Apple has recently unveiled their latest innovation, HomePod, “the new sound of home”. It’s basically a smart speaker with some added flair, a la Apple. Working hand-in-hand with Siri and Apple Music, HomePod promises to bring the experience of listening to music in your own home to the next level. The unit is intended as the usurper of Sonos’ throne, as well as your main way to interact with the company’s voice control assistant. Its exact capabilities and full list of features are still shrouded in mystery, but we’ve already imagined how HomePod could also become a loyal home protector.
The HomePod was announced at 2017’s WWDC as a smart speaker addition to Apple’s voice assistant, Siri. Interestingly, the company is pushing music as its main approach and so the unit is intended to be the first quality smart speaker on the market instead of competing with other digital assistants, such as Amazon Echo. They plan to make full use of their connection to Apple Music, granting a way to reach millions with audio through voice commands.
Apple aims to compress a powerful audio machine into a manageable size, featuring a high-excursion woofer with a custom amplifier, accompanied by an advanced algorithm that promises dynamic, distortion-free audio – a rare sight on the smart speaker industry. The HomePod is smart enough to analyze the room and its position in order to optimize the acoustic experience. And if you place two units in the same room, they automatically detect each other and balance the tunes to eliminate unwanted musical interference. Also, the device is wrapped in a seamless mesh fabric so it would appeal to the eyes as well. Just make sure to place it somewhere high so that your cat won’t mistake it for a smart claw scratcher.
We are still kept in the dark regarding HomePod’s full capabilities until its planned release in December 2017. Considering its price tag – a whopping $350 – it better have some aces up in its sleeve. But we’ve already come up with some supplementary uses for this half speaker, half assistant device. Since Apple already has ties with several home security manufacturers – most notably Honeywell – it’s safe to say that Siri is capable of managing your alarms.
The system is also able to perform ‘scenes’ where Siri executes a series of tasks via a simple voice command. For instance saying ‘Leaving home’ prompts the virtual assistant to close the smart locks, arm the security sensors and turn off the lights. But how does HomePod fit into the equation? Just imagine that you can set up a dog alarm scene: when a burglar triggers an alarm, Siri commands HomePod to start playing the sound of a dog at full volume. Other versions could include police sirens or a gun shot. Now this would make the criminals flee like chicken!
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