A smaller, cheaper HomePod is the do-over Apple needs

For a company loathe to admit it may have made a mistake, you can imagine Apple is pretty eager to redeem the HomePod name. The Siri-powered smart speaker was meant to be Cupertino’s retort to Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home, not to mention a new foundation in the smart home. Problem is, things didn’t turn out quite that way. The …