Apple’s new HomePod is a speaker with quality sound rivalling the best

FOR a hands-on demonstration of the new Apple HomePod, there was a major thing missing: it was look but do not touch.

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FOR a hands on demonstration of the new Apple HomePod, there was one major thing missing: it was look but do not touch.

Apple doesn’t release new product lines very often. Since Steve Jobs died in 2011, there has been the Apple Watch and the AirPods and lots of complaints in-between that it doesn’t innovate enough any more.

So when the tech giant announced HomePod today, the race from the convention hall in San Jose that hosted the WWDC keynote to the hands-on area for press only had one focus: Get to the HomePod before anyone else.

And as a unit, there is not a lot to see. Yet this 17cm kinda squat body speaker is a really big deal.

A prototype of Apple's new HomePod is displayed during the 2017 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference at the San Jose Convention Center. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

The product will not come to market until December, and even then it is only a limited release, with Australia just one of three countries due to get the first release.

The demo models today were not even working — although to be fair a speaker designed to respond to “Hey Siri” would not be at its best in a crowded room of journalists from around the world all trying to yell those words, in a multitude of languages, at the same time.

But even after a few minutes with the speaker a few things are clear.

Firstly, Apple is selling this on speaker first and smarts second. This is a home speaker designed to compete with everything from Sonos to B & O just on sound quality.

Whether it can match them in that department remains to be seen (or heard), but Apple certainly has some experience with music and sound (Beats and AirPod just being one example) and the seven tweeters and woofer inside are presumably up for the job.

This is a speaker for the home, probably the kitchen or lounge room, but there is no information as yet how it might cope with the occasional splash, smoke or steam you might get in the kitchen.

Just 17cm tall, the HomePod has been designed for kitchens and lounge rooms. Picture: Josh Edelson

Inside the speaker comes in four basic layers.

At the bottom are seven tweeters. Going up the unit, there are then six microphones to pick up voices around the room, a woofer and then the smarts of an A8 chip at the top.

How smart is this speaker? Plenty smart. That’s the same chip that powers the latest iPhone _ and in the speaker it pretty much has one job.

One of the selling points of HomePod is that it will detect the audio profile of any room and play sound in a way that best fits that space.

That’s not a new idea — Sonos has a turning system that makes an incredible difference to its speakers. But Apple will presumably do it by magic — just like the way you pair your AirPods to an iPhone just by opening the lid of the charging case.

Siri, Apple says, will be contextually aware, so you can ask it “who’s singing” when it is playing music and it will get the question.

Naturally, HomePod will play Apple Music. It’s not clear if you will be able to stream any other content.

From the specs, it doesn’t look any smarter than the Amazon Echo. It will tell you news and weather updates, translations and basic information. And arguably, it’s not as smart as Google Home.

But then again, unlike Google which raises concerns with people about how much a search engine needs to know about you, there is a stronger emphasis on privacy with HomePod.

The unveiling of Apple's new HomePod caused a flurry of excitement from tech reporters from all over the world at the San Jose Convention Center. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

It only listens when you say ‘Hey Siri’ and sends any information back to the Apple cloud encrypted and anonymously.

One of the most popular ways of using Siri on the Apple Watch is asking it to set a timer. We suspect it will be the same with Siri in HomePod.

But the power of Siri in HomePod will come down to what app makers decide to do with it. You’ll be able to use HomePod to order an Uber without needing to open an app — let’s see what else you will be able to do.

The HomePod speaker gets a close-up at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Picture: AP PhotoMarcio Jose Sanchez

Apple’s marketing senior Vice President Phil Schiller says it “is a chance to reinvent music”.

We don’t want to sound pessimistic, but pretty sure that’s not on the cards.

But what it could do is offer a solution to two problems. You want a smart speaker? You want a great home speaker for music? Here is how you have both.

But there is one hurdle Apple will need to face. Australian pricing hasn’t been released yet but, based on the US price of US$349, it is likely to be twice as expensive as a rival speaker.

Of course Apple has met this hurdle before. Apple doesn’t do cheap. Let’s see, come December, if it can do clever in the way it goes smart.

* Rod Chester travelled to San Jose for WWDC as a guest of Apple

Originally published as Apple’s new HomePod is a speaker with quality sound rivalling the best