Apple’s HomePod was notable for its ambitious sonic design, but due to many factors — price, size, Siri unreliability — it didn’t take off. Now some of the same engineers behind it are building their own speaker. Dubbed the Cell Alpha, it packs two woofers, a three-element, two-way beamforming array, and three microphones into a package not unlike a 360º VR camera. It uses the microphones to automatically adjust the sound for whatever room it’s in and has three different stands to conform to multiple decor demands.
