Apple is expected to unveil a 6-inch smart home hub at its October 13 event

To nudge the thermostat in an Apple household today, someone finds an iPhone and opens the Home app. That app is what Apple has mostly relied on for smart home control ^[8]. The hub expected in New York on October 13 at 9AM ET would move that control onto a 6-inch square touchscreen that mounts on a wall or sits on a counter ^[2][3]. According to Mark Gurman, the countertop version will somewhat resemble the iMac G4, with the screen on an arm set into a half sphere ^[4].

A phone has one owner. A kitchen screen gets used by whoever walks past it. The Verge reports the hub will use voice or facial recognition to work out who is in front of it and pull up that person's contacts and calendar ^[5]. Apple will reportedly offer a second check through an iPhone to keep personal data more secure ^[5]. In our view this identity check is the most practical idea in the package, and it is aimed at homes where several people share the controls.

The pitch also has a name. Apple may have registered the homeOS trademark through a shell company called Home Operations Suite LLC, The Verge reported ^[17]. Gurman said the interface "looks like a mashup of iOS, tvOS and watchOS" ^[9]. The jobs on that interface are ordinary ones: thermostats, smart locks, FaceTime calls, Siri AI and Apple's own apps such as Music, Reminders and Notes ^[10].

On the evidence so far, Apple is competing for the control screen in the home. The deadbolts and thermostats in the leaked images are LG's ^[11], and Apple's own hardware in The Verge's preview is the hub, a HomePod Mini and an Apple TV ^[1]. Apple does keep the first minute of setup. The LG devices reportedly carry an NFC "Proximity Control" that pops a hint into the iPhone's Dynamic Island when held near the device ^[11]. They also reportedly offer a "tap to set up without power" pairing feature ^[11]. The Verge wrote: "don't expect Apple to share too much of the spotlight with its partners" ^[12].

For people who already own Apple hardware, the refreshes may matter more day to day. The HomePod Mini and Apple TV keep their designs and get a new processor for Siri AI, and both are expected to carry Apple's N1 chip, with support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 6.0 ^[6]. The Apple TV has had no hardware refresh since 2022 ^[15], four years before this event ^[16]. The Verge wrote that its navigation "can get a bit laggy" ^[15]. The HomePod Mini gets its first update since October 2020 ^[7].

The preview does not include a price or a release date. Even the hub's name is a guess among HomePad, HomeView and Apple Home Hub ^[14].

We'd sort a household on two questions before buying anything: how many people use the controls, and whether its locks and thermostats already work with HomeKit ^[13]. Several users with HomeKit gear installed is the household the identity feature is built for, and the case for the hub is strongest there. One user with HomeKit gear already has a working controller in the iPhone, and the faster Apple TV is the better reason to spend. Several users without compatible gear are better off seeing LG's partner devices and their setup flow first. A single user without compatible gear has nothing here that needs a decision before Apple confirms the details.