Apple’s most forgotten product is still its best stocking stuffer

Macworld

Apple is famously good at making customers excited about its new releases, but that doesn’t mean the company applies its powers of persuasion to all products equally. As I plan to discuss further in this column next week, excellent-value offerings like the 4th-gen AirPods and the new Mac mini sometimes slip by almost unnoticed while the marketing machine shines its spotlight on costlier alternatives. Occasionally you get hints of favoritism.

One product that no longer appears to have Apple’s full and enthusiastic support is the HomePod. Everything seemed so promising at the start: a cool new product for an exciting new market, a great design and superb sound quality, and all of it accessible from anywhere in the home thanks to the reliable and intuitive assistance of… Siri. Oh dear. Whether because of Siri’s failings or not, things went wrong. Sales evidently weren’t good enough, and after launching a cheaper (and also very nice) mini model, Apple made the hard decision and killed off the full-sized HomePod. That, we assumed, was that. Until it wasn’t.

It’s hard to feel confident in a product when the maker stops selling it for almost two years, before slinking back with a second version that looks exactly like and fails to solve any major problems with the first. And when the product doesn’t seem to have evolved at all in the seven years since it came out, having never given the impression of understanding the smart speaker market or the fact that a (very good) speaker with bad voice controls won’t really cut it in 2025.

In 2025, in fact, the HomePod may get with the times. Most importantly it needs a better voice assistant, and that means one thing: Apple Intelligence. If we get a new HomePod with the hardware to run Apple’s AI platform, that could mean a Siri that plays the correct track more often than not: a Siri, in other words, that knows its arias from its Elbow. And once you’ve got that, any further upgrades–a functional display, for example–would be merely icing on the cake.

But if this suggests that I don’t like the current HomePod, I had better correct that assumption. Call me sentimental but I am very fond of the HomePod, as erratic and old-fashioned as it undoubtedly is. I love the way it looks and the way it sounds, and after years of practice, I’ve learned to work around the flaws of its control system without getting angry more than two or three times a week. As for the mini… well, it might just be the best Christmas gift you can buy in the Apple store right now.

At $99/£99 and available in a range of stunning colors that are inexplicably denied to buyers of the full-size model (I recommend the orange), the HomePod mini is a brilliantly affordable way to brighten a room and fill it with beautiful audio. The bass punch doesn’t quite live up to its larger sibling, but the audio quality is nevertheless superb for the size and price. It’s easy to set up, and the physical design means you can easily move it from room to room as the fancy takes you. It’s just a really nice thing. Or a pair of things, if you can afford to buy two and set them up in glorious stereo. (Please do.)

Christmas, after all, is the time when we remember those less fortunate than ourselves, the neglected members of society who have fallen through the cracks. The HomePod mini may have been forgotten by its maker, but there’s still time for you to find a place in your home for one of these noble creatures. Merry Christmas!




Foundry

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

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Podcast of the week

With 2024 closing, it’s time to look forward to 2025. What could we see from Apple in the new year? That’s coming up in the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast!

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

Reviews corner

Frost Punk 2 review: When the snowman brings the snow.

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Pro Edition review: Veteran AirPlay speaker gets even better sound quality.

OWC Envoy Ultra review: Super-fast Thunderbolt 5 storage.

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Software updates, bugs, and problems

The first iOS update of 2025 is already in testing. That’s right: iOS 18.3 is now in beta!

And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, or Twitter for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.