Last week, Apple introduced the HomePod Mini smart speaker which shares the same sensor for monitoring temperature and humidity as the HomePod. These features should make the HomePod Mini a tad useful around the house, including setting up automations with just your voice.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported that a replacement for the HomePod mini is not in the works, but rather a software update.
It is true that the HomePod mini is a brilliant portable device. As well as being quite loud, they are also able to operate multiple rooms simultaneously, which is a very handy feature.
Despite its apparent perfection, the speaker has some flaws – usually associated with Siri, which make it fall behind rival voice assistants. The smart speaker’s voice assistant is slow to respond at times, and sometimes completely unresponsive. Alexa is much better at understanding accents, as well as recognizing the names of smart home devices you have. There is no doubt that it is miles ahead of other apps, particularly in responding to questions.
Gurman believes that Apple’s next step is to improve Siri to make it more helpful to users. Most of us care more about Siri, which is still in need of some improvement than brand-new hardware.
The all-new HomePod mini is now available for preorder for $299 and will be available starting Feb. 3.