Apple HomePod will be on sale in the US and UK starting February 9

Apple will release its HomePod on February 9 in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. The speaker will also be released in Germany and France in the spring. It is not yet known when the HomePod will come to the Benelux.

Customers in the US, UK and Australia can order the HomePod starting January 26, Apple reports. The product will be delivered from 9 February and will be available in stores. In the US, the price is $349, prices for the other countries have not yet been announced.

Apple announced the smarthome speaker at its developer conference in June last year. The HomePod was actually supposed to be released in the same year, but the release was delayed.

The HomePod has something Apple calls “spatial awareness” that collects information about the room to adjust the music accordingly. For example, it uses beamforming to send certain parts of the audio, such as the voice, in certain directions. For this, Apple has designed its own woofer, which is combined with seven tweeters in the speaker.

The HomePod contains an Apple A8 soc, the same as in the iPhone 6. Furthermore, the speaker has six microphones to receive voice commands. Users can use it to operate Siri to, for example, turn on music, control HomeKit devices or ask questions.