Apple Software Update Made Smart Speakers Useless, Suit Says

Apple Inc. “bricked” its original $349 HomePod wireless, multifunction home speakers about three years after introducing them, using a software update to implement a strategy of planned obsolescence, a consumer says in a new proposed class suit.

Online forums lit up with reports of unresponsive HomePods after the software change, Barry Richards says in the complaint, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

But “Apple had already discontinued the original Apple HomePod, and thus had little incentive to prioritize a solution,” he alleges. Apple allegedly denied relief because the products’ warranties had expired.

Indeed, …