Apple preparing huge smart home push, claims expert

Apple's incoming HomeKit hub isn't the only new smart home product the firm will release next year: according to a new report, it's working on a whole new smart home operating system, homeOS, and that will power at least two new smart home devices. 

As we reported last week, the HomeKit hub is believed to have a square-ish display, an A18 processor and artificial intelligence. But, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the real star of Apple's smart home plans is a tabletop device codenamed J595 that, as previously reported, looks rather like an iPad on a robot arm. And we could see both of those products in 2025.

You'd better start saving if you want the robot one however, Gurman says it could cost as much as $1,000.

What's Apple planning for your smart home?

It's all about Apple Intelligence, and that's not great news for your existing HomeKit hardware: your Apple TV 4K, your HomePod mini and your HomePods (2nd generation) don't have the horsepower to run Apple's take on artificial intelligence. Both of these new products will, and they'll be the brains of your smart home.

According to Gurman, the lower-end device is really just an iPad/HomePod hybrid redesigned for the smart home.

It's designed to run apps such as Calendar and the Home app and Apple reportedly "imagined the device magnetically attaching to walls or sitting atop a desk". It'll also run FaceTime for voice and video calls.

It does sound rather like Facebook's Portal, which was discontinued in 2022. 

The more expensive robotic device is believed to follow you around as you move – as FaceTime's Center Stage does, but mechanically rather than with camera cleverness – and is reportedly intended as a video caller, a smart home hub and a home security tool.

Robot arm aside, it sounds very like Amazon's Echo Show 10. We said that device was pretty expensive at the time, although Apple's will apparently be four times the price.