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Apple's HomePod mini 2 reaches customers on Friday, October 30, according to the pre-order details Apple set out when it announced the speaker on October 13. The smart speaker costs $149.

The new model keeps the compact design of the original but moves to Apple's S10 chip, which replaces the S5. As 9to5Mac reports, Apple says the chip analyzes music in real time to tune dynamic range, loudness and acoustic performance. The speaker comes in green, pink, blue, midnight and white.

The headline hardware addition is Sound Glow, a light on the top of the speaker. It pulses with bass and treble and takes its colors from the album artwork of whatever is playing.

On October 13, Apple announced a set of smart home products without a traditional event. The centrepiece is HomeView, a new home hub priced at $299. It has a 7-inch display and an A18 chip with Siri AI support, and shows apps, widgets and personalised content for up to six people. Temperature and humidity sensors are built in, and third-party apps can run from a nearby iPhone or iPad. Pre-orders are open and it launches November 13, though not in the European Union.

The fourth-generation Apple TV 4K also costs $299 for the 128GB model. It moves to an A19 chip, which Apple says brings up to 50 percent faster CPU performance, and adds far-field microphones for hands-free Siri, Wi-Fi 7 and an updated $59 Siri Remote.

Rumor roundup. This piece summarises a Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman, as relayed by MacRumors on October 8.

The report said Apple would unveil smart home hardware on October 13: a new HomePod mini with new colors and a newer chip, an Apple TV 4K with an A19-class chip and an updated remote, and an entirely new hub with a square display of around 6 inches. Apple did announce a hub, an Apple TV and a HomePod mini on that day, though the final hub display size was 7 inches, which shows how details in rumors can shift.