Macworld
Tomorrow’s Welcome Home Apple event–sorry, “experience”–will center on the smart home. And at the core of that home sits Apple’s new home hub, from which all the other devices will be monitored and controlled. Thanks to a last-minute report we now know, or at any rate have been told, a great deal about what Apple has in store for this vital product.
In the latest instalment of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg leaker Mark Gurman claims to reveal a wide range of key details about Apple’s imminent smart home hub, including its name, launch timeframe, design, usage, and software. He also discusses the other products that Apple will announce alongside it, including the new Apple TV and HomePod mini.
Firstly, the hub won’t be called HomePad or HomeHub, as some pundits had expected, but “HomeView.” Gurman credits this scoop to MacRumors, which on Friday spotted suspicious trademark activity by a shell company.
He says this branding “reflects how the device is meant to be used.” It’s a product you mainly look at (and speak to using Siri AI) rather than interacting with it directly via touch, even though the latter input method is possible using the small touchscreen. He believes that a name like HomePad would have led customers to expect more of a touch-centered experience, similar to the iPad.
On the software front, don’t expect an App Store for third-party software, or indeed a wide range of first-party applications. Rather, the HomeView will “support a limited selection of Apple applications.” Perhaps this will change in the future, bearing in mind that the original iPhone didn’t have an App Store either, but in this case it appears to be more of an intentional decision to focus on simplicity of use.
Design-wise, the HomeView (as we’ve known for some time) will come in two versions. A countertop version with a metal speaker base will come in many of Apple’s classic colors: Space Gray, silver, Starlight, and pink. But the wall-mounted version will only come in Space Gray and silver. In both cases, the device will run an A18 processor and serve “as the Siri command center for an Apple-powered household.”
For the first month or so of this new era for the smart home, however, Apple-powered households will be without their command center. The hardware will land in stores at different times: the new HomePod mini and Apple TV on October 30; the HomeView in mid-November; and the LG accessories “later this year at the earliest.” This seems a little uncoordinated, but Apple has shown an appetite in recent years for announcing things before they’re ready. Indeed, the iPhone Duo, unveiled as long ago as September 9, won’t go on sale until October 23.
The announcements are scheduled for October 13 at 9 am ET. You can follow the latest breaking news as it happens with our Welcome Home live blog, which is already up and running.