Apple unveils ‘HomePod’ connected speaker at WWDC

A prototype of Apple’s new HomePod is displayed during the 2017 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at the San Jose Convention Center on June 5, 2017 in San Jose, California.

The Wall Street Journal says Amazon has already sold $1 billion worth of product in its Echo smart speaker range, which utilises the company’s virtual assistant Alexa.

In short, Siri is getting a new voice, and the Mac is getting a new name.

Of course, like so many other things about HomePod, we’re going to have to wait until December to experience the feature in a home environment. You can check out our comparison check here. It’s also been created to become the centerpiece of an Apple HomeKit connected home.

The company said its App Store has so far paid out 70 billion USA dollars to developers, of which 30 percent was made previous year. So we thought we’d make ourselves useful and tell you what you should pay attention to and what you could skip over to save time. Imagine pairing a well-done augmented reality app with a voice assistant capability in the home, and you might have something pretty cool.

“Out of close to half a billion households in China, at least 150 million households – based on affluence and high annual income – could potentially make up the total addressable market for smart speakers in the country”. Siri was originally developed at SRI International as part of a DARPA-funded artificial intelligence project called CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes) and spun out as a startup; Apple purchased it in 2010.

Tech reviewers, analysts, and Apple fans have started falling heads over heels in love with the HomePod. Another Safari feature will stop video from automatically playing on websites. Apple last updated the iPad Pro last fall, when it introduced the smaller model, but the iPad Pro hasn’t had a significant performance update since its 2015 release. The current version is just Sierra. That would help combat the competitive threat from Google’s and Amazon’s connected speakers: the Home and Echo mostly don’t support services from Apple.

“It’s the biggest brain inside a speaker”, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller proclaimed.

Apple is facing stiff competition in maintaining market share and is trying to find a means to continue to grow its consumer revenue.

Also of note is that Tim Cook once again spoke glowingly about the potential of augmented reality.

Until now, you’ve also needed an Apple TV to remotely control your HomeKit accessories from outside your house, but the HomePod will also handily let you do this without buying Apple’s ageing set-top box.

Apple has also designed this to go seamlessly with an iPhone.

More expected updates came with the company’s MacBook, Mac and iPad Pro lines. So far, interest in VR has been strongest among gamers, developers and hardware makers rather than everyday users. But to what extent Apple can surpass market leaders Amazon and Google? Apart from the smart speakers, the company also launched iOS 11, iPad Pro and iMac Pro during the conference.