The Sonos Beam smart soundbar will support Amazon's Alexa and Apple's AirPlay 2 when it ships in July

Sonos took the wraps off its latest smart speaker at an event in San Francisco earlier today. The $399 Sonos Beam is smaller and less expensive than either the Sonos Playbase or the older Sonos Playbar, and it will support Apple's AirPlay 2 multi-room audio technology when it ships in July. "All the tech giants are building smart speakers," said Chris Kallai, Sonos' VP of Hardware Product Management, when introducing the Sonos Beam. "But they're not doing it so you can listen to all the music you want. Kallai said the Beam combines three products into one: "Alexa, Apple Music, and a compact soundbar."