HomeView Needs an iPhone or iPad for Some AI Features

Despite featuring an A18 chip and built-in Apple Intelligence support, Apple's new HomeView still depends on a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad for several features. According to Apple's announcement, Siri requests involving personal context require a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or ‌iPad‌ running the latest software, with ‌Siri‌ AI enabled and set to a supported language. These capabilities include retrieving relevant information from Messages and Calendar, as well as taking action across apps using the user's personal context. HomeView will still offer several ‌Siri‌ AI capabilities to users whose iPhone or ‌iPad‌ does not support ‌Apple Intelligence‌. Apple says these users can ask general-knowledge questions, hold natural conversations with ‌Siri‌, and benefit from improved music discovery. ‌Siri‌ requests on the HomeView can be processed on the device or through Private Cloud Compute. Customizable ‌Siri‌ voices have more restrictive hardware requirements. Users can only adjust ‌Siri‌'s expressiveness and speaking pace on their paired device, with those preferences then carrying over to HomeView. This requires an iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, or an ‌iPad‌ with an M4 chip or later and at least 12GB of unified memory. The feature is available in English only. Some of the HomeView's intelligent camera features also depend on another Apple device. Video summaries and natural language searches of HomeKit Secure Video recordings require setup using an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or ‌iPad‌, along with an eligible iCloud+ subscription. The HomeView launches on November 13, with both the tabletop and wall-mounted models priced at $299 in the U.S. Popular StoriesSiri AI Settlement Website Now Live: Apple to Pay Some iPhone OwnersSunday September 20, 2026 7:24 pm PDT by Joe RossignolIn May, Apple agreed to pay $250 million to settle a U.S. class action lawsuit over Siri AI's delayed launch, and the settlement website is now live. Apple will pay an estimated $25 per eligible iPhone to eligible customers, who can submit a claim via the settlement website between September 21 and December 21 of this year. The exact payment may be higher or lower than $25 depending on the...Reminder: iOS 27's All-New Siri AI Has a Waitlist, Here's How to Sign UpTuesday September 15, 2026 8:54 am PDT by Joe RossignolApple this week released iOS 27 following around three months of beta testing. If you just installed the software update on your iPhone, you might be wondering where the new-and-improved Siri AI and dedicated Siri app are. In case you missed it, you must join Apple's waitlist in order to gain access to these new features. Keep in mind that while iOS 27 is compatible with the iPhone 11 and...Apple's Siri AI Can Be Swapped Out for Claude, ChatGPT, Code ShowsMonday September 14, 2026 4:37 am PDT by Tim HardwickCode sleuth "pdfu" has uncovered iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate private frameworks that show Apple has designed its new Siri architecture to work with third-party AI models at what appears to be a surprisingly deep level. One mechanism called Model Delegation allows Claude to appear as a Siri extension in the same way as the existing built-in ChatGPT extension. In pdfu's video, shared on X,...