[newmac]

I would love to hear the inside story about why the old one was discontinued and it took so long for the v2.

The HomePod mini is the "first device" we have given to our children. No screen, I am comfortable with apple privacy, access to music and podcasts, etc.

The mini has shockingly good sound for $100 and what it is.

[ubermonkey]

"The mini has shockingly good sound for $100 and what it is. "

It's really something, isn't it? I mean, I'm an audio nut with genuine crazy-person speakers in my living room, but goddamn if that single mini Homepod in our bedroom isn't stupid good.

[gnicholas]

I was going to get one for my kid but don't want her to be able to ask arbitrary questions and basically access web search just yet. When I looked into it, the only way to accomplish this was to turn off Siri entirely, and just make it into a speaker for source iOS devices. Any chance they have more fine-grained controls for this yet?

[strangescript]

Just a guess, but matter compatibility probably caused some slow down. That spec was still in a minor flux until last year.

[solarkraft]

But wasn't that flux 100% in high-level software?

[s3p]

kudos to you! I know they will cherish a device like that. Growing up I had a similar tech item that was my "thing", it was a tiny MP3 player that I used for years. Having a HomePod Mini is a great way to get them access to super helpful tech without the drawbacks (ads, social media, privacy) of screen-based devices.