Apple details the energy use of its always-on HomePod speaker
Now that the HomePod is nearly here , Apple is dribbling out details of what its first smart speaker will do... including, apparently, that it's a power miser. The company has posted environmental data showing that the HomePod uses no more than 9.25W of power when playing music at 50 percent volume. As MacRumors noted , that's less than the consumption of a typical LED light bulb (such as the 10W of a Philips Hue A19). You're going to use more power if you crank it up, of course, but you probably won't cringe at your electricity bill if you stream music all day. And importantly, the speaker should consume little power when it's silent. Apple said that the speaker draws a maximum of 1.76W in idle mode, or about 50 percent less than the latest Energy Star specs require. The trick, Apple says, is the combination of "optimized power management features," such as dropping into low-power mode after 8 minutes of inactivity, and a high-efficiency power suppl...