Apple fans rejoice, the HomePod has finally been released by Apple.

The HomePod was announced in June 2017 with release stated as December 2017. However it was not until January the following year that Homepod was released and 26^th of January available for pre-order. With it hitting retail stores in February, priced at £319.

HomePod comes in two colour options; Space grey or White. Apple claims not only there is high quality audio but that they have ‘revolutionized the way music sounds in a home’.

Powered by the A8 chip, the same one as used in the iPhone, the gadget incorporates Apples assistant Siri, in a very similar way to Amazon Echo range.

Spec wise the HomePod boasts six microphones along with seven tweeters, the sound quality is designed to be ‘environment adaptive’, ensuring it sounds perfect wherever it is placed. This is achieved by the tweeters adjusting the sound by monitoring its surrounding and keeping the microphone clear for voice commands even with loud music.

Support for multi-room audio and stereo pairing was also claimed in the start however these features were not available at the release time and will be added on later through a software update. Something Sonos and Amazon will be pleased about!

Streaming music to the HomePod has various options from Apple music to Beats1 live Radio or podcasts or Airplay – one big omission is Bluetooth.

Android users also take note, an iPhone or ipad is required to set up the HomePod.

The post Apple HomePod Released appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

Apple is not having much luck with timely product releases.  For the first time in Apple’s history they announced their new iPhone X allowing orders at a much later date, not the usual next day. Once released they have had issues fulfilling orders.
Yesterday the technology giant announced their new Apple HomePod has been delayed from the announced release date of December 2017 to ‘early 2018’.

The HomePod, announced in June 2017, was Apple’s first entry into voice controlled speakers and allows users to interact with Siri and control their smart home. In a similar way to Amazon Echo, Google Home and the recently released Sonos One. Apple’s speaker will connect to Apple Music as well as Apple HomeKit. It is not clear if ti will support third party services like Spotify or Tune In.

Apple commented to press:

We need a little more time before it’s ready for our customers. We’ll start shipping in the U.S. UK and Australia in early 2018

We suspect this has been done to allow for product upgrades and to release a product that will dominate rather than compete it the fast-moving smart home speaker space.

One thing is for sure Sonos and Amazon will be grateful there is one less product competing at Christmas in an already busy space.

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