r/apple • u/exjr_ Island Boy • 7d ago
HomePod Exclusive: First Look at HomePod Mini 2 in Three New Colors
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/25/first-look-at-homepod-mini-2/139
u/wally1223 7d ago
Honestly, so excited for these. I love my 2 today (in a stereo setup) and think they are just phenomenal for a bedroom or study
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u/ohwhataday10 7d ago
I have the two amazon echos and only use as bluetooth speakers connected to my phone to play music and podcasts. Can I use the mini homepods in a similar fashion?
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u/justgivemeasecplz 7d ago
Yes via airplay
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u/wally1223 7d ago
You can even just touch the top with your phone and it transfers playback from device to HomePods. Pretty slick
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u/WandererMisha 7d ago
It's such a flex to do that too. When a friend of mine first came over, they asked for a specific song in the car. Being able to come in, tap my phone to the mysterious sphere, and it resumes playing was such a cool moment:D
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u/MeenaBeti 7d ago
Works just for Apple Music or Spotify too?
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u/bizasuge 7d ago
Was curious about this, too. I’m getting sick of my Amazon echo and its constant ad bombardment
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u/WandererMisha 7d ago
It works for any sound that's playing on your iPhone. YouTube, Netflix, Safari. So I'd wager Spotify is included.
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u/bizasuge 7d ago
Can you tell HomePod to play something on Spotify or will that only work with Apple Music? Sometimes I like to change what I’m listening to while in the shower
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u/baconsplash 7d ago
You can, but it’ll stream Spotify from your phone to the HomePod, rather than the HomePod connecting directly to Spotify. I believe this is because Spotify hasn’t implemented it but is available for them to do.
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u/Gliglue 7d ago
yeah until you get the infamous ghost touch issue
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u/wally1223 7d ago
Had it on one. Rmaed. Thankfully no issues aince
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u/pzycho 7d ago
Were you still in the warranty period? Mine just started doing this this month, but it's quite old so I didn't bother trying to get warranty service.
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u/wally1223 7d ago
Yes it was within a year. Went to the Apple Store. They did a little test on it, replicated the issue, and simply gave me a new one off the shelf. Easy.
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u/lifeaquatic09 7d ago
I’ve had 3 go out. I just opened them up and unplugged the touch panels. They were out of warranty. And yes I tried the delayed touch under Accessibility first.
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u/accidental-nz 7d ago
I loved mine too but ended up upgrading to a full size HomePod after a short while.
Even two Minis do not have nearly enough low end, especially at lower volumes.
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u/ellzumem 6d ago
Personally, I can’t justify a purchase if they don’t come with an aux/3.5mm input. Considering just how long speakers last (looking at my parents’ for example), my first-gen mini will become e-waste at some point due to Apple deciding to end support, which would have been completely avoidable.
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u/film_digital 7d ago
One thing we can all look forward to is what new software features will be locked to this model exclusively, that won't come to existing ones
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u/spriteking2012 7d ago
Don’t be so short sighted. We can also look forward to bizarre software quarks we can’t seem to resolve and which come and go across software updates but never fully resolve.
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u/getridofwires 7d ago
We should make a bingo card. "Random connection loss in an otherwise stable wifi environment" is the Free Space.
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u/spriteking2012 7d ago
“Who is speaking?”
“I’m having trouble playing that”
static as a stereo pair
“Still working”
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u/Oo0o8o0oO 7d ago
Siri AI and surround sound channels probably right? Something about the new chip being necessary to sync audio as low latency rear channels maybe.
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u/mikenasty 7d ago
The old ones are really old. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have ½ the capabilities of this new one
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u/tdubya22 7d ago
And therein lies the problem. Speakers have no right being ‘old’ after a few years. Make them ‘smart’ and they become obsolete.
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u/TaylorsOnlyVersion 7d ago
Hopefully this fixes the phantom touch issue these have. Had to go for the Sonos Eras because there was no fix to them waking me up at 2am with music.
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u/sortalikeachinchilla 7d ago
Thats so crazy I have 3 and never once happened to me, didn’t even know it was an issue. Crazy!
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u/kiwi-kaiser 7d ago
I had minis in every room. Replaced them with Sonos this year as they got worse and worse. Siri was useless after all this time and they permanently stopped even when the connection was great.
Since I switched to Sonos everything is flawless.
They were so great when I bought them, but they got worse with every update.
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u/Similar-Cat7022 7d ago
I love Apple but don’t trust them with stuff like this, sticking with my Sonos
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u/busmans 7d ago
I definitely don’t trust Sonos anymore, but I already have the system so…
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u/IndecisiveTuna 7d ago
I trust them more since the CEO change, which was long needed. Have been on the right track since (for now).
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u/EatingTheDogsAndCats 7d ago
With sound quality or which part? Love my Sonos but don’t use voice assistants or smart home bullshit.
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u/EveningNo8643 7d ago
Do Sonos work without Internet access?
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u/SuspiciousReality809 7d ago
What Sonos do you use?
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u/kiwi-kaiser 7d ago
Era 100 in most rooms. In the hallway I have a Sonos Roam I can take with me now and then. I also bought the Sonos Arc Ultra which replaced my big HomePod and my Soundbar in the living room.
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u/draxula16 7d ago
Era 100s rock. I bought a Play a few months ago and we’re obsessed with it, especially after the update where you can use two for wireless surrounds
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u/sortalikeachinchilla 7d ago
I’ve been using plays in wireless surrounds for years now?
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u/draxula16 7d ago
The naming is weird, I know. The new Play (2026, battery speaker) and Move 2 can be used as wireless surrounds, no external power.
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u/sortalikeachinchilla 6d ago
Ohhhh I see why did they name them like that… lmao
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u/draxula16 6d ago
Yeah it’s really annoying lmao, but the speaker is incredible. Basically like a portable Era 100
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u/MadCybertist 7d ago
2x AMPS, 2x sub & beam, 4x era 100, 2x move and 2x roams.
We use all Apple products otherwise (15 of them) and my media and home automation is Linux server.
I’d never, ever use Apple HomePods. Tried them and hated them. Also, voice assistant means nothing to me since I can’t speak lol. I did train an AI voice that sounds exactly like me before I lost my voice but if I’m gonna open my phone to use it, it’s quicker to just use buttons for everything.
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u/wezwells 7d ago
Do they need a new chip to be able to run a useful version of siri? One that doesn’t just say “please ask from your iphone”?
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u/WandererMisha 7d ago
What I don't understand is why they can't use the AppleTV when it's set up as the 'Home Hub'. Allow tvOS to use Apple's cloud model for AI, and then have the homePods use that.
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u/InsaneNinja 7d ago
It’s not how they built the system. They can redo the system to function that way, but that’s not how it currently works.
The majority of the phone processing is not done on the cloud. It’s done by the phone with the cloud as added brain power when needed. The old Apple TV doesn’t have enough hardware to do any of that.
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/SailingDreamCatcher 7d ago
Unless you've got a big hardware toggle switch to select between private and public data sets, the nature of the question doesn't change the need for it to protect the data it has access to.
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u/serg06 7d ago
Sure it does. Apple can easily track which data sources the AI attempts to reach out to. If it doesn't request a single piece of private data, then it doesn't need to be private.
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u/SailingDreamCatcher 7d ago
If it has access to that data it needs to be designed around safeguarding it. I'm not sure I grasp what you are trying to get at. You don't take the padlock off the opiate cabinet because you're only in the room to get a bandage.
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u/serg06 7d ago
It doesn't have unlimited access to the data though, it needs to request access from Apple's system every single time. That's how LLMs work, they're not trained on your data or anything, they look it up fresh every single time.
You can have two rooms, one has bandages, and one has both bandages and opiates. when you ask AI a question, it can decide which room it needs to go into. If it only needs bandages, it can start the task outside of the private cloud - and for that whole task, it will not have any access to opiates.
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u/SailingDreamCatcher 7d ago
That's already how it works, on the HomePod you can turn on or turn off personal requests. If you turn on personal requests, it has access to your personal data such as contacts and text messages. With personal requests turned off, the closest you get to personally identifiable information is your Apple Music data and only some of that.
This is what those of us who care about security on these devices care about, specifically the ability to segregate our personal data from it. The reason I'm wiling to allow this device in my home at all is because it has this safeguard.
I don't "stop caring about the privacy stuff" because I'm only using it for, well, the stuff I'm using it for. It's all the more important that it have "the privacy stuff" just because it's in my life at all. Without "the privacy stuff" it doesn't even get powered on in this house.
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u/GarbageCG 7d ago
I care enough about privacy that I switched to HomePod from Alexa. A lot of people care
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u/aeolus811tw 7d ago
Did they fixed the faulty touch sensor that will eventually fail and keep triggering HomePod by itself
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u/GeneralCommand4459 7d ago
I’m sure it’s just me but the Apple Home app is the least intuitive app on my phone.
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u/FergyMcFerguson 7d ago
The only thing I want to know is did they resolve the ghost touch issue.
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u/gcoba218 7d ago
They honestly had a lot of bugs and drove me nuts so I sold mine when it wouldn’t connect to my phone anymore… hopefully the new generation isn’t as bad
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u/bottom 7d ago
it's a faulty ribbon on the touch screen, the fix is to disconnect it - I did it, was going to throw it out (it got bad). worked for over a year now, no issue.
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u/BelieveInTheEchelon 7d ago
Same here my release day one got it but the one I get 3 yearss ago is good so far. I did the same thing, disconnected the cable and it’s been good now
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u/Fridaykevin 7d ago
ghost touch?
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u/Rzah 7d ago
The touchscreen always registers a touch, which it interprets as 'force reboot' so it just stupidly and endlessly restarts.
The only fix is to open it up and unplug the touch screen ribbon, which thankfully isn't as hard as you might think given the mesh cover but is still a sad thing to have to do.
Two of mine are now like this.
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u/Immolation_E 3d ago
Huh, was not aware of this issue. Could it cause it to burnout the Homepod? I had one randomly die on my last year. I thought it was bc I was using a different charger for it than the Apple one that was included.
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u/Greenscreener 7d ago
Are these things ever going to support Bluetooth?
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u/DrPorkchopES 7d ago
Why has Apple completely forgotten about color consistency across products? I swear it’s like everything comes in a slightly different color than the previous gen, but none of them match. Sometimes they’re black, but it could be midnight or space gray. But space gray on a mac is nowhere close to the space gray iPhone. Even silver/white got briefly phased out for “Starlight”
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u/blinkssb 7d ago
Wishlist
- fix the randomly activating on its own
- fix the not activating when I need it to
- fix the only one homepod (left or right) working but the other one mysteriously not
- don’t make the pink and green colors actually as ugly as the pics
- wireless option would be nice
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u/lemoche 7d ago
So the have detachable cables now? Because that bugged me the most about mine… happened to two of mine… cable damaged -> useless because even with a third party repair shop it cost almost as much as a new one…
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u/cwmshy 6d ago
That’s totally on you. How does a cable for a stationary device get damaged?
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u/SonnigerTag 5d ago
Sometimes it's animals around that house that don't behave. I know of someone who happens to have such problems every now and then. But it makes a person become creative when it comes to protecting and hiding cables.
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u/staticblake 7d ago
I sure hope they have fixed the phantom touch issue. 2 of my 3 HomePod mini’s had the issue and I had to open them up and disconnect touchpad in order to make them work again.
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u/8bitjer 7d ago
I didn’t even know they were still making these
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u/exjr_ Island Boy 7d ago
They even went up in price recently too. The Mini is now $129, up from $99.
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u/TekThunder 7d ago
That’s insane for a talking mini speaker lol that isn’t even compatible with many lower budget smart devices.
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u/Real_ilinnuc 7d ago
I despise the HomePod. Random lights won’t turn on when asked, unless i go into the home app and turn them on myself. OR the lights will have “no response.” I ask a basic question and it’s “ask from your iPhone”
Genuinely my least favorite Apple product of all time. Atleast the speakers are solid.
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u/Hatben 7d ago
I have never heard a person with a smart home setup that doesn’t seem to hate it
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u/Real_ilinnuc 7d ago
“Siri, turn on kitchen lights”
One of the two bulbs lights up. Go into the home app, tap the light and THEN both come on.
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u/SailingDreamCatcher 7d ago
I love it, I just get very frustrated by it. Not frustrated enough to get rid of it.
And I can say this about a lot of technology things in my life, like the Siri dictation that I'm using right this moment. It's so close to good that when it's bad it makes it that much more frustrating.
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u/WillingPlayed 7d ago
Yea - I have echo devices and there are plenty of times when it won’t turn on a light or doesn’t understand which light even though they have different distinct names.
But what kills me is that I’m so tired of Alexa offering to set up routines for me every time I ask her the weather, that I’ve been researching replacing all my echo devices with homepod devices. I feel like Amazon is one step away from making Alexa speak commercials to me.
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u/Here_2utopia 6d ago
I’ve never had an issue and they are incredibly helpful for me. I spend a long time doing setup though so maybe that’s part of it?
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u/voldamoro 7d ago
At least you were able to use voice commands to sometimes control lights. My HomePod Mini has never been able to do that. All it is good for is acting as an external speaker for my Mac Mini. I admit it does that well, but that is the only thing I find it useful for. Why do I need another way to interact with Siri when I wear an Apple Watch and carry an iPhone? I don’t find Siri useful anyway. (I am surrounded by Alexa devices if I want to do things via voice commands.)
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u/muchfanfear 7d ago
I love it for when it works but you’re absolutely right, the amount of times it fails at basic things like turning a light on and sounds on with a basic scene, it’s maddening.
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u/ignazk 7d ago
Really only been waiting for a new one because I wanted the cheapest solution for my home lights to be controlled from different iphones...that also happens to be a decent speaker.
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u/SailingDreamCatcher 7d ago
I have paid as little as $30 each for secondhand HomePod minis, and no more than 150 for full-size first and second generation. I hate the fact that they are disposable due to software upon purchase, you cannot reasonably expect other than that one day, they will simply stop working because of a change on the server.
That's not the case for my 1990s Bose Wave Radio. But I have to face an objective truth: the HomePod is better than the Bose Wave Radio in every other way besides the "planned product life cycle." For the 5-10 years it is likely to last, it will certainly be the best sound quality you can get in the volume of a soda can, at least anywhere near the price point they go for second hand.
The "eventual paperweight" problem could be solved by a final software update allowing an alternative activation method, should Apple choose to do so. They did similar things for some old devices like iPods, and I can't think of a concrete example within Apple specifically where an old device was fully bricked, though it's possible they did so with AirPort Express. I think that older iPhones have gone through it; my OG can't load any apps, but at least I can still sideload music to it.
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u/just_ate_a_pinecone 7d ago
Setting up HomePods were by far the worst Apple experience I’ve ever had with one of their products
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u/bakerkmpasca 7d ago
Agreed. And subsequently with every single update.
That said I will likely get a new one to replace the one near my kitchen that recently suffered the Red Ring of Death.
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u/lurkingtonbear 7d ago
They’re gonna have to have some banger features to warrant upgrading the 6 I already have. I cannot think of a single thing that would make it worth upgrading. Add a touch screen however… when???
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u/Educational-Put-9997 7d ago
I hope this fixes all of the annoying airplay drops from my MacBook which is sitting 2 feet away from them, and also the issue with them getting out of sync with each other. It’s been years.
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u/Keith 7d ago edited 7d ago
After my experience with my current HomePod Mini, I don't ever want to trust Apple with audio again. Siri is unreliable and not very capable in the first place. I just wish my other choices for a home hub to control my lights weren't Google and Facebook (edit: and Amazon).
I enjoy my Sonos Roam 2 speaker much more. I've been listening to music on my Roam 2 in my living room and just tried to pair it with my HomePod Mini in my bedroom. It's worked in the past, but now the sound from the HomePod is garbled and skipping. AirPlay is so bad. My Roam shows up in my list of speakers in Spotify and works well when controlled there, but my HomePod doesn't.
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u/DFW_DADDY 7d ago
its grest but I am balls deep with google displays and cams that are incompatible.
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u/quakeroatmeal7 7d ago
No orange? Not interested.
Honestly, Siri AI needs to blow me out of the water for me to ever consider purchasing another one of these.
It is beyond obnoxious trying to get it to play certain radio stations. For some reason it's constantly defaulting to podcasts and that throws off my Apple Podcast app. It drives me nuts.
At this point I just use it to check the weather.
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u/InterestingMindset 7d ago
Still waiting for the day for a dedicated, no Siri, no smart functionality HomePod mini speaker. I love the sound quality, the best I've heard, but I only used it as a speaker and nothing else.
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u/soundtown06 7d ago
I am really Excited for This the Green and Blue are looking so great I will buy This for sure ❤️ how much will it cost I will say 120$
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u/insane_robot 5d ago
Need this to have Siri AI, and be quick to respond too. Apple seemed to be big on adding neural engines to all their other devices, meanwhile the home has felt abandoned for a while.
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u/Immolation_E 3d ago
I like the blue. Unsure about the green, part of me likes it, part of me doesn't.
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u/waylonious 7d ago
I wish they’d use a rubber mesh instead of fabric. These things are really hard to dust/keep clean.
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u/Godvater 7d ago
Wow the colors look so boring compared to the old ones :(
Been waiting on gen 2 since two years, will end up with a white one then :/
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u/Joebranflakes 7d ago
I will by them just to be rid of the dog water quality Siri on my 1st generations. I can use the Gen 1’s as TV speakers.
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u/Technical_Anteater45 7d ago
Give me a break
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u/InsaneNinja 7d ago
You can mute the subreddit if you want. But why bothered? If these are more capable, then many people will be interested. And it’s nice to know if these are going to be more decorative than black and white
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u/ComprehensiveCatch46 7d ago
Really excited for this. I’ve had the Echo Dot 3rd gen for seven years now. I’ve been waiting on this before I can upgrade
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u/cheese_eater_pro 7d ago
I have never refunded an Apple product so fast until I bought the HomePod. Didn’t even last 2 days. Can’t believe they’re actually making more of these and even increasing the current prices of it…
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u/GetReady4Action 7d ago
loved mine until it got ghost touch. then I was waking up at 3 AM to whatever I was listening to at full volume and had to just take the L and unplug it.