Apple announces surprise ‘Welcome home’ launch event

Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.Apple has just announced a new October event, taking place in New York on October 13th at 9AM ET. The event 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.Apple has reportedly been working on a new smart home hub for some time, and apparently even wanted to launch it sometime in 2025. However, the delays to the upgraded, AI-powered Siri reportedly pushed that launch back. Siri AI finally launched in last month (though with a beta tag), and now that it’s out, it appears that Apple’s next big push for the smart home is about to begin.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jay Peters