HomePod mini soon, soon on sale in Belgium and Switzerland?
Perhaps it will be Apple’s Christmas present to its Belgian, Swiss and Dutch customers. The candidate for release iOS 15.2 available since last night was accompanied by a RC for the HomePod software, which will also go to 15.2. Surprise: the list of languages supported by the connected speaker has been added to include Dutch for the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as languages spoken in Switzerland.
At present, the HomePod mini is not sold by the Apple Store in Belgium, Switzerland or the Netherlands, although the small connected ball can be found at other distributors. And this is precisely because the HomePod’s Siri is not compatible with several languages of these countries. An absence that should be combined with iOS 15.2, the final version of which is expected in the coming days, probably early next week.
As far as Belgium is concerned, Dutch is one of the three official languages with French and German, two languages compatible with Siri and HomePod, but the third piece of the language puzzle is still missing for proper marketing. For Switzerland, there are now three languages spoken in the country (French, German, Italian).
The HomePod software release 15.2 notes simply state that the update ” also extends Siri voice recognition to new languages », Without specifying.
According to the testiCulture, Dutch from the Netherlands is well understood by Siri, and the assistant responds in this language. But this is not the case for the Belgian version, at least not yet. Despite everything, it’s hard not to have the sign of an upcoming launch of the HomePod mini in the Netherlands and Belgium, not to mention Switzerland! And who knows, maybe in the process, the Apple TV remote control will activate Siri in these countries …