Apple has announced the second generation HomePod, with pre-orders starting today and availability starting Friday, February 3 for 349 euros. The new smart speaker, which in its previous version never arrived in Italy, is made with seamless, acoustically transparent mesh fabric and a backlit touch surface that lights up to the edges. It comes in Midnight White and White, a new color made with 100% recycled mesh fabric, and includes a color-matched braided power cord. The audio performance has been redesigned with a high-excursion woofer, a powerful motor that drives the large 20 mm diaphragm, a microphone with integrated bass equalizer and five tweeters in a beamforming array around the base.
The S7 chip works in concert with software and system sensing technology to deliver even more advanced computational audio. HomePod is compatible with spatial audio and thanks to room sensing technology it recognizes acoustic reflections from nearby surfaces, to determine if it is positioned against a wall or not, in order to adapt the sound in real time. It pairs with Apple TV 4K to create a home theater experience, and Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC) support on Apple TV 4K lets you set HomePod as the sound system for all devices connected to your TV. Plus, Siri on HomePod lets you control what’s playing on Apple TV. HomePod can be combined in stereo or multiroom, in this case also with HomePod mini. It is compatible with the new Matter home automation standard.