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Even if it looks like it: No, this is not the old HomePod, this is the new one, in both colors
Photo: Apple
Actually, as one says: »Never change a winning team«.
But if that saying goes, Apple's first smart home speaker can't have been a roaring success.
In March 2021, just three years after its market launch, Apple took the HomePod off the field.
At the time, it was said that the box, which was equipped with tweeters and had a striking design, should only be sold while stocks last.
In the future, they want to focus fully on the significantly cheaper HomePod Mini.
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Now comes the turnaround: on Wednesday afternoon, the iPhone group announced the second generation HomePod.
The design hasn't changed for the re-launch, it has the same barrel-shaped look as before, is wrapped in a transparent mesh fabric and has a touch-sensitive, light-up lid on top.
It is to be hoped that the softener in the base of the device will now contain less aggressive substances.
The first version tended to leave noticeable marks on wooden surfaces.
It wasn't the price
But that can't be the reason why the first HomePod wasn't as successful as Apple had hoped.
It couldn't have been the price.
When it was introduced in Germany, it cost 349 euros, just as much as the new model.
But many Apple customers are not deterred by high prices, otherwise not so many would spend 629 euros for a pair of AirPods Max headphones.
And it couldn't have been the competition either: Google's Home Max speaker was even more expensive at 399 euros at the time.
A sentence that Apple's marketing director Greg Joswiak said when the new model was announced suggests what could have been the reason: "As the popularity of the HomePod mini has grown, so has interest in even more powerful sound that can be achieved with a larger HomePod". .
Feeding on the HomePod Mini
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It is possible that customers in 2018 were simply not ready to spend a lot of money on a sonorous and expensive smart speaker.
Perhaps the market first had to be primed with the much cheaper HomePod Mini.
After all, the special thing about these devices is not that they delight audio connoisseurs, but that they can do smart things.
Or at least communicate with smart home devices.
According to Apple, this is exactly what should work particularly well with the new HomePod.
On the one hand, of course, because it is an interface to Siri, so it can be controlled with the same voice commands.
On the other hand, because it itself also acts as a bridge to other smart devices, lights.
Blinds, radiators can serve.
It also masters the new smart home standard Matter, to which a large part of the smart industry has subscribed, and can also serve as a control center for devices that use this technology.
hit the alarm
Apple promises that it should also be able to recognize alarms triggered on smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and inform its users about this with an alarm message.
However, this function is not to be delivered until later in the spring via an update.
What is supposed to work now is a sensor for temperature and humidity.
His predecessor didn't have that.
What is particularly interesting is whether the sound quality has changed compared to the first model.
Apple speaks in the usual flowery way of "incredible audio quality with rich, deep bass and impressive high frequencies".
Since nothing or only little has changed in the structure, it is important to check whether the new one sounds like the old one.
Fans of the Apple box would probably be very happy with that.
All the more so since two pieces can be combined into a stereo pair with the new model, the devices can play Apple's 3D audio and can therefore be used as home cinema speakers on an Apple TV 4K.