At Apple’s Unleashed event, Cupertino began by talking about Apple Music then moved swiftly to HomePod mini. Apple is beginning to sell HomePod mini in colors beyond white and space gray.
New HomePod mini Colors Available
If white or space gray don’t fit your decor preferences, you can get a HomePod mini in more vibrant colors. The Siri-driven smart speaker is now available in blue, yellow, and red.
Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, explained the thoughts behind offering the devices in additional colors.
HomePod mini sounds incredible, and with access to more than 90 million songs in the global Apple Music catalog and deep integration with your Apple devices, it’s the must-have smart speaker for iPhone users. With new vibrant colors, HomePod mini fits in even more places and delivers amazing sound, the power of Siri, and simple and secure smart home controls, all while protecting your privacy.
Apple has infused the new colors throughout the device. The colors don’t just decorate the HomePod mini’s mesh fabric covering. The woven power cable is colored to match. Even the top touch surface and volume icons are tinted in the same hue. “Under the hood,” if you will, the new models of the HomePod mini offer the same performance and features.
New Features Coming Soon to the Siri Smart Speakers
Even more features are coming to the smart speakers later in 2021, including:
- Expanded multi-user voice recognition: Siri is expanding support for multi-user voice recognition, so everyone in the home can enjoy music tailored to their taste profile, access their own playlists, use Personal Requests, and more.
- Automatic Siri volume: Siri will also automatically adjust the speaking volume on HomePod mini based on the room environment and volume of the user.
- More diverse voice options for Siri: Siri now includes more diverse voice options for English speakers in the US, so users can choose the voice that speaks to them right from the start when they set up their device.
- Elevate sound on Apple TV 4K: Users can pair HomePod mini to Apple TV 4K for a powerful sound experience with great range and high fidelity. Using computational audio, HomePod mini constantly analyzes the audio and models the performance to deliver crystal clear dialogue.
- Apple TV controls: Together, Siri and HomePod mini power new ways for users to interact with Apple TV. For example, users can ask Siri to turn on Apple TV, start a show or movie, and control playback.
- Fun sounds: Ask Siri on HomePod mini what various animals, instruments, or vehicles sound like and Siri will play a fun, high-fidelity sound.
- New ways to control smart home devices: Siri can control smart home accessories at specific times, so Siri can turn off the lights in 10 minutes or turn on the porch lights at sunset.
- Find My: Ask Siri on HomePod mini to help locate a misplaced iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple Watch, or AirTag by playing a sound to pinpoint its location.
New Color Availability
The new HomePod mini color options ship in November 2021, at a $99 retail price.