I think you will see them push more into this market. They really seem low on ideas and this market is wide open for them even if they always treated it like it beneath them.
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Apple's Rumored Smart Home Hub Still 'Months Away' From Shipping
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If there were to put it out in the same orange that's available on the iMac, I would be very tempted. I really want the orange iMac because it just looks so good, but I can't justify it when I have such a powerful MacBook Pro.
This feels like something dead on arrival. This can easily be done on an iPad, why would I pay for this when I can just buy an iPad instead?
"Months away.."
In Gruman Language that means he's made yet another pie-in-the-sky claim and by saying "months away" it gives him a convenient out when he's wrong or time to revise his dart throwing by saying "Apple's plans have changed..."
In Gruman Language that means he's made yet another pie-in-the-sky claim and by saying "months away" it gives him a convenient out when he's wrong or time to revise his dart throwing by saying "Apple's plans have changed..."
I’m on the fence with this one. I guess I’ll have to wait to see how Apple’s implementation differs from the others and if it’s worth it.
"A made-up concept of an Apple smart home hub"
Made-up? Who wrote this, a 10 year old?
Made-up and concept are kind of redundant, unless the point trying to be made was that this is a rendering, not an actual physical mock-up?
Made-up? Who wrote this, a 10 year old?
Made-up and concept are kind of redundant, unless the point trying to be made was that this is a rendering, not an actual physical mock-up?
An iPad cannot be a Home hub (anymore).
And I think the concept is having a device that all family/household members can always find in the same location. A general-purpose mobile device like an iPad would tend to always be whisked away by someone.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Got to be different than an iPad, as many probably have at least one still functional iPad laying in a drawer that could stand in for this. If it's really just an iPad, one could buy an iPad for presumably less money, get any number of existing wall mounts for tablets for $20 or so and have a fuller functional device (that could even go out with a user and do on-the-go stuff too).
I suspect the rumored HomeOS will ONLY run on this thing and not iPads... much like tvOS runs only on AppleTV instead of also running on- say- Macs like a hypothetical Front Row 2 app.
The "smaller and cheaper iPad" is the one you put to the side when you buy a new one. Like an old iPhone, an old iPad Air is still perfectly functional and suitable for this purpose. Slap it in a stand plugged into the wall and you have this device already.
Not sure what people are clamoring for or expecting, but unless this Home Hub runs some application unavailable on an iPhone or iPad, it's just an iPad on a dock. Any $100 iPad and a $20 stand has been able to do this for years and years.
Not sure what people are clamoring for or expecting, but unless this Home Hub runs some application unavailable on an iPhone or iPad, it's just an iPad on a dock. Any $100 iPad and a $20 stand has been able to do this for years and years.
If you have any Apple devices, odds are you have an Apple TV to act as a Hub.
An old Apple TV and an old iPad would be a better buy than some overpriced watered down iHub.
Many households don’t have a TV. Young people in particular often exclusively watch stuff with their mobile devices and laptops.
The competition already has, and no one cared enough to buy them in any significant quantity.
As of 2024, 97% of US households have a physical television. The vast, vast, majority do.
A simple HomePod mini works as a hub.
It’s all semantics. The core is the same. The different OS have different load outs. Makes for lighter packages and downloads and faster boot ups and operation.
Home OS will hopefully be a much better Home app… with proper AI automation without the coding.
“Siri, when I return home every night. Open the gates, turn the hall, kitchen and bathroom lights on. make the colours reflect the weather, play x playlist on the kitchen speakers and run a bath.”
This is the end game.
Endless rumors. I really don't think anyone should consider purchases of products that don't exist.
Buy what you need when there is something you can buy. In any case, I tucked away $399 for this product (AppleHome) and assume it will be announced at WWDC and released in September for $499.
But I'm just another guy spreading rumors.
Buy what you need when there is something you can buy. In any case, I tucked away $399 for this product (AppleHome) and assume it will be announced at WWDC and released in September for $499.
But I'm just another guy spreading rumors.
To be fair, the name of the operating system is at the end of the day just marketing.
homeOS is probably still just a branch of tvOS, just like all of the current HomePods runoff of.
It’ll just need a new marketing name because it will have its own interface, the current HomePods obviously don’t.
To be fair, I don’t really know that many people who just keep around old iPads.
Almost everyone I know who has ever purchased an iPad do it by trading in their old one or selling it beforehand.
Also this HomePad is rumored to be in the $99-179 price range, that’s quite a different price than most iPads.
I legit blame the trend of hiring based on "leetcode" interviews for software quality taking a nose dive in the past decade. Instead of hiring experienced devs they favor college grads and others with little experience in actual development but have all the time in the world to study for tricky puzzle questions.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
While this is the first rumor I've seen that references "cheaper price", I'm doubting Apple is interested in selling these that low. My working gut guess has been about $499 but- admittedly- that's just my guess. Apple just doesn't tend to do "cheaper." See products actually rolled out in the last year or so and you won't find many/any where the crowd is dazzled by the bargain pricing. And that- IMO- has been the primary problem with HomeKit everything to this point in time (11 years after launch). HomeKit inclusion adds a steep premium to the prices of all the stuff... stuff that works largely the same way for other platforms minus the fat cost premium.
But as that pricing is a guess and my counter is a guess, we only really find out when it arrives.
And I DO have an old iPad in a drawer, along with several mostly retired Macs, an iPod classic, etc. But even if I didn't, I could dodge this purchase and then let the current iPad be this when I replace it... assuming an iPad will be able to do anything this can do (which I'm actually doubting due to the HomeOS reference... just as Mac Mini can't stand in for an AppleTV by running tvOS).
The need to address seriously lack luster Siri and HomeKit before even attempting to realise a smart home device.
Trying to control supposedly HomeKit enabled devices with Siri on my iPhone is so primitive and rarely works.
Siri is nowhere near ready for smart homes.
Trying to control supposedly HomeKit enabled devices with Siri on my iPhone is so primitive and rarely works.
Siri is nowhere near ready for smart homes.
No one uses the current devices that do this. Who wants to stare at their stationary smart thermostat to FaceTime someone?
I can see this device being useful (for controlling smart home appliances) in a household with kids or older people who don't use the phone app but that's about it unless it brings with it a much improved smart home system somehow.
When the iPad launched, some pundit (I forget who) predicted that people would have an iPad in every room of their home. iPads are still too expensive for that but it makes sense, especially as homes become "smart." This device will cannibalize some iPad sales but this might be the first step to that vision of a screen and speaker in every room. Everyone who has invested in a smart home has a hodgepodge of products with dubious security. Apple has a huge opportunity. I hope Apple also brings back the AirPort as a mesh system.