Six head-scratching info concerning the new HomePod | Operator Tech

It has been a busy week for Apple. On Tuesday we acquired new chips, Mac minis and MacBook Professionals, and Wednesday introduced the return of the full-size HomePod, with an identical design and have set to the unique mannequin, in addition to the identical $299 worth, roughly two years. . after it was discontinued.

And whenever you dig into it, issues get even stranger. The brand new HomePod is sort of totally different from the unique mannequin, however in refined and complicated ways in which will not be as noticeable to anybody shopping for one. Listed here are 5 info concerning the new HomePod which have us scratching our heads:

The design isn’t precisely the identical.

At first look (and second and third), the second era HomePod seems to be similar to the unique mannequin. It has the identical round physique, mesh exterior, and display, however there are slight variations. For one, it is 4mm shorter and 200 grams lighter. The display on the prime is bigger and now takes up your complete space. The “seamless mesh cloth” of the unique mannequin is now “acoustically clear mesh cloth”, and Midnight has changed Area Gray. That will not make a visible distinction until you are evaluating a brand new and an outdated one facet by facet, and it appears unusual that Apple went to the difficulty of redesigning the HomePod so small.

You possibly can’t create a stereo pair with a 1st era HomePod

Top-of-the-line options of the HomePod is its skill to create a stereo pair that “reproduces every channel in good concord, making a wider and extra immersive soundstage than conventional stereo audio system.” It isn’t a brand new characteristic, however there is a catch: You possibly can’t pair a brand new HomePod with an outdated one. For a stereo pair to work, you may want two of the identical HomePods: a first-gen with a first-gen; mini with a mini; 2nd era with a 2nd era. It makes logical sense because the two have totally different specs, however it might have been good for Apple to discover a approach to make the 2 work properly collectively.

Foundry

Makes use of an Apple Watch chip

The unique HomePod used Apple’s A8 processor, which had debuted within the iPhone 6 a couple of years earlier, as “the brains behind superior audio improvements.” When the HomePod mini arrived a couple of years later, Apple used the S5 chip from an Apple Watch Collection 5 to “obtain nice sound in such a compact design.” The second-generation HomePod additionally makes use of an Apple Watch chip, the S7 processor in Apple Watch Collection 7, “to ship much more superior computational audio.” That is all properly and good, but it surely’s exhausting to not suppose that an A12 or A13 would supply a little bit of future proofing.

It nonetheless has a in-built energy twine.

One of many greatest shortcomings of the unique HomePod was the built-in energy cable, primarily as a result of folks naturally tried to unplug it and generally ended up ruining their audio system. Apple could have modified the connector to stop that from occurring, however primarily based on the photographs, the HomePod nonetheless has the identical energy twine completely connected to the again of the gadget. A transfer to a magnetic connector just like the 24-inch iMac would have been a pleasant enchancment.

Foundry

Helps slower Wi-Fi

It is somewhat unusual that the brand new HomePod nonetheless has Bluetooth 5 as an alternative of 5.3 (as discovered on new Macs and iPhones), but it surely really has slower Wi-Fi than the unique mannequin. In line with the technical specs, the primary HomePod supported 802.11ac, higher often known as Wi-Fi 5, whereas the newer HomePod makes use of Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). Perhaps it is an excessive amount of to ask for Wi-Fi 6E when the brand new iPhones do not even assist it, however we’re shocked to see the brand new HomePod use a Wi-Fi customary as outdated because the iPhone 4.

The audio specs appear to be inferior.

Here is the weirder factor: Primarily based on audio specs, the brand new HomePod is not practically nearly as good as the unique mannequin. Whereas it certainly “delivers next-level acoustics,” as Apple claims, a fast comparability of the tech specs exhibits two much less horn-loaded tweeters (5 vs. seven) and microphones (4 vs. six). In fact, all audio system and microphones usually are not created equal, and audio processing counts for lots. It is fairly potential that Apple will get the identical or higher audio with fewer audio system and microphones.