HomePod Mini Is Now 2,000 Days Old

[MacRumors]

Apple's HomePod mini today reached a notable milestone, marking 2,000 days since its introduction in October 2020, an unusually long lifespan for an Apple hardware product that has yet to receive a second-generation refresh.

Apple unveiled the HomePod mini at its iPhone 12 event on October 13, 2020, positioning it as a smaller and more affordable alternative to the original HomePod. The device launched at just $99, with pre-orders beginning November 6 and availability following on November 16.

Unlike the original HomePod, which emphasized premium audio at a higher price point, the HomePod mini was designed as a mass-market smart speaker that could be deployed throughout the home at comparatively low cost. Apple described it as delivering "amazing sound" alongside Siri functionality and smart home control, with a compact spherical design that enabled 360-degree audio.

The HomePod mini is powered by the Apple S5 chip, the same processor used in the Apple Watch Series 5, and features a single full-range driver, dual passive radiators, and a four-microphone array. It supports 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Ultra Wideband for proximity-based features, and Thread networking, allowing it to function as a smart home hub.

Apple expanded the available colors in 2021, adding blue, yellow, and orange options to the original white and space gray finishes, and later replaced space gray with a similar "midnight" variant. Beyond these cosmetic updates, the underlying hardware has remained unchanged, making the HomePod mini one of the longest-running Apple devices without a specification revision.

Apple is widely expected to release a second-generation HomePod mini sometime soon, and the most consistent expectation is a move to a newer chip in place of the current S5, which should improve responsiveness, computational audio performance, and headroom for future Siri features. A second-generation Ultra Wideband chip and Apple's N1 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip are also possibilities.

The new HomePod mini was reportedly "ready" to launch since late last year. Now, the device is said to be "on hold" until Apple releases its more personalized version of Siri later this year. The revamped assistant is expected to debut in iOS 27, which will be available in beta starting in June and should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September.

Article Link: HomePod Mini Is Now 2,000 Days Old

 

[vegetassj4]

Yeah but how many ghurries is that?

 

[boswald]

My girlfriend has one and it's "the worst product Apple has ever made" (her words). It never stays connected, cuts out randomly, or randomly starts playing music. She absolutely hates it and I'm surprised it's not in a wall somewhere.

 

[abatabia]

And still a disappointment. The long rumored spec bump won’t change what is a half baked product with half baked software that can’t even handle when a router has to be rebooted.

Apple should give up on HomePods and license Siri to other better smart speakers. They won’t but they should.

 

[IIGS User]

My girlfriend has one and it's "the worst product Apple has ever made" (her words). It never stays connected, cuts out randomly, or randomly starts playing music. She absolutely hates it and I'm surprised it's not in a wall somewhere.

We have an Alexa from the same time period and if it’s any consolation it stinks too. You’ll ask it to play a song and it just cuts out half way through. Same with the Sirius XM “skill”. It just randomly stops and then starts back up again.

It consistently thinks you’re talking to it when you’re not. I’ve reset it several times and the connectivity is solid so it’s the device.

I would never get another one (Alexa or HomePod) ever again.

 

[Piggie]

It's shame that such a small company struggles so much as they just cannot afford the staff to be able to work on and upgrade these product on a regular basis.
Perhaps in time, if they become popular as a brand, and generate a bit more income, they will be able to afford a few more people to help them

 

[DigitalVT]

Interesting that the HomePod mini was due a refresh/launch late 2025, along with the new Apple TV?
Yet, all Apple approved stores (not Apple Stores), have none in stock and to get it from Apple Stores itself is a two to three week wait??

 

[Wanted797]

I have 3 of them.

They were very useful with my daughter as a baby to play rain white noise during naps. The sound for music is pretty average.

I got my wife another for the room (now in the daughter’s room) for the rain sounds as well.

Asking Siri to play a song or the weather or time when you’ve left your phone in another room is handy.

Biggest problem is Siri is a bit of an idiot.

 

[MrRom92]

Who’s speaking?

 

[maflynn]

I have one, and its a good product, no complaints. I don't think there's a feature, or a service that I feel is missing from it.

 

[hagar]

I have one, and its a good product, no complaints. I don't think there's a feature, or a service that I feel is missing from it.

A functional Siri maybe?

 

[hagar]

My girlfriend has one and it's "the worst product Apple has ever made" (her words). It never stays connected, cuts out randomly, or randomly starts playing music. She absolutely hates it and I'm surprised it's not in a wall somewhere.

Mine also started playing randomly in the last weeks. Maybe Siri got sensitive. Or it’s reacting to a nearby iPhone. But it didn’t do that before.

 

[Corefile]

I have one, and its a good product, no complaints. I don't think there's a feature, or a service that I feel is missing from it.

Plex support?

 

[iLuddite]

Looking forward to improved sound quality on the second gen

 

[McWetty]

My HomePods’ #1 feature is being the family comedian. We will ask things of her and when she invariably screws up the response, we just laugh at her.

 

[maflynn]

A functional Siri maybe?

Now that's crazy talk.

Siri is so bad, that I never use it. I mean I have my phone and home pod mini in close proximity and its anyone's guess as to which one will get activated and try to andle my request.

Plex support?

I have no need for it

 

[siddavis]

My family wanted some of the “fun” functions of Alexa and I relented. The fact that the company with the first App Store (as we know it today) never got robust 3rd party support for this product just boggles my mind.

 

[Ctrlos]

We have to chill with these ‘days old’ things. The HomePod mini does 3 things really well: plays music, sets timers and sounds great.
For everything else I have my iPhone.

 

[icymountain]

I had one and sold it. As an external speaker, it was decent (but there are cheaper, much better alternatives like the Creative Pebbles). I was not so interested in the Siri thing, so I am much happier now with a small DAC + Amp + a pair of desk passive speakers.
I remember when it would start to do things randomly (play music, speak, etc), while I was on an online meeting or something... It would also often drop network link so it was almost impossible to predict when it would act in a predictable way or not.

 

[dsaponaro]

Posted about the ghost touch issue in another thread… I’ve owned 10 HomePods since the introduction of the first generation years ago. I absolutely loved all of them until a little over a year ago, when one of my mini died due to the ghost touch issue. It just started playing music at random times of day/night. Since then, 2 more minis and a full size 2nd gen have also died this way. Latest was just 2 weeks ago with the full size.

All in all 4 out of my 10 have now died over the past year.

 

[klasma]

The HomePod mini does 3 things really well: plays music, sets timers and sounds great.

It really doesn’t sound great, even for its price point.

 

[Xeem]

I have 3 of them.

They were very useful with my daughter as a baby to play rain white noise during naps. The sound for music is pretty average.

I got my wife another for the room (now in the daughter’s room) for the rain sounds as well.

Asking Siri to play a song or the weather or time when you’ve left your phone in another room is handy.

Biggest problem is Siri is a bit of an idiot.

We have one in my kid’s room since he was a baby, and “Siri, play ocean sounds” is 99% of its job. As a white noise machine, it is excellent and can be powered off a battery pack for overnights away from home. Agreed that music is average but I usually listen to podcasts on it if I am in there cleaning.

I have several Echo devices and a couple older Google home devices, and I will say that while Siri certainly does a lot less than they do, the microphone on the HomePod mini is miles ahead of them. Siri can’t always do what I want it to, but it certainly does hear my requests much better than Alexa/Google.

 

[onedrunkhorse]

Mine has been solid, hardware wise. Mostly use it to play FM stations through TuneIn. There have been times where I've had to repeat myself probably up to 5 times to get Siri to play the right thing, though. Ridiculous.

 

[apparatchik]

Fun fact, adjusted for inflation, the HomePod Mini now costs only $79 2020 dls.

 

[Fr. Guido Sarducci]

I have one, and its a good product, no complaints. I don't think there's a feature, or a service that I feel is missing from it.

Same here. It has flawlessly controlled every smart device I’ve thrown at it for over 3 years and I have no complaints about Siri.