The second gen Apple HomePod smart speaker doesn’t just add audio improvements on the original, it’s a Matter-enabled hub, offering deeper integration into the smart home so it can connect to and control other devices that use the communication protocol.
Apple is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which maintains the Matter standard, along with other industry leaders, so HomePod serves as an essential home hub, giving users access away from home.
To bring these smart home capabilities to the fore, Apple have redesigned their Home app for iOS, adding new categories for climate, lights and security, as well as a new multicamera view.
Order from today and available from Friday February 3 for $479, advanced computational audio powered by Apple’s silicon optimises acoustic performance is on hand, while music surrounds you with room-filling spatial audio.
The unit senses its surroundings and calibrates for where it’s placed. You can also use two HomePod speakers for stereo pairing to make your experience even more immersive, in what Apple are boasting is, “The Ultimate home audio experience.”
You can also link them to an Apple TV 4K to use for all your television content with the Apple TV 4K’s HDMI-eARC interface.
Apple AirPlay 2 lets you beam audio to the HomePod from any Apple device so you can use the speaker as part of a multiroom audio system.
One hassle is that, even though the new HomePod has a Bluetooth 5,0 radio, you can’t connect a non-Apple product to it wirelessly – another example of Apple wanting to be the only players on their own team.
The new iteration looks pretty much the same as the original, with the same distinctive rounded shape, fabric-wrapped exterior and touch area on top with feedback display. It also has the same 5.6″ diameter, though it’s a little shorter at 6,6″ compared to the original’s 6.8″, and weighs in lighter at 2.3kg compared to 2.5kg.
The internal driver layout is the same, though, with a 4″ centrally mounted woofer, though there are only five tweeters as opposed to the original’s seven. These are positioned around the unit’s bottom cavity.
Also cut down from the original, discontinued in 2021, this new hub rolls out with four far-field mics, where the original had six. A new Apple-designed S7 chip takes the place of the old A8.
The real talking point here, though, besides the improved audio, is the smart home adoption. There’s a software update coming soon that Apple say will enable the HomePod to actively listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send an alert straight to your iPhone if the sound is identified.
The new HomePod also features a temperature and humidity sensor, and you can fashion automations to close blinds or turn on a fan when a room reaches a set temperature.
The ability to use Siri to control your music choices and smart home devices is clearly the major plus, and the tool has been given the ability to recognise up to six different voices.
All up, this is Apple embracing Matter and it seems they’re doing it in a very forward-thinking way.
