Trending Now Say More Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School Safety Net All Series Apple just launched the HomePod mini 2 -- how to buy this brand-new smart speaker. Fresh colors and powerful sound arrive on Oct. 30. Siri AI will join the party, too. Lauren Allain is a freelance journalist covering deals at Mashable. She graduated from Western Washington University with a B.A. in journalism and holds an M.B.A from Webster Leiden.

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. Apple's Welcome Home event featured all the new smart home hardware coming to the Apple lineup. Maria Diaz is a staff writer with a passion for home automation, smart home devices, and tablets. Apple unveiled 7 smart home devices today at its "Welcome Home" event. We saw a new HomeView smart panel, HomePod mini, and a new Apple TV.

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. HomePod mini 2 is here, and there are four major upgrades that separate it from the first generation. Jada Jones is a journalist based outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Apple announced its new HomePod Mini 2 after a six-year hiatus. You can finally bring Siri AI into your home.

Say More Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Trending Now Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School Safety Net All Series The first-ever Apple smart display is available for pre-order now and is set for release on Nov. 13. Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Apple announced a new line of smart home products on Tuesday morning, including its first-ever smart display, the Apple HomeView.

Say More Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Trending Now Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School Safety Net All Series Siri AI will arrive on the device in a future software update, the company said. Haley Henschel is a Chicago-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who reviews and finds deals on popular tech, from laptops to gaming consoles and VPNs. She has years of experience covering shopping holidays and can tell you what's actually worth buying on Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. Her work has also explored the driving forces behind digital trends within the shopping sphere, from dupes to 12-foot skeletons . Apple has updated its compact smart speaker for the first time in six years.

Apple's news today is all about the smart home, and part of that push is an updated HomePod mini speaker. Officially dubbed the HomePod mini 2, this new version looks almost exactly like the original mini, save for a few new colors for its fabric cover. There are some new features that are exclusive to this version too, and eventually the company's smallest smart speaker will work with Siri AI. However, that capability won't arrive until later. Almost all of the HomePod mini 2's new features are audio-related.

I got an early glimpse of Apple's biggest push into the smart home in years. Apple has lagged in the smart home race, which Amazon and Google have dominated for a decade with Alexa and Google Assistant (now Gemini), respectively. But after finally revamping Siri AI this year and turning the butt-of-the-joke voice assistant into a more competitive companion --paired with a more mature Matter-supported ecosystem of smart home gadgets--Apple now has the brains to power the home system it has always envisioned. That starts with three new devices: the Apple HomeView, the company's first smart display; the HomePod Mini 2 smart speaker; and the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K. Apple announced the products at a media-only event in New York City, and it also revealed a slew of new smart-home gadgets made in collaboration with LG and Schneider Electric, including a video doorbell, thermostats, and security cameras .