Apple’s full-size HomePod is back with new features

As previously rumoredApple today announce launch of the new second generation, $299 The HomePod smart speaker has a similar design to the first generation HomePod from 2018.

This new model is a return to the HomePod, which was to stop in 2021 after it struggled in the market despite price cuts.

Critics and consumers felt that while the HomePod offered great sound quality and great ease of use within the Apple ecosystem, its inability to elegantly play non-Apple content, limitations of Siri compared to Alexa or Google Assistant, and the speaker’s exorbitant price make it unattractive Compared to more affordable smart speakers from Sonos, Amazon, or Google.

Apple has continued selling a cheaper cousin to the HomePod called the HomePod HomePod miniwhich did better but did not dominate the market.

As far as we can tell from what Apple has said so far, the new full-size HomePod doesn’t do much to change its place in the market where the big complaints about its predecessor are concerned. However, it does add a bunch of features. Some are familiar from the HomePod mini, but others are new.

Most notably, it supports the wireless thread protocol and the Matter smart home standard, which was arguably the star of the show at CES earlier this month. Apple has been pushing smart home functionality across its product line lately. To that end, the HomePod has humidity and temperature sensors that can be used in smart home automation streams. (HomePod mini technically always had this capability, and that’s now activated for that device, too.) Later on, it’ll also be able to detect carbon monoxide and smoke alarms, but that feature is coming in a future software update.

The new headset includes Apple’s S7 chip, which we saw previously in the Apple Watch Series 7. In other respects, though, it appears to have fallen behind on its predecessor. It has five speakers, down from seven in the 2018 model, and five microphones, also down from seven. It’s unclear how much difference that would make, though the HomePod’s audio prowess is as much about computation as anything else.

The second generation HomePod is available in white and an adjacent black color called “Midnight.” It costs $299 and it is Available to order. The first units will be shipped to buyers on Friday, February 3rd. HomePod mini 2020 is still in Apple’s product lineup $99.