5 New Features and Changes Rumored for the 2023 HomePod - MacRumors

Later this year, Apple is expected to reintroduce a caller full-sized HomePod, a successor to the archetypal astute talker which was discontinued astir 2 years ago.

Apple reportedly discontinued the HomePod successful March 2021 owed to lackluster income and a deficiency of features compared to the speakers offered by Amazon and Google. The HomePod lineup remains portion of Apple's portfolio acknowledgment to the smaller HomePod mini, which Apple announced successful 2020.

The ‌HomePod mini‌, successful its smaller signifier origin and cheaper $99 terms point, has been a bigger occurrence than the archetypal HomePod. In 2023, Apple is wide expected to reintroduce the full-sized HomePod to its lineup with respective caller features. Below, we outline 5 caller features and changes we expect from the upcoming HomePod.

1. Faster Processor

The archetypal HomePod featured an A8 chip, which helped powerfulness Siri, spatial awareness, and different operations for the speaker. The upcoming HomePod, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, volition diagnostic an updated S8 spot from the latest Apple Watch models.

2. U1 Ultra Wideband Chip

The ‌HomePod mini‌ features a U1 Ultra Wideband chip, which detects erstwhile different U1-equipped devices, specified arsenic the latest iPhone models, are adjacent and allows it to rapidly manus disconnected the audio to the astute speaker. The upcoming HomePod could diagnostic the U1 Ultra Wideband spot to bring it to parity with the ‌HomePod mini‌.

The U1 Ultra Wideband chip, successful the future, could besides let for different experiences, specified arsenic close-range information transfer, improved AR experiences, and the quality to way a user's nonstop determination wrong their home.

3. Larger Backlit Touch Interface

The archetypal HomePod and the ‌HomePod mini‌ diagnostic a backlit interaction interface astatine their top. The interface is tiny and doesn't amusement images oregon substance but alternatively glows antithetic colors to bespeak antithetic statuses oregon erstwhile ‌Siri‌ is invoked.

For the upcoming HomePod, Apple is expected to marque the interaction country adjacent larger, according to a caller study by Gurman. It's unclear if the larger country volition let for richer accusation oregon expanded functionality.

4. Cheaper Price

When Apple archetypal announced the HomePod, it was priced astatine $349, a higher terms constituent than competing astute speakers connected the market. Apple yet dropped the terms to $299 successful hopes of sparking sales.

Even astatine $299, users were inactive enactment disconnected by its precocious terms and ‌Siri‌'s shortcomings. With the upcoming model, Apple is expected to driblet the terms adjacent further, according to respective reports. For comparison, Amazon's Echo Studio, which has a akin wide footprint compared to the full-sized HomePod, is priced astatine $199 and has nonstop integration with respective services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Samsung's Smart Things, and more.

5. Faster Software Features

The A8 spot powered the archetypal full-sized HomePod, which provided capable show to powerfulness antithetic HomePod features, specified arsenic spatial awareness, ‌Siri‌, and more. In caller years, however, users person recovered that the archetypal HomePod struggles with definite tasks, sometimes making it hard to usage definite features.

Thanks to the S8 spot successful the upcoming HomePod, users volition beryllium capable to amended usage caller bundle features, specified arsenic enactment for the latest astute location connectivity modular Matter, improved ‌Siri‌ capabilities, faster ‌Siri‌ dependable designation for aggregate members of a household, and more.