Apple "Welcome Home" event: Smart home hub, iPad mini OLED, more?

Apple has announced a "Welcome Home" event for October 13th — interestingly, in New York City rather than Apple Park in Cupertino.

The headliner is expected to be a smart home hub that looks like an iMac G4. It will apparently have a six-inch by six-inch screen and an interface that looks like a cross between iOS, tvOS, and watchOS. It'll obviously focus on Siri AI (Apple has supposedly been waiting for Siri AI to launch this) and might just have multi-user support.

The other big news could be an iPad mini with an OLED display. It's said have a higher-end chip (possibly an A20 Pro) and might even be IP-rated for water resistance, which would be new to the iPad.

Other launches would involve new Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini models with faster chips and Siri AI. I'm not counting on new Macs, but we can't completely rule out things like an M6-based 14-inch MacBook Pro or that fabled touchscreen MacBook Ultra.

Me, I'd love to get the home hub, if just as a smart speaker. Voice control for music is awkward as it stumbles the moment you use an unusual title or foreign language (just try queuing up Autechre or Serge Gainsbourg). This would at least make sure I can play exactly what I want if a voice command falls flat. Visual smart home/calendar/weather features would just be nice bonuses.

They might show off the security cameras they’re working on. They’ve previewed home products before months in advance. I wouldn’t mind a couple of new cameras to replace my current ones. (Higher resolution, better night vision).

zehoo said:

They might show off the security cameras they’re working on. They’ve previewed home products before months in advance. I wouldn’t mind a couple of new cameras to replace my current ones. (Higher resolution, better night vision).

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From what I've seen, the cameras will be LG models that were co-developed with Apple. Still, it'll be nice to have smart home devices that Apple explicitly optimized for HomeKit.

That was quick: Bloomberg says the touchscreen MacBook and OLED iPad mini (plus an M6 14-inch MacBook Pro) will arrive separately, on October 27th. Not surprisng as Apple no doubt wants the October 13th event to focus on the smart home, but it's worth noting.

Aurelius said:

From what I've seen, the cameras will be LG models that were co-developed with Apple. Still, it'll be nice to have smart home devices that Apple explicitly optimized for HomeKit.

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If they're LG branded, you may as well assume you're giving LG a direct feed to all of them.

Interested to see what they got in smart home stuff planned but with HomeKit so far ect don't see them pulling me away from Google's 'ecosystem' - I have Hue and SmartThings below that/on the backend, and Google Assistant/speakers/TV boxes 'on top' of that - could 'switch over' with just new Apple speakers/TV boxes - but again assuming they have something to tempt me with. Shield TV still a pretty good streaming box after all these years compared to Apple TV. Maybe if they offer HDR10+ Advanced and Dolby Vision 2 - but then I don't have a screen for that either and may wait to see if any Google response/alternative in that time if so. Assistant/Gemini for all it's issues is really no different or merely just different in problems with Alexa, Siri even, etc.

Edit: Also I have Google speakers that look like regular alarm clocks etc, not a fan of just 'giant apple watch' or 'circle speaker' as my only options.

All this technology and I still can't find any reliable way to have a wireless light switch turn on a couple banks of wireless lamps when its pitch black in my home. X10 works, sorta...until you plug one noisy device in and then your entire system collapses and you walk around moving a transmitter from plug to plug to plug...you fix one problem, introduce 3 others...so you go Zigbee....it works perfectly...and then the devices start to forget they are on a network, one turns on while the other turns off....so you unplug things or add more smart plugs, which are supposed to be repeaters....and you have some amazon speakers that are supposed to be zigbee hubs/repeaters.....and the shit still starts going offline randomly after a few weeks.

All this automation and there's still no real substitute for stubbing your toes in the dark and having to switch that frickin light on via it's switch under the shade. <bitterAF>.......does Apples ecosystem fix this first-world problem for me? No? Fuck Apple.

zehoo said:

If they're LG branded, you may as well assume you're giving LG a direct feed to all of them.

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LG hss done some lousy things, but I wouldn't assume its smart home tech will have an open pipeline, especially not with Apple involved.

Nada IMO/for me

I dig the HomeView. Yes, you have to be in the Apple ecosystem, but it can access third-party audio and video apps when your paired iPhone or iPad is nearby. It looks cool, and has clever tricks like turning web recipes into instructions.

Really, it's just nice to have a real alternative to Amazon and Google in smart displays. Their bad reps aren't always deserved, but I'd trust even the LG gear over Ring (in part because Apple co-designed it).