Apple’s HomePod is Out on February 9

[Maura]

Apple finally announced today that its highly anticipated, Siri-powered smart speaker will be released on February 9 in the US, UK, and Australia, with pre-orders starting this Friday, January 26. It will also be available in France and Germany in the spring.

Apple says that the 7-inchs-tall HomePod “delivers stunning audio quality wherever it’s placed - in any room in the house, playing any style of music.”

You can control the speaker with just your voice. It uses your Apple Music subscription and Siri-integration to give you access to “one of the world’s largest cloud music libraries.” And also thanks to Siri, it can send messages, set a timer, play a podcast, check the news, sports, weather and traffic, and also control your HomeKit smart home accessories.

“HomePod is a magical new music experience from Apple. It brings advanced audio technologies like beam-forming tweeters, a high-excursion woofer and automatic spatial awareness, together with the entire Apple Music catalog and the latest Siri intelligence, in a simple, beautiful design that is so much fun to use,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “We’re so excited for people to get HomePod into their homes, apartments and businesses to hear it for themselves. We think they will be blown away by the audio quality. The team has worked to give Siri a deeper knowledge of music so that you can ask to play virtually anything from your personal favorites to the latest chart-topping releases, simply by saying ‘Hey Siri.’”

HomePod retails at $349 in white and space gray.

Source: HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday