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Home LivingSmart HomeApple’s rumored new smart home TV HomePod and kitchen iPad sound excitingApple feels like it’s lagging behind Google and Amazon in smart home tech. That could be changingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Apple feels like it’s lagging behind Google and Amazon in smart home tech. That could be changing
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Apple)
(Image credit: Apple)
If like me you thinkApplehas taken its eye off thesmart homeball in recent years, here’s some good news: it has not one, not two, but four smart home devices in its labs right now.
That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latestPower Onnewsletter, in which he spills the beans on Apple’s plan for your kitchen and more.
According to Gurman, those four devices are:
The new, louderHomePodresembling the discontinued original that we heard about last month
A new version of theHomePod mini
A kitchen device that combines aniPadand a HomePod
A device that combinesApple TV, a camera and a HomePod in one living room device.
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Some of these products could ship in late 2023 or early 2024, although they might not ship at all. Right now there is no official confirmation these products are being worked on or exist at all, we just have Gurman’s word for it.
The thing is, though, Gurman is usually right in his predictions, adding weight to this Apple smart home product assault.
What’s Apple cooking for your kitchen?
I love the original HomePods so I’m excited that they’re coming back. But it’s the last two devices that intrigue me the most. Could the living room device be a soundbar? So far Apple hasn’t tried to enter the market for thebest soundbars, but theApple TVcan already use HomePods and HomePods mini as Apple TV speakers. Adding a smart soundbar could be very interesting, and while I doubt it’d be cheap I’m sure it’d sound great.
As for the kitchen, theiPad/speaker combo sounds like a smart display to me. That’s an odd one, because such displays have hardly set the smart home world on fire:Facebook’s Portalhas been a disaster and I got bored with myEcho Showa few days into it. And the speakers in myiPad Airare good enough for my small kitchen anyway; why shell out for a smart display you’ll barely use when you just need to stick your iPad on a recipe holder?
That’s not to say whatever Apple is up to won’t be good; maybe I’m just too familiar with how things are done now and Apple has got some ground-breaking ideas of where to go next. But if I were a betting person, I’d say the new HomePods are definitely going to happen while the smart display seems a lot less likely.
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