Apple Announces 'HomeView' Smart Home Hub

Apple today announced the "HomeView," an all-new kind of smart home hub featuring a 7-inch Liquid Retina display and Siri AI. Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said: Apple HomeView is designed to be shared by everyone in the home yet feel completely personal to each user. It recognizes your face to shift from a household screen to your own experience, fills the room with incredible sound, keeps you connected to the people who matter most with FaceTime, and makes it easy to control your smart home. And it's powered by Apple Intelligence with Siri AI at its core, drawing on personal context from your iPhone to help you find what you need and get more done, all while keeping everyone's information private and secure. The HomeView features an aluminum design, with the display connected to a domed speaker base by a stainless steel tilting hinge. Apple says it is ideal for a kitchen counter, nightstand, or side table. The 7-inch Liquid Retina display features True Tone and automatic brightness between 0.3 nits and 500 nits, making it ideal for low-light environments. A custom-engineered acoustic system with two full-range drivers delivers "room-filling" Spatial Audio. A down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators are built directly into the base. With Handoff, users can continue listening to audio from their iPhone by placing it in front of the HomeView. It also supports multiroom audio. The HomeView features faces that display information at a glance, including a Photos face, a "Flow" face that dynamically responds to movement, a Snoopy face that reflects context like the time of day and weather, a Home Modular face that offers instant access to smart home accessories, a Home Camera face that can livestream up to nine video feeds simultaneously, and more. The HomeView's interface adjusts based on a user's distance, showing larger, simpler information from across a room and richer detail as a user steps closer. The device recognizes up to six people and delivers a personalized experience. Each user has their own Home Screen with apps and widgets. Apple says that personal content remains private, while shared photo albums and music can be enjoyed by all users, including guests. The device features ‌Siri‌ AI, and used with an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad, ‌Siri‌ AI can take action across apps and surface relevant information from Messages and Calendar, Apple Music playlists, and more. Users can also customize the expressiveness and pace of ‌Siri‌'s voice on their paired and compatible device. ‌Siri‌ AI conversations sync across devices. Apple also said that "HomeView is the perfect sous chef," with the ability to convert recipes from the web into step-by-step instructions with hands-free timer controls and ingredient tracking. Moreover, the HomeView offers FaceTime and Center Stage, as well as Intercom for sending a quick message in the household. The tabletop version is available in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray, including matching cables. A wall-mounted version is available in silver and space gray only. It can be attached using three mount options from Schneider Home. The wall-mounted version delivers "rich sound" with two custom drivers and computational audio tuned specifically for on-wall placement. The HomeView costs $299. Pre-orders start today, with launch on November 13. It is not available in the EU. Popular StoriesApple Smart Home Hub to Feature iMac G4-Style DesignApple's long-rumored smart home hub will have an iMac G4-style design and a host of unique features, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. The smart home hub is said to feature a square 6-inch display, with variants that can be placed on a countertop or mounted on a wall. It features a single FaceTime camera on the front, with microphones and speakers in its connected base. Gurman described the...Three New Apple Smart Home Products Coming on October 13Apple plans to introduce a series of new smart home products on Tuesday, October 13, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple reportedly plans to debut its long-awaited smart home hub device, a new HomePod mini, and a new Apple TV on the date. The new HomePod mini and Apple TV are set to retain their existing designs, but tout faster chips to support Siri AI. The new HomePod mini will...Apple Stores Receive 'Do Not Open' Boxes Ahead of Smart Home Products LaunchApple Stores around the world are preparing to install new product presentations starting on Thursday, October 8. Apple retail stores received confidential boxes earlier this week featuring "Do Not Open Until October 8" stickers on them. They are believed to contain new visual merchandise, which enables workers to update labels, graphics, and product layouts in stores around the release of...