News summary:
- Apple has announced a new smart home collection, Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini 2, as well as its long-awaited smart home control interface, now going by the name Apple HomeView.
- All introduced Apple products will include the latest version of Siri AI, enabling voice control and contextual automations and control across the Apple home ecoystem.
- For the first time, Apple HomePod mini 2 can be arranged in a four-speaker configuration with Apple TV 4K to create a surround sound system that automatically adjusts levels and output based on positioning.
After a considerable wait and much rumormongering, Apple has finally released an official look at its new collection of smart home products, including its new tabletop control pad, now going by the name HomeView. Alongside the new smart home collection, Apple has also announced a new Apple TV 4K, as well as an updated collection of its HomePod minis.
The announcement comes after years of speculation surrounding Apple’s next big market move following the dissolution of both a robotics and car project, with much of Apple’s focus moving forward seeming to be focused on the smart home.
The Apple Home Collection: What’s new
The Apple Home Collection is a new lineup of smart home accessories produced in conjunction with Schneider Electric and LG Electronics. The new products consist of a series of indoor and outdoor cameras, thermostats, temperature sensors and a video doorbell/door lock.
What’s worth noting is that not all the products in this new collection are from Apple. Instead, the Apple smart home collection is a recommended set of Apple and third-party products developed with the purpose of creating an “integrated Apple Home experience” across a series of select products.
The other main, unifying feature of the Apple Home Collection is that all products sport a similar, minimalist aesthetic to maintain design cohesion. Each product can be set up starting with a single tap with iPhone, controlled entirely from the Home app and using Siri, and work as either standalone accessories or together as a connected system.
Smart home security in the Apple Home Collection
LG provides the bulk of security in the collection, with four cameras capturing up to 2.5K resolution video. Users can also directly monitor their homes when using a home hub like Apple HomeView, HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV 4K. The devices are as follows:
- A video doorbell with front and bottom camera views, a built-in spotlight and a chime that plays through HomeView, HomePod, and HomePod mini,
- A floodlight camera with adaptive dual floodlights that activate automatically when motion is detected, and low-light color night vision,
- An outdoor cam with low-light color night vision and an tiltable camera,
- An indoor camera that automatically tilts upward and downward to adjust the view when users check in on the home, tilting back down to stop monitoring as soon as the first member of the household returns,
- And a smart deadbolt lock that uses Ultra Wideband to detect authorized entrants at a distance, automatically unlocking when approached with an Apple home key, though there is an integrated PIN keypad for added flexibility, as well as a hidden backup key slot.
Why integrators should take note
For the longest time, Apple has had the reputation of being difficult to work with in terms of getting smart home devices onto its network. This new collection, taken in consideration alongside all the recent integrations introduced at the professional level, show that that era of the Apple smart home—being a closed ecosystem—may at last be coming to an end.
Our first official look at the Apple Homeview
Alongside the Home Collection, Apple has released the highly anticipated HomeView, a 7-inch Liquid Retina display mounted on domed speaker that’s meant to serve as the central hub to Apple’s new vision for the smart home. The new product also features customization and personalization as one of its main defining features, with the new HomeView allegedly being able to recognize individual users and adapt its interface accordingly.
According to Apple: “Each user gets their own personalized Home Screen with apps and widgets. Personal content stays private from others, while shared photo albums and music can be easily enjoyed by everyone in a household, including guests.”
HomeView also contains Siri AI, which Apple says is an entirely new version of Siri powered by the latest versions of Apple Intelligence and chip tech. In terms of functionality, this new Siri AI can reportedly allow users to act across apps, surfacing relevant information from Messages and Calendar, playlists on Apple Music, and more by drawing on their personal context, provided Apple Intelligence has been enabled.
Siri AI is also making voice control play a more prominent part in the Apple smart home experience, allowing users to access and manage devices from HomeView through contextual commands.
The new Apple HomePod mini 2.
The HomeView at the heart of Apple’s multiroom audio experience
Interestingly enough, another core feature of the HomeView puts it at the heart of Apple multiroom audio. The fact that it’s mounted on a domed speaker isn’t just to give Siri AI a chance to respond to homeowners: it actually contains a custom-engineered acoustic system.
Two custom full-range drivers in the display keep everything sounding crisp and clean while delivering room-filling Spatial Audio. A down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators are built into the base, offering incredible bass extension. Powered by Apple silicon and real-time system sensors, advanced computational audio continuously optimizes loudness and bass response at any volume.
Paired with other HomeView, HomePod, HomePod mini, and AirPlay-compatible speakers, users can start listening to music, podcasts, or even Apple TV in one room and have it either follow them into another room, or spread that experience throughout the house.
The capability coincides with a newly released version of the HomePod mini (the HomePod mini 2), which is now capable of analyzing music and audio output in real time to optimize dynamic range, loudness and acoustic performance.
Why integrators should take note
The HomeView fills in the one major gap Apple always had in its smart home, that being the lack of a centralized control interface within the home. With the option for either a tabletop version, or wall-mounted version, Apple is taking a step closer towards the standard we see in most professional setups, with voice control adding to that level.
The fact that it plays into such a large multiroom audio strategy is interesting, however, and makes one wonder if this is Apple attempting to go after Sonos’s lunch in some way.
The new Apple TV 4K
Rounding out the new announcements and providing a more complete look at Apple’s smart home vision is the latest generation of Apple TV 4K. A popular media solution within the custom integration channel, this latest version promises what Apple is calling its “most immersive home theater experience yet,” with much of the previously mentioned products being central to that claim.
Siri AI makes an appearance here, allowing for users to control their TV thanks to three far-field microphones included in the TV box. The all new A19 chip also includes a dedicated AV1 decoder, reportedly enabling more efficient, high-quality streaming while using less bandwidth.
Pairing the new Apple TV 4K with four HomePod mini 2s is where the immersion factor kicks in. According to Apple, using the new HomePod mini 2s alongside the Apple TV 4K allows users to create a four-speaker surround sound system that can automatically calibrate itself to the space. Allegedly, all five products can work with one another to determine their locations within a room, adjusting audio timing and levels accordingly.
Final takeaways
While CE Pro has been expecting Apple smart home news for some time, the amount revealed across Apple’s multiple releases offers a far greater picture into the company’s smart home plan than previously expected.
Taken in isolation, these new product releases mark a new direction for the company as it looks to fill in the gaps of its smart home ecosystem while also opening it up for greater collaboration among third-party device manufacturers. Greater, more flexible control options are being offered through HomeView, while nearly every major Apple product announced today is also capable of serving as a satellite hub for specific smart home functions.
Taken in the scope of the broader professional smart home market, the Apple ecosystem starts to look a lot more robust. Recent integrations with IC Realtime has made Apple TV capable of acting as digital live security hubs. Savant, being built on Apple software, already has integrations with Siri for home control, and Control4 already integrates with Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem.
It all points to a broadening capability of Apple in both the consumer and professional space, and given the brand loyalty Apple commands, that’s something integrators are going to want to keep abreast of when building systems that allow for clients to include all their favorite devices.
Availability
Releasing the soonest, the Apple HomePod mini 2 will be available for purchase October 30. Following that, The HomeView and new Apple TV 4K will be available November 13. The Apple Home Collection has a release date sometime in 2027, according to the company.
