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Apple Considered Adding a Camera to the HomePod Years Ago

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Apple considered launching a HomePod with a camera and additional sensors years before the upcoming "HomePad" device, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

Full-HomePod-Black.jpeg

In a detailed profile of Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus, Gurman revealed that Apple considered adding a camera and a more advanced array of sensors to the original HomePod, which was announced in 2017. Ternus apparently believed that the additional capabilities would push up development costs and decided to cancel the features as a result.

Ternus was said to be reluctant to invest deeply in smart home devices when the first leading products from Amazon and Google arrived on the market around a decade ago. He subsequently took "some responsibility" for Apple falling behind in the smart home category.

Now, Ternus is leading Apple's efforts to re-establish itself in the smart home market with three new products, including an AI-powered smart home hub with facial recognition (J490), a small sensor for managing home security (J450), and a robotic device (J595). The smart home hub, dubbed "HomePad" in some reports, is expected to launch in the fall of 2026.

Article Link: Apple Considered Adding a Camera to the HomePod Years Ago
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/23/apple-considered-adding-a-camera-to-the-homepod/
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"He subsequently took "some responsibility" for Apple falling behind in the smart home category."

How on Earth can that be substantiated? Did he send an email of apology to the rest of the leadership team and Gurman got hold of it? Did he agree to forgo his annual bonus? The amount of sensationalist drivel that comes out of Gurman's mouth that's being published as gospel by everyone beggars belief. I read the entire article and there's literally nothing that's actual, substantial news.
 
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Kidseeghost said:
For what reason? These things flopped anyway. Adding more spy ware wouldn’t change it. It was too expensive and the main feature was bad. Also the era of smart assistants is over. I see more and more people ditching their smart speakers.
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Totally agree... with everything coming out about surveillance tech there is definitely a trend towards less "smart" devices. I could never imagine having a face recognition device at my door.
 
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Why in the world would anybody want or need to put a camera on a speaker? If I were actually in the market for a speaker like a HomePod, a camera would be a deal killer for me. We have too many cameras everywhere as it is, and many of them, we don't know about. I could keep this rant on cameras going on, but I will stop.
 
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they have spent more time "considering" things than actually doing anything with multiple product lines and its really becoming exhausting.
 
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RoadWarrior56 said:
Why in the world would anybody want or need to put a camera on a speaker? If I were actually in the market for a speaker like a HomePod, a camera would be a deal killer for me. We have too many cameras everywhere as it is, and many of them, we don't know about. I could keep this rant on cameras going on, but I will stop.
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Agreed.

No fixed cameras in the house here. We have them on our computers, in our office. That's it.
 
Kidseeghost said:
For what reason? These things flopped anyway. Adding more spy ware wouldn’t change it. It was too expensive and the main feature was bad. Also the era of smart assistants is over. I see more and more people ditching their smart speakers.
Click to expand...

We still have a 8 year old Alexa my wife uses as an alarm clock. It used to be nice that it played Apple music and Sirius XM but it always quits half way through a song and doesn't come back on. It's so frustrating we don't use it.

She just asks Siri to play a song. Siri gets it wrong and plays the song she didn't want to hear.
 
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Reactions: Robert.Walter
I love these “Hey, wanna know how much insider information I have? I know about stuff that was never released! And you KNOW it’s true because it was never released! Did you know that Apple once considered shipping AirPods with a shoe horn? BUT THEY DIDN’T!”

(Bloomberg asked me to write something about Ternus that would get attention, this is the best I could do because I don’t know anyone inside Apple anymore…)

Amazon lost BILLIONS on those “first leading products”. I’m pretty sure no one inside Apple is telling Ternus “YOU are PERSONALLY responsible for US not losing those billions!!”
 
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Maybe Apple will design a new toilet roll holder complete with microphone, speakers and most importantly a camera.

They seem to want to put cameras everywhere. So Orwellian.
 
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Kidseeghost said:
For what reason? These things flopped anyway. Adding more spy ware wouldn’t change it. It was too expensive and the main feature was bad. Also the era of smart assistants is over. I see more and more people ditching their smart speakers.
Click to expand...

Exactly, the moment a speaker has a camera is the moment I am out. It is annoying enough that I get commercials on things I briefly mentioned even though I have not searched for them and have specifically deactivated any targeting on all my devices.

My personal speaker only has bluetooth, and it will remain that way. The one in the living room is a smart one not associated to my address or anything else, but it still gets contextual clues from the WiFi network.
 
Unregistered 4U said:
I love these “Hey, wanna know how much insider information I have? I know about stuff that was never released! And you KNOW it’s true because it was never released! Did you know that Apple once considered shipping AirPods with a shoe horn? BUT THEY DIDN’T!”

(Bloomberg asked me to write something about Ternus that would get attention, this is the best I could do because I don’t know anyone inside Apple anymore…)

Amazon lost BILLIONS on those “first leading products”. I’m pretty sure no one inside Apple is telling Ternus “YOU are PERSONALLY responsible for US not losing those billions!!”
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^This. Also hot take: Apple was right to kill its EV car project. The market conditions for that product, especially in the US and elsewhere around the world given fierce competition from Chinese manufacturers, are dire.
 
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This sounds like a story designed to give the public a specific idea of Ternus' character before he ascends to CEO. He's being painted as someone who recognizes his own fallibility and is capable of learning from past mistakes. Apple has been slow in exactly those areas—it took years to get a decent keyboard on MacBooks, and "you're holding it wrong" sat ill with many customers.
 
MacRumors said:


Apple considered launching a HomePod with a camera and additional sensors years before the upcoming "HomePad" device, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

Full-HomePod-Black.jpeg

In a detailed profile of Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus, Gurman revealed that Apple considered adding a camera and a more advanced array of sensors to the original HomePod, which was announced in 2017. Ternus apparently believed that the additional capabilities would push up development costs and decided to cancel the features as a result.

Ternus was said to be reluctant to invest deeply in smart home devices when the first leading products from Amazon and Google arrived on the market around a decade ago. He subsequently took "some responsibility" for Apple falling behind in the smart home category.

Now, Ternus is leading Apple's efforts to re-establish itself in the smart home market with three new products, including an AI-powered smart home hub with facial recognition (J490), a small sensor for managing home security (J450), and a robotic device (J595). The smart home hub, dubbed "HomePad" in some reports, is expected to launch in the fall of 2026.

Article Link: Apple Considered Adding a Camera to the HomePod Years Ago
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Just had another of these fail after only a couple of years occasional use. Dead. Thats two out of eight now. One 1st generation and one 2nd generation. And another 1st generation that makes a random popping sound every so often. Definitely not the quality I expect from Apple, which is a pity because they sound great.
 
rymc02 said:
Bring back the Airport but make it a whole home hub. Make it a mesh network router with WIFI 7. Let it handle downloading updates for all the devices on the network to push them out at night. Have it do wireless Time Machine backups for all Macs on network. If Apple starts making security cameras it can handle storing all the footage for easy recall and playback.

It doesn't even need a screen or a camera.

And if Apple wanted to get really wild, allow us to connect extra storage!!
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I'd buy that for a dollar!
 
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Speaking of homepods, I hope the homepad won’t have that fiber mesh covering. It’s impossible to remove dust from these devices. The black turns dark grey and the white becomes light grey.

When cleaning, be sure to start with a fresh Swiffer or you WILL regret it.

/rant
 
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DottySr said:
Speaking of homepods, I hope the homepad won’t have that fiber mesh covering. It’s impossible to remove dust from these devices. The black turns dark grey and the white becomes light grey.

When cleaning, be sure to start with a fresh Swiffer or you WILL regret it.

/rant
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Agreed. Make these things out of aluminium
 
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