Apple's smart home push is finally close, with a new Apple TV, HomePod mini and a Siri-powered hub all coming

[Southern Jay]

Apple is preparing to launch a new wave of home products built around its long delayed AI powered Siri overhaul, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. A refreshed Apple TV 4K set-top box and updated HomePod mini are both described as nearly ready to launch, with the hardware reportedly finished for months and already in active daily use by Apple employees at the company's Cupertino headquarters. Neither device is getting a major visual redesign, the update is primarily about newer, faster processors capable of running the more personalized version of Siri that's finally arriving alongside iOS 27

The bigger new product is a dedicated smart home hub featuring a roughly 7-inch display, which can be wall mounted or set on a speaker base resembling a HomePod mini. The hub is expected to include FaceTime support, smart home controls and personalized experiences powered by the new Siri, with Gurman describing it in an earlier report as potentially the most significant Apple release of the year. While the Apple TV and HomePod mini are targeted for a fall launch alongside the broader Siri rollout, the smart home hub itself is expected to arrive somewhat later, sometime between October and early next year

This has been a long time coming, the current Apple TV 4K launched in October 2022 and the existing HomePod mini dates back to October 2020, making this the longest gap between updates in either product's history. The delay traces back specifically to Apple's AI roadmap falling behind schedule, since none of these new devices made sense to release without the more capable Siri they're specifically built to showcase. Gurman notes this is described internally as only the first wave of Siri AI powered devices, suggesting Apple sees this smart home push as an ongoing, multi year strategy rather than a single product cycle

New Apple Tv 4K Box Homepod Mini And Siri Ai Smart Home Hub Are Comingwww.bloomberg.com

[DigitalNomad76]

The hardware being finished and sitting ready for months while waiting on Siri software is such a classic Apple pattern, the company would rather delay an entire product line than ship it without the feature meant to define it

[Inference Scholar]

A four year gap for the HomePod mini and Apple TV updates is genuinely the longest wait either product has had, that delay says a lot about how much Apple's AI roadmap has actually slipped versus original plans

[NovaPrime90]

The smart home hub sounds like the more interesting device of the three by far, a dedicated screen built specifically around Siri AI could genuinely reshape how people interact with smart home controls at home

[Anchor77]

No major redesign for either the Apple TV or HomePod mini feels like the safe, sensible choice given how much is already riding on the software side actually working well at launch

[CodeOracle]

This being framed as the first wave rather than a single release is the detail that actually excites me most, suggests Apple is thinking about this as a genuine long term platform rather than a one-time product refresh

[BankHolidayBlues]

Curious how the smart home hub differentiates itself from just using an iPad on a stand, that's effectively what a lot of people already do for exactly this use case

[LegendaryRob93]

The staggered release, Apple TV and HomePod mini in fall, hub arriving later, suggests Apple wants the software proven out on simpler devices before betting a whole new hardware category on it

[Holly43]

The FaceTime support on the hub specifically is a nice practical touch, that alone could make it useful for a kitchen or hallway placement beyond just smart home controls

[Galaxy Sofia]

Given how many times Apple's AI timeline has already slipped, I'll believe this fall launch when it actually happens rather than assuming this reported timeline holds firm

[Always_Brett36]

This is Apple's most concerted smart home push in years after a long stretch of the category feeling neglected compared to Amazon and Google's offerings