Apple's Siri-powered Amazon Echo rival reportedly hits the prototype phase

Apple is reportedly still hard at work on a Siri-powered device to rival the Amazon Echo. The project is out of the research and development and phase and into prototyping, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has an excellent track record with Apple rumors.
Gurman doesn’t say what the smart home device will be, but presumably it will be some kind of speaker. The aim is for the Siri device to control smart home appliances—presumably via HomeKit—similar to the Echo.