While perhaps not the most revolutionary product, the HomePod has been shrunk in size and price in order for Apple to battle Amazon on the US market for smart home speakers.
While shaped like a ball, it's still covered in mesh, standing at only 8.4 cm tall. The price has shrunk too less than 97 Euro (£99). It works with Apple Music, as well as different streaming and radio services, and two can be paired to work together as stereo speakers. It uses the S5 chipset from Apple Watch SE, making it much more energy efficient than the large HomePod.
"HomePod mini has everything customers want in a smart speaker — amazing sound for listening to music, a world-class intelligent assistant that delivers a personal experience to each member of the household, and like every Apple product, it's designed with privacy and security in mind, HomePod mini is the ultimate smart speaker for anyone with an Apple device. It works effortlessly with iPhone to hand off music, answer calls, or deliver personalized listening suggestions, elevates the sound from Apple TV, plays music from a Mac, and so much more. There's a lot of Apple innovation packed into such a small speaker, all at an affordable price."
- Bob Borchers, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing
It comes in two colours, features a full range driver and two passive radiators plus a waveguide for the active driver.
For those that love the Orwell 1984 feeling, it also has an Intercom feature, letting you send messages to specific Homepods placed in specific places. The U1 chip in it also not only plays Apple Music directly, but lets you track your unit, and Apple promises that all interactions with the speaker will not be logged, with no info used to, or sold to advertisers. That remains to be seen in effect.
Integration with music streaming and radio services will come later, and basic features such as Spotify are still missing. It starts shipping on the 16th of November.