Apple Home rumors, ranked

Apple's big hardware event is coming next week. iPhones are the main draw, but senior reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy has her eyes on the rumors around — what else? — smart home gadgets. Andrew O'Hara from the Smart Home Insider podcast joins Jen to fire up the Rank-o-Matic and speculate on which rumored gadgets are most likely to see the light of day. Further reading: OpenAI’s next big AI model has ‘entered the AGI era’ Nvidia is buying Hugging Face for almost $13 billion Microsoft slashes Xbox Cloud Gaming to just 15 hours a month for Ultimate subscribers Microsoft opens up Xbox Cloud Gaming with new pay-as-you-go option Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to Vergecast, the flagship podcast of the Apple Home Pad, hopefully. I'm Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, and on today's show, I'm joined by Andrew O'Hara, a writer and video producer for Apple Insider and host of the Smart Home Insider podcast. With Apple's fall hardware event right around the corner, we're going to talk about the Apple Home hardware rumors and whether the long awaited, hotly anticipated Apple Home Pad/Hub/Smart Display will finally make Apple Home great. Again, we'll rank the top rumors that we think are likely to become reality and talk about the ones we are most excited to get into our homes. But first, here's a look at everything that's happening on The Verge today.

• 0:44David Pierce?

  I'm David Amell, and this is 90 Seconds on The Verge for Thursday, September 3, 2026. Today, OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, which it says is a generational leap in capability, with state-of-the-art performance in computer use, browser use, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work. The model was released today to enterprise customers with Daybreak access, but it'll roll out to Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users over the coming days. Hopefully, this model doesn't break containment. Nvidia has announced it's acquiring AI repository platform Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion. Nvidia says it will keep Hugging Face an open platform for the entire ecosystem, and that Nvidia Compute will not be required to build or deploy through the platform.

• 1:28David Pierce?

  The last official valuation of the company valued it at $4.5 billion, and the company previously rejected a $500 million investment from Nvidia last year that would have valued it at $7 billion. Microsoft is slashing cloud gaming access to just 15 hours a month on Game Pass Ultimate plans. It previously included unlimited hours, but Microsoft says the change should only impact 4% of users. It also announced it's releasing a new pay-as-you-go option for cloud gaming. Price in for that has not been announced yet. You can read more at theverge.com. That's 90 Seconds on The Verge for Thursday, September 3, 2026.

• 2:07Speaker 02

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• 3:12Speaker 00

  Welcome, Andrew. Thanks for joining me. Really excited to dive into this topic, one near and dear to both of our hearts, one we've talked about a lot in the past.

• 3:20Speaker 04

  I know, but this time it feels more real. Like, it's like, things are happening now.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  It is, it is. Things are happening. Apple Home is happening, hopefully, fingers crossed. But just to kind of set the stage for listeners who are not clued in on the smart home, Andrew, can you just give me a brief rundown of what Apple Home is?

• 3:43Speaker 04

  I mean, Apple really jumped in the smart home space. It's been, you know, more than 10 years now when they first launched HomeKit, and it was, you know, kind of pitched as a very secure version of like the smart home, because in the early days, you had a ton of Amazon devices that were just kind of getting rubber stamped certifications that were fraught with security issues and things like that. And Apple came out-

• 4:05Speaker 00

  Devices that connected to Amazon, not necessarily Amazon devices.

• 4:08Speaker 04

  And the A-word assistance that we won't say. But there were so many, you know, concerns around stuff like that, and Apple came out with its own version of the smart home stuff called HomeKit, and they even had, like, at the beginning, you needed a specific hardware chip that you had to buy from Apple, which not only slowed things down in acquiring these chips, but then also made things more expensive, because you had to buy hardware components from Apple as part of their MFI program. And, you know, it was very secure. It made all that really nice. And it has since got a little bit more lenient with that, as Apple figured out how to do much of the same stuff through just software. But it has grown up so much then. HomeKit became a large part of the framework for Matter, you know, the open standard now, including like the pairing process and onboarding

• 4:52Speaker 04

  process and all of that. And in kind of today's version of the smart home, it does support Matter alongside the other major ecosystems, at least to some degree. You know, there's little bits of, you know, inconsistencies there, like with cameras, but for the most part, Apple still kind of sticks with where they were. It's a lot, there's many more accessories now. It works similar to the other smart home ecosystems, but privacy, security, all of that is still very front and center with Apple Home. I mean, even cameras, like, until iOS 27 and all these launched, all of the AI processing is done locally on your Apple TV or your HomePod, anything like that. So they've really put that as kind of their big push in the smart home space. And as we talk about stuff in,

• 5:37Speaker 04

  you know, today's episode, I think that's going to be a kind of a common topic.

• 5:39Speaker 00

  Big, big differentiator, really, from the other major platforms, at least. But what is the one thing that Apple Home has really been lacking over the years?

• 5:52Speaker 04

  I mean, there's been many things.

• 5:54Speaker 00

  Okay, but the one thing that is very relevant to today, that I know you've been excited for, for a long time, is a way to control your smart home without using your phone and without using your voice, right? So they have been behind in this. They have not had a smart display. And this is the thing that has been rumored for like three years now, at least, and we're honestly surprised they didn't, this didn't come to the fore sooner, because Apple has been really lagging behind Amazon and Google here, who have had smart displays for years at this point. And I know that from your, your perspective as being a sole, solely Apple Home user, you've been quite jealous of like the Nest Hubs and the Echo Shows, right?

• 6:40Speaker 04

  Oh, absolutely.

• 6:41Speaker 00

  Yeah. What, why, what, what, what kind of help, what would make it useful to you to have a smart display, do you think?

• 6:48Speaker 04

  I mean, there's a lot of them. And obviously, so I broadened out. I'm now that Matter is, is much nicer to play with, with multiple ecosystems. I do have a Samsung smart thing set up. I do have, I have like one Amazon thing, but I don't even leave that plugged in, but it exists here in the house. And I do have like the, I can't even think of what it's called, but the Nest Max, the, the Google Smart Display. I have one of those as well. And I really like the displays. I even have like the Ufie E10, which is kind of like, you know, their version of a smart display. But I, I like that kind of just central home point for all of your devices. An easy way to control things, see your cameras without having, like you said, to pull out a phone or a tablet. If you walk into something,

• 7:31Speaker 04

  I just want to be able to control something, just make it really easy to gain access to all of those things, as well as other relevant information. I think it makes obviously perfect sense, because we've seen it with other products, to include your smart home controls along with your daily necessities, like weather, calendar, things like that. So to combine those things into a similar or a complete form factor is what I've been wanting. I want what all of these other ecosystems have had for years. But with Apple's magic touch on it, and I think as we talk about some of the rumors, like, Apple has some really cool little tricks that it does that is going to make this extra compelling to me compared to some of the other ones that have been out there for a while.

• 8:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. Excellent. Yeah, well, this is, as you can probably tell, this is the one that we are both most excited about, I think.

• 8:20Speaker 04

  We've already ruined the ranking with our number one.

• 8:22Speaker 00

  I know, I've ruined the ranking, sorry. But in terms of likelihood, I'm, I'm on the fence a little bit on this one. But yes, okay, so we have a Vergecast Rankomatic, and it's going to help us rank the seven Apple Home hardware rumors, in terms of the most likely to be in our homes next week, and also, and then in terms of which ones maybe just be vaporware, if they end up in number seven. So, okay, so we, I think, sure, let's start with the smart display, because that really is, as we said, the one that we're most excited about. Honestly, this is a really big lift, I think, for Apple. I think they have to do something really new here. And the rumors have been kind of

• 9:07Speaker 00

  all over the place. I mean, there's, there's been a little consistency, but there's also just sort of been like, oh, it's going to have MagSafe, oh, it's going to be removable, oh, it's going to be a HomePod with a screen attached to it, blah, blah, blah. What do you think? What do you think we're going to get? And what do you actually want this device to look like?

• 9:24Speaker 04

  Basically, what I'm expecting is a seven-inch display, based on the latest, like Bloomberg leaks, it sounds like it's going to be like that seven-inch-sized tablet on top of a half dome size, so kind of like half a HomePod, or it's going to look like, you know, the iMac G4 back in the day. But essentially, you know, a little seven-inch tablet on top of a dome. I think that is very, very likely. There seems like there's going to be two versions of this. I could see that happening of it being wall mountable versus the other one. And when they said rumors about like MagSafe, that could just be essentially just memes magnetic. I could see them doing some sort of like wall mount version that you screw on, and then it just kind of snaps onto your wall that you could still pull off and charge, or something like that to make it happen.

• 10:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:10Speaker 04

  That's a whole other thing, but I'm very curious at how Apple makes a wall mount work, because I cannot imagine Apple asking people to do any sort of wiring.

• 10:19Speaker 00

  Installation, it's a big thing, yeah.

• 10:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's not going to do that. So I'm guessing it's going to be probably battery powered, or with a cable that drags down, and then we're going to get third-party options from like Belkin or something that'll allow you to do like in-wall wiring kit for those who are like extra ambitious to pull it off. But I do think it'll be roughly seven-inch size. There'll be a tabletop version and some sort of wall version of it. I don't think that we're going to get any sort of App Store at the beginning. My guess is we're going to get a bunch of the Apple apps, like Safari, News, Home, Calendar, Reminders, all of those.

• 10:55Speaker 00

  FaceTime.

• 10:55Speaker 04

  FaceTime, yeah, of course, all of that kind of stuff.

• 10:58Speaker 00

  Like an iPad, basically, but with a different interface.

• 11:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's going to be some sort of kind of like amalgamation of like standby mode and Apple TV is what I'm going to imagine, kind of like a combination of those interfaces. Because we see things like the screensaver interface for Apple TV that looks like it's destined for this device with a swipe up and changing them. Similar with Control Center, how it just slides over or slides down. It looks like it would be perfect on something like this. And it's also this new operating system is supposedly based on tvOS, so would make sense there. But I don't think we're going to get a full fledged App Store, but I think that is part of the brilliance of this. I had been saying this, and now this like latest leak in the macOS 26.7 RC has seemingly

• 11:46Speaker 04

  confirmed what I've been saying for like a year now, which is that Apple is going to take its widget and live activities interfaces that they brought to the Mac and put it on this.

• 11:59Speaker 00

  That makes sense.

• 12:00Speaker 04

  Like you can already put any of your iOS widgets and live activities from your phone on your Mac and it's not running anything, you know, on your, your Mac. I think it can do the same thing here. And with that, combined with all of the app intense and interactive widgets that it's been able to do, you're essentially going to get apps, but developers would have to do nothing on day one to, to more or less make their things work. And I was looking through all of my stuff recently. Sonos just launched live activity with complete playback control. That could show up on your smart display with that. You get a full Sonos control on this day one. All of the major smart home brands already have very robust like control widgets that you could use.

• 12:42Speaker 04

  Ufii, Switchbot, Akara, Amazon has one, Google Home has one, of course, Apple Home. So all of those to control all of your third party ecosystem things would be on this.

• 12:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:53Speaker 04

  Calendars, every calendar company has their own like Fantastical, Google, Amazon, whatever. Control security systems. I know I have one for AboD, ADT. I think all of them have those. You could have.

• 13:06Speaker 00

  They wouldn't need to have their own apps.

• 13:09Speaker 04

  No, they wouldn't have to do anything.

• 13:11Speaker 00

  Anything. And that would make it a lot easier to bring into your home and set up how you like. Because it seemed to me that it was most likely to just lock you into using Apple Home, using Google, using Apple Calendar, using FaceTime, but you're, you're thinking this might give it a little bit more breathing room to not be so walled garden like.

• 13:29Speaker 04

  Widgets are fully interactive now, so you can actually control stuff.

• 13:33Speaker 00

  Right.

• 13:33Speaker 04

  And yeah, they, it could just run off of your phone. And that rumor said it would show the widgets but hide personal information until it recognized you using the built in camera and facial recognition. Once it recognized you, then it would show your personal information. So it would have full multi-user support like we do on Apple TV, technically.

• 13:51Speaker 00

  Right. And that's going to be key here because whilst we have that on HomePods, it's, it's a little spotty. Too many times a day I get, who am I speaking to? From my Siri. I'm like, eh.

• 14:04Speaker 00

  So yeah, it'll be, that, that's something that Apple really needs to focus on. And this is the problem that has been what we've had with using iPads as a home controller, which is something that people have been doing to date to try and fill this gap, is that they're not multi-user. And yeah, it's, it's not, it's not easy to switch. And so a visual interaction makes a lot of sense. Face ID, you see who it is. You also have a guest mode, you would assume for people be able to use and control devices. I just want something simple. I want Apple to crack the simple smart home interface. I don't want to have to deal with tons of little buttons or taps. I want to be able to walk towards, say what I want and it just appears and I can tap like, you know, turn the lights on and the brightness appears.

• 14:46Speaker 00

  And I, I think, I think they've got, and hopefully there'll be some sort of motion sensing UWB or something that, so it recognizes you as you approach and adapts the display for you.

• 14:58Speaker 04

  Yep, some sort of proximity stuff, yep.

• 15:00Speaker 00

  Okay. So where do we think this is on the probability scale? Is this like one or two? Or are we thinking later this year, maybe three or four?

• 15:12Speaker 04

  This has been, I don't know what they're going to do without like spoiling the rest of our list here. There's other rumors for things like Apple TV and HomePod that are perhaps more likely. So like this would have to be a minimum of three.

• 15:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's what I would say.

• 15:25Speaker 04

  I would be really surprised slash confused if Apple introduced like part of its smart home plan and not the other part.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  I know.

• 15:34Speaker 04

  Like I know there's like a rumored October event where we could see this, but it just seems weird. It's like, here's an Apple TV and HomePod, but not the display. We're going to wait one month until we show that off. So I don't know. I think at the minimum, I'm going to, I'm going to have to say three.

• 15:51Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 15:52Speaker 04

  I think it's more likely than some of the other stuff.

• 15:54Speaker 00

  Well, and that was, so I think that leads us right into the new HomePod and the new Apple TV, which kind of feel like sure things. Like the rumors are that they've been ready for ages, but something's been holding it up. What might that be Siri? What might that be?

• 16:11Speaker 00

  So yeah, what are we getting with new Apple TV and new HomePod Mini here? So HomePod Mini is so long in the tooth.

• 16:20Speaker 04

  Six years old now?

• 16:21Speaker 00

  Really old. So yeah, you got, you gotta do this one, Apple. You gotta, there's, there's no choice really.

• 16:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, 100%. And what, so Jen, here's, okay, switching to conspiracy hat a little bit. Part of me wonders when they do this, like I wonder if they could do some sort of pairing with the HomePods and the smart display. Because right now your HomePod is running off of Apple Watch chips, right? Just like the, the current ones are. So could they do something like bring Apple Intelligence and the new version of Siri AI to this home smart display? And then relay the more complicated messages through this hub and not have to put a, you know, crazy high, like not an A17 Pro in here.

• 17:07Speaker 00

  Right.

• 17:08Speaker 04

  But then again, also like the new version of Apple Watch does have kind of Apple Intelligence on it now, you know, with watchOS 27. So maybe it'll do that, but we're going to have some form of Apple Intelligence, I think is like a guarantee, like Siri AI will be here. Cause right now, Apple's assistant is so inconsistent. I don't want my HomePods to answer me when I talk to my, to Siri.

• 17:31Speaker 00

  Phone. I know. This is, it drives me nuts trying to add something to the shopping list and it, my phone will, and then my HomePod and they'll be like competing with each other.

• 17:40Speaker 04

  The HomePod can't tell if you're stumbling over your phrases. The HomePod can't do, you know, almost any of the intelligence stuff that you can now do on your phone. And then the TV is a whole separate thing. It has an even more limited set of controls.

• 17:54Speaker 00

  We need that unification. Yeah.

• 17:57Speaker 04

  Yeah. So I think that no matter what, this is going to have to have some sort of, you know, Siri AI, that's what this has been held up for. That's going to be your biggest thing. Other than that, like updated, you know, acoustic, probably second generation ultra wideband chip to improve like handoff experience. I don't know if they'll do anything with like people tracking in the home or if that's just like a pin it for possible later utilities with things. But I think likely upgraded chip. I don't know if they'll do it in N1. You don't really need Wi-Fi 7 on something like a smart speaker.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:27Speaker 04

  But they could throw it in because they just made a whole bunch of those N1 chips and just have them lying around. But other than that, it's probably just going to sound better and have Apple Intelligence.

• 18:37Speaker 00

  And that's, and that's probably key. That's, that's one of our other top seven is Siri in Apple Home. Because in case people weren't aware, it's a lot like the whole Google Home Gemini thing that's going on right now is that the assistant that you use in your home with Apple is completely different from the assistant you use on your phone. And this is talking about the new assistant on iOS 27. I'm currently on the beta for that, public beta for that. So yeah. And that is a very frustrating disconnect because your home and your phone are not separate. You, you use the two of them together a lot. So yeah, we really need that. And I think actually this may even bump the home smart display to four.

• 19:19Speaker 00

  Because I think we're going to have a new Apple TV, a new HomePod Mini and a new Siri in September. Because that lays that foundation, that lays that groundwork for making this Apple Home shift into new hardware. I think that's a long time coming and pretty guaranteed that we're going to get that. And the Apple TV, we've actually had a number of updates recently. So what do we think is going to be about this one? Is it just the Siri AI bump? Or are we going to get anything else? And maybe more on-device Apple Intelligence?

• 19:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think there's going to be a number of new things with this one. Now compared to something like the HomePod Mini, because they're definitely not putting in A17 Pro in there. The new Apple TV, I think will have at minimum an A17 Pro to support actual like on-device Apple Intelligence. We've seen with like the new versions of Apple software, they specifically have like these powerful on-device models and some that are limited to the more recent devices. So I don't know where they'll land with Apple TV because it doesn't need quite as much. But my guess is A17 Pro processor, enabling Apple Intelligence. We will have likely Apple's N1 chip. I think there were some code references to Apple's N1 networking chips, so Wi-Fi 7,

• 20:34Speaker 04

  Bluetooth 6 and still Thread, which is jumping to 1.4 with tvOS 27.

• 20:39Speaker 00

  Yay. Only one behind.

• 20:43Speaker 04

  I know, about time. So we'll have those. There was also a late leak that showed we would be getting a new remote. Bloomberg first said this, and then this was in like that macOS code.

• 20:54Speaker 00

  That's exciting. My husband won't use the Apple TV because he hates the remote.

• 20:58Speaker 04

  What is, but it's, I think it's going to look basically the same. I'm just hoping that they put in Find My instead of whatever they have now. That's the one thing when I was reviewing like the Google TV.

• 21:11Speaker 00

  I know.

• 21:11Speaker 04

  I really, really like it.

• 21:12Speaker 00

  The streamer.

• 21:13Speaker 04

  The button is so nice.

• 21:14Speaker 00

  The button on the back that rings your remote. So simple, so good. Apple, do it.

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• 23:09Speaker 00

  Let's rank these three that we just went over. Which do you think is a shoe-in? Number one, HomePod Mini, Apple TV, or Better Siri? For the home?

• 23:18Speaker 04

  We can't do Better Siri without the other two. So I'm gonna go Apple TV as number one.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  Number one.

• 23:26Speaker 04

  Mainly because I want it so much.

• 23:28Speaker 00

  So much.

• 23:30Speaker 00

  Okay, and then HomePod Mini 2?

• 23:32Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 23:33Speaker 00

  New HomePods, which I'm not sure about Maxi. Probably just Mini. We may get Maxi later. Sorry. Not official naming.

• 23:44Speaker 00

  And then Siri in the Home, which probably won't have a different name, but this is the differentiation here is this is the different voice assistant that is slightly more tailored to the home and to communal use as opposed to just your phone. Okay, so 1, 2, 3, 4, we got these are all coming this year, I would say. Fingers crossed.

• 24:06Speaker 00

  What do you think, Andrew? Do you agree?

• 24:07Speaker 04

  I think so. I guarantee it. I'm wondering just if maybe they'll announce like the smart display, you know, at the same time as the events, but it won't launch. Because that's like it's fuzzy with the rumors on terms of like announcement versus availability. They could announce this thing, let the phones and other tech get bigger highlights, and then launch that this smart display can hit shelves a few weeks later to kind of keep that Apple PR train rolling to just kind of spread it out. So they could do something like that, even if it doesn't require much dev support.

• 24:38Speaker 00

  That would be an awful lot of saying Apple Home in a iPhone keynote. I mean.

• 24:43Speaker 04

  Oh, my gosh, I'd be so excited, though.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  We'll see, we'll see. We'll have to have a Vergecast game for how many times they say Apple Home in the next event. Okay, so we have three left that we're gonna power through because they're all quite exciting, but also hugely dubious rumors at this stage. So we've got a robotic tabletop display, and we have security cameras. So an Apple doorbell and an Apple security camera. What are you thinking about these three? I mean, the most... Let's start with the security cameras because that kind of leads on from what we've been talking about. Like, it fits into Apple Home to bring their own first-party hardware, security cameras. So maybe an indoor camera and a doorbell camera.

• 25:33Speaker 00

  But they've never made an Apple Home smart device. This would be a first. The HomePods don't count. Apple TVs don't count. Those are hubs. They're not devices for running your... They're not devices that you use in your home like a camera is. So this would be a big shift. So how likely do you think these are? And which one is more likely, would you say?

• 25:53Speaker 04

  If I was, you know, putting money on it, I think that the camera, the security camera, dedicated camera, would be more likely than the doorbell just because doorbells can require wiring. And that just is very on Apple to have to do any install or have a pro do any install. Jen, I know you talked like we talked to these doorbell companies and they talk about how they have, oh, well, you can do a white service option where we should, where someone shows up at your house and does the install. And I don't think Apple's gonna wanna get close. So if I'm putting money, the camera is going to be more important because it's plug and play. And even though there are so many cameras out there, I think this one could be very big for Apple. Obviously, its competition in Google and Amazon

• 26:37Speaker 04

  have their own first-party cameras that they are offering. And in the world that we are at right now, I think security and privacy are such huge things.

• 26:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:47Speaker 04

  And I think it ties in with the AI stuff. And to really do a lot with AI in the home, you're gonna need cameras to be able to do that.

• 26:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, the visual information that feeds in. I just wrote a piece about Gemini for Home and how Gemini can take the text descriptions and match that to things that you are doing around the home. Like, so having that data fed into the home from the cameras gives so much context to a smart home system that could potentially unlock significant value in the way that your smart home can maybe be a little bit more autonomous and could potentially sort of run, help run your home for you, which is sort of that ambient home goal. But cameras, people don't really... I don't know, even from Apple, do you feel comfortable? Do you have cameras inside your house

• 27:41Speaker 00

  monitoring you while you're in your home? That, I just don't, I just don't, and I just don't see that as something that a lot of people are going to wanna do. So it's a security camera when, you know, turns on when you leave, which is something that Apple Home does very well. But you're right. Privacy and security are what Apple is selling here, and they've done that very well in the home. And really, they only have to beat Amazon and Google on trust here, which isn't gonna be that hard at this stage. So there are a lot of cameras out there, but there aren't a lot of cameras that people say, I feel 100% confident putting this inside my home. And I feel like Apple probably has the trump card there. What do you think?

• 28:24Speaker 04

  I think that's absolutely their play. Because it can, once your home starts reacting or like doing things predictively, it can be creepy. And you wanna have, if you're gonna have something in there that does that, you're gonna need like one that's most secure and private. We do have cameras in the house because we have so many pets and stuff. When we leave, we watch them. So like, it needs to be, we for sure have to have cameras in the house, but we don't have them in any of the bedrooms or anything. But at least in like the living room, dining room, main areas, we do have cameras. And I just think that's Apple's play there. To use that for AI and just really hammer home all these privacy, security things is gonna give them that leg up.

• 29:07Speaker 04

  But we, that, the home predictive stuff could be two years away from Apple at a minimum doing anything with it. But it could start just with a basic.

• 29:16Speaker 00

  That's very optimistic.

• 29:19Speaker 04

  It's Apple. They can start super tiny. Like, I mean, technically, Apple's been doing AI for how many years now? Just with the little stuff of, you know, on-device Core ML, this stuff showing up in Control Center. Like, that is AI predicting what controls you're gonna need before you need it. And it's just been in Control Center, and it's fantastic.

• 29:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. No, you're right. There are little touches there, and we may see more. But I actually think the doorbell camera is, makes more sense just because it is a much more popular device. Like, a lot of people want doorbells.

• 29:53Speaker 04

  How, what do you think Apple's gonna do with install? Like, I know it's just a weird question to hit so much, but how do you think Apple approaches that?

• 30:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, well, there was rumors about it being some kind of like a MagSafe device. So like, I don't know, maybe they're gonna have like...

• 30:05Speaker 04

  But that has to get wired first.

• 30:06Speaker 00

  Some kind of battery pack inside? I don't know.

• 30:09Speaker 04

  I mean, yeah, it could go completely battery.

• 30:10Speaker 00

  Some kind of battery pack inside? Yeah, so that you don't actually have to wire anything. Although why, Apple HomeKit Secure Videos only work with wired doorbells right now. So their whole infrastructure is around wired cameras. I know there were workarounds.

• 30:25Speaker 04

  Well, those workarounds are if you have a hub for them, like the Ikara one. What if the new smart display?

• 30:36Speaker 00

  Oh, the new smart display would be the hub for the camera. That would make a lot of sense. Maybe they's come, maybe these come together too because that's one of the biggest uses for a smart display is seeing your video doorbell when someone rings the door. You can obviously do that with your Apple TV today. When you, someone rings the doorbell, you can have the video show up on your, on your big screen. But it's also nice to have it on your little screen that's on your desk or in your, on your kitchen counter. I think the doorbell just makes more sense for the actual consumer.

• 31:02Speaker 04

  Fine, Jen, fine. If it's battery-powered, I'm with you. We'll do five. We'll save five for the doorbell.

• 31:07Speaker 00

  Doorbell five. And I do love the facial ID feature on this that's been rumored, though.

• 31:13Speaker 04

  Do you?

• 31:13Speaker 00

  That you can, I do, because I've used it. I've used Face Unlock and I, with other cameras, and I've actually really enjoyed it. I was surprised.

• 31:21Speaker 04

  Compared to UWB, which one do you prefer? Or do you want both?

• 31:26Speaker 00

  I liked both. I think the problem with UWB is you've got to have your phone on you. With Face Unlock, you don't have to have your phone on you, which is, it does make a difference, especially in, for families. If you have kids that don't have phones. I think it's a broader use case, Face ID. And with Apple, people are used to it. You use it to unlock your phone, so I use it to unlock my door. And that, I think that is just, there's more of a consumer use case in that. I think there's more of an AI use case in the camera. So we'll see. What, I'm, let's go with five for doorbell, six for security camera. Does that sound good?

• 32:05Speaker 04

  Sounds good.

• 32:06Speaker 00

  All right, and then the last one, the most exciting one. Okay, least likely to happen ever. I don't actually think this is going to happen. Robotic tabletop display.

• 32:17Speaker 04

  I think it's gonna happen.

• 32:17Speaker 00

  What is this one, Andrew? You do think it's gonna happen?

• 32:20Speaker 04

  Oh, 100%.

• 32:21Speaker 00

  I want the lamp. The lamp. So this is what has been rumored, like, within Apple, they call it the Pixar lamp, this robot. And there's actually a video of Apple testing a similar robot lamp that they did for a sort of a white paper to prove that you need interaction with a with a device that is endearing. And so it sounds like this device might be designed to sort of be your friend? Is that? Is that what you're hearing?

• 32:51Speaker 04

  I mean, we've heard, who knows where all these things are going to go together. But this is my thought. I think this is 100% like, very likely to happen. I'm not gonna say guaranteed. Apple can scratch, scratch things at any point in the process for any reason. And it could be a little less exciting than some of the rumors say. Like, you talk about it like being your friend. I don't know about that. We've heard versions of Apple testing out like the-

• 33:15Speaker 00

  Well, apparently it's codenamed charismatic is the OS that's going to be used.

• 33:20Speaker 04

  But I heard that was the name for Apple's Home OS, which could just run on the smart display.

• 33:25Speaker 00

  Right, yes. But charismatic is quite telling. Like, that implies some kind of-

• 33:30Speaker 04

  That Apple might have a version of Siri AI just running as a version of the little finder face or little finder guy.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:39Speaker 04

  So what if, Jen, it's literally just an adapter or an updated version of this smart display that uses the technology that Apple's already had out for a few years? The tracking-

• 33:52Speaker 00

  DotKit.

• 33:53Speaker 04

  DotKit.

• 33:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:54Speaker 04

  Like, this is no longer an existing product. I'm holding up like the Belkin Tracking Stand Pro, which was, I think, recalled.

• 34:01Speaker 00

  It was, yes. So you should not have that.

• 34:04Speaker 04

  I should not. This is a fire hazard, apparently.

• 34:07Speaker 00

  But yeah, it can move. It was able to move and follow you around. And that's what this rumored tabletop display is going to be. It's rumored to be like a seven inch display, right? On a motorized arm that can move around with you and like, react to you is the rumor.

• 34:23Speaker 04

  It could just, instead of being on a stationary base like we have with, you know, rumored for the launch of a half HomePod Mini with a seven inch display, what if it's just a bigger version of that base that has DotKit built into it that follows you around the room?

• 34:41Speaker 00

  That's far less exciting than a robot. I thought it was gonna be a robot, Andrew. Give me robots.

• 34:48Speaker 04

  I mean, we're getting there. You gotta start somewhere. You gotta start on your counter. I keep seeing, I don't know, I, because it's, it's, you know, X or Twitter, you see one video, then you see a thousand of the same video. For the last several days, I've just seen all the companies launching their own versions of the Pixar lamps. And I just keep seeing videos of them as AI assistants rotating around literally as just lamps. But I could see Apple making a version of, you know, its assistant that has some sort of UI to it, and then on some sort of DotKit base with an improved speaker that feels very much like a personal assistant, a personal robot sitting on your counter.

• 35:23Speaker 00

  Okay, Andrew, we've got it. We've ranked the likelihood of the products arriving. And number one is Apple TV. We think that's a shoo-in. HomePod Mini, maybe not maxi. We didn't really get to that. Number two. And then at number three will be Siri in the home, gets the Apple Intelligence. And those three are, you know, neck and neck at the finish line. Followed closely, hopefully, number four, the smart, the HomeSmart display, the Apple Hub, Apple Home Hub. Who knows what it's going to be called? Apple Pad. Apple Pad sounds good to me. Home Pad. There we go. There you go, Apple. Take that one. And then number five is a Apple Doorbell camera. Number six, an Apple Security camera.

• 36:08Speaker 00

  And then number seven, the robotic tabletop display that looks like the Pixar lamp and that's going to be charming. That seems not likely in my books. Andrew's a lot more optimistic. Thank you, Andrew. Really appreciate you joining me to sort this one out. And we'll have to get back together in a few months and see if we got it right.

• 36:28Speaker 04

  Hopefully, we do. Sounds great.

• 36:30Speaker 00

  That's it for The Vergecast. Remember to subscribe to The Verge for ad-free episodes of our podcasts, exclusive newsletters, and more. We love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] or call the hotline at 866-VERGE11. The Vergecast is a production of The Verge and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today's show was produced by Josh Kahas, Eric Gomez, Brandon Kiefer, and Travis Larchuk. Bye.

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