Apple has just unveiled HomeView, its brand-new smart home hub driven by the revamped, Google Gemini-powered Siri.
You can grab it either as a desktop unit or a wall-mounted display. The desktop version gets a sleek floating screen sitting on a rounded aluminium base with a tilt hinge, coming in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space grey with color-matched cables.
If you prefer sticking it on a wall, the display-only version pairs with custom Schneider Home mounts, though that one only comes in silver and space grey.
Both models pack two full-range drivers inside the display, but the desktop version adds a down-firing woofer and force-cancelling passive radiators in its base. It supports Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and uses computational audio to tune itself to your room on the fly. Four far-field mics pick up your voice, and it can even listen out for smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.
The screen itself is a square 7-inch LCD running at 1088×1088 resolution with 220ppi. It ramps up to 500 nits of brightness for bright rooms, drops all the way down to 0.3 nits for night time, and includes True Tone alongside an oleophobic touch coating. Video calls are handled by a 12MP ultra-wide camera featuring Center Stage to keep you in frame, while Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 6.0, and Thread take care of wireless connectivity.
Underneath housed the Apple’s A18 chip running a custom operating system. Powered by Apple Intelligence, the new Siri lets you start a conversation on your HomeView and seamlessly pick it up later on your iPhone or iPad.
It can recognise up to six different family members, pulling personalised info from their individual Apple devices. Personal tasks like replying to messages or emails stay locked to recognised users, but shared photo libraries and music are open to everyone. Everyone gets to customise their own home screen layout with personalised widgets too.
Pricing and Availability
The HomeView is priced at USD299 (~RM1,221) for either the standard or wall-mounted model, though the wall mounts are sold separately. Pre-orders are live today in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand, with Singapore following on 15 October ahead of a full release on 13 November.
Regulatory hurdles around Siri’s AI features mean it will not be launching in the EU, and unfortunately, there is no official launch planned for Malaysia either.