Despite being a popular and relatively affordable entry point into Apple’s smart home ecosystem, the HomePod mini 2 was notably absent from yesterday’s keynote. For those hoping for an updated version of the compact smart speaker, its continued absence reflects Apple’s strategic timing, which prioritizes significant software advancements over incremental hardware refreshes.

One of the most debated topics following Apple’s September event is the speaker system on the new iPhone Air. After days of speculation, Apple’s own technical diagrams have confirmed the reality: to achieve its record-breaking thinness, the iPhone Air was engineered with only a single, bottom-firing speaker.