Vratislav Holub On the occasion of yesterday's apple conference, we finally got it. Apple showed off the brand new iPhone 12 to the world. Under normal circumstances, the phones with the bitten apple logo are presented as early as September, but this year due to the global pandemic of the disease COVID-19, which slowed down mainly companies from the supply chain, they had to be postponed. Even before the "star of the evening", the Californian giant presented us with a very interesting, cheap and potentially high-quality product - HomePod mini.
It could be interest you
We got the previous HomePod in 2018. It is a smart speaker that offers its user relatively high-quality 360° sound, great integration with the Apple HomeKit smart home and Siri voice assistant. The downside, however, is that the competition in this direction is miles away, which is why HomePod sales simply aren't doing that much. Only this latest little thing could bring about a change, but we will encounter a rather fundamental problem. HomePod mini will not be sold in many countries, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia. However, it is still a rather interesting product that we will be able to buy, for example, abroad or from various resellers.
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Technical Specifications
If you watched the aforementioned presentation yesterday, you surely know that the HomePod mini will be available in two colors. Specifically, in white and space gray, which we can describe as relatively neutral colors, thanks to which the product will easily fit into any interior. As for the size, it is a really small baby. The ball-shaped smart speaker measures 8,43 centimeters in height and 9,79 centimeters in width. However, the lower weight, which is only 345 grams, is quite welcoming.
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High-quality sound is ensured by an advanced broadband driver and two passive speakers, which can provide deep bass and perfectly sharp highs. As we already indicated above, thanks to its shape, the product is able to emit 360° sound and thus sound the entire room. HomePod mini continues to be coated with a special material that ensures better acoustics. So that the sound itself is as good as possible, in any room, the product uses its special Computational audio function, thanks to which it analyzes the environment 180 times per second and adjusts the equalizer accordingly.
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HomePod mini still has 4 microphones. Thanks to this, the voice assistant Siri can easily cope with listening to a request or recognizing a household member by voice. In addition, the products can be easily paired and used in stereo mode. As for connectivity, the product here boasts a wireless WiFi connection, Bluetooth 5.0 technology, a U1 chip for detecting the nearest iPhone, and guests can connect via AirPlay.
Control
Since it is a smart speaker, it goes without saying that we can control it with the help of our voices or other Apple products. Alternatively, you can manage even without them, when you can make do with ordinary buttons directly on the product. There is a button on the top for playing, pausing, changing the volume, and it is also possible to skip a song or activate Siri. When the voice assistant is turned on, the top of the HomePod mini turns into beautiful colors.
What can the HomePod deal with?
Of course, you can use the HomePod mini to play music from Apple Music. In addition, the product can handle the playback of purchased songs from iTunes, with various radio stations, with Podcasts, offers radio stations from services such as TuneIn, iHeartRadio and Radio.com, fully supports AirPlay, thanks to which it can play practically anything. In addition, during the presentation itself, Apple mentioned that the HomePod mini will support third-party streaming platforms. So we can expect Spotify support to be a given.
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Intercom
When the expected HomePod mini was presented during yesterday's keynote, we were also able to see the Intercom application for the first time. This is a quite practical solution that will be appreciated especially by apple smart households. Thanks to this, you can tell Siri to say something to the person at any time. Thanks to this, the HomePod smart speaker will then play your message and deliver the appropriate notification to the recipient's device.
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Requirements
If you like the HomePod mini and would like to buy it, you will have to meet relatively low requirements. This smart speaker only works with iPhone SE or 6S and newer models. However, it can also handle the 7th generation iPod touch. As for Apple tablets, iPad Pro, iPad 5th generation, iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 4 will be enough for you. Support for newer products is then a matter of course, but it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that we must have the latest operating system installed. Another condition is, of course, a wireless WiFi connection.
Availability and price
The official price of this little thing is 99 dollars. Residents of the United States of America can order the product for this amount. As we mentioned above, our market is really unlucky. Just like the HomePod from 2018, its younger and smaller sibling labeled mini will not be officially sold here.
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However, the great news is that the HomePod mini has already appeared in the Alza menu. In any case, no further information has been added to the product. We will have to wait for the price or availability, but we can already expect that this little thing will cost us around 2,5 thousand crowns. You can currently turn on availability monitoring for this smart speaker and you will be notified by email as soon as it goes on sale.
It could be interest you
All we wanted to know about the HomePod mini is how its sound performance compares to the classic HomePod. And that's not here. Apple told us everything else yesterday.
And how are we supposed to find out at the moment, when we don't have it and can't physically have it with us? As soon as there is an opportunity, there will of course be another special article about sound...
That was the allusion to the title of the article. ? Can't you tell from that? I would like to think more about the names.
So most of the articles are empty gibberish about nothing, except for 2-3 lines in the preceding paragraph. Who didn't recognize it, it's like reading the same thing over and over again :-)