Apple HomePod Features Revealed Ahead of Feb. 9 Launch
Apple has finally announced a firm release date for the HomePod, their first take on the home digital assistant and speaker. After several delays, the HomePod is now set to roll out on Feb. 9, and it will also be made available for advance orders starting this Friday, Jan. 26.
The company may have been late to the smart speaker fad, which has gone big since last year with the introduction of the Amazon Echo as well as Google's own line of home speakers. The anticipation for their own Apple HomePod, despite the multiple delays pushing it back to early 2018, looks to be alive and well after their new announcement last Tuesday, Jan. 23.
"HomePod, the innovative wireless speaker from Apple, arrives in stores beginning Friday, February 9 and is available to order online this Friday, January 26 in the US, UK and Australia," the announcement on Apple's news site read, as the company added that its home speakers will be arriving in France and Germany in spring, as well, at a still-unspecified date.
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The Apple HomePod's voice-activated smart assistant will be powered by Siri, the same one used in Apple's other iOS devices. This version of Siri has been updated for the home speaker as well, with the assistant having "developed a deep knowledge of music and understands your preferences and tastes," as Apple described the update.
The HomePod will also work with an Apple Music subscription, letting users call for one of the music files they own in their catalog to be played.
With Siri, the HomePod can also do a few simple tasks similar to what Amazon Alexa can do, like send a message to a contact, set a timer and alarm, play a podcast, or read out a news report. The HomePod can also call up feeds from news, sports, traffic and weather, as well as run a few home devices that are compatible with Apple's own HomeKit platform.
