All types of youtube videos: 2017

I just spent a moment with Apple’s new HomePod intelligent speaker, which kind of looks like a mesh-wrapped Mac Pro. It comes in black and white, and it’s cute. Like a cute little ovoid thing. It has seven tweeters in the bottom, along with a four-inch woofer, and six microphones at the top. It’s about the size of two large grapefruits stacked on top of each other, I guess, if I needed to describe it. Smaller than a breadbox, anyway.

When you say “Hey, Siri,” it lights up at the top with a little waveform, and you can ask for a lot of Siri-type things, like reminders, timers, and random questions. Or at least, it’s supposed to do that. In the “demo” area, I looked around at all the Apple representatives, said “Hey, Siri” in a clear voice, and all I heard in response was the sound of their laughter. Nice try, Dieter.

The bit on top that lights up is neat, though. It looks a lot like the waveform you see on Siri when you speak to it on your phone — though, of course, this doesn’t look like a complete LCD here. You won’t be getting any visual answers out of the HomePod.