Macworld
It’s official. Apple will announce its big push into the smart home on Tuesday, October 13. This isn’t expected to be a big special event keynote at Apple Park, but rather a web launch with a coordinated “Special Experience” for invited members of the media to go hands-on with the new products in New York City.
Apple did the same thing with the launch of the MacBook Neo earlier this year, after wrapping up a week of product announcements. That launch followed three days of announcements; however, this time everything is expected to drop at the same time. Apple’s Senior VP of Marketing Greg Joswiak posted a video showing the creation of the embroidered Apple logo and “Welcome Home” tagline.
So what is Apple expected to announce? Reportedly, we’re getting a trio of new products: An updated Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini with new processors that make them suitable to run Siri AI, and the headline device, an all-new home hub device.
The Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini are expected to be relatively straightforward updates with new chips to enable Apple Intelligence features and a few minor tweaks, such as HomePod mini colors, but without any dramatic design or interface changes. It’s the new home hub device that is the star of the show.
Apple’s answer to the Amazon Echo Show or Google Nest Hub, this new as-yet-unnamed device (most call it “HomePad” for now) is a totally new thing, with a new design, operating system, and interface. The most reliable rumors say it has a 6-inch display with a squareish aspect ratio, attached via a polished metal arm to a half-dome perforated base similar in size to a HomePod mini. Like a tiny little iMac G4.
It will have a new operating system and a new interface that is supposedly a mashup of tvOS, iOS widgets, iPhone Standby mode, and Apple Watch faces and complications. You’ll be able to access your smart home controls as well as your calendar, messages, Apple Music and Podcasts, and make FaceTime calls thanks to the forward-facing camera. That camera reportedly has a cool new trick, too: recognizing which user is looking at it and switching to their own preferences and showing their own data.
In addition to Apple’s trio of new products, it might show off some smart home stuff made in partnership with other manufacturers. Apple is said to have partnered with LG on a set of smart home products: A doorbell, an indoor camera, an outdoor camera, and an outdoor floodlight cam. These will carry LG branding, but were designed in conjunction with Apple, so Apple will likely show some of these products on October 13 as well.
The media event to accompany this “Welcome Home” launch is on Tuesday, October 13 at 9:00 am ET in New York. It’s not clear whether Apple will accompany this with a longer keynote-style video to introduce these products, as it does with other events, or if it will simply launch new product pages directly on the Apple website.