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New 'HomePod' Hub With 7-Inch Screen on Track to Launch This Year

A CarPlay like layout, always on display, and ability to show Safari, YouTube, Spotify, other streaming apps, weather, FaceTime with the face tracking camera, plus some “live widgets” or whatever they’re called like sports scores and it’s $299? I bet would sell like hot cakes.
 
Probably it will be launched at WWDC. I think Apple will be pricing it for a minimum of $199. Hope to see it in multiple colour choices.
 
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We have pretty much every device in the house provided by Apple, but for home automation, home assistant is a game changer.
 
Realityck said:
I don’t see the broader consumer appeal? You could do the same with an always on iPad and necessary accessories perhaps? How many observe the percentage of technology device users into smart homes? Seems something else would be Apple’s most significant release this year particularly revenue based.
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I definitely agree with you. I don’t know the actual revenue numbers but does Amazon actually make money off of having 14 different dot devices. That and I don’t believe Apple will ever collaborate with as many other companies to provide these “free.” Hell the only reason why I have a dot in the first place is because I bought Amazon‘s smart microwave years ago that’s amazing but never caught on and they abandoned it.
 
zombierunner said:
They will drop support for Apple TV as home hub and make you buy this .. get over yourself apple, amazon and google are way ahead of you …. And don’t give me the usual shtick about privacy … no one cares
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Well they won't drop appleTV as a hub. I am guessing you don't know very much about this space? HomePods and TVs are all hubs, They act as redundant hubs if one is unplugged another one takes over. You can set a primary one. This will just be another one.

Amazon and Google are in no way ahead. They are both completely cloud based, nothing happens on the device. If the internet goes down. you cannot control anything. Apple is completely local and a lot faster.

Amazon have scaled back their hardware division and had Alexa and echos devices never get any significant updates. Their whole approach is terrible. None of their devices are consistent even in the same generation. Their software is unusable and the Alexa Skills kit has not been feature updated in 4 years.

Google Home is much better, but development is slow. Actually the best thing you can do for a a smart home is to use Home Assistant. You can then use Apple, google or Amazon or all at the same time.
 
MacRumors said:
Apple's hub would compete with products like Google's Nest Hub and Amazon's Echo Show. It is unclear if Apple will actually use HomePod branding for the device, or if it will opt for an all-new name, such as the Apple Home.
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How big is the market for products like these even?
 
imspace2 said:
I definitely agree with you. I don’t know the actual revenue numbers but does Amazon actually make money off of having 14 different dot devices. That and I don’t believe Apple will ever collaborate with as many other companies to provide these “free.” Hell the only reason why I have a dot in the first place is because I bought Amazon‘s smart microwave years ago that’s amazing but never caught on and they abandoned it.
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Well you said it yourself. Amazon have scaled back all their Hardware efforts. Ring is by far the most successful. The echo devices ( well most of them ) are all sold as loss leaders. They are not good devices, slow annoying, forced adverts.

Google too are disaster with hardware. They create things then drop them and they never get an up date. Apple don't do this at all and you are guaranteed 7 years at least ( potentially a lot more )

I don't get what you mean by free? If you have a smart home these panels are great. So long as they are customisable to provide you information and allow control.
 
macmac30 said:
Sorry, what is this going to do for those of us that already have an iPad, iPhone, Apple TVs…?
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you can wall-mount it or position it conveniently and use it for switching/etc. in your home without having to search for an App, start an App, etc.
 
azentropy said:
All those things would work great on an old iPad if Apple would just come out with a "Home Station" app/mode and even released some speakers/docks.
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Yes - that would be very helpful. Have a wall-mounted iPad Pro - but it is too much fiddling to be useful.
Needs some kind of KIOSK/HOME Station mode.
 
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Hopefully Apple builds internal magnets into the HomeHub so we can attach it to the fridge
 
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Joshuaorange said:
I don’t think Apple will find success in this segment. The competition is extremely fierce and their mantra of 70% profit margin just doesn’t work in this price range.
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still with the "70% profit" line.... LOL

no quarterly sales data supports that.
 
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lupinglade said:
HomeKit is a remote control for your home. It is not in any practical way “home automation”.
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Huh? I can schedule my connected devices to do all kinds of stuff on their own according to time of day, or whether anyone's home. On days when I need it to, I have my coffee maker fire itself up at 6:45, radio station starts playing, and relevant lights come on. And around bedtime every night my bedroom HomePod Mini starts playing white noise. Sounds "automated" to me.
 
Joshuaorange said:
I don’t think Apple will find success in this segment. The competition is extremely fierce and their mantra of 70% profit margin just doesn’t work in this price range.
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In which product or service category does Apple have a 70% profit margin?
 
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centauratlas said:
Yes, for something like this it needs to be $99 or $149 at most. Otherwise, why not just by an iPad and a stand?
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because the kids will steal it and some of us don't want to hunt around the house looking for the iPad so we can set a timer or dim the lights

I know this blows many people's minds, but portability isn't always an automatic benefit - some things you want to be always in the same predictable location - light switches, for example.
 
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sw1tcher said:
🤣 Apple won't even let iMac owners use their old Macs in Target Display Mode to help prolong device usage and reduce environmental waste, and you want Apple to allow old iPads to be used as a Home Station?
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to be fair, the "home hub" functionality is achievable using 3 options:
- apple tv
- homepod (all gen, all size)
- ipad

thread support requires Apple TV 4K, HomePod 2nd gen or mini

Set up your HomePod, HomePod mini, Apple TV, or iPad as a home hub - Apple Support

Set up a home hub to control your smart home accessories while you're away from home, share control of your accessories with others, and automate your accessories to do what you want, when you want.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
HomePods are some sort of smart speakers, right?
now where are those speakers on the concept render?
 
swm said:
to be fair, the "home hub" functionality is achievable using 3 options:
- apple tv
- homepod (all gen, all size)
- ipad

thread support requires Apple TV 4K, HomePod 2nd gen or mini

Set up your HomePod, HomePod mini, Apple TV, or iPad as a home hub - Apple Support

Set up a home hub to control your smart home accessories while you're away from home, share control of your accessories with others, and automate your accessories to do what you want, when you want.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
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Yes but not in a user friendly way.

What you want is a device, that activates, when you approach and immediately shows you buttons/cameras etc.
It should also activate, if e.g. a bell rings or movement is activated in certain settings.

An iPad will unfortunately not do this
 
What is this, 2018? Such a stupid product category. I don’t anyone with any of these smart speaker/display hub spy tools, or with any interest in one.
 
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I for one am excited about the possibility. I would like just one ecosystem in my home. Currently I've used Google and I have a nest Hub in my kitchen, office, bedroom, and garage. However, with Googles recent updates they have all but stripped it of its useful features (cookbook, etc) so now it's just become a glorified digital photo frame. If Apple gets it right though, I'd replace them all and just go to one Ecosystem for the home.
 
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