Apple Smart Home Hub Launch Possibly Delayed Until Later in Year

[doelcm82]

How do you delay something that isn’t announced? These post are always strange.

Think of it like having a secret engagement. The engagement is real, and you and your intended know about it. You plan to make an announcement on a certain date, but then decide a later date will work better.

The fact that no one knows about it (except for maybe a close friend or two who can't keep a secret, and anyone else that they might have told, and anyone who reads their gossip on social media) doesn't mean the engagement or the delayed official announcement any less real.

 

[iMac The Knife]

Another Apple product/service delay...shocker! /s

 

[doelcm82]

They should make a magnetic wall mount with charger for your iPad or iPhone when at home and not in use and charge it at the same time. Unless this device gives me groundbreaking new possibilities that aren’t available in HomeKit on iPad/iphone I don’t see the use of it. Another device with same possibilities.

But maybe a wonder happens and it’s some breath taking new device. I doubt it 😅

If you live alone, or everyone in your household has an iPhone or iPad on them at all times, then this may not offer anything compelling for you.

The appeal of this device for me is that it's (allegedly) designed to be a home control device, so a couple of functions would be available by default and more would be a click or two away. But you couldn't play games on it, or watch a movie. So it's unlikely to be in the middle of a quest, or rolling for bloxfruits, or engrossed in Bridgerton, when the doorbell rings or I want to dim the lights. A customizable subset of its functionality would be available to anyone, while others would require FaceId or other authentication. So a guest in your home could use it to control the lights in the guest room or set a wake-up alarm, and you wouldn't have to play SysAdmin to let that happen.

 

[63W]

I need this like a fish needs a bicycle.

 

[Z∆K]

What’s the benefit of this besides doing the same on your iPhone or iPad?

Another OS? Even more bugs to sort out 😅

And indeed Siri is braindead at the moment so the delay makes sense. I hope the reanimated Siri lives up to its promise. But really, after 13+ years, my confidence is low.

Exactly! Your phone/ipad do home stuff. If you need a "command center" in your kitchen, or living room, or wherever, just make a nice dock for the iPad. I love my hompod mini for the sound. But everything else smart about our house is amazon. They're cheap, easy to use, and things like light bulbs just work so much better with their ecosystem. They should stop this and focus on making more innovative stuff like apple contact lenses! Or anything in Minority Report lol.

 

[9081094]

If you live alone, or everyone in your household has an iPhone or iPad on them at all times, then this may not offer anything compelling for you.

The appeal of this device for me is that it's (allegedly) designed to be a home control device, so a couple of functions would be available by default and more would be a click or two away. But you couldn't play games on it, or watch a movie. So it's unlikely to be in the middle of a quest, or rolling for bloxfruits, or engrossed in Bridgerton, when the doorbell rings or I want to dim the lights. A customizable subset of its functionality would be available to anyone, while others would require FaceId or other authentication. So a guest in your home could use it to control the lights in the guest room or set a wake-up alarm, and you wouldn't have to play SysAdmin to let that happen.

When a guest could use it in the guestroom, you already have to use two of those devices. Apple knowing they might want you to have such a device in every room. I still can’t see the benefit when you could ask Siri to turn or dim the lights (considering Siri might work) or whatever device you could connect to HomeKit.

Thinking about it: if it only works in the Apple ecosystem it won’t be compatible with most guests visiting in Europe where Android sits at 70%.

Apple should make it platform independent to even get a foothold.

The keystone is Siri. But after 13+ years I’m wondering if Apple gets Siri smart.

 

[Rayansb]

Seriously a "hub mode" on an iPad mini would be suitable. Get a wall mount and you're done.

 

[iFunk]

Take it from Verizon... this is not needed. I'm confident that people with like 5-10 iPads in their home are just wanting to give Apple more money for something that is seriously not something the masses want or care to have. Just get a wall mount and hang an iPad or a nice stand for an iPad on a countertop.

Verizon Hub

 

[Tenkaykev]

I'm currently using a 5+ year old iPad as a display for the inverter that controls my Solar PV / home battery. It does this via a free app called, appropriately enough " Inverter " written by the guy who developed the " BBC Basic " computer language about five decades ago. Just four pages of useful information displayed one screen at a time. I hope the rumoured new device is able to work with the app.

 

[bmark]

Apple home hub is dead on arrival!

 

[Hank001]

Since when was the iPad a photo frame?

Since 2011. It had a sunflower on the Lock Screen which you could tap to configure it. Later when the option was removed people used other ways:

How to turn your iPad into a digital photo frame

Reinvent your old iPad by turning it into a digital photo frame

www.techradar.com

Improve iPad Picture Frame with a Custom Photo Album

Picture Frame is a great feature of iOS on iPad that turns the device into a rotating gallery of images. The iPad Picture Frame app defaults to flipping through all images contained in the Photos c…

osxdaily.com

 

[ellpee]

I take no pleasure writing the same comment day after day but do the editors here not understand that these “rumor mongers” do not actually have any sources inside Apple and are instead using speculation and educated guesses to drive you to their so-called reports? Again, no one at Apple is leaking new product information, they would be sacked and lose millions and probably never work in the industry again.

 

[dontwalkhand]

I’d prefer something that can replace my garbage Echo Show 15… iPad with kiosk software isn’t really cutting it.

I bought a Show 21 thinking it would be better...boy was I wrong. I hate the thing so much, and it's even worse than the 15. I am tempted to just mount a touchscreen I built myself to the wall.

 

[Kar98]

No thank you.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Just make an iPad dock

This could be a good use of older iPads actually

Yeah, seriously. The dock could provide a Thread Border Router, etc. and provide the Matter layer (if I even understand correctly how they fit together) to “future proof” your home automation or at least support a greater variety of devices. Your spare iPad can be used to run the management app and provide the UI. Make it inexpensive enough that someone not already in the Apple ecosystem, or without iPads to spare might be OK with buying the cheapest iPad available to add to this dock for home automation.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Unless this device gives me groundbreaking new possibilities that aren’t available in HomeKit on iPad/iphone I don’t see the use of it

Only iPhone 16 and 15 Pro have Thread wireless - other devices won‘t even „talk“ to some peripherals (unless you have a HomePod or Apple TV). That kind of „breaks new ground“, I guess?

 

[picpicmac]

do the editors here not understand that these “rumor mongers” do not actually have any sources

Shhhhhhh....

 

[svish]

Think the new product will be shown at WWDC especially if it is running a new OS. Launch may happen a few months later.

 

[JapanApple]

It's not ready for production, that's a good reason not to go on with production.

 

[blodyholy]

Nothing a dormant iPad stuck in a drawer can’t already do (at least for my potential use case). I’m w/others; just make Siri better.

 

[Veinticinco]

Another delayed Apple solution for a non-existent problem.

My iPad mini 6 has a magnetic "hub" both in-car and in-kitchen.

 

[CasinoOwl]

Firstly, I don't want this. Secondly, how is an Apple product delayed when they never announced the product or a ship date?

 

[Krizoitz]

Like your iPad is already capable to do?

Why would I want to spend all that money on an iPad that’s overpowered for what the Hub (which will be a lot cheaper) will do?

 

[9081094]

Why would I want to spend all that money on an iPad that’s overpowered for what the Hub (which will be a lot cheaper) will do?

You don’t know if it will be lots cheaper? We’re talking about Apple here 🤑

 

[surferfb]

Gruber takes German (and MacRumors) to task here

Another Never-Announced Product Might Fail to Meet Its Never-Announced Ship Date

Link to: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/13/apple-smart-home-hub-launch-possibly-delayed/

daringfireball.net

Maybe Gurman’s right, and Apple hasn’t shipped a single product on schedule since like maybe the original AirPods back in 2016 (an absolute banger of a scoop, from before Gurman left 9to5Mac for Bloomberg).

Or, and I’m just tossing this out there, maybe the way companies that are good at shipping new products actually ship new products is by setting aggressive, probably impossible, internal milestones to keep the entire team inside the company and manufacturing partners in the supply chain moving with urgency until the thing is actually ready to announce and ship. And that by reporting these milestones as actual expected ship dates, repeatedly, it makes Mark Gurman and Bloomberg News wrong, not the products late, when those dates are missed without the products ever having been announced.