The MacRumors Show: Apple's Big Plan to Revamp the Smart Home

[MacRumors]

On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through Apple's plan to focus on the smart home with a host of new devices and improvements to Siri.

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An upgrade to ChatGPT-5 integration is planned for Siri with iOS 26, aiming to improve reasoning capabilities. The next-generation version of Siri is now being tested with third-party apps including Uber, AllTrails, Threads, Temu, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp. A more advanced large language model-based Siri, which will be more powerful than the "personalized" Siri, could launch as early as next spring. A visually redesigned Siri interface for iPhones and iPads is also under consideration for release in 2026.

The company is said to be recruiting engineers for its "Answers, Knowledge, and Information" team tasked with enhancing Siri, Spotlight, Safari, and other services. This team is in the early stages of creating a "new ChatGPT-like search experience" and is even exploring the possibility of a standalone "answer engine" app.

The next-generation HomePod mini is expected to launch this year and will shift further toward the smart home. It will incorporate Apple's "S11" chip, a new Apple-designed Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip with Wi-Fi 6E support, and potentially a second-generation ultra-wideband chip for enhanced spatial awareness. The refresh may also bring improved sound quality alongside new color options. Likewise, a new Apple TV is expected to launch this year with the A17 Pro chip and the new Apple-designed Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip.

Meanwhile, Apple's first smart home hub is now expected in 2026 and will feature a 7-inch display paired with an integrated speaker, taking visual cues from Google's Nest Hub with a square display, thin black or white bezels, rounded corners, and a half-dome-shaped base. Designed for shared household use, its interface will emphasize clock faces and widgets for core Apple apps, including Calendar, Camera, Music, Reminders, and Notes. Siri could feature a new visual interface, personified and inspired by the Mac Finder icon. The device will include a front-facing camera to deliver personalized content and features for each user, but it will not run third-party apps or have an app store. It is rumored to heavily rely on the next-generation version of Siri.

Apple is also believed to be working on a Ring-style home security camera with facial recognition and motion detection to trigger home automations. Battery life is apparently being designed to last several months to a year. A facial recognition doorbell is also in development. The camera could debut alongside the 2026 smart home hub.

Lastly, a so-called Apple "robot companion" is in the prototyping stage, targeted for a 2027 launch. It will feature a 7-inch iPad-like display mounted on a movable arm that can rotate and extend about six inches in any direction—nicknamed internally as the "Pixar lamp." Apple envisions it as an AI-driven household companion, powered by an advanced Siri capable of remembering information, engaging in more natural conversations, and presenting a "visual personality." The device could proactively interrupt with suggestions and be similar to OpenAI's voice mode. It will include Center Stage as well as joystick-controlled camera movement to show different parts of a room during calls.

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Article Link: The MacRumors Show: Apple's Big Plan to Revamp the Smart Home

 

[neotint]

Dear Apple, a ton of your highest value, smarter customers, will never use OpenAI. Please leapfrog past the AI slop and create something truly new and innovative. LLM tech used far beyond its engineering scope is unwise and not useful to humanity.

 

[victorvictoria]

Dear Apple, a ton of your highest value, smarter customers, will never use OpenAI. Please leapfrog past the AI slop and create something truly new and innovative. LLM tech used far beyond its engineering scope is unwise and not useful to humanity.

Dear neotint: A ton of us think you're wrong about that. A ton of us are already using OpenAI instead of Google's search engine. It's the future, and it's going to lead to the very same "truly new and innovative" developments of which you speak. Not today, it's still in diapers. Give it 10 years. For good or ill, it's going to be as incorporated into daily life as the iPhone is today.

 

[Hildy]

I would be interested in AI with privacy built in rather than robot overlords with eidetic memory.

 

[Maven1975]

How old is the Logitech Circleview doorbell now?

Apple has left WAY too much money on the table. If they would have focused on HK from the start, it would have banked them some serious money and locked in consumers.

Now we have the growing Matter standard. It will be interesting how much they actually care now that they have to play in the same sandbox as others.

Sure iOS users could have “exclusive” features, but Apples track record of delivering promised or highly suggestive exclusive features is terrible. (Looking at you Homekey)

 

[HiRez]

You know what the best Siri/AI home improvement would be? Not having all 3 of my HomePod Minis tell me "I'm having trouble connecting to the internet" 50% of the time I ask them something (with great wifi coverage and like 30 other wifi devices all over the house that seem to have no problem with it).

 

[routine_analyst]

Guys... Tim Cook had the answer all along. Give me a HomePod with MagSafe arm attachment so I can connect an iPad. Make the arm animate so the device becomes alive.

 

[drrich2]

Meanwhile, Apple's first smart home hub is now expected in 2026 and will feature a 7-inch display paired with an integrated speaker, taking visual cues from Google's Nest Hub with a square display, thin black or white bezels, rounded corners, and a half-dome-shaped base. Designed for shared household use, its interface will emphasize clock faces and widgets for core Apple apps, including Calendar, Camera, Music, Reminders, and Notes. Siri could feature a new visual interface, personified and inspired by the Mac Finder icon. The device will include a front-facing camera to deliver personalized content and features for each user, but it will not run third-party apps or have an app store. It is rumored to heavily rely on the next-generation version of Siri.

Apple is so late to the 'home hub, Internet-of-Things connected ecosystem' product category, are they likely to make major inroads? This article's talking about how Apples 1st smart home hub might come next year, when my kid's 3rd gen. Amazon Echo Show 8 has been in her room answering questions, setting timers and adjusting the lights for over a year. And Apple's offering isn't even expected to run 3rd party app.s. And Apple doesn't have a rep. as a leader in implementing A.I.-based product enhancement, so expecting them to take a major lead there seems...naive.

When the iPhone came on the market, it was a smart phone competing against a sea of flip phones and similar, plus the Blackberry with its tedious little keyboard. This anticipating Apple Smart Home Hub's competitors are in a whole other league from flip phones.

Do you guys foresee Apple bringing to bear some major advance in functionality or usability that competitors (who actually exist at present, with viable product ecosystems) won't match, such that Apple will become a major leader in home hubs?

 

[cocoua]

Im afraid Apple lacks of proper vision for the next step beyond the iphone. The M chips are a logic hardware evolution and a really good move, but the movement to the next evolution of devices and UX os missing, they are making good movements and efforts, and being succefull in those ways is really hard, that was something Jobs was unique at. And obviously, replacing him was going to be hard, the company did pretty good since he passed, but the iPhone/iPad comet trail are fading out, not commercially but leading in innovation.

 

[deesedani]

I’ve been a smart home users for over 10 years, Apple are way to late to the market from basic hardware such as lightbulbs, to sensors, to door locks, and cameras they have got years of R & D to catch up on, yes I would love the ecosystem of Apple but all the first gen they bring out will be years already behind, look at AI, Siri VERY POOR vision from the leadership and management team, the blind leading the blind. Yes when they do land hardware it’s the best, but software delivery is not so first in class

 

[drrich2]

...Apple are way to late to the market from basic hardware such as lightbulbs, to sensors, to door locks, and cameras they have got years of R & D to catch up on...

You bring up a good point; Apple doesn't make a great diversity of products, rather trying to do several things very well (as opposed to Dell hardware or Microsoft...anything computing-related it seems).

So Apple will probably never (at least in the reasonably foreseeable future) make lightbulbs, door locks and a host of other products (e.g.: security cameras with power-over-ethernet). So there will be no holistic Apple ecosystem here. The home hub and maybe a very few Apple-branded accessories, but a lot of 3rd party equipment would be required.

And whereas the iPhone had a head start with its app. store, and Apple's iTunes store offered a pretty exclusive (for awhile) cheap, legitimate alternative to Napster-style illegal music downloading, the Apple home hub thing will have none of those advantages.

1.) No 'all Apple devices' walled garden ecosystem.

2.) No likely feature set unique, such as the iPhone and iTunes each had for awhile.

3.) Not much Apple exclusivity, since products made compatible with it will probably also be compatible with Amazon's Alexa system, Matter perhaps, Google, etc...

My concern is that rather than the home hub being like the iPhone, it'll be like Apple T.V. - which perpetually left in the dirt by Amazon Fire T.V. and Roku in terms of market penetrance.

 

[bollman]

Dear neotint: A ton of us think you're wrong about that. A ton of us are already using OpenAI instead of Google's search engine. It's the future, and it's going to lead to the very same "truly new and innovative" developments of which you speak. Not today, it's still in diapers. Give it 10 years. For good or ill, it's going to be as incorporated into daily life as the iPhone is today.

I still can't understand this. Why would you want to spend _more_ time searching? Typing a few keywords into a web search and quickly scan the results to find answers from sites you trust takes way less time than blabbing with an LLM and trying to evaluate where it found the info (and check that the site actually exists!).

 

[victorvictoria]

I still can't understand this. Why would you want to spend _more_ time searching? Typing a few keywords into a web search and quickly scan the results to find answers from sites you trust takes way less time than blabbing with an LLM and trying to evaluate where it found the info (and check that the site actually exists!).

You've just shown that you don't know how to use a generative AI for search. You no longer have to scroll through a million hits for what you seek. The AI engine does that, aggregates all of it and sends a reply relevant to your actual query.

Usually. Just like Google.

 

[npmacuser5]

Wrong with Apple HomeKit, not enough devices and many of them are not practical. Outdoor cameras one. Plugin (110v) cameras outdoors are useless. What is needed, battery, solar, or POE cameras. In fact indoor plugin cameras are a problem, not enough power connections in the right places. Ring/Blink a good example that will likely not change to add to Apple HomeKit. All the cool software goes nowhere without the hardware and firmware devices. Now the device price points comes into play. Apple has a longways to go.

 

[victorvictoria]

Wrong with Apple HomeKit, not enough devices and many of them are not practical. Outdoor cameras one. Plugin (110v) cameras outdoors are useless. What is needed, battery, solar, or POE cameras. In fact indoor plugin cameras are a problem, not enough power connections in the right places. Ring/Blink a good example that will likely not change to add to Apple HomeKit. All the cool software goes nowhere without the hardware and firmware devices. Now the device price points comes into play. Apple has a longways to go.

I have over 30 devices connected to our HomeKit. The Apple branded ones (Apple TV 4K & Homepod/mini) are HomeKit native. So is our Wemo doorbell Camera. The rest are Matter enabled. And all of them connect to Home flawlessly and easily. And there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of Matter enabled devices out there, and all of them work with HomeKit. And there are solar/battery security cameras with matter. Lots of them. But buyer beware: those batteries will die when you need them most. Best to get an electrician and have them wired in. Best practice: dedicated line.

 

[npmacuser5]

I have over 30 devices connected to our HomeKit. The Apple branded ones (Apple TV 4K & Homepod/mini) are HomeKit native. So is our Wemo doorbell Camera. The rest are Matter enabled. And all of them connect to Home flawlessly and easily. And there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of Matter enabled devices out there, and all of them work with HomeKit. And there are solar/battery security cameras with matter. Lots of them. But buyer beware: those batteries will die when you need them most. Best to get an electrician and have them wired in. Best practice: dedicated line.

Solar panels work the best after POE. My experience with third party devices poor quality, especially when it comes to security. The analogy would be AirPlay. Works well with Apple but challenging with Sonos. The main reason, Apple security requirements. A good thing. Then there is Siri. The HomeKit would be totally worthless if not for the HomeKit App and control panel. Unless I just like talking to myself. Amazon just updated Alexa. Pretty impressive. Apple has a long way to go.

 

[drrich2]

I have over 30 devices connected to our HomeKit. The Apple branded ones (Apple TV 4K & Homepod/mini) are HomeKit native. So is our Wemo doorbell Camera. The rest are Matter enabled. And all of them connect to Home flawlessly and easily. And there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of Matter enabled devices out there, and all of them work with HomeKit.

Glad to hear that level of 3rd party device support exists. What led you to opt for the Apple HomeKit route over alternatives? Just curious how Apple-based setups compare in the current market.

 

[victorvictoria]

Glad to hear that level of 3rd party device support exists. What led you to opt for the Apple HomeKit route over alternatives? Just curious how Apple-based setups compare in the current market.

Apple HomeKit lets me control everything from one app. That's the reason. Plus, I worked for Apple.

 

[bollman]

You've just shown that you don't know how to use a generative AI for search. You no longer have to scroll through a million hits for what you seek. The AI engine does that, aggregates all of it and sends a reply relevant to your actual query.

Usually. Just like Google.

I reckoned someone would say that.

Sure, it is totally possible to type short things into a AI to get answers, most of the time pretty good answers too. But you see, if you get too specific, things starts to fall apart.

The most recent search I can remember that fell short with AI was "Siconia WM-20L". This, in DDG, gave me loads of results and I could browse what information can be found on the internet, manually filtering out the stuff that was obviously wrong and about different units. I didn't really have any specifics as to what I was looking for, more than that I wanted to know as much as possible.
If I use an AI sure, I can type in "Siconia WM-20L" and it gives me specs, which is available from the first result I got from DDG. It even suggested an installation manual, great, but that was wrong, it gave me the manual for the UM-20 which is a totally different unit.
I could start to argue about that being the wrong manual and specify that I'm ok with looking at one in a different language if none in my language is available and blah, blah, blah.
I achieved this within seconds of just quickly browsing the results I got from DDG.
I'm sure I can achieve the same results by refining questions to an AI, it just takes more time and effort.

Looking at my search history, at least half of the searches are for sites that I either can't remember the URL to, or that is too long to type directly. This is of course no problem for an AI, but then I either have to wade through loads of non-relevant info about the site to get the link to click, or type a more specific search that I just want the URL. Both of which consumes more time than just typing the name of the site in the address bar and picking the correct link from the results, which is probably the first one you get.

 

[victorvictoria]

I could start to argue about that being the wrong manual and specify that I'm ok with looking at one in a different language if none in my language is available and blah, blah, blah.

Blah, blah, blah indeed!