Apple will join the smart speaker fray on February 9 with HomePod, a $349 answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home. The company will start taking pre-orders on January 29 in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and the speaker will arrive in France and Germany this spring.
苹果将在2月9号带着HomePod加入智能音响的行列，售价349美金，与亚马逊Echo和谷歌Home展开竞争。苹果公司1月29号会开始在美国、英国和澳大利亚预售，今年春季会音箱也会在法国和德国开始售卖。
Similar to other smart speakers, the HomePod will use voice controls–in this case via Siri–to play music, control smart home devices, send messages, and provide information. Although HomePod is much pricier than speakers from Amazon and Google–both of which start at $50 and often sell at a discount.
和其他的智能音响一样，HomePod将通过Siri来进行声控来播放音乐，控制智能家居，发信息，还有提供信息。虽然，HomePod比亚马逊和谷歌的音响价格昂贵些，其他两家起价50美金，并且经常有打折活动。
Apple is hoping to stand out on the strength of its sound quality, and on Siri’s deep ties to Apple Music.To that end, the HomePod won’t let users access third-party music services such as Spotify and Pandora with voice commands.
但是苹果希望能以苹果音响的音质和Siri跟苹果音乐的紧密联系来拨得头筹。最后，HomePod不支持第三方的音乐服务，例如：Spotify和Pandora。
HomePod was supposed to launch in December, but Apple decided to delay the product, and is apparently still working on some key features. A software update later this year will add multi-room audio and support for synchronized stereo playback between two HomePod speakers.
HomePod本来打算在12月发型，但是苹果决定推迟产品发布，很显然是要在主要功能上继续进行挖掘更新。在今年年末，苹果进行了重要软件更新，增加了多空间音频播放和支持同步两台HomePod音响播放的功能。
