Your HomePod mini is about to get more useful. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
A temperature and humidity sensor that’s been inactive in HomePod mini since the smart speaker first lauched is about to activate.
The change will make the device more useful for home automation.
Secret sensor buried in HomePod mini finally gets activated
Shortly after HomePod mini launched in 2020, teardowns of the device discovered a sensor to measure both temperature and humidity. No one outside of Apple had been aware of it before because the functionality has been inaccessible to users. But that’s about to change.
Apple took the wraps off HomePod 2 on Wednesday, its first full-size speaker since 2018. Among the features touted by Apple is a built-in temperature and humidity sensor, which the company added “so users can create automations that close the blinds or turn on the fan automatically when a certain temperature is reached in a room.”
The same sensor that’s been quietly waiting in HomePod mini is about to activate as well.
At this time, the sensor is not available for those running iOS 16.2 and HomePod software 16.2. But iOS 16.3 and an equivalent software update for the smart speaker are coming in a few days. Cult of Mac confirmed that an iPhone and HomePod mini running these versions do have access to the temperature and humidity sensor that’s been quietly sitting in HomePod mini since its debut.
Via: Mark Gurman