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The HomePod mini is a extra moveable model of Apple’s HomePod, however that does not make it a transportable sensible speaker. Because it wants energy and wifi to work, individuals often plug of their HomePod mini to a wall socket and let the speaker stay in the identical spot. However you really may transfer your HomePod mini round the home and deal with it like a transportable speaker on your house—that is precisely what the parents at MacStories have accomplished to their HomePod mini, which they aptly name the RoamPod.
How one can use the HomePod mini as a transportable speaker
Their thought is easy: Purchase a HomePod mini accent with a built-in battery pack and use that to make the gadget moveable. Should you may take the HomePod to whichever room you are in, you won’t want to purchase extra audio system on your house, together with extra HomePod minis—the one you may have simply strikes round with you.
To make your HomePod mini “moveable,” you will want a battery base, and you’ve got two choices: You may both get the Mission Battery Base ($42 on the time of writing) or the PlusAcc Battery Base ($44 on the time of publishing). The Mission Battery Base has higher critiques on Amazon, however it is best to check out the critiques your self earlier than making a choice. Purchaser critiques say the PlusAcc product muffles the sound and has shorter battery life, each of which may very well be dealbreakers. When you select an adjunct, it is just about plug-and-play. You may get pleasure from nice sound high quality, the HomePod mini’s potential to play straight from Apple Music, or ship any audio to the speaker by way of AirPlay.
The constraints of a transportable HomePod mini
Having stated all that, the HomePod mini is usually a irritating product to personal. When it really works, it is nice, but when it malfunctions, options aren’t at all times simple to come back by. In case you have a house with a number of wifi routers or networks, you by no means actually know which one the HomePod mini will latch on to. Generally it connects to a weaker sign and performs poorly, and one of the best you are able to do is restart and check out once more.
You could be tempted to take the HomePod mini with you throughout your travels, but it surely’s not a good suggestion. The speaker wants wifi to work, and discovering a steady wifi connection is a problem whenever you’re touring. A Bluetooth speaker will serve you much better than the HomePod in that case. Your “moveable” HomePod mini might not ship one of the best battery life both, with studies of 4-8 hours of music playback being pretty frequent on the battery bases we have linked to. Meaning charging is one other factor to fret about pretty ceaselessly whenever you’re on the go.