THE CRUNCH
Apple's "Welcome Home" launch event kicks off in New York on October 13th at 9AM ET, and smart home hardware is the clear centrepiece. The headline product is a new smart home hub, reportedly featuring a 6-inch square touchscreen that can be wall-mounted or set on a countertop. According to Mark Gurman, the countertop version will resemble the iMac G4, with the screen attached to an arm set into a half sphere. The device is expected to use voice or facial recognition to identify who is interacting with it, pulling up the relevant contacts and calendar appointments, with an option for secondary identification through an iPhone to keep personal data more secure.
The hub is expected to run a new software platform called homeOS, a name Apple may have quietly trademarked through a shell company called Home Operations Suite LLC. Gurman describes the interface as looking like a mashup of iOS, tvOS and watchOS, focused on smart home tasks such as controlling thermostats and smart locks, with FaceTime calls and the usual Apple apps and widgets, including Apple Music, Reminders and Siri AI.
The HomePod Mini and Apple TV are due refreshes that keep the existing designs but add a new processor to handle Siri AI and speed up Apple TV navigation, which can get laggy. Both are expected to use Apple's N1 chip, which supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 6.0. This will be the first update to the HomePod Mini since it was announced on October 13th of 2020, exactly six years before the Welcome Home event, and the first hardware refresh for the Apple TV since 2022. LG partner devices, including smart deadbolts and thermostats, are also rumoured to appear, though Apple is not expected to share much of the spotlight.