The $349 voice-contro­lled speake­r can make music sugges­tions and adjust home temper­atures­After missing the critical holiday shopping season, Apple has jumped into the voice speaker wars with the HomePod smart speaker, a device that will use its Siri voice assistant and compete against offerings from Amazon and Alphabet’s Google. Apple said on Tuesday it will start taking online orders for its HomePod smart speaker on Friday in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, just over a month later than initially planned. Amazon and Google cut prices on their entry-level speakers over the holiday season in an aggressive push for market share, analysts said. Amazon’s automated grocery store of the future opens MondayApple also is counting on HomePod to boost subscriptions to Apple Music and block the rise of rival Spotify. The smart speakers from Google and Amazon let users give voice commands to play Spotify but Apple Music does not work on the rival devices.

Source: The Express Tribune January 24, 2018 06:00 UTC