Apple has brought in Afrooz Family to lead working on HomePod software, Bloomberg News reported. He is returning to Apple, having previously been there between 2012 and 2018.
Engineer Returns to Help HomePod Challenge Amazon Echo
In his first stint, Mr. Family worked his way up from being an intern in the Audio Technology team, moving up the ranks to become a Senior Audio Engineer, according to his LinkedIn profile. He left to co-found an audio startup called Syng, working alongside Christopher Stringer, who had been an industrial engineer at Apple.
Mr. Family will now lead the software side of Apple’s attempt to challenge Amazon’s Echo products in the smart speaker market. He replaces James Harrison, who joined Airbnb in 2020. Apple had not publicly commented at the time of this writing.
I wish they would bring back a vastly updated version of the original HomePod. I wish Siri were far far more useful. They could really focus on making Siri better.
Apple could really do some nice stuff for a surround sound immersive environment using HomePods.