Another L from Apple. I‘ve been waiting for this for ages, and essentially they’ve just reintroduced the first model with a thermometer. What an utter disappointment.
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Apple Announces New HomePod for $299 With Full-Size Design, S7 Chip, and More
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Fighting the urge to order a pair until I hear some reviews on the sound 😩 and then hoping I can wait it out until somewhere offers them at any sort of markdown 🤓
The original HomePod is one of my all-time favorite Apple products—I’m so happy, especially for those who weren't able to pick up one (or more) the first time around.
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Yeah I sorta feel that too but hey I’m chilling with my OG and don’t really feel like spending that money right now
I'm sorry, but renaming the color "midnight" is making me angry. What color is this?
Its called Designed Obsolescence and its as disappointing as it is insulting...especially at this price point.
And sales will have it at 199 by next Christmas...
Agreed I was looking all over for that option, before I gave up and just paid all up-front.
What’s crazy is that the HomePod redux has no detachable USB-C cable to provide the choice of a shorter or longer cable, if the cable/wire gets damaged due to curious pets, no AUX for the chance to use it with a home theatre sound output, etc etc.
The price is designed to accommodate for sales such as Veteran’s Day, Mother’s/Father’s Day, Black Friday, etc. Those discount will initially knock $25-50 off the price testing at $249 each.
Except it’s not. Less powerful cpu, less speakers, less microphones and even worse Wi-Fi!
But a huge reduction in price. The 1st generation was way too expensive. This will sell much better.
I am suspecting a HomePod Pro on the horizon with AUX input or maybe some sort of 7.2 soundbar system to compliment AppleTV and AppleTV+ with SpatialAudio.
Apple likes doing the product marketing of:
mini
XYZ product
Pro/Max/Ultra
It’s basically the Good/Better/Best rebranded with variation.
There has been no reduction in price whatsoever. The first gen was being sold at the same price for a while and it sold so little they gave up and discontinued it.
An S7 processor? That surprised me the most, so glad to see this thing come back. I'll never be able to buy one at $400 plus tax in Canada, that is a luxury item for sure right now!
They do? That makes a lot of sense and perhaps Apple might jump on board with this upselling idea.
Yay - maybe the freaking eBay prices will finally get reasonable! I want to pair an old one!
Apple today announced a second-generation full-size HomePod, available to order starting today for $299 in white and midnight color options. In-store availability and deliveries to customers will begin Friday, February 3 in select countries.
The second-generation HomePod features a virtually identical design as the full-size HomePod that was discontinued in March 2021, with a backlit touch surface and mesh fabric exterior. It features a four-inch high-excursion woofer, five tweeters, four microphones, an S7 chip for computational audio, a U1 chip for Ultra Wideband features like handing off music from an iPhone, and support for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. The speaker also has Siri integration and Matter support for HomeKit and other smart home accessories.
The new HomePod is 6.6-inches tall and weighs 5.1 pounds, compared to 6.8-inches and 5.5 pounds for the first-generation model, while both models are 5.6 inches wide. The new HomePod also has two fewer tweeters and microphones compared to the original model. The original HomePod was equipped with the A8 chip from the iPhone 6, while the new model has the S7 chip from the Apple Watch Series 7.
A new sensor in the HomePod can measure temperature and humidity in indoor environments, and this feature is also being enabled on the existing HomePod mini.
Apple will be expanding its Sound Recognition feature to the new HomePod with a software update this spring, allowing the speaker to listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and send a notification directly to a user's iPhone if a sound is identified.
Two second-generation HomePods can be paired for stereo sound, but one second-generation HomePod and one first-generation HomePod cannot.
At launch, the new HomePod will be available in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and 11 other countries, according to Apple. It is compatible with the iPhone 8 and later, any iPad Pro, the fifth-generation iPad and later, the third-generation iPad Air and later, and the fifth-generation iPad mini and later running iOS 16.3 or iPadOS 16.3 or later.
"Leveraging our audio expertise and innovations, the new HomePod delivers rich, deep bass, natural mid-range, and clear, detailed highs," said Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak. "With the popularity of HomePod mini, we've seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We're thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world."
Apple continues to sell the HomePod mini for $99.
Article Link: Apple Announces New HomePod for $299 With Full-Size Design, S7 Chip, and More
Just weird that they don't seem interested in producing a proper theater system with center, surround, and height channels. Apple TV and Apple TV+ content and you have to buy speakers from someone else if you want a real surround setup. I'm happy with my Sonos system but it really seems like Apple is leaving money on the table here.
I would love to use a stereo pair for my Mac Studio speakers, but the latency! Oh the latency!! 😭
Hopefully cheaper now, though! They’re usually at least as expensive as they were new. Especially on eBay.
Yep, $299 before tax is what I paid for my original HomePod summer 2019. This model, especially considering how few changes have been made, should've really been somewhere between $249-$269, but as others have mentioned, additional sales will help.
Wondering if the new one will eventually offer more mating options for this via update.
Weird. I'm guessing this is an artifact of going to the S series chip?
My biggest concern here is that if this fails because they compromised the design so much they'll think the concept of a larger Homepod is a failure rather than recognize that their implementation is the problem.