HomePod: New details of Apple's smart speaker revealed, suggesting release date could be near

New details have been revealed about Apple's HomePod. But one thing remains a mystery: when it will actually come out.

The new leaks suggest that the Apple smart speaker – promised in "early 2018" is set to come out soon. But it's not clear when exactly that is, and Apple's wording leaves it open to being as late as June.

Apple first revealed the smart speaker at its WWDC convention in June last year. It said then that the HomePod would be out before the end of the year, but in December announced that it wasn't ready, needed more work, and would be out early this year.

Since then, Apple has said no more about the speaker. But a variety of leaks have revealed new details about how it will work, and the process of bringing it to market still seems to be ongoing.

When the company said the HomePod would be delayed it said it needed more time to work on it. It isn't clear if that meant the development of new features or simply that the speaker wasn't ready in time for its slated release date.

The new leaks suggest that the speaker will be able to mute its own microphone, meaning that people will be able to stop the HomePod from hearing them at all. That feature – which is offered by every other smart speaker like the Google Home or the Alexa-powered Sonos One – was widely expected to come to Apple's smart speaker but the revelation is just one of a range of new updates seen in new software.

They also seem to show that the speaker might offer the option for various users to control it. That feature is offered in Google's smart speakers, but not in those powered by Amazon – and presumably relies on Siri being able to tell the difference between the various people who talk to it.

And new filings show that the FCC has approved the new technology, meaning that it will be allowed to come to market. That doesn't necessarily suggest that the speaker will launch straight away – or that it will necessarily launch at all – but it is an important step on the way towards bringing the smart speaker to the public.