Google has Home. Amazon has Echo. And now, Apple finally revealed their smart speaker, HomePod. As you might expect—it is an Apple product after all—it’s downright gorgeous for a piece of tech, took a little longer to get to market and is priced higher than the alternatives. As much as we want to hate it because it would make it easier to skip replacing all our existing devices, we can’t. The Apple HomePod is easily the most powerful smart speaker on the market even if you’re not on the Apple ecosystem (though it certainly helps if you are). It looks like a combination of an old school Harman Kardon SoundSticks subwoofer married to a Mac Pro and covered in a 3D mesh fabric that looks a lot like a microphone. Underneath that pretty exterior you’ll find an A8 brain, upward facing 4″ woofer, 7 beam-forming tweeter array with individual drivers, 6 microphones and Siri integration. It’s even powerful enough to detect the size of the room its in and adjust the sounds accordingly with spatial awareness. HomePod is the new center of your smart home. It will be available in December.
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Huckberry’s Essential Holiday Gift Guide
Unzip your coat and have some mulled wine on the house—you’ve arrived at your final gifting destination: The Holiday Gift Guide. It’s like your friendly neighborhood one-stop holiday shop, except instead of balsa wood ornaments, ours is packed with thoughtful gifts for everyone on your list. Future heirlooms, small-but-significant stocking stuffers, and gear for getting out there (or staying in)—are all right here. There’s no music playing in the background though, so you’ll just have to hum Bing Crosby while you click around instead.
