Apple HomePod arrives on February 9 for $349

After some delays, Apple announced yesterday that its $349 HomePod device will start shipping on February 9th. Pre-orders for Apple's take on a smart speaker will open up this Friday, January 26th. The device was originally planned for "before the end of 2017" and even now some features are still missing.

Multi-room audio support for example will be added via a software update later this year, and Apple also said it's still working on an update that will add stereo playback, for when you have two HomePods present in the same room.

Amazon and Google recently flooded the market with relatively cheap smart speakers so it will be interesting to see if Apple can work its magic with its much more expensive premium version. The key focus of the device seems to be music and sound quality, with AI taking a step back:

Despite the delay, Apple doesn’t appear to have made any changes to the HomePod — the smart speaker appears to be exactly what was announced back in June, at WWDC. The focus here continues to be on music and sound quality, rather than the speaker’s intelligence, which is the core focus of many competitors’ products. The speaker will still have an always-on voice assistant, but Apple’s implementation of Siri here will be more limited than what’s present on other devices.

Via: The Verge