HomePod mini

Apple’s significant expansion of its smart home lineup in 2025 should include new HomePod and HomePod mini models. The company plans to introduce both a display-equipped HomePod and a refreshed HomePod mini amid a renewed focus on the smart home market.

As usual, you can expect Apple to emphasize quality audio as well as airtight security. Here’s what to expect from HomePod and HomePod mini in 2025.

Your HomePod is a lot more than a simple speaker — it’s a whole computer. And like any computer it has an operating system that needs occasional updates. Here’s how to make sure your Apple smart speaker has the software version released on Wednesday.

Version 18.2 adds natural language support when using Siri to search for songs on Apple Music — just describe what you want.  Plus there are other enhancements and bug fixes.

If you depend on automatic updates, it’s possible your smart speaker hasn’t yet installed the update. Here’s how to do so manually.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday HomePod deals aren’t as extensive as you might find on other products, but at least you can save a few bucks on Apple’s smart speakers. We found early Black Friday savings at B&H Photo on both HomePod 2 and HomePod mini, and we’ll update this post if sweeter bargains come along.

Currently, the prices are as cheap or cheaper than even major warehouse discounters like Costco and Sam’s Club (which admittedly offers the HomePod mini for a penny less than B&H). Plus, if you’re searching for a Black Friday deal on HomePods at Amazon and coming up blank, you’re not going crazy. The retailer doesn’t stock HomePods, possibly because it’s trying to sell so many of its competing Echo smart speakers.

If you’re looking for deals on other Apple gear, don’t miss our big roundup of Apple Black Friday deals.

Update: These deals are still in effect for Cyber Monday. 

What’s better than a HomePod? Well, two HomePods, obviously — especially if they’re paired for true stereo sound. Today’s MacBook Pro and Xbox setup, under-lit for a dark and moody vibe, includes AirPods Pro 2 but gets its robust in-room audio from a set of paired HomePod minis placed on HomePod mini stands near the back corners of the desk.

Macs have gained ground in the gaming world with the rise of Apple silicon chips, as those M-series chips massively boost performance. But sometimes you just want to play on a console rather than your computer. Today’s MacBook Air user switches to Xbox One for gaming. And he gave simple advice, below, to curious commenters who wanted to know how he gets the system to work with his Studio Display. He describes his method below.

Apple just replaced the space gray HomePod mini with a new midnight color option. Monday’s change to the company’s smart speaker lineup is hardly monumental — you might not even be able to see the difference.

Still, the new midnight HomePod mini is also “green.” Apple made it using 100% recycled mesh fabric.

If you’ve been looking to buy a HomePod mini for a while, Best Buy’s latest deal makes the small smart speaker much more affordable. The HomePod mini discount slashes $20 off the price, dropping it to just $79.99.

If you do the math, you’ll see that’s 20%.

If Apple’s popular but pricey Studio Display is well-suited to anyone, it’s any type of designer because of the monitor’s formidable graphics chops.

In today’s loaded MacBook Pro setup, a designer sets apart his Studio Display for the highest praise among many items in a remarkably well-equipped workstation. And his Lego collection is epic, too.

These days, MacBook laptops are more than powerful enough to handle most users’ computing needs. So if you don’t need an even brawnier desktop Mac, why not build your laptop into a full workstation with a few peripherals and accessories?

Today’s setup gets by with a 3-year-old MacBook Pro hooked up to a CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 dock and a nice LG 4K display, plus Logitech input devices and a few other items. It’s a complete workstation whether or not the user ever takes the MacBook Pro to go.

It’s not every day you see a teeny, tiny little display under an ultra-wide one. But today’s M2 MacBook Air setup sports its dual screens that way by putting an iPad mini at the center under the big external monitor, flanked by paired HomePod minis.

The setup’s interesting highlights include a gaming handheld and a full-sized mechanical keyboard we rarely see.

Today’s featured computer setup comes from Mac maven and designer Basic Apple Guy. We know him from the free wallpapers he offers for download. Who knew he was such a cable-management Jedi?

We came across his powerful setup with nary an unsightly cable while writing about his new “Flow” wallpaper — which was actually inspired by his fight with cable clutter.

We look at a lot of computer setups on social media, but sometimes what drives conversation among commenters surprises us. With today’s Mac Studio rig with an odd couple of mismatched displays, the main debate concerned … keyboards for iPad.

Specifically, when an iPad is so wonderfully light, what keyboard case doesn’t weight it down too much?

There’s nothing like working with windows — floor-to-ceiling ones with epic views of a world-class city, that is, not Microsoft’s OS software.

In today’s featured computer setup, a MacBook Pro and a Surface 8 laptop vie over a nice Dell 4K display overlooking Sydney, Australia.

Many computer setups go heavy on the Apple hardware, but not many of them could be mistaken for Apple advertisements. Some, though, like today’s Mac Studio workstation, manage to hit that mark — or close enough.

If the app developer who uses it fancied things up a bit more, the rig might seem too staged and on-the-nose-Apple to feature.

Any conversation about “perfect” displays might just start and end with Apple’s Pro Display XDR. But not everyone is rich enough to buy one of those 6K monitors, which cost $5,000 or more. So the popular 5K Studio Display might have to do, along with something complementary.

One option graces today’s featured MacBook Pro setup. It recently swapped out ultra-wide and 4K monitors for a Studio Display and and the eccentric LG DualUp. They seem especially well-suited to certain types of workers.

In our never-ending search for interesting computer setups, we love stumbling upon good do-it-yourself (“DIY”) hacks. Today’s featured setup mounts an M1 MacBook Air on the wall in a most-unusual way. It involves a pegboard, a strap and a tablet stand designed for use in the kitchen.

In addition, the setup features a rarely seen mechanical keyboard worth checking out.

We come across setups with printers from time to time, though they’re usually off to the side and perhaps only occasionally used. But today’s featured setup with a MacBook Air, a 2016 12-inch MacBook and a 20-inch Cinema Display keeps the printer right in the main mix.

This took some commenters by surprise. They noted why they never print anymore and grilled the user about his age, which turned out to be a lot lower number than expected.

Among the everlasting truths about computer setups, first comes “a setup is never finished.” And the second might be, “A setup can always be improved.” The user behind today’s featured setup certainly found out about No. 2  when he asked for advice on how to improve his M1 Max MacBook Pro and dual-Studio Display workstation.

Find all the advice below — jokes ‘n’ all — as well as all of the setup’s excellent gear.

The next AiPods Max refresh, low-cost AirPods, and the HomePod mini 2 could enter into mass production in H2 2024. These products could go on sale between the end of 2024 and the first half of 2025.

Apple is unlikely to announce new audio products for the remainder of 2023 or H1 2024.

The first reviews of the updated HomePod say the new smart speaker sounds excellent but doesn’t break much new ground.

Compared to Apple’s original smart speaker, the second-generation HomePod is more of an asset in a smart home than before. However, the device’s limitations on playing music from third-party sources mean that the home in question better be an Apple household.

Although the HomePod mini played a key role in helping Apple make inroads in the smart speaker market, the company is reportedly not working on a second-generation model.

Apple launched the HomePod mini in October 2020 with a $99 price tag, which made it much more affordable than the full-size speaker.

Now that the full-size HomePod is finally back, just how different is it from Apple’s original smart speaker? At a glance, you might not think the $299 speaker Apple unveiled Wednesday is that different at all, because the exterior design looks so similar. But compare the new HomePod’s features to the old model, and you’ll find significant changes.

It seems potentially much-improved as a smart home device, but whether it’s a better speaker is questionable.

A temperature and humidity sensor that’s been inactive in HomePod mini since the smart speaker first lauched is about to activate.

The change will make the device more useful for home automation.

Back in our day — when we walked 5 miles uphill to school both ways — students were lucky to have plywood on cinderblocks for a desk and a laptop weighing, oh, let’s say 25 pounds (we’re too old to remember things).

Nowadays, these kids have pretty swanky computer setups with desktop machines you could toss in a knapsack. Today’s featured item boasts a Mac mini, a MacBook Pro, a 4K display, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad 2 and a Lego building set to die for.

Display towers — when monitors are stacked on top of each other — aren’t super common in computer setups. But they’re not terribly rare, either. From time to time we’ve even seen three stacked horizontally in the middle with two posted vertically on the sides. But today’s featured triple-display MacBook Pro setup sports an unusual choice at its base.

You can’t miss the 49-inch Samsung curved ultra-wide screen in the middle and the nice 34-inch LG 4K display on top. But at the bottom lurks a TidByt, which is a retro display for sports scores, stock prices and more. We don’t recall seeing one featured in a setup.