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Article snippet: • Apple gave a sneak peek of HomePod, a speaker, to rival Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home. It’s the first brand-new hardware product for Apple since the Apple Watch. • The company also showed new iPads at its annual developer conference, which typically focuses on software instead of hardware. • Also unveiled: a new iMac Pro, as well as upgraded iMacs and MacBooks. • And Apple announced updates to the iOS operating system that underlies iPhones and iPads, as well as updates to the operating system for the Apple Watch and Mac computers. Amazon, with the Echo, pioneered a device that lets you play music, look up basic information and control your lighting and other home accessories. Now Apple’s answer to the Echo — the HomePod — is here, kind of. Apple showed off HomePod on Monday, and it will be available in December. Apple had long been rumored to be working on a device meant to take on the Echo, which has become a surprise hit since Amazon released it nearly three years ago. The category is getting pretty crowded: Last year, Google released a talking home computer of its own, called Google Home, and Microsoft’s assistant, Cortana, is also making its way to home speakers. So how will Apple compete? In a very Apple-like manner: The speaker, powered by the Siri voice assistant, looks spiffier than either Amazon’s or Google’s version — it is a seven-inch-tall canister wrapped in a shiny mesh speaker. The company also said it had prioritized the speaker’s sound, whic... Link to the full article to read more