Apple today announced HomePod mini 2, featuring Siri AI, gorgeous new colors, and enhanced audio experiences. Siri AI, coming to HomePod mini 2 in a future software update, is a profoundly more capable and conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broad world knowledge that powers tasks like richer music discovery, and the ability to tap into even more apps — bringing a whole new level of capability to HomePod mini. Users can enjoy room-filling audio with a single speaker, in a stereo pair, or using multiroom audio. When paired with the new Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini 2 supports four-speaker surround sound — Apple’s most immersive home theater setup yet. And HomePod mini makes it easy for different users to manage the connected home with just a voice command, securely controlling accessories and running automations. “HomePod mini 2 brings together Siri AI, gorgeous new colors, and incredible audio,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Home Product Marketing, in a statement. “With Siri AI, it understands you better than ever, drawing on personal context and broad world knowledge to make music discovery even richer. It fills a room with sound on its own, which gets even bigger in a stereo pair or with multiroom audio, and when paired with the new Apple TV 4K, it delivers our most immersive home theater setup yet. And with just your voice, HomePod mini makes it easy to securely control your accessories and run automations across the connected home.”
Siri AI Transforms the HomePod mini Experience Powered by an entirely new architecture built on the latest generation of Apple Foundation Models, Siri AI transforms the HomePod mini experience and helps users get more done than ever before. When paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad, HomePod mini can tap into a user’s personal context to help them find what they need in the moment. HomePod mini can recognize up to six users in a household by their voice and securely connect to their device across apps like Messages and timers, while playing their favorite music, and more. Siri AI can also privately act on this context across a user’s iPhone and iPad apps to complete tasks like finding a song a friend recommended in a text, setting a reminder tied to a calendar event or location, locating a recipe from an email, or adding ingredients to a grocery list. With broad world knowledge, Siri AI can answer questions on almost any topic by getting up-to-date information from the web. And users can go back and forth with Siri in a conversation like never before. Once Siri AI is enabled on a supported HomePod mini speaker, even users without an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad will benefit from Siri AI’s broad world knowledge; its ability to have rich, natural conversations; and its improved music discovery. Immersive Audio Experiences HomePod mini delivers rich 360-degree sound from its compact footprint, whether it’s used as a single speaker, in a stereo pair, or as part of a multiroom audio setup. Powered by the Apple S10 chip and advanced computational audio, it analyzes music in real time to optimize dynamic range, loudness, and acoustic performance. For the first time, users can create a four-speaker surround sound experience with Apple TV 4K (4th generation) and HomePod mini 2. Together, the four speakers and the new Apple TV 4K intelligently recognize each speaker’s position in the room, so audio timing and levels are automatically calibrated to the space.
The new HomePod mini can serve as a speaker for Mac, delivering expansive sound for everything from movies and gaming to FaceTime and video calls. Finished in complementary colors, the new HomePod mini creates a beautifully unified desktop setup with Mac.
Introducing Sound Glow With Sound Glow, the top of HomePod mini transforms into a visual canvas that glows and pulses in sync with the music, reacting in real time to bass and treble.5 The song’s album artwork from Now Playing generates a color-matched light experience that’s unique to every song, and users can pick a soundscape like rain to trigger bespoke animations for a soothing atmosphere.
Effortless Smart Home Management HomePod mini makes controlling the connected home easy at an incredible value. With just their voice, users can conduct a series of smart home actions, including locking the front door; closing the garage when leaving the house; and lowering the blinds, adjusting the thermostat, or turning off the lights at bedtime. With the Home app, users can automate their smart home accessories and create scenes to control multiple accessories at the same time. As a home hub, HomePod mini also lets users securely control accessories from the Home app on iPhone, whether they’re at home or away.
Sound Recognition gives HomePod mini users peace of mind by listening for a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm and, if one is detected, sending a notification immediately to the user’s iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Using the Home app, users can check in via HomePod mini and listen and talk to someone at home to make sure everything is all right.
The new HomePod mini also works seamlessly with smart home accessories, including Apple Home Collection video doorbells and cameras, using Face Recognition to announce who is at the door. Private and Secure by Design As with every Apple product, privacy and security are foundational to HomePod mini. Siri AI takes full advantage of the bold new architecture for Apple Intelligence. Siri requests on HomePod mini 2 can use on-device processing or Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy of the device to the cloud. When processed in Private Cloud Compute, data is not stored or made accessible to Apple or anyone else. With powerful new features and unrivaled privacy protections, Siri remains the world’s most private digital assistant. HomePod mini 2 and the Environment HomePod mini 2 is built with the environment in mind and drives progress toward Apple’s ambitious plan to be carbon neutral across its entire footprint by 2030. HomePod mini features 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 percent recycled copper, gold plating, and tin solder in all Apple-designed printed circuit boards. HomePod mini 2 meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and safe chemistry. As with all Apple products, its paper packaging is 100 percent fiber-based10 and designed to be recycled. Pricing and Availability Customers in the U.S. and more than 23 other countries and regions can pre-order HomePod mini 2 starting today from apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in pink, green, blue, white, and midnight, with availability in stores beginning Friday, October 30th. HomePod mini 2 is available for US$149. Siri AI will be available in English on HomePod mini 2 via a future software update in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK. HomePod mini 2 is compatible with HomePod software 27.2. MacDailyNews Take: At just $149, the much more capable HomePod mini 2 is an absolute steal! Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon. The post Apple reveals HomePod mini 2 with support for Siri AI, new colors, and rich sound appeared first on MacDailyNews. You're currently a free subscriber to MacDailyNews. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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