Apple's iOS 11.4 finally delivers on last year's promises for HomePod and iMessage

Apple is finally delivering on some promises it made last year about its HomePod speaker, including giving the device the ability to link with another for stereo sound. The company released a software release called iOS 11.4 on Tuesday that unlocks more features for the smart speaker. The announcement comes just ahead of Apple's developer conference, which starts Monday -- the same conference where Apple first announced the speaker a year ago. Apple has said that it wanted to make sure the features worked well for users before releasing them. Apple's HomePod hasn't been a huge sales hit for the company, which launched two years after initial products from Amazon.com and Google began dominating the smart-speaker market.