The rumor has a date now. Apple's "Welcome home" invite sets an Apple Experience for October 13 at 9 a.m. Eastern in Tribeca, New York, confirming the date reported for Apple's smart home hub. 9to5Mac expects the smaller hands-on format Apple used for the MacBook Neo, not a keynote, and reads the embroidered rainbow logo on the invite as a nod to the fabric mesh on HomePods.
Bloomberg's reporting, as the video relays it, points to three products. The hub is expected to be a HomePod with a 6 or 7-inch screen, possibly on an arm, running Siri AI on an A18 or newer chip with at least 8 GB of RAM. It would plug into the wall, with its apps and widgets managed from the iPhone the way Apple Watch apps are. The HomePod mini 2 reportedly keeps its shape, adds green and purple, and gets the N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7. The Apple TV 4K should move to the A19 Pro, as earlier Apple TV code suggested, with Bluetooth 6 and a refreshed Siri Remote. LG-built locks, thermostats, and sensors may be previewed too, possibly for early 2027.
9to5Mac can't name the hub's buyer when an iPad already does most of the job, and it thinks the Apple TV makes the better home hub anyway.
Every product on that list is built around Siri AI, and the video notes that existing HomePod models can't run it. October 13 is a Siri launch with speakers attached.
