Apple has unveiled the HomeView, a smart home hub designed to act as a control center for connected devices such as doorbells, lights and thermostats. Pre-orders open today, and it launches on November 13.
At its "Welcome Home" event, Apple introduced the HomeView, a $299 hub with a 7-inch Liquid Retina touchscreen. It is powered by Siri AI and supports Matter and Thread, which should help it work with a wide range of existing smart home products.
There are two versions. One has a built-in speaker in its base, which resembles an old iMac G4, and is meant for countertops. It comes in silver, starlight, rose pink and space grey. The other has no speaker and is made for wall mounting, in silver or space gray. Wall mounts come in three configurations: the Power Mount USB-C Wall Connector ($59), the Power Mount AC Wired ($79) and the Power Mount PoE Wired ($129).
Both models have a front FaceTime camera, and several HomeViews can work together as an intercom. Like similar hubs from other brands, the device shows the temperature and upcoming calendar events, and offers touch controls for connected devices. The screen can also show footage from security cameras and video doorbells.
Apple is working with LG on an "Apple Home Collection" of devices it helped design, including a doorbell, a smart lock, indoor and outdoor security cameras and a thermostat. With Apple Intelligence, the HomeView can generate descriptions of video from supported devices. This previously needed an iPhone that supported Apple Intelligence; now it requires the HomeView and a 2TB iCloud+ subscription.
Built-in sensors can also recognize family members and show only that person's calendar, notes, messages, reminders and photos.
Source: Gizmodo
