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Will Apple Preview Its Rumored 'HomePad' at WWDC Next Week?
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I disagree. An elegant, wall-mounted hub device that can replace your complex light controllers, switches, heating / HVAC controls, doorbell/security camera interfaces, etc with a really well designed, simple UI in one place could be amazing. It’s certainly something I’d be buying, if Apple don’t screw it up.
Yes, because in skating to where the puck will be, Apple doesn’t seek to be the first, but to be the best. You can be sure Apple will produce a best-in-class product with privacy that only Apple can provide and a very clear upgrade path for years of profit growth. That’s what Apple is all about!
I'll buy one if it can let me use one app to control every device. Right now I've got a dozen apps that all live in their own world. Shortcuts are often marginal in functionality.
For the past (nearly) 20 years, Apple has been trying to separate devices to everyone. The i in iPhone and iPad might as well stand for “individual”. Even today, for no reason other than profit, Apple refuses to allow multiple users on a non business/edu iPad. Now suddenly it seems they do want to create a device that is aimed at the entire home? It’s basically too late.
After the disappointing Vision Pro and Apple Intelligence these last two WWDCs, HomePad at WWDC26 would be a hat trick in my opinion. I have a hunch this device will be another failure like Vision Pro because, again, people would have little use for it. At this point, home automation is still a niche concept, nice-to-have at best and show-off at worst, and if you're really into that you can just download the mobile app to control your home without splurging on a new, non-mobile tablet (or more than one if there has to be one per room or floor). Hopefully I'll be proven wrong.
Surely just a magnetic / added functionality mount that you slap your iPad on turning it into one could be a better option.
I heard a rumor they may be doing their own camera system. I don't believ that its true, but one of my Nest cameras just died and I want to ditch their ecosystem, considering Unifi but cabling my house would suck... So now I'm curious about next week.
I heard a rumor they may be doing their own camera system. I don't believ that its true, but one of my Nest cameras just died and I want to ditch their ecosystem, considering Unifi but cabling my house would suck... So now I'm curious about next week.
At the moment Apple are skating to where the puck was 5 minutes ago. They’re getting further behind the competition.
It always annoys me when Apple just abandons perfectly good products like this with no updates for years.
They'd be better off making robot housekeeper. I'd buy special wastepaper baskets and garbage cans that can interface with a robot who can change the liners and take the trash to the garbage bin. Apple is missing out on all the gizmos needed to automate simple tasks around the house. That's what people want.
The problem is that any company could do that. We're past the point that a product like that would be innovative for apple. It'd just be giving everyone a faster horse. My point still stands. The innovative culture Apple once had is slipping away.
“Some people say, "Give the customers what they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” - Steve Jobs
I have several dozen smart home devices, most of which are added to Apple Home (via HomeKit, Matter, and Homebridge) and they work well. However, there are devices that I would like to see the status of without having to speak to HomePod or pull out my phone (e.g., washers and dryers, door locks, and the temperature of specific rooms). Additionally, I would like to view the camera feed from the comfort of the kitchen without having to reach for my phone. When I am home, my phone is on the charger.
Furthermore, I hope that vendors that currently do not support Apple Home nor supported by Homebridge would at least provide an app (ideally with a widget) for "HomePad."
Outside controlling the smart home devices, I would like to access information such as the current timer status or the next event on the family calendar, without having to speak or use my phone.
I don't really want to use the iPad for that. For one thing, it no longer function as a Home hub nor have microphones as sensitive as HomePod.Wouldn’t an iPad with a stand (or double-sided tape) cover your needs?
The ‘HomePad’ feels like a solution hoping for a problem.
Secondly, iPadOS and iPad apps are not designed for smart home. I would like to see a simplified UI optimized for smart home display, similar to how CarPlay is for car or what Amazon and Google is doing (but with nicer Apple experience). Also, we don't yet know the price of HomePad, but Mark Gurman and other sources say Apple is aiming for lower price range. So I suspect it will be priced closer to, or lower than entry level iPad.
The one thing I would not expect is for the existence of this product to motivate anyone to support HomeKit that isn't already doing so.
Any company can make a TV box, so why does Apple bother with the Apple TV? Likewise, any company can make phones now days, surely there's nothing innovative about the iPhone any more?
Heck, 25 years ago when the iPod first launched, it got mocked and criticised for being just another portable music player. And yet it ended up dominating the market for such devices, and pretty much launched the modern Apple as we know it today.
New products don't necessarily have to be in new, innovative categories to be successful. They just have to work better and be more compelling than what is already out there. And in this space, I'd argue that's not difficult.
There's an incredible amount of doom and gloom in this thread, but if this Home"Pad" or screen Homepod could double as an AppleTV that can also be detached from the TV (portable battery, I can watch it on my dinner table instead of my TV), it would have immense value for me.
Touch controls for lights, easier Homekit integration, hopefully with Matter or newer protocols that would make it easier to control home devices...
This would all be really nice.
I don't know if it would have to be permanently stuck to a wall with an outlet or not, but an enhanced Homepod would be nice.
Touch controls for lights, easier Homekit integration, hopefully with Matter or newer protocols that would make it easier to control home devices...
This would all be really nice.
I don't know if it would have to be permanently stuck to a wall with an outlet or not, but an enhanced Homepod would be nice.