by Dan Moren
HomePod update brings AirPlay 2 and more, plus additional countries
Update, 11:09a.m. Eastern: The story is, unsurprisingly back. I’ve updated the rest of this post.
Update: As of 10:44a.m. Eastern, the story is no longer on BuzzFeed’s site, leading me to believe that it may have been published prematurely. We’ll keep an eye out.
BuzzFeed’s Nicole Nguyen reports the AirPlay 2 update for HomePod has arrived, and that Apple’s smart speaker will start shipping in Canada, France, and Germany on June 18. Reports suggest that the HomePod will also get support for calendar information with this update.
Other updates, including iOS 11.4, should be coming down the pipe later today, in advance of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week. The Verge also reports that in addition to AirPlay 2, iOS 11.4 will also feature the long-awaited Messages in the Cloud feature; both of those were announced at last year’s WWDC.
This also might be clearing the decks for WWDC, meaning that we won’t get any additional HomePod announcements at the event.