Two new Apple products are hitting store shelves and customer doorsteps today, Friday, November 13. The new Apple HomeView and the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K, both of which have been available to pre-order since mid-October, are now available for purchase.
The “HomeView” is Apple’s long-awaited smart home hub, featuring a 7-inch display. The $299 device is available in two versions: One with a speaker base and a second model that mounts on the wall.
Apple says the HomeView is “designed to be central to the home and personal to everyone in it.” The new smart home hub has a 7-inch Liquid Retina display, and provides entertainment, connection, and smart home management all in one place. Apple says the devices functions are all designed with privacy and security at the core, whether it’s playing music, making FaceTime calls, monitoring your home, or controlling hands-free automations with voice control.
HomeView can recognize users by their faces, allowing user to securely access their personal content in Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders, and Find My. HomeView features Siri AI, the new, more capable, and more conversational version of Siri that we have waited for, lo these many years. When paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled device, HomeView can tap into a user’s personal context, such as their Calendar, Messages, and relevant information across their apps, to provide more helpful, personalized responses.
HomeView has the ability to recognize up to six people, providing a personalized experience for each individual user, including their own personalized Home Screen with apps and widgets. A user’s personal content is kept private from other users, while shared content, like photo albums and music, can be easily enjoyed by everyone, including guests.
HomeView is designed to fit in any space, and it can be placed on a tabletop or be wall-mounted to fit in spaces like an entryway or a hallway. The table model’s aluminum design boasts a 7-inch Liquid Retina display and a domed speaker base connected by a stainless steel hinge that allows user to tilt the screen for comfortable viewing on tabletops of any height. Apple says the HomeView will fit in on a kitchen counter, nightstand, or side table. The new smart home hub is available in four colors — silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray — and each color option includes a matching cable.
It features adaptive display technologies, including True Tone, to react to changing light during the day. Automatic brightness adjusts from 500 nits, bright enough to be easy to see even in a brightly sunlit room, down to just 0.3 nits, making it ideal for use on the nightstand. The HomeView’s control interface intelligently adjusts based on the user’s distance, showing simple information that’s easily viewable from across the room, while providing more details as the user steps closer.
The wall-mounted model of the HomeView is available in space gray and silver, and boasts the same 7-inch Liquid Retina display, powerful features, and rich audio. It can be attached to a wall using three purpose-built mounts from Schneider Home, and it can be self-installed or you can have a professional come in and perform the installation.
The HomeView is priced at $299 and is available at Apple.com and Amazon.com
Apple’s new fourth-generation Apple TV 4K set-top box brings several new key features including an A19 chip, Siri AI support, an updated Siri Remote with Find My support for Precision Finding, built in far-field microphones, and more.
Siri AI, powered by Apple Intelligence, offers a more personalized and intelligent version of Siri that boasts broader world knowledge, and can better communicate with the users thanks to being more conversational and having personal context understanding. The new Apple TV 4K boasts three far-field microphones that allow users to talk to Siri in a hands-free manner. However, the updated Siri Remote is still equipped with a microphone and a Siri button, if that’s how you prefer to roll.
The new Apple TV 4K is virtually unchanged when it comes to external design, except for a status light that is centered on the front of the device.
The updated Siri Remote now offers supports for the Precision Finding feature in Find My, making it easier to find when it slips down in between the couch cushions. The remote new built-in speaker allows users to play a sound through the Find My app to assist in locating it.
The remote’s overall design has not changed, and it still charges via a USB-C.
For the first time, users can create a four-speaker surround sound experience with Apple TV 4K (4th generation) and HomePod mini 2. The four speakers work together with Apple TV 4K to intelligently recognize their position in the room so audio timing and levels are automatically calibrated to the space. HomePod (2nd generation) can also be used in this four-speaker setup for the ultimate audio experience, as long as the front and rear speaker pairs match.
If you used your old Apple TV as a home hub, you still can, using it to control of your smart home accessories from anywhere. With a compatible doorbell, notifications appear directly on the TV so users can see who’s at the door, speak with them, and control other accessories like unlocking the door. Apple TV 4K supports automations, guest mode, and secure local processing of HomeKit Secure Video. Users can also use Siri AI to control smart home accessories and turn scenes on or off hands-free. The Apple TV 4K’s built-in Wi-Fi and Thread means it can seamlessly connect and control a user’s smart home.
The new Apple TV 4K is $299 and is available at Apple.com and Amazon.com (for slight discount.)
