There was a glimpse of things to come from tech giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) today, with boss Tim Cook taking to the stage in California to show off new features for devices.
One was a new US$349 smart 'HomePod' home speaker to 'reinvent ' home audio.
The speaker works, unsurprisingly, with Apple Music and has several speakers and a built in woofer. It is being developed with a view to being launched later this year.
Users will be able to ask Siri to play songs and answer questions via the speaker.
It can also be used to control other devices in the home, and reportedly will be in competition against Amazon's Echo and Google Home.
Cook also used the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) today to unveiled the iOS 11, the software that will power its eagerly awaited iPhone 8 set to be released also later this year.
Notably, the new software includes new artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality features.
The tech includes augmented reality features for the first time, allowing developers to superimpose virtual objects onto a live feed from the firm's camera.
Siri now also has a male American voice, and is said to be more expressive due to a new visual interface.
The smart assistant can also quickly translate English into Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish, with more language combinations to come.
Apple shares eased just over 1% to $153.86.