Where does the smart home fit into Apple’s HomePod?
It’s impossible to miss one of Apple’s biggest ambitions for the HomePod: control over your home, and a central placement within it.
It’s right there in the name. And yet, the way Apple is trying to set the HomePod apart from direct competitors like Google’s Home and Amazon’s Echo, the HomePod ends up positioned oddly far from what seems like such an obvious goal.
In case you missed its announcement Monday, the HomePod is Apple’s first shot at a smart speaker. It can be used alone or wirelessly synced up with other speakers, and it has built-in Siri for answering questions and taking commands.
But there are three things Google and Amazon do with their smart…
