Apple's New HomePod Is Smarter And Sounds Better

The new version of Apple’s smart speaker improves on the original model’s design with even better acoustic qualities and increases the smart capabilities over the original HomePod. For controlling your smart home, streaming your music, and even added peace of mind, the new HomePod has several features worth highlighting.

HomePod Audio Quality

First and foremost, a smart speaker should sound great. That is certainly the case with the new HomePod design. A beam forming array of five tweeters paired with a powerful woofer drive supremely clean audio with the utmost clarity. There is a built-in bass microphone that monitors the EQ of the woofer. This fine tunes the audio so the bass frequencies sound rich and full, but never muffled.

Room Sensing Technology

Aside from the sensors and microphone monitoring the internal state of your HomePod, Room Sensing technology measures the conditions of the room HomePod is set up in. HomePod listens for audio reflections off surfaces like the table or shelf the speaker is placed on, or the wall the speaker is placed against. The speaker adapts the sound to suit the conditions of the room. And if you move the HomePod, even a few inches, Room Sensing automatically readjusts to recalibrate the audio quality. This makes your speaker always sound it’s best, no matter where it’s placed.

A Pair Of Pods

If you have multiple HomePods they can work together in helpful

ways. If they’re set up in different rooms, you can have music playing on both speakers so you can enjoy your tunes as you move throughout the house. They can also be used as a home intercom system (handy for wrangling the family when dinner is ready or getting your significant other to bring you a bedtime snack from the kitchen if you’re already tucked in).

You can also connect a pair of HomePod speakers to work as a surround sound system for your Apple TV. They support “eARC” which allows the HomePod to work as the speakers for anything that is plugged into your TV (like a game console), assuming your TV also supports eARC technology.

Handoff

If you’re listening to music on your iPhone, you could use AirPlay to stream your songs to HomePod. Or you can just hold your phone near your HomePod to receive a prompt to transfer the music to the speaker instead of your phone.

Sound Recognition

HomePod has a new feature called Sound Recognition which can give you peace of mind when you’re away from your home. Your HomePod can recognize the sound of a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide detector and sent an alert to your phone if one of these alarms goes off. This feature isn’t available at launch, but will be coming as part of a future software update.

Siri On HomePod

Do you use “Hey Siri” on your phone? If you’re familiar with this feature, you’ll love having it on HomePod. You can ask your HomePod to add appointments to your calendar, read you the headlines, play your favourite radio station, make a phone call, set a timer, what the weather is….the list goes on. If you have an Apple TV, and frequently lose your remote, you’ll be happy to know HomePod can also help you pause movies, call up the latest episode of your TV show, or turn off your TV when you’re about to doze off, all with voice commands.

Smart Home

HomePod is an excellent hub for controlling and designing your smart home. Assuming you have compatible smart devices in your home, you can ask HomePod to turn on and off lights, change the temperature on the thermostat, or lock the doors. You can also create custom “Scenes” which automate several tasks with a single command. For example, you could say “Hey Siri, Bedtime!” and simultaneously your bedroom lamp turns off, your speaker starts playing ambient ocean noises, and your thermostat cools by two degrees.

The new HomePod’s Canadian release is Feb 3, 2023. It comes in two colour options, white and midnight. And a nice design detail is the fabric-braided power cable matches the colour of the seamless mesh that envelops the speaker.