New Macs today, new HomePods coming soon. The largest of Apple’s smart speakers is just around the corner, according to Gurman

We’d heard rumors, had a vague idea that Apple had new Macs ready to ship last fall after a last-minute postponement. And yesterday, in a few hours We didn’t expect anything more than a normal Tuesday, practically confirming that they will arrive new computers. But there seem to be more surprises.

And one of those surprises is a new HomePod. Not a new HomePod mini, but the return of the original, the great, awesome HomePod, now even better with a few small tweaks. As I wrote these lines We assume that today will not be the day of the presentationBut it must be sooner rather than later.

Important changes for an already very capable smart speaker

If we listen to the rumors, Apple is preparing the presentation of the Apple Reality Pro ahead of WWDC 2023, which will be held in June. This can more or less lead to an event in late March or early April. With that in mind, and knowing that any small piece of hardware showcased near the event would be utterly dwarfed if Mark Gurman tweets the “The next HomePod should arrive pretty soon too”the date seems pretty close.

We have few specific details about this HomePod, but they’re quite interesting given the few variables we’re dealing with. In terms of exterior design, as Gurman tells us, we hope so the same as the 2018 model. As for the chip, which is essential for the HomePod mini’s computer audio, we’re expecting the S8 chip from the Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra.

Where we expect further changes is an improvement to the top touchpad. A panel so good could be replaced with a small screen to show more context and information about what is happening in our speaker. Then we would be faced with a very direct interaction with the HomePod. An interaction that, complemented by spoken requests, would allow us to perform more complex actions with a single touch.

From the colors, although nothing has been said about them, we could also get something unexpected. More see the variants that the HomePod mini offers us. And that brings us to the end of the short list of what we know about a HomePod that could appear today. Rumors of this continue for a few weeks, but this Apple’s plans for presenting press releases can change very quickly. So the best thing is that we keep our ears open for surprises.