Apple takes on Amazon Echo and Google Home with its own smart speaker

Apple replaced record collections with the iPod and earned front pocket real estate with the iPhone. The Cupertino, Calif., company announced Monday at its annual World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose the HomePod, a home speaker with Apple's digital assistant Siri built into it. Similar to Amazon's Echo and Google's Home -- voice-activated, internet-connected speakers that play music, answer questions and provide information such as the news, weather, sports updates and metric conversions -- the HomePod listens and responds to voice commands. Using the HomePod is like using Siri, without the need to tap any buttons. To get its attention, users simply say, "Hey, Siri."