Take a look at the new Apple product the HomePod. The HomePod comes to the market three years after Amazon’s Echo device. Although they haven’t rushed into this development they do want you to know it is about music. The intelligent assistant part is secondary. That’s reflected both in the name, which harks back to the iPod, and the price: Apple hasn’t announced UK pricing, but to give you an idea its $349 (£270) US price compares to $180 (£140) for the Echo.
Hardware-wise, the HomePod is a littler shorter, and a lot fatter than the Echo. Its speakers and microphones are surrounded by a mesh fabric in black or white.
Apple made a big point of how the HomePod uses its array of speakers and microphones to intelligently adjust to the shape of a room by bouncing sound off the walls. It says this lets it separate the sounds of a song, so “ambient” sound blankets the room and other sounds cut through.