All the news from Apple’s ‘Welcome Home’ event
Everything Apple launched at its ‘Welcome Home’ event
Image: Apple
Apple unveiled a slate of new smart home gadgets at its aptly named “Welcome Home” event today, including its first (and highly anticipated) smart home hub. That flagship announcement came alongside much-needed refreshes for Apple’s HomePod Mini and TV 4K devices, and a selection of new smart home and security accessories designed together with trusted third-party manufacturers.
Catch up on all of Apple’s new hardware announcements in our roundup below, or click through for more detailed coverage on each.
Apple launches HomeView, its first smart display for the home
It’s finally here: Apple’s long-rumored smart display, the Apple HomeView, has arrived. I got a first look at the device in New York City this week, and it’s gorgeous. The HomeView puts a small, vibrant screen atop a speaker base for taking video calls, beautifully displaying photos, and providing information at a glance with Apple’s Siri AI voice assistant. The device’s square shape makes it feel less imposing than larger smart displays like Google’s Nest Hub Max or Amazon’s Echo Show 11, and I can see it fitting nicely on my kitchen counter — though it might be a hair too big for my bedside table.
The HomeView is the centerpiece of Apple’s new push into the home. It costs $299 and launches alongside a new collection of cameras, thermostats, and a door lock designed for Apple Home. As a smart home hub, Matter controller, and Thread Border Router, the HomeView can orchestrate these and other Apple Home and Matter smart home devices. It’s available in eight countries at launch: the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and India. Pre-orders are open now, with devices shipping November 13th.
The new Apple Home Collection includes a video doorbell, smart lock, and more
Apple has partnered with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric to launch the Apple Home Collection, an assortment of smart home devices meant to be easy to set up and use. The collection is something of a smart home starter pack, including security cameras, a video doorbell, a door lock, and two thermostats.
Apple is announcing the products as part of a major push into the smart home space, led by its new Siri AI-powered HomeView smart display. The devices are the first smart home gadgets the company has made for Apple Home; previously, it relied on third parties to make products for the platform. While third parties manufactured these, Apple co-developed each product and says they are designed to work seamlessly with Apple Home. Apple introduced the collection at its Welcome Home event in New York City today, where it also showcased the new Apple TV 4K and the HomePod Mini 2.
Apple announces the HomePod Mini 2, but it isn’t ready for Siri AI at launch
Apple is announcing the long-awaited HomePod Mini 2 with a new chip that can power Siri AI — but support for those new AI features won’t be available at launch. The speaker is also getting a new sound glow feature that syncs its LED lights with a song’s album art, and it can now be your Mac’s default speaker. Up to four can also pair with the new Apple TV 4K for surround sound. And like everything this year, it’s more expensive, too.
The HomePod Mini 2 comes in pink, green, and a new shade of blue, along with white and black. It costs $149, $20 more than its predecessor, which is being discontinued. Preorders open today, October 13th, and it will ship on October 30th. Apple announced the smart speaker alongside a suite of new products for the home, including the new HomeView smart display ($299), the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K ($299), and a new collection of smart home devices developed in collaboration with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric starting at $199.
The new Apple TV 4K has built-in microphones so you can talk to Siri AI
Apple is introducing a refreshed Apple TV 4K today with a pair of interesting new hardware features: far-field microphones to talk to Siri hands-free and Find My built into the remote. The fourth-gen Apple TV 4K, announced at Apple’s Welcome Home event in New York City, is the first model to support the Siri AI voice assistant and has a new home theatre feature that lets you pair up to four second-gen HomePods or HomePod Mini 2s for surround sound.
The new Apple TV 4K costs $299, more than twice the price the prior-generation Apple TV 4K debuted at and $50 more than the current top-of-the-line model (which is being discontinued). The fourth-gen model matches that version’s specs with 128GB of storage, an Ethernet port, and support for Thread and Matter, but it’s getting a bump up to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. It will be available on November 13th, with preorders opening today, October 13th.
How Apple can win the smart home
This week, Apple is hosting its first-ever dedicated smart home event. While the company hasn’t shared details about what it will reveal at the “Welcome Home experience” in New York City on Tuesday, October 13th, it doesn’t take an army of internet sleuths to deduce we’ll get news about Apple Home — specifically, new hardware. Apple finally seems to be taking the smart home seriously.
According to Bloomberg, Apple will release a smart home display alongside a refreshed HomePod Mini and Apple TV. The display, which MacRumors reports may be called HomeView, is arguably Apple’s first dedicated Apple Home hardware since it launched the HomeKit platform in 2014. As exciting as this is (and I’ll be there in person to check it out), the real shift will be bringing Siri AI and Apple Intelligence into the home. Apple is years behind Google and Amazon in smart-home hardware, but success in the home depends far more on software. That’s where Apple could leapfrog the competition.
What to expect from Apple’s ‘Welcome Home’ event
Image: Apple
We are quickly coming up on Apple’s “Welcome Home” launch event, where we expect a host of smart home-related announcements. We are expecting refreshes to Apple TV and HomePod Mini, as well as a brand new smart home hub. We could also see the debut of a new platform called homeOS, and some partner devices from LG.
What we probably won’t be seeing is the long-rumored touchscreen MacBook, which Cupertino whisperer Mark Gurman says will debut later this month.
Apple may have filed to trademark the word “HomeView.”
Apple potentially used a shell company named Home Services LLC to secretly file for a “HomeView” trademark in the U.S. and various other countries last year, around the same time that another shell company named Home Operations Suite LLC that also might be linked to Apple filed for a “homeOS” trademark.
Perhaps the phrase is for something that will be announced at the October 13th “Welcome home” event? At least we don’t have to wait too long to find out.
Apple announces surprise ‘Welcome home’ launch event
Image: Apple
Apple has just announced a new October event, taking place in New York on October 13th at 9AM ET. The company is rumored to be launching smart home-focused products this month, and the event invite hints that’ll be the case: Apple is using the tagline “Welcome home.”
At the event, Apple is rumored to announce products including a smart home hub with a display, an updated HomePod Mini, a new Apple TV. The company is also reportedly teaming up with LG on new smart home devices that will launch at the event, including a video doorbell, thermostat, and indoor camera, and renders leaked yesterday that purportedly showed off some of those devices.
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