HomePod Mini

Apple’s 2024 has centered on AI. Each new product introduction has highlighted AI; WWDC was largely a showcase for Apple Intelligence; next week’s iPhone 16 launch event is expected to be AI-heavy too. But somehow, Apple’s most neglected product of the year is also the device that’s missing out entirely on Apple Intelligence and its upgraded Siri: the HomePod.

In a bizarre mid-July announcement, Apple has today updated the HomePod mini. Not with any new features or upgrades, however, but with a new (or more precisely, different) choice of color.

You can now order the HomePod mini in a new Midnight colorway. This joins the previous collection of White, Blue, Yellow, and Orange color options. The very similar ‘space gray’ color option has been replaced by the new Midnight option.

We hear a lot of stories about Apple Watch saving lives, but what about HomePod? A new story out of Colorado this month details how a family’s HomePod alerted them to an overnight fire in their kitchen …

The biggest star of WWDC this year was undoubtedly Apple Intelligence. Apple spent nearly half its presentation explaining the philosophy behind its own spin on AI, the features it would make possible, and the bright future ahead thanks to AI’s capabilities.

The Apple Intelligence story centered around three key products: the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Which has many wondering: what about Vision Pro? Apple Watch? HomePod?

I’m not too concerned about the Vision Pro and Apple Watch’s exclusions, as I suspect Apple has AI stories in the works there. But what about HomePod? Will the HomePod gain support for the new Siri? Might there be a new model in development?

My colleague yesterday referenced the fact that Spotify is demanding greater freedoms from Apple, but hasn’t yet taken advantage of the ones already offered to the company. Key among these is the company’s failure to implement Spotify HomePod support.

It seems pretty ridiculous to complain that Apple Music has an unfair advantage over Spotify, while at the same time failing to take advantage of a clear opportunity to partly level the playing field – and keep your HomePod-owning subscribers happy …

tvOS 17 was released last month with a handful of new features and changes, including FaceTime support, a redesigned Control Center, and VPN support. Enhance Dialogue is a new feature that’s flown somewhat under the radar in tvOS 17, and it now appears to be expanding to older HomePod models with the tvOS 17.1 beta.

A significant number of users are experiencing multiple HomePods responding to Siri commands simultaneously. This is something that is normally prevented by Apple devices communicating with each other.

Many of us have multiple Apple devices within earshot, any of which could potentially respond to a “Hey Siri” command. In my home office, for example, I have my Watch, my iPhone, the stereo-pair HomePods on my desk, and another HomePod in a nearby bathroom …

Have the new HomePod 2 or HomePod mini smart speakers? If so, you’ve got access to built-in temp and humidity sensors with software 16.3 which can be useful in a variety of ways. Here’s how to set up and use HomePod temperature and humidity sensors plus we’ll look at some ways to bring the same functionality to the Home app without a HomePod.

In a surprise launch, Apple revived its full-size HomePod with a second-generation model. While the overall design and many of the features remain the same as the discontinued original, there are new capabilities and changes. Here’s our full HomePod comparison for a look at HomePod 2 vs the original vs HomePod mini too.

When Apple updated the HomePod mini to 16.3, they added the ability to access the long-hidden humidity and temperature sensors concealed within the speakers. The sensors unlock a number of possibilities within HomeKit, including some great smart home automations you can set up to make your home a bit more comfortable.

In December, Apple launched a big expansion of its end-to-end encryption for iCloud in the US with the feature rolling out worldwide with iOS 16.3. As it turns out, Apple has shared there’s a HomePod bug where they can’t be set up or updated if Advanced Data Protection has been enabled and the smart speaker isn’t running at least HomePod software 16.2. Fortunately, there are two ways to fix it, here’s how.

Apple released a new full-size HomePod just a few days ago, joining the HomePod mini in Apple’s lineup of smart speakers. The HomePod mini was released in 2020, which could lead you to speculate that a new version is on the way. Bloomberg reports today, however, that no such product is in the works…

One of the features of the new full-size HomePod is an integrated temperature and humidity sensor. As it turns out, this feature is also rolling out soon to HomePod mini users as well, with Apple activating a sensor that was sitting dormant inside the smart speaker. A future software update will also add support for the Sound Recognition feature…

I felt a real sense of deja-vu recently, when I told one of my HomePods to run a scene and Siri responded with “You’ll need to continue on your personal device.” This is a message many of us will remember from 2020 … and 2021 … and 2022. Welcome to the new year – same as the old year.

But more than just an annoyance, this is, to me, an encapsulation of the biggest problem with smart home tech in general, and HomeKit in particular …

Earlier this week, Apple announced in a local press release that it would expand the availability of the HomePod mini to three more countries on December 13. And beating its own launch expectations, Apple is already selling HomePod mini in Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

In a series of local press releases, Apple has announced a new set of HomePod mini countries, as the slow global rollout continues. This follows hints back in July.

Finland, Norway, and Sweden will each get the smart speaker on December 13. South Africa will be next in line, from December 19. Apple has said that other countries will follow next year …

Apple this week released HomePod Software 15.6 along with iOS 15.6 and other updates. While iOS 15.6 isn’t exactly a major update, the latest HomePod Software enables voice recognition support for more languages. But more than that, the update hints at imminent launch of HomePod in Norway and Sweden.

While Matter has yet to come to fruition, there’s a new update for Thread border routers. A new update today, Thread 1.3.0, will now let Thread devices work with any other Thread border router, including Apple’s HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K.

iOS 16 is finally available for registered users in the Apple Beta Software Program along with iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, tvOS 16, and macOS Ventura. However, for the first time, Apple has also made HomePod Software 16 beta available to users. Read on as we detail how to install HomePod Software 16 public beta on your HomePod.

One of the things Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in his latest newsletter is that Apple is working on a new HomePod model, which will look and sound similar to the original.

That’s somewhat surprising, as Apple discontinued the 1st-gen model well over a year ago, though it took quite some time to sell its existing stock. So why would Apple relaunch a commercially unsuccessful product, and what could have a similar one succeed? I suspect three factors …