Apple HomePod to Get Calling, Multiple Timers, Calendar and Find My iPhone Features
iGeneration is reporting (N.B. French) that Apple HomePod will soon be getting several feature upgrades. HomePod users will no doubt be surprised when the device actually includes some useful features beyond listening to Apple Music. Australia’s Channel News summed up the news this way:
“A beta version of HomePod iOS 12 has reportedly been distributed among Apple testers, with new features claimed to include; ask to make calls, set multiple timers, ‘Find my iPhone’, listen to phone voicemail, change HomePod Wi-Fi connection and heightened nutritional information for Siri.”
Sarcasm aside, these will be useful features and calendar integration is also likely according to the original report. The move will begin to help HomePod close the feature gap with Amazon Echo and Google Assistant. There are many rumors surrounding HomePod and several have turned out to be false. However, these announcements are based on actual software experience from early software testers so they appear to be legitimate.
HomePod Coming to Spain?
Far more speculative are the comments about HomePod coming to Spain later this year. iGeneration noted that some of the iOS 12 beta features had Spanish support as well as French. This would be a logical move for Apple as Siri already supports Spanish and the move would quickly open up Spain and dozens of other Spanish speaking countries for HomePod sales. HomePod began selling in the U.S., U.K. and Australia in February and expanded to Canada, France and Germany in June. Now, if Apple could just couple that with a more affordable smart speaker it might lead to a much larger market opening.
U.S. Smart Speaker Market Share: Apple Debuts at 4.1%, Amazon Falls 10 Points and Google Rises
