New HomePod and HomePod Mini Now Feature Temperature and Humidity Sensing [Updated]
The reintroduced HomePod offers a temperature and humidity sensor, but Apple is also enabling the feature on the existing HomePod mini.
The HomePod's built-in temperature and humidity sensor can measure indoor environments, allowing users to create automations that close the blinds or turn on a fan or heater automatically when a certain temperature is reached in a room, for example. This information is exposed in the Home app like any other smart home accessory.
As highlighted in the comparison section of the HomePod webpage, the HomePod mini also now offers this functionality. It appears that rather than being a new version of the HomePod mini, this is a retroactively activated feature, with the temperature and humidity sensor already existing inside all HomePod mini models since launch.
In 2021, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the HomePod mini includes a dormant temperature and humidity sensor – a finding also confirmed by iFixit. It seems that the component is now finally being activated, presumably via a future software update.
Apple notes that the HomePod's temperature and humidity sensing is optimized for indoor, domestic settings with ambient temperatures between 15ºC and 30ºC and relative humidity around 30 to 70 percent.
The sensor's accuracy may decrease in some situations where audio is playing for an extended period of time at high volume levels, likely due to generation of heat from the device itself. The HomePod also apparently requires some time to calibrate the sensors immediately after starting up before results are displayed.
Update: HomePod software version 16.3 enables the temperature and humidity sensor in the HomePod mini, according to Apple's release notes.
Popular Stories
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Apple today said it removed Game Boy emulator iGBA from the App Store for violating the company's App Review Guidelines related to spam (section 4.3) and copyright (section 5.2), but it did not provide any specific details. iGBA was a copycat version of developer Riley Testut's open-source GBA4iOS app. The emulator rose to the top of the App Store charts following its release this weekend,...
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
A week after Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to permit retro game console emulators, a Game Boy emulator for the iPhone called iGBA has appeared in the App Store worldwide. The emulator is already one of the top free apps on the App Store charts. It was not entirely clear if Apple would allow emulators to work with all and any games, but iGBA is able to load any Game Boy ROMs that...
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
Top Rated Comments