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Apple is building Smart home hub with a display.
A recent code leaks from iOS 26 just confirmed several features
we've been hearing about for years.
It's been rumored that they're going to have some sort of Alexa
type of ICE device sometime. Finally, there's a leak within
the iOS. Now the device will have Face
Ida, 1080P camera profile switching based on who's
standing in front of it, and support for Apple Intelligence.
Now, Apple's been working on this product for at least 2-3
years, and internal references now place it in the iOS 26 code
base. The expected launch window is
March or April, right around the time Apple plans to roll out a
major new version of Siri next year.
So what exactly is Apple building, and how does it
compare to what Google and Amazon have been selling for
almost a decade now? Now, the design reportedly
resembles a small iPad with thick bezels, and one version
will sit on a hemispherical base that looks like an old iMac G4.
Do you remember those things? I'm going to cover the hardware
details on this one, how Face ID changes the whole experience,
what apps will be available for it, and what else Apple might
announce alongside it. And we'll get right back into
that after the short break. Now, Apple's Smart Home Hub will
come in two versions. 1 is a 7 inch display and it's designed
to be mounted on a wall. The other has the same 7 inch
display but sits on a speaker base that looks similar to a
Home Pod Mini. Now.
It's been described as a hemispherical Dome with the
screen position at an angle on top of it.
In the features in iOS, the whole unit is small and
lightweight enough to be moved from room to room.
Now the device will know how close you're standing to it and
adjust what it shows based on where you are.
If no one's nearby, it might display the temperature or the
time. And if someone approaches, it
gets shipped to an interface for adjusting the thermostat.
Or it can adjust to who you are. Maybe you listen to a lot of
music. It's camera will detect who you
are, use AI and say, hey, this is Will he really likes to
listen to Spotify and then it'll show me Spotify, possibly pop it
right up be like what you know what kind of songs you want to
listen to. That would be really
interesting. Now that kind of proximity
awareness is not something you get from a standard tablet
propped up on a counter like we do in our kitchen.
We have an iPad. We put it on the counter and
play music or look at recipes while we cook.
This is going to be a little bit different, more AI involved.
Now the hub will also, you know, the sensors in it will detect
how many people are in a room and which person is near it.
So if I walked in the calendar on the screen, screen should
shift to maybe my personal calendar.
When my wife walks in, it shifts to hers.
Apple is using Face ID for this profile switching, and iOS 26
codely confirms that engineers are testing the accuracy of the
system with an internal app. Right now the camera is limited
to 1080P though, which is lower resolution than you might
expect, but is enough for facial recognition and for video calls
too, because you're not really going to be making high effort
video calls, usually in your kitchen or just hanging out of
your house, use your phone for that Face ID, or if you're doing
something in your office, you'll have a different camera for
that. It doesn't really need to be 4K
resolution. Now, Apple has been referring to
the operating system internally as charismatic.
The name is not been publicly confirmed, but it describes an
interface built around clock faces and widgets, and the main
view of this thing is a customizable home screen similar
to your iPad that can show the weather, home controls, photo,
slideshows, and upcoming calendar events.
There will be no dedicated App Store at launch.
Instead Apple plans to ship the hub with several pre installed
apps. So there will be Safari, Apple
News, Apple Music, Notes, Calendar, Photos and Home app,
and some sort of weather app. Now, Apple is also working on a
personified Siri interface for this device.
The idea is that Siri would have an animated appearance, and one
concept being considered is a version that looks like the
classic Mac Finder icon. That would give Siri a face,
which changes how people might interact with it compared to
just a glowing orb or a waveform.
Because right now, we don't know what Siri looks like.
We talked to Siri on our phones and we talked to Siri on our
other devices, but we don't really have a face to this
voice. Now, the new Siri coming in iOS
26 is a major part of the product too.
Apple intelligence will be supported on the Home Hub, which
means the upgraded Siri with better natural language
understanding should be available at launch.
Now that timing all lines up here.
Apple is expected to release iOS 26.4 in March or April with a
new Siri, and the Home Hub is expected to ship around that
same time. Now, the iOS 26 code leak also
referenced the device identified as J229.
This is an accessory. It has multiple sensors that can
detect alarm sounds and capture images.
And the sample has been rumored to be working on a home security
camera for this device and have a home kit for it, and J229 fits
that description. Now, there's no confirmed launch
date for this one, but if Apple announced the Home Hub in the
spring, they might preview the camera alongside it.
Now, personal detection could enable smart home automations
beyond just profile switching. The hub might turn on the lights
when someone enters the room and might recognize hand gestures
from longer range control. Apple's also considering
additional sensors to plug into outlets throughout the home to
interface with the hub, though it's unclear if those will
actually shift. Now imagine this.
You have a home full of these things, and maybe you have one
when you walk in the front door. And if it's me, I would like my
office light on, might turn on my computer and might turn on
some music in the kitchen because at, you know, 6 O clock
at night, I'm going to go to the kitchen and I'm going to cook.
So maybe that Siri when I walk in the front door, the Siri in
the kitchen will start playing some some low music, some
cooking music that I actually enjoy and might actually
recommend a recipe. Or maybe I could have a recipe
ready the day before and Apple Intelligence will have it on the
screen when I walk in the front door.
Get my kitchen ready for me. Here we go.
Let's cook dinner with Apple Intelligence.
That would be amazing. So what do we actually know?
Right now the hardware is nearly finalized. 2 versions, 1 wall
mounted and one with a speaker base, face ID for authentication
and profile switching. There's a camera for video calls
and face scanning, Apple Intelligence of course, a widget
based interface with no App Store at launch that just got to
be pre installed apps only, and a launch window of March or
April of 2025. But there's competitors.
Google's been selling smart displays for years.
Amazon has the Echo and several smaller models.
Those products already do many of the things Apple is
describing now. The difference is integration.
Apple's hub will tie into the existing Apple ecosystem,
including Homekit, iCloud and also Siri.
For people already using iPhones, iPads and Macs.
This is a big deal. For people using Google or
Amazon devices, Apple century into this market might not
change much. I know I have an Apple phone but
we use Amazon devices at home. They just tie in with everything
we already have. So we might consider having
Apple devices instead of Amazon depending on the price range.
You know, Google and Amazon, you can pick them up for 100 or
couple $100 and on like a Black Friday sale, you get them for
under $100. So if Apple has something, you
know, competitive with that, but if they have better features and
also tie in with my phone better, then absolutely I would
switch over to an Apple device. It's going to be like part of
the home pod line up rather than just a stand alone product
category to this this new device.
That would mean it can piece directly with smart speakers
that have displays, not with tablets or iPad.
So you can keep your iPad around the speaker based version
supports that positioning built in speakers come standard in an
optional dock. You can add more speakers and
the wall mounted device will also have speakers in the
future, possibly not at launch, but maybe there will be an add
on in the future, not sure. It's basically an iPad for your
wall, a small iPad, A7 inch iPad.
So iPad mini basically. So we're going to see how that
goes. But can Apple differentiate
enough to justify what will likely be a premium price
though? Face ID and person detection are
very strong features, especially for me.
I would love that. I would love my house to be
automated more. Apple intelligence and the new
Siri could be strong features if they work as promised.
Google and Amazon have years of iteration behind the products
and they sell them at aggressive price points under $100.
Apple's Home Hub will need to do something those devices cannot
and also do the same things that they do even better.
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