HomePod mini 2 ships before Siri AI does
HomePod mini 2 is $149, with an S10 chip, and it reaches stores on October 30. Siri AI is a later update, in English, in eight countries.
| The speaker | Siri AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $149 | Later, free update |
| Arrives | October 30 | A later software update |
| Where | US and more than 23 countries | Eight countries, English |
| Chip | S10 | On the S10, or Private Cloud Compute |
| In the EU | Not named as excluded | Not in iOS or iPadOS at the start |
| Personal context | Needs the owner's Apple Intelligence phone | Same phone, Siri AI switched on |
Pre-order is open today in the US and more than 23 other countries and regions. The colors are pink, green, blue, white, and midnight. The price is $149, and stores get it Friday, October 30. It runs HomePod software 27.2.
The chip is the S10. Apple uses it for computational audio, adjusting dynamic range and loudness as a song plays. The post does not print memory, a TOPS figure, or watts.
Siri AI is not in the box on day one. Apple says it comes in a later free software update. At the start it is English in the US, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK.
The footnote is the Europe line. Siri AI will not initially be available in the EU in iOS or iPadOS. Some features that use a server model have a daily limit, and Apple says wider access to those will cost a fee later. It does not name the fee.
Personal context needs a paired Apple Intelligence iPhone or iPad, with Siri AI on and set to a supported language. The owner of the home has to have one. The speaker can tell up to six people apart by voice.
Once that update is on, Apple says someone without that phone still gets broad answers, a conversation that goes back and forth, and music search. A request can run on the speaker or in Private Cloud Compute. Apple says the cloud copy is not stored and is not available to Apple.
What does arrive on October 30 is the audio. Sound Glow lights the top from the album art, and a soundscape such as rain gets its own pattern. Turning that light with a voice needs an Apple Intelligence iPhone.
One speaker, or a stereo pair, can be the speakers for a Mac with Wi-Fi 6E or later. Four HomePod mini 2 units, in matching front and rear pairs, make surround sound with the new Apple TV 4K. A second-generation HomePod pair can take one of those ends.
The speaker's country list is the wide one. The assistant's list is the short one. HomeView, from the same morning, stays off sale in the EU, Norway, and the other EEA countries, because Siri AI is not on the iPhone there.
The $149 speaker can be ordered in far more places than the assistant that was the reason to wait for it.
Die Brief desk. The claim is ours. Facts from Apple Newsroom, Apple Newsroom. Pictures, if any, are from those pages.
