<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Hey guys, I saw this from another mailing list. I thought I'd pass it on here.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Apple's $349 HomePod speaker is now available to preorder</div><div class="">Stereo pairing and multiroom audio won't arrive until later, though</div><div class="">By Thuy Ong, Jan 26, 2018, 8:38am EST</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Apple's $349 HomePod smart speaker is now available to preorder through the</div><div class="">Apple Store app, with shipping slated to start on February 9th. Despite the</div><div class="">delay in the speaker's launch, the HomePod will ship without features like</div><div class="">AirPlay 2, which allows pairing and multiroom audio. Apple says those</div><div class="">features are "coming this year in a free software update." HomePod is</div><div class="">powered by Apple's A8 chip (that first appeared in the iPhone 6) and</div><div class="">features built-in Siri, six microphones, HomeKit support to control your</div><div class="">compatible smart home devices, and the ability to automatically optimize</div><div class="">sound for a given room.</div><div class="">We briefly played with the speaker last year. My colleague Dieter called it</div><div class="">"a cute little ovoid thing" that "sounds really good in the demos" with</div><div class="">"more bass than you expect from such a small speaker." But we'll need to</div><div class="">spend some real time with it before we can say it's worth $349.</div><div class="">Apple's smart speaker offering is the most expensive of its rivals at this</div><div class="">size. The much larger and more powerful Google Home Max costs $399, while</div><div class="">the standard Google Home is $129, and Amazon Echo is $99.99. HomePod is also</div><div class="">rivaled by the Sonos One smart speaker. To ruffle Apple's feathers, Sonos is</div><div class="">offering two Sonos One speakers for $349, the price of a single HomePod.</div><div class="">Sonos One supports Amazon Alexa integration, and it's promising Google</div><div class="">Assistant integration sometime later this year.</div><div class="">The HomePod is available for preorder now in the US, UK, and Australia in</div><div class="">black or white. The smart speaker will be available in France and Germany</div><div class="">this spring.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Original Article <a href="https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/1/26/16935664/apple-homepod-speaker-pre-order-price-release-date" class="">here</a>.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>