January 18, 2023
PRESS RELEASE
Apple introduces the new HomePod with breakthrough sound and intelligence
It delivers incredible sound quality, enhanced Siri capabilities, and a safe and secure smart home experience
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple announced today HomePod (2nd generation), a powerful smart speaker that delivers next-level acoustics in a gorgeous, iconic design. Packed with Apple innovation and Siri intelligence, HomePod offers advanced computational audio for an immersive listening experience, including support for immersive Spatial Audio tracks. With convenient new ways to manage daily tasks and control the smart home, users can now use Siri to create smart home automations, be notified when a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm is detected in their home, check the temperature and humidity in a room – all hands-free.
The new HomePod can be ordered online and in the Apple Store app starting today, with sales starting Friday, February 3.
“Using our audio expertise and innovation, the new HomePod delivers rich, deep bass, a natural midrange and clear, detailed highs,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With the popularity of the HomePod mini, we’ve seen increased interest in the more powerful acoustics that can be achieved in the larger HomePod. We are excited to introduce the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world.”
Exquisite Design
With seamless, acoustically transparent mesh fabric and an edge-to-edge backlit touch surface, the new HomePod has a beautiful design that complements any space. HomePod is available in white and midnight, a new color made with 100 percent recycled mesh fabric, with a color-matched woven power cord.
Acoustic powerhouse
HomePod delivers incredible sound quality with rich, deep bass and stunning high frequencies. A specially designed high-excursion woofer, a powerful motor that pushes the diaphragm to a remarkable 20mm, a built-in bass-EQ microphone and a beamforming array of five tweeters around the base work together to deliver a powerful acoustic experience. The S7 chip is combined with software and system sensing technology to offer more advanced computational sound that maximizes the full potential of the acoustic system for a new listening experience.
With room-sensing technology, HomePod recognizes sound reflections from nearby surfaces and determines whether it’s against a wall or freestanding, and then adjusts the sound in real time. Precise directional control of a beamforming array of five separate tweeters and direct and surround audio beams immerse listeners in crystal-clear vocals and rich instruments.
Users can listen to a catalog of more than 100 million songs with Apple Music,1 enjoy Spatial Audio with a single HomePod or as a stereo pair, or create an immersive home theater experience with Apple TV 4K. With Siri, users can access a range of music knowledge and search by artist, song, lyrics, decade, genre, mood or activity.
The Ultimate Experience with Multiple HomePod Speakers
Two or more HomePod or HomePod mini speakers unlock a variety of powerful features. Using multi-room audio with AirPlay,2 users can simply say “Hey Siri” or touch and hold the top of HomePod to play the same song on multiple HomePod speakers, play different songs on different HomePod speakers, and even use them as an intercom to broadcast messages to other rooms.
Users can create a stereo pair with two HomePod speakers in the same space.3 In addition to separating the left and right channels, the stereo pair plays each channel in perfect harmony, creating a wider, more immersive soundstage than traditional stereo speakers for a truly great listening experience.
Seamless Integration with the Apple Ecosystem
Using Ultra Broadband technology, users can stream whatever they’re playing on their iPhone — like a favorite song, podcast, or even a phone call — directly to HomePod.4 To easily control what’s playing or get personalized song and podcast recommendations, anyone in the home can hold their iPhone close to the HomePod and suggestions will automatically appear. HomePod can also recognize up to six voices, so every member of the household can hear their personal playlists, request reminders and set calendar events.
HomePod seamlessly integrates with Apple TV 4K for a powerful home theater experience and eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel).5 Support on Apple TV 4K allows customers to make HomePod an audio system for all devices connected to the TV. Plus, with Siri on HomePod, users can control what’s playing on Apple TV with hands-free voice.
The Find My feature on HomePod allows users to locate Apple devices such as iPhones by playing a sound on a misplaced device. Using Siri, users can also ask for the location of friends or loved ones who have shared their location through the app.
Smart Home Essentials
With voice recognition,6 HomePod can listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send a notification directly to the user’s iPhone when sound is detected. A newly installed temperature and humidity sensor can measure the indoor environment, so users can create automations that close the curtains or automatically turn on the fan when a certain temperature is reached in the room.
By activating Siri, customers can control a device or create scenes like “Good morning” that activates several smart home accessories at the same time, or “Hey Siri, open the curtains every day the sun comes up.”7 A new confirmation tone indicates that Siri is being asked to control an accessory that doesn’t visibly show the change, such as a heater, or accessories located in another room. Environmental sounds such as the ocean, forest and rain have also been reworked and more integrated into the experience, allowing customers to add new sounds to scenes, automations and alarms.
Users can also navigate, view, and organize accessories intuitively with the redesigned Home app, which offers new categories for climate, lights, and security, makes smart home setup and management easier, and includes a new multi-camera view.
Issue Support
Matter launched last fall, allowing smart home products to work across ecosystems while maintaining the highest levels of security. Apple, along with other industry leaders, is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which maintains the Matter standard. HomePod connects to and controls Matter-enabled accessories and serves as a primary home hub, providing access to users outside the home.
Customer Information is Private Property
Protecting customer privacy is one of Apple’s core values. All smart home communications are always end-to-end encrypted so they can’t be read by Apple, including camera recordings with HomeKit Secure Video. When Siri is used, the voice of the prompt is not saved by default. These features give users peace of mind that their privacy is protected at home.
HomePod and the Environment
HomePod is designed to minimize its environmental impact and features 100 percent recycled gold—a first for HomePod—plating multiple printed circuit boards and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in the speaker magnet. HomePod meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and is mercury, BFR, PVC and beryllium free. The redesigned packaging eliminates the outer plastic wrap, and 96 percent of the packaging is fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025.
Today, Apple is carbon neutral for its global corporate operations and plans to be 100 percent carbon neutral across its entire manufacturing supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030. This means that every Apple device sold will have a net zero impact on the climate, from component manufacturing, assembly, transportation, customer use, charging, recycling and materials recovery.
Pricing and availability
- HomePod (2nd generation) available to order 299 dollars from (USA). apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app Australia, Canada, demon, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spainthe Great Britainthe USAand 11 other countries and regions are available starting today, Friday, February 3rd.
- HomePod (2nd generation) is compatible with iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later, or iPhone 8 and later running iOS 16.3 or later; or iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation) and later, iPad Air (3rd generation) and later, or iPad mini (5th generation) and later running iPadOS 16.3.
- Customers in the US get 3 percent in Everyday Cash back when they make purchases directly from Apple with their Apple Card.
About Apple
Apple revolutionized personal technology in 1984 with the introduction of the Macintosh. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms – iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS – provide a seamless experience across all Apple devices and empower people with cutting-edge services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are committed to making the best products on earth and leaving the world better than we found it.
- Apple Music requires a subscription.
- Multi-room audio requires multiple HomePod speakers or AirPlay-compatible speakers with the latest AirPlay software.
- A HomePod stereo pair requires two HomePod speakers of the same model, such as two HomePod minis, two HomePods (2nd generation), or two HomePods (1st generation).
- Handoff requires iOS 16.3 on your iPhone.
- Home theater with eARC support requires an Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) or later running the latest tvOS software.
- Voice recognition will be available in a software update later this spring. Voice recognition can detect smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and notify users when detected. Voice recognition should not be relied upon in situations where users may be harmed or injured, or in high-risk or emergency situations. Voice recognition requires an updated Home architecture, which will be available as a separate update to the Home app. This requires all Apple devices in the household to be running the latest firmware.
- Smart home accessories sold separately.
Click the Contacts button
Emily Ewing
apple
Lance Lin
apple
(408) 974-5036
Apple Media Helpline
(408) 974-2042
