蘋果音響下月開賣,造型神似垃圾桶

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.

蘋果將在2月9號帶着HomePod加入智能音響的行列，售價349美金，與亞馬遜Echo和谷歌Home展開競爭。蘋果公司1月29號會開始在美國、英國和澳大利亞預售，今年春季會音箱也會在法國和德國開始售賣。

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

和其他的智能音響一樣，HomePod將通過Siri來進行聲控來播放音樂，控制智能家居，發信息，還有提供信息。雖然，HomePod比亞馬遜和谷歌的音響價格昂貴些，其他兩家起價50美金，並且經常有打折活動。

Apple is hoping to stand out on the strength of its sound quality, and on Siri's deep ties to Apple that end, the HomePod won't let users access third-party music services such as Spotify and Pandora with voice commands.

但是蘋果希望能以蘋果音響的音質和Siri跟蘋果音樂的緊密聯繫來撥得頭籌。最後，HomePod不支持第三方的音樂服務，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本來打算在12月髮型，但是蘋果決定推遲產品發佈，很顯然是要在主要功能上繼續進行挖掘更新。在今年年末，蘋果進行了重要軟件更新，增加了多空間音頻播放和支持同步兩臺HomePod音響播放的功能。