14 DAY TRIAL // As of today, June 18, 2018, Apple's HomePod smart speaker is available for purchase in Canada, France, and Germany through the online store or local Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Retailers.
Announced last year on June 5, during the keynote presentation of Apple's WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) developer conference, the HomePod smart speaker started shipping in the United States in early February 2018.
Powered by the Siri voice assistant, HomePod can be used as both a speaker and digital assistant for controlling your smart house. It's fully compatible with HomeKit accessories, which means that you can use your HomePod to control all your IoT devices.
Now available in France, Germany, and Canada
Now, you can purchase and use a HomePod smart speaker in France and Germany, as well as in Canada. While the device already speaks French and German languages, Apple said that it plans to add support for the Canadian French language sometime later this year.
French and German users planning on buying a HomePod will have to spend €349, which is a bit pricey than other similar devices. On the other hand, Canadian customers would have to spend as much as $449 for Apple's HomePod smart speaker and digital assistant.
HomePod is using the latest iOS 11.4 operating system with AirPlay 2 support, which lets users connect it to a wide range of AirPlay 2-enabled devices, such as an Apple TV, other HomePod speakers, or speakers from third-party vendors, for multi-room audio.
"This free software update introduces the most advanced, easy to use, wireless multi-room audio system using AirPlay 2 to play music in any room from any room, move music from one room to another or play the same song everywhere using an iOS device, HomePod, Apple TV or by asking Siri," said Apple.
Additionally, iOS 11.4 brings support for pairing two HomePod smart speakers for delivering spatial, room-filling stereo sound. Apple's HomePod is compatible with iPhone 5s or later, 6th generation iPod touch, iPad mini 2 or later, iPad Air or later, as well as iPad Pro devices running iOS 11.2.5 or later.