Apple announces 2nd-Gen HomePod launching Feb 3

In a surprise move, Apple has announced its new 2nd-Gen HomePod. The speaker features Siri, computational audio, Spatial Audio and smart home automation with Siri.

The new HomePod is available to pre-order today ahead of a February 3rd launch. It costs $399 CAD.

Apple is using a seamless, acoustically transparent mesh fabric with a backlit touch surface that illuminates from edge to edge. It also comes in both white and midnight, a new colour for the HomePod that is made with 100 percent recycled mesh fabric with a colour-matched woven power cable.

The HomePod uses a rich deep bass and offers stunningly high frequencies as well. Apple is using a custom-engineered high-excursion woofer, built-in bass EQ mic, and beamforming array of five tweeters around the base that work together for a better acoustic experience. It also sports an S7 chip combined with software and system-sensing tech to offer advanced computational audio.

The smart home speaker also uses room sensing technology with sound reflections (which sounds like echolocation) from nearby surfaces to tell if it’s against a wall or freestanding and adapts the sound in real-time. It also has precise direction control of its beamforming teeters to help immerse the listener.

You can use the HomePod to create a home theatre experience with Apple TV 4K. You can make the HomePod the audio system for all devices connected to the TV and control what’s playing on the Apple TV hands-free.

With Find My on HomePod, you can also ask Siri for the location of friends or loved ones or get it to locate other Apple devices.

Another cool feature is Sound Recognition, which can listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send a notification directly to the user’s iPhone if the sound is identified. The built-in temperature and humidity sensor can measure indoor environments, so a user can create automation that closes the blinds or automatically turns on the fan when room temperature is reached.

Of course, with Siri, you can also search by artist, song, lyrics, decade, genre, mood or more. Siri also allows users to have the HomePod wake them up with a good morning or set automation like “Hey Siri, open the blinds daily at sunrise.”

Siri will make a confirmation tone when it’s requested to control an accessory that may not show a visible change.

The HomePod offers Matter support, which enables home products to work across ecosystems while also maintaining the highest level of security. Apple says it’s all about protecting customer privacy, which is why all smart home communications are end-to-end encrypted and can’t be accessed by Apple. Further, Siri requests aren’t stored.

HomePod is designed to minimize environmental impact, says Apple, and offers 100 percent recycled gold — a first for the HomePod — in the plating of its circuited boards. Additionally, it has 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in the speaker magnet. It also features redesigned packaging that eliminates plastic wrap, and 96 percent of the packaging is fibre base, which brings Apple closer to its goal of removing all plastic from its packaging by 2025.

Apple’s original HomePod launched in 2018, but was discontinued after three years. Since 2020, it’s been pushing the HomePod mini, so it was time we saw a new smart speaker.

Image credit: Apple