Tag: Smart Home

It’s looking like a lock. Apple is set to announce its HomeView smart home hub at the October 13 “Welcome home” event. Think like an Amazon Echo Hub, but Apple-fied with a (rumored) premium design and Siri at its heart.

There’s been plenty of leaks, many from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, so let’s take a look at them all and figure out what you can expect to see Apple CEO John Ternus talk about tomorrow.

iMac G4 nostalgia

As someone who fawned over the iMac G4 in the window of my local PC World, this calls to me. The hardware is set to come in two form factors — first is the 6-inch screen attached to a flat, square mounting plate on the wall. This is probably the common sense option to free up countertop space…but I’m not one for common sense.

That brings me to the second form factor — that same 6-inch screen suspended over a spherical metal and fabric speaker base.

A18 muscle for Siri AI

To get Siri AI running zippy, you need some serious horsepower under the hood. That’s where the rumored A18 chip and 8GB of RAM come in. This is going to be the big differentiator from other home hubs — all of which rely exclusively on the cloud to get things done.

This should enable small models to run locally on HomeView without any of that cloud lag to do simple things like adjust lighting or temperature, while offloading to the cloud if you’ve got something more complex in mind.

The catch: no App Store allowed

This is the most surprising part if you ask me. The App Store has always been a jewel in the crown of Apple devices, so to (reportedly) see the HomeView not get one is a little concerning.

If you want third-party functionality, leaks suggest you’ll have to “project” widgets from a nearby iPhone, for things like pulling up a native YouTube recipe video, for example.

In terms of actually using this device, that could be a problem. I know many people who use their Echo Shows in the kitchen with recipe videos, so hopefully the OS gets an update to support this in the future. Also, I hope this doesn’t mean the smart home device support isn’t walled off so significantly.

The price may be steep for a smart home hub

Now for the cost. Rumors are pointing to $350, which is quite a bit more than the likes of the $249 Echo Show — placing it costwise $100 shy of the base iPad (which does have a full App Store, larger screen and a battery). That means smart home control is available on a bigger slab already.

Apple’s mission with HomeView is going to be proving that this separate device with its iMac G4 looks and a better speaker in the base justifies the cost for a more locked-down OS.

The supporting cast

No, I’m not talking about the rumored Apple TV 4K or HomePod mini 2 announcements. Rather, what seems to be a suite of devices that have been designed to play nice with the HomeView.

It’s looking likely that we’ll see a smart lock, temperature sensor and thermostat all co-developed with LG — all of which seem to have been leaked pretty extensively on X.

The Smart Deadbolt Lock will support all the things you’d expect like tap to unlock, master codes, and a rotatable keypad revealing a physical lock if you need to use a key in clutch moments.

The Smart Thermostat can be temperature calibrated, and can also display humidity too with a simple UI that should be readable from across the room.

And this comes paired with a Temperature Sensor with a magnetic back to attach to metal surfaces (as well as an adhesive back for other surfaces). The battery is replaceable in this, and it links up with the thermostat to give an accurate real-time reading.

Outlook

Apple’s HomeKit launched in 2014, yet Amazon Echo Shows and Google Nest Hubs have owned the kitchen counters for a decade. Tomorrow, Apple looks finally set to fix that with HomeView with an updated Siri AI in tow.

I’m hoping the support isn’t walled off to specific devices, and that the wider smart home ecosystem is supported through this central command center. That alongside the “it just works” nature of Apple could be a game-changer for the home.

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Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom’s Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom’s Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you’ll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn’t already.

Apple is set to host the first of possibly two October hardware events tomorrow, and the likelihood is that the “Welcome Home” event will focus on smart home gadgets. According to Mark Gurman over at Bloomberg, that includes an all-new product called a HomeView, as well as updates to the Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini.

Gurman’s report zeroes in on the HomeView as the product that will ‘close the biggest hole in its ecosystem’ by essentially fusing an iPad with a HomePod. Rumors have circulated about this product for a long time but Gurman has corroborated previous reports — 24 hours before the product is officially unveiled.

This will be an all-new product to act as the control center for your smart home, but Apple has apparently partnered with other brands to make sure that compatible accessories — like a smart doorbell and thermostat — are in production.

Part of the reason Apple’s smart home ambitions haven’t been met was, as Gurman puts it, because Siri’s capabilities were never “reliable or capable enough to serve as the connective tissue holding everything together”. That’s changed with Siri AI and Apple now appears ready to launch an all-out assault on the smart home market.

Here’s what to expect at tomorrow’s event.

Apple HomeView smart home hub

According to the report, the HomeView will be equipped with an A18 chip, likely paired with the same 8GB of RAM used in the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus that it first appeared in. The device will use Siri AI for voice control and be available in either a free-standing tabletop version or as a wall-mounted version that packs the speaker into a flat, square wall plate.

Despite being built on the shoulders of the HomePod, the HomeView will reportedly feature better sound than Apple’s smart speaker and come in a choice of four colors: Gray, Silver, Starlight and Rose. However, the wall-mounted version will be limited to Gray and Silver.

There are a few caveats also apparently in place with the HomeView. While it will be revealed tomorrow, Gurman says it won’t launch until “mid-November”. Furthermore, it will arrive with first-party Apple apps on board, but no App Store for any third-party options. Lastly, the mentioned accessories above — which will also include indoor and outdoor security lights, a deadbolt lock and a floodlight camera — won’t ship until later this year “at the earliest.”

So while the arrival of a wholly new Apple product is an exciting one, Apple may have a bit of a waiting game to play with this one.

New Apple TV 4K

It was a bit of a surprise not to see a new Apple TV 4K announced back in September but apparently the device is coming tomorrow. The current Apple TV is nearly four years old and, according to the leaks, little will change when it comes to the outward appearance.

Instead, the new set-top box will have an upgraded A17 Pro chip inside (taking over from the A15 Bionic) as well as a RAM boost to 8GB. It will also feature the N1 chip and support for Apple Intelligence, Siri AI and — crucially — Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Oh, and we may get a revamped Siri Remote.

One thing we don’t know is whether or not the new Apple 4K TV will stick at the same $199 starting price (it was hiked earlier this year from $129) or be increased further.

New HomePod mini

Like the Apple 4K TV, we are probably going to see a long-overdue refresh to the HomePod mini that upgrades the internals but keeps the outward design exactly the same. Well, apart from some new colors. Gurman claims we’ll see the speaker drop in Green, Pink, Blue, White and Midnight.

The new HomePod mini 2 will be equipped with the same S10 chip that debuted in the Apple Watch Series 10 — a big upgrade over the S5 in the current version. As someone who still uses a first-gen Apple HomePod, I’m really looking forward to even an iterative update to Apple’s smart speaker.

Again, as with the Apple 4K TV, I just hope that Apple doesn’t increase the pricing too much. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out. As a reminder, the event is taking place in New York and is set to kick off at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. BST.

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Jeff is UK Editor-in-Chief for Tom’s Guide looking after the day-to-day output of the site’s British contingent.

A tech journalist for over a decade, he’s travelled the world testing any gadget he can get his hands on. Jeff has a keen interest in fitness and wearables as well as the latest tablets and laptops.

A lapsed gamer, he fondly remembers the days when technical problems were solved by taking out the cartridge and blowing out the dust.