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Apple's compact smart speaker, a smaller sibling to the HomePod, offering Siri voice control and multi-room audio in Apple's smart home lineup.
Apple's new Apple TV 4K supports surround through four HomePods, with a complete US system starting at $895 and matched front and rear pairs required. The feature needs the fourth-generation box, which arrives Nov. 13, two weeks after HomePod mini 2 ships on Oct. 30.
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Apple priced the HomePod mini 2 at $149, $20 above the original's last price of $129. MacRumors calls Siri AI perhaps the most consequential improvement, but it has no release date, so the choice turns on what the speaker does on day one.
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Apple opened pre-orders for the $149 HomePod Mini 2 and $299 Apple TV 4K, replacing hardware last updated in 2020 and 2022. Pairing four speakers with the TV box for surround sound costs $895 at the announced prices.
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Apple is preparing HomeView, an A18-powered Siri home hub in countertop and wall-mount versions, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Apple hopes third-party makers will build voice-controlled accessories with the hub as the connection point, according to a dev.to write-up.
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MacRumors reports Apple will introduce three Siri AI home devices at its 'Welcome Home' event, led by a hub rumored at about $350. All of it is rumor. For planning, we'd start with the HomePod mini: it would borrow a nearby device for Siri AI work.
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Apple is expected to unveil a smart home hub with a 6-inch touchscreen at its October 13 'Welcome Home' event, The Verge reports. The leaks suggest Apple will own the control screen in the kitchen while LG and other partners build the locks and thermostats it runs.
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Apple is expected to launch at least three smart-home products on Tuesday at 9 am ET, Macworld reports. The biggest is a Siri AI hub that Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports will ship about a month after its unveiling.
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Apple's new HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K will reach stores on October 30, ahead of the HomeView hub due around mid-November, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. For about two weeks, early buyers will own a speaker that 9to5Mac says is built to extend a hub they cannot yet buy.
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Apple has tested built-in Apple TV microphones for hands-free Siri, along with a Siri Remote that has its own speaker, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. MacRumors says the microphones are not confirmed for the box shipping October 30, so the findable remote is the firmer bet.
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Apple set an October 13 'Welcome home' launch in New York, where it is expected to show a 6-inch smart home hub, a new Apple TV and a HomePod mini. MacRumors puts the hub near $350 each and says Apple pictures several per home, so a buyer's bill is per household.
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Apple has confirmed an October 13 'Welcome home' launch event that 9to5Mac expects to focus on new smart home products. Teams whose app is the screen a household runs on have the most to rethink that week, since Apple's rumored display is pitched as the hub.
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Apple's tvOS 27.2 beta 3 holds Apple Intelligence code that 9to5Mac and MacRumors expect to reach only a new Apple TV, due as soon as October 13. Going by the code, anyone buying an Apple TV this week gets a box that keeps the Siri it has today.
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Apple plans three smart home devices for October, all built around Siri AI, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. That puts a Siri that BGR says needed Google's Gemini models to ship between every household and the home integrations it uses.
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Apple plans to unveil a smart home hub on Oct. 13 that answers each user from their own data, Bloomberg reported. Shares rose 2.2% before any price emerged, though price will show whether Apple wants volume against Amazon and Google.
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Images in Apple's own code, found by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris, show an A20 Pro iPad mini 8, a HomePod mini 2 and a fourth-generation Apple TV 4K. Apple has set no date, so tablet buyers and app teams can plan on the hardware details sooner than on the October window the reports expect.
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The macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate names J490 and J491, a B525 HomePod mini and a multi-sensor J229. That is useful for planning, but it dates nothing by itself.
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Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple is rearranging store Avenues and adding accessory bays this fall. Fixtures are paid for in advance, which is why the schedule tell is credible.
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With Siri AI shipped, the reported blocker on new Apple home hardware is gone. What follows is mostly silicon bumps inside existing shells, plus one new display category.
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