HomePod Mini

In November Apple refreshed the HomePod mini with three new fall colors. They’ve been particularly difficult to get recently – nearly unavailable in many retail stores and suffering from longer-than-usual shipping times. Despite this, the white and space gray models are widely available. With Apple’s March event now revealed, might we see a spring color refresh for the HomePod mini?

Apple has been hinting that it could launch the HomePod mini in more countries in 2022. After adding new languages support to the smart speaker, it appears that Sweden could receive the product soon.

Update: The story has been updated to reflect that the HomePod mini is now available in Italy. Not only that, but all countries that already have this product, can choose these new colors.

Earlier this month, Apple started selling the HomePod mini in three new colors in the US. Now, the company is expanding the availability of these options to Australia and New Zealand as well as making the product available in Italy for the first time ever.

During the WWDC21 keynote, Apple announced that the HomePod mini would arrive in Austria, Italy, and New Zealand “later this year.” Now, it appears that the product will launch in Italy this Tuesday.

A few months ago my original HomePod died. Its early death was likely an unfortunate side effect of a bad software update. And since Apple no longer sells the original HomePod after discontinuing it early this year, the only option is to buy a HomePod mini, buy a used HomePod, or look elsewhere entirely.

Though it doesn’t possess the amazing sound quality of the original HomePod, the HomePod mini is a good smart speaker, and is better than the original in other ways. With last week’s release of three additional HomePod mini colors, I thought it was a good time to revisit some of the best HomePod mini features.

During the “Unleashed” event, Apple surprised everyone with new HomePod mini colors. The product, which launched in 2020 and surprisingly replaced the original HomePod, is now being sold with three additional colors: orange, yellow, and blue, apart from the already existing black and white options. Are you buying a new HomePod mini?

Apple’s three new HomePod mini colors officially went on-sale today at Apple stores and we’ve got our hands on all of them. The new HomePod minis are priced at the same $99 and are now available both for delivery and in-store pick up at Apple retail stores.

Apple’s three new HomePod mini colors are now available to order on Apple.com and the Apple Store app. The colors were introduced a few weeks ago at Apple’s “Unleashed” special event and include: yellow, orange, and a dark blue. They’re a big departure from the neutral white and space grey colors that Apple has offered for HomePods for 4 years. The new colors are priced at the same $99.

After Apple released the new MacBook Pro and AirPods 3, the last thing people were expecting to be available was the HomePod mini in new colors. While we still don’t have a release date for the new colors, new videos today showcase them in the real world.

Apple held its “Unleashed” event yesterday. With a new Apple Music plan, new HomePod mini colors, redesigned AirPods 3, and new Macs with the powerful M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, what was your favorite announcement?

A new report from CIRP today looking at the US smart speaker market for the June quarter highlights the continued dominance of Amazon and Google while HomePod and HomePod mini still make up a small sliver of smart speaker owners.

HomePod sales estimates appear to validate Apple’s decision to launch the $99 HomePod mini before subsequently discontinuing the original HomePod. A new report today says that HomePod sales grew 180% from the second quarter of 2020 to the same quarter this year.

Market intelligence company Omdia does, however, suggest that Apple may need to launch a new version to maintain this momentum …

Apple today released the third beta version of HomePod Software 15 to invited users as part of the AppleSeed program. While the release notes don’t give details of what has changed in today’s build, the update follows reports about the HomePod Software 14.6 and 15.0 beta bricking users’ speakers.

Apple today announced at WWDC 2021 that HomePod mini is coming to more countries. Following the announcement of new features for Home with the upcoming major updates to tvOS and HomePod Software, the company confirmed it will bring the HomePod mini to Austria, Italy, and more countries.

A day after the Apple Music Lossless Audio announcement, there’s still a great deal of confusion. A few things have become clear in the meantime, but other elements remain murky.

Apple spent most of its press release talking about Spatial Audio, and very little talking about Lossless Audio. That wasn’t a surprise: Anyone with the right kit will be able to hear the benefit of the former, while rather few will be able to hear the lossless difference…

There’s been a lot of discussion about Apple’s decision to discontinue the original HomePod and its relation to what the future of Apple’s Home strategy will become. I highly recommend that you read Zac Hall’s piece on this topic. This week, I want to look at the positive aspects of where Apple is at with its Home strategy. After filling my house with HomePod minis, I’ve now discovered how essential having a voice-driven Home assistant in every room is for your home. Read on to learn why, despite having a lower-quality music speaker, the HomePod mini and HomeKit are the perfect match for each other.

According to Bloomberg, and backed up by analysis from iFixit, the HomePod mini includes a secret sensor that is designed to measure the current temperature and humidity of the room the HomePod mini is in. It seems like this sensor could be activated through a software update to provide new functionality to HomePod mini users.

Various third-party HomeKit products exist that can measure room temperature, but it would be convenient for HomeKit users if the HomePod mini could do it without the need for an additional accessory.