A 3D-printed dock makes an old iPad your Apple Home screen

Instead of buying HomeView and the A18 Apple TV, Matt Talks Tech builds its own version from older gear. The case rests on Apple's own news, shown in the video: the previous HomePod mini and Apple TV get the same Siri AI features as the new models. The HomeView stand-in is an iPad Air with an M3 chip in a dock the channel designed in Blender and printed at home.

Any iPad with an M1 or newer chip runs Siri AI, so it covers the voice side of HomeView, and the Home app and widgets look the same on any iPad. A second printed dock holds a MagSafe iPhone, iPhone 12 or newer, and charges it, though Siri AI there needs an iPhone 15 Pro or later. For sound and the TV, the channel points to secondhand HomePod minis and Apple TVs. The A18 Apple TV adds a microphone array, and its Siri Remote is sold separately for older boxes.

Under Apple's newer Home architecture an iPad can't be a home hub, so the HomePod mini or Apple TV does that job and the iPad is only a screen. What it gives up is HomeView's fixed panel, though even the wall-mounted HomeView needs a separate mount.