Starting today, Apple's HomePod smart speaker is available for purchase in Canada, France, and Germany through the online store or local Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
The HomePod smart speaker was announced last year on June 5, during the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) keynote, and began shipping in the United States in early February 2018.
Powered by Siri, HomePod can be used as both a speaker and a digital assistant to control your smart home. It is fully compatible with HomeKit, which means you can use HomePod to control all your IoT devices.
You can now buy and use a HomePod smart speaker in France and Germany, as well as Canada. While the device already speaks French and German, Apple said it plans to add support for the Canadian language sometime later this year.
French and German users planning to buy a HomePod will have to spend €349, which makes it a bit pricey compared to similar devices. On the other hand, Canadian customers will have to spend up to $449 for Apple's HomePod smart speaker.
HomePod uses the latest iOS 11.4 operating system with AirPlay 2 support, which allows users to connect it to a wide range of AirPlay 2-enabled devices, such as Apple TV, other HomePod speakers, or speakers from third-party vendors.
“This free software update introduces the most advanced, easy-to-use wireless multi-room audio system that uses AirPlay 2 to play music everywhere, whether playing different music from one room to another or playing the same song everywhere using an iOS device, HomePod, Apple TV, or by asking Siri,” Apple said.
Additionally, iOS 11.4 brings support for pairing two HomePods to create stereo sound. Apple is compatible with iPhone 5s or later, iPod touch 6th generation, iPad mini 2 or later, iPad Air or later, and iPad Pro devices running iOS 11.2.5 or later.
