With first betas of iOS 11.2, tvOS 11.2 and watchOS 4.2 now available to Apple's registered developers, the company on Monday updated the HomePod firmware ahead of the scheduled December launch of its Siri-powered wireless speaker accessory.
V-Moda is historically known for making premium headphones, including some with 3D printed customizations. The REMIX is their first foray into the Bluetooth speaker market. The goal of the REMIX is to be as forward thinking as possible. While it is true in many regards, it does have a couple missteps along the way.
Sonos on Wednesday announced its HomePod competitor, the $199 One wireless speaker, that will launch with Amazon Alexa on October 24, with support for Google's Assistant and Apple's AirPlay 2 feature coming in 2018.
Marshall, a company known for its outstanding history in vintage guitar amps, entered the consumer market a few years ago with a series of speakers and headphones. The Stockwell, the smallest in their lineup, has stood out as probably my favorite portable Bluetooth speaker to hit the market in several years.
Many people are still waiting for the premium iPhone X to hit the market in November. But in the meantime, iPhone 8 shoppers have started to receive their brand spanking new phones.
Learn how to make the speaker on your iPhone sound a bit louder than usual, even with the volume cranked all the way up to the maximum.
HomePod, Apple's wireless speaker scheduled to arrive this December, will support a new pairing method based on special audio tones generated by it and detected by a host iPhone.
Samsung yesterday publicly corroborated rumors that it has been working on an unnamed HomePod competitor that will likely use the company's Bixby personal assistant and provide “a fruitful user experience” at home with Samsung devices.
Fresh details on HomePod's setup, unearthed yesterday from the newest iOS 11 developer beta by Brazilian outlet iHelp.br (Google Translate), show that the process of setting up Apple's upcoming wireless speaker won't differ much from configuring your AirPods or Apple TV via your iPhone, iPod or iPod touch with iOS 11.
David Ho, president of Taiwanese contract manufacturer Inventec Appliances, suggested during an earnings conference today that a high-profile smart home device his company has received orders for would be faced with constrained launch supply in December.
Facebook is apparently jumping on the smart speaker bandwagon, with a new report Tuesday out of Taiwan claiming that the social networking giant is looking to take on Amazon's Echo, Google's Home and Apple's HomePod smart speakers.
Amazon is working on the next Echo accessory that should feature significantly improved sound quality over the current lineup of Echo smart speakers, Engadget reported Thursday.
The gizmo will reportedly include “several tweeters” versus the one large tweeter and a woofer in the existing Echo. The company is also improving the new Echo's microphone technology, “though it's unclear how it's doing so.”
Current Echo devices have seven far-field mics, while Apple's HomePod has six and Google's Home has two.
Shorter and slimmer than the original Echo, which released two years ago, the next Echo will be more stylish than its predecessors thanks to rounded edges and a cloth-like covering.
Amazon is allegedly planning for a fall release.
Echo has been lauded as the best voice-activated speaker on the market in terms of AI and voice features, but with poor audio quality. That's in stark contrast to Apple's upcoming HomePod, which many reviewers praised for being the best-sounding smart speaker out there, even outperforming Sonos in terms of sound quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l_YjBiK7iM
With the next Echo, Amazon is clearly looking to close the gap with HomePod when it comes to audio quality and style.
HomePod features an array of seven horn-loaded tweeters, each with its own custom amplifier, a high-excursion woofer with custom amplifier, internal low-frequency calibration microphone for automatic bass correction and a six-microphone array for far-field Siri and room sensing.
The built-in A8 chip constantly analyzes the music being played through the speaker, as well as the room layout, to continually optimize audio quality using software-based features such as direct and ambient audio beam-forming and transparent studio-level dynamic processing.
HomePod is due to launch this December.
Image: Amazon Echo Show with a built-in display