Amazon Prime Video Is Headed To The Apple TV

After months of anticipation Apple has unveiled HomePod, an all new wireless speaker that the company hopes will "reinvent home music".

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about the Apple Watch announcement of new products at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Monday, June 5, 2017.

Apple is expected to announce plans for a speaker on Monday.

Apple also released a software kit so developers could infuse augmented reality into applications for iPhones or iPads.

Analysts said Apple is playing to its strength in the music industry by focusing on sound quality and its catalog of songs available on HomePod.

So should Amazon and Google be anxious by Apple's new gadget? It will play music while helping people manage their lives and homes. Apple said the same chip used in the iPhone will power the speaker.

What may hobble Apple's HomePod won't be the noise it makes, but its less impressive listening skills. Apple Music serves up the 40 million songs - probably an incentive for you to become one of the more than 27 million subscribers and counting.

Imagine what Apple could do if it didn't mind losing money on one product like a home speaker or from potential future products like an Apple auto or glasses that mix the virtual world with reality like the Pokemon Go game.

The speaker will sell for about $350 in December in the USA, United Kingdom and Australia. It starts with the subwoofer, which delivers bass that doesn't quite hit you in the chest but does manage to put other smart speakers like the Echo or Google Home to shame.

But this has been seen by some analysts as a deliberate distancing from the smart hub genre both the Echo and Google Home sit in, with Apple instead choosing to focus on its strength in music based on products such as iTunes and the iPod. However, Siri has been slow to improve its voice-recognition technology and set of responses, especially compared with the more capable Alexa and Google Assistant.

Some Apple watchers are counting on artificial intelligence.

Well, adding further, the company has announced that this new HomePod is basically created to work with Apple Music, which means that you will have to require a subscription to music streaming service.

However, Adam Scott from comparison service PriceSpy said Apple's "late" arrival to the smart speaker market could prove an advantage.

Apple says it's giving more emphasis to sound quality, not just smarts. Siri will be voice activated to respond to requests for information and other help around the house.

Some experts pushed back on the notion that Apple is behind in the AI race, saying Siri is not the only AI-driven technology built by Apple.

The tech giant announced the updated iMacs would have new, faster processors as well as "43% brighter" displays.

Apple said the new ARkit would make use of the dual-lens camera on the iPhone 7 Plus, making the integration of virtual objects and the real world more realistic.

It starts shipping later this year in the US, United Kingdom and Australia. It will not block the ads themselves, though.

Apple launched a new size for its iPad - 10.5-inches. These devices will only keep the most recent messages in local storage.

Augmented reality is a mixture of live images and virtual animations and objects placed over them. One issue here is whether the HomePod will play nice with other music streaming services like Spotify.

Users with Apple iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 11 will be able to send money between friends and family using iMessage (though whether this functionality will be available in Canada is unclear).

Ortutay reported from NY. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.

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