Among the upcoming releases that Apple has lined up for its customers is the Apple HomePod. While it is not officially out until December, there have been reports that some employees of the tech company were spotted with the device for testing purposes.
Photos have also circulated that these employees were using the smart speaker. Andreessen Horowitz's Benedict Evans detected the HomePod on his phone and shared a screenshot of his iPlayer app on Twitter, indicating that someone was using the HomePod in the vicinity of Menlo Park, which is the location of the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California. One of the figures in the app was of the HomePod, and was labeled "Kitchen."
Prior to Evans' findings, a photo that circulated around Instagram, showed the HomePod being used on a marble counter. The user was reportedly based in Shanghai, China, but there has been no confirmation on that so far. A user on Reddit also pointed out that they can detect the HomePod on their iPad in their apartment in San Francisco, California.
All of these suggest that Apple has given employees a chance to test out the upcoming smart speaker before it officially launches. Apple so far has given no comment regarding this.
The Apple HomePod is the company's answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home. It was first announced back in June and will also feature Siri, which will not only support the device's functionality in terms of playing and choosing the music, but it will also answer basic questions.
As revealed by Apple's official site, the HomePod has the Apple-designed A8 chip, a high excursion woofer, a six microphone array, a seven tweeter array, and a seamless mesh fabric. The high excursion woofer has a custom amplifier to play a wide range of deep bass, and a powerful motor that can drive the diaphragm up to 20 mm. The seven tweeter can focus the sound with precision from narrow beams up to a full 360-degree audio that is also consistent.
The HomePod will come in two colors: white and space gray and is reported to have a $349 price tag. The Apple HomePod officially hits shelves in December.
