will ultimately remember 2017 as the year of a reinvented iPhone. But as the year draws to an end, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller has a few other things on his mind, such as delays in releasing the company’s first smart speaker and a “bad week” of software bugs and security holes.
Apple marketing guru Phil Schiller has heard the haters saying the iPhone X wasn’t the first smartphone to get facial recognition. But according to Schiller, that doesn’t matter at all.
“They all stink,” says Schiller in a new interview discussing Apple’s new facial recognition feature. The wide-ranging interview touches on everything from AirPods to virtual reality, but what sets Face ID apart is what got Schiller the most excited.
Apple’s new Siri-powered smart speaker won’t be one of the hottest gifts of the 2017 holiday season after all.
The HomePod was set to launch in December 2017, but the company released a statement today saying it needs more time to make the smart speaker ready for customers.
Apple started working on its HomePod smart speaker back in 2012, one year after Siri debuted on the iPhone 4s, a new report claims.
Since then, the project was cancelled and restarted several times to reach its current point.
Foxconn is joining the HomePod supply chain to help assemble Apple’s delayed smart speakers, a new report claims.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. — to use Foxconn’s full name — is currently the sole manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone X. However, despite the massive demand for that device, various manufacturing issues with the iPhone X recently caused Foxconn to report its biggest decline in profits in nearly a decade.
That evidently isn’t putting it off working with Apple, however.
Last week’s crushing news that Apple’s HomePod won’t be available for Christmas was a blow to some.
But I shrugged it off.
That’s because I made my own HomePod smart speaker. It cost me about $60 and sounds absolutely great.
Apple surprised investors with its best Q4 earnings report ever today. The outrageous numbers dispelled doubts about the iPhone-maker’s strategy — and pushed Apple closer to becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar company.
With the launch of the iPhone X just hours away, Apple CEO Tim Cook had a lot to be happy about during the earnings call with investors. Analysts quizzed Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri on everything from iPhone 8 sales to how Apple plans to monetize its augmented reality efforts.
Here’s what we found out:
Apple’s latest firmware for the unreleased HomePod revealed a new set of sounds that the smart speaker will use to indicate various user interactions.
The new tones for the Siri-powered speaker sound different from the ones leaked in a previous firmware build. They also serve different purposes. While the sounds are simple, they are quite lovely — and worthy of a $350 speaker.
Take a listen:
Apple is giving developers advance notice to get their apps ready for the HomePod experience.
Along with releasing new firmware for the unreleased HomePod smart speaker, Apple also notified developers that iOS 11.2 adds SiriKit for HomePod as a way to integrate voice-only experiences into the app.
Apple hasn’t even started to sell its new HomePod smart speaker yet, but it just came out with a new firmware update for people already testing the device.
SAN FRANCISCO — Ultimate Ears’ punchy portable speakers just got smart. The new Blast and Megablast speakers bring built-in support for Alexa, Amazon’s voice-operated smart assistant.
Bringing the always-listening, voice-operated helper to a battery-powered speaker proved “nontrivial,” said Benjamin Falk, principal software product manager at UE, during a demo of the new speakers.