Your Apple smart home needs a HomePod mini

The HomePod was discontinued after just three years on the market (get it now while supplies last), but Apple isn’t giving up on its smart speaker ambitions. Released last September alongside the iPhone 12, the HomePod mini was meant to be a smaller alternative to Apple’s high-priced hi-fi speaker, but is now the only game in town. And if you want to set up a Siri-based smart home, it’s essential.

Size and layout

The HomePod mini still has the mesh grill exterior available in either space gray or white, but it has a completely different shape than the HomePod. It is a sphere rather than a cylinder, and its appearance is somewhat reminiscent of the mesh-protected apples you can find in the supermarket and it is not much larger. The HomePod mini is 3.3 inches tall, less than half the height of the HomePod, but it feels even smaller than that in person. The entire top is a screen, but it’s mostly for Siri and the status lights and it can be hard to see from across the room. Like the original HomePod, the mini’s cable is permanently attached and somewhat inflexible, but no matter where you put your HomePod mini, it’s certainly a statement piece.

Speakers and microphones

While it may seem small and unpowered, the HomePod mini is actually as capable as the larger model, while its size means it has fewer speakers and microphones than the larger model. As Apple describes, the HomePod mini has a “full-range controller, powered by a neodymium magnet and a pair of force-canceling passive radiators,” but its sound isn’t as deep as the larger HomePod. It particularly lacks bass, which was the loudest suit of the original HomePod, but the mini is still powerful enough to fill a room with sound, especially if you take a couple of them and set them up as stereo speakers on an iOS or Apple device. TV.

Since the HomePod mini is a Siri device, it has three microphones that are always listening for voice prompts, as well as an internal microphone to help isolate the sound from the speaker so you can hear the “Hey Siri” command even while playing music. Apple uses the S5 chip to process sound, the same processor in the Apple Watch SE.

However, even with a pair of speakers, the HomePod mini doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital 7.1, or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound like the larger HomePod.

Apple Music and other streaming services

The HomePod mini’s greatest strength is music playback, and if you’re an Apple Music subscriber, it’s a great companion. It also works well with the Apple Podcasts app and radio stations from iHeartRadio, Radio.com, and TuneIn. During the HomePod mini announcement, Apple teased the compatibility with third-party music services, but so far only Pandora is supported. Google Home and Amazon Echo are compatible with Amazon Music and Spotify, so it stands to reason that more services are on the way.

Siri

Like the full-size HomePod, HomePod mini relies on Siri as its main interface, using voice commands to play music and podcasts, control smart home devices, and answer general knowledge questions. You can also use Siri for personal updates, such as asking about your schedule, weather, traffic, and reminders, as well as Siri shortcuts made on your iPhone or iPad.

Michael Simon / IDG

Apple continues to protect your privacy while using Siri. Siri requests are sent to Apple servers only when Siri is activated, and those requests are not associated with your Apple ID. Apple also says that it does not sell your personal information to third parties. However, it does store some anonymous audio recordings to improve Siri’s accuracy, but you can choose not to participate in the Privacy tab in Settings on your iPhone. You can also delete all of your Siri history in the same tab.

Start Center

Apple lets you set up a device as a home hub to control HomeKit devices remotely from a central location, and the HomePod mini is the most economical option. And the beauty of this is that you don’t actually have to do anything to set it up. Once you log into your iCloud account, your HomePod mini will automatically configure itself as a home hub so everything you add to the Home app can be controlled when you’re not around. You can also create scenes and automations based on time or location that do things like turn the lights on when you get home or turn them off with a simple command.

Michael Simon / IDG

Intercom

In addition to playing music and summoning Siri, HomePod has a nifty intercom feature that lets you send and receive messages from one HomePod mini to another, or an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, and car connected to CarPlay. When you ask Siri to “intercom” or “ask everyone,” it will display an alert on all available devices with the intercom on and provide a playable audio recording. Interestingly, the Mac is not part of the intercom function.

Ultra-wideband U1 chip

The HomePod mini has Apple’s U1 chip, which provides the device with an ultra-wideband, a radio communication technology that uses very little power, operates in a short range, and has a high bandwidth. The U1 also allows for some great tricks for the iPhone. You can “transfer” music playback from your iPhone to the new HomePod, as well as receive pop-up multimedia controls without having to unlock your ‌iPhone‌. You can also get personalized listening tips as well as visual, audible and haptic effects when transferring sound between devices.

But Apple probably has much bigger plans for the U1 chip. You could create an API that allows smart device manufacturers to access the U1 chip and create automations and interactions that don’t require an app installation. Or you could take advantage of Siri shortcuts to generate room-based responses and actions from HomeKit devices without asking Siri to act. There are a lot of things Apple can do with the HomePod mini’s U1 chip, so we’ll have to wait and see what comes in future updates.

However, to use these features, you will need U1-equipped devices, according to Apple’s HomePod mini website. That means you need an iPhone 11 or later. Older iPhones will not be able to perform these functions.

Apple

Price, availability and device compatibility

The HomePod mini costs $ 99 USD and is available in space gray and white in the following countries:

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• India
• Japan
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• We
• porcelain
• Mexico
• Taiwan

HomePod mini is compatible with the following devices:

• iPhone 6s or later
• iPhone SE
• iPod touch (7th generation) with iOS 14
• iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation or later)
• iPad Air 2 or later
• iPad mini 4 or later with iPadOS 14

conclusion

If you’re looking to set up an Apple smart home, there are three options for a hub: an iPad, Apple TV, and HomePod mini. At $ 99, the HomePod mini is the cheapest of the bunch and is a smart speaker, so you can ask it to perform actions and routines like an Amazon Echo device. HomeKit devices are getting cheaper and more prevalent, so setting up an Apple smart home is easier than ever, especially with a HomePod mini to control everything. It doesn’t sound as good as the original HomePod, but it’s still better than an Echo Dot, and at $ 99, it’s a must-have device.