Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Apple's Smart Home Hub Just Showed Up in iOS 26 Code

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Apple's Smart Home Hub Just Showed Up in iOS 26 Code · Elon Musk Podcast

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  Apple is building Smart home hub with a display.
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  A recent code leaks from iOS 26 just confirmed several features
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  we've been hearing about for years.
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  It's been rumored that they're going to have some sort of Alexa
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  type of ICE device sometime. Finally, there's a leak within
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  the iOS. Now the device will have Face
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  Ida, 1080P camera profile switching based on who's
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  standing in front of it, and support for Apple Intelligence.
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  Now, Apple's been working on this product for at least 2-3
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  years, and internal references now place it in the iOS 26 code
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  base. The expected launch window is
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  March or April, right around the time Apple plans to roll out a
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  major new version of Siri next year.
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  So what exactly is Apple building, and how does it
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  compare to what Google and Amazon have been selling for
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  almost a decade now? Now, the design reportedly
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  resembles a small iPad with thick bezels, and one version
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  will sit on a hemispherical base that looks like an old iMac G4.
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  Do you remember those things? I'm going to cover the hardware
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  details on this one, how Face ID changes the whole experience,
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  what apps will be available for it, and what else Apple might
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  announce alongside it. And we'll get right back into
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  that after the short break. Now, Apple's Smart Home Hub will
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  come in two versions. 1 is a 7 inch display and it's designed
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  to be mounted on a wall. The other has the same 7 inch
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  display but sits on a speaker base that looks similar to a
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  Home Pod Mini. Now.
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  It's been described as a hemispherical Dome with the
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  screen position at an angle on top of it.
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  In the features in iOS, the whole unit is small and
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  lightweight enough to be moved from room to room.
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  Now the device will know how close you're standing to it and
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  adjust what it shows based on where you are.
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  If no one's nearby, it might display the temperature or the
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  time. And if someone approaches, it
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  gets shipped to an interface for adjusting the thermostat.
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  Or it can adjust to who you are. Maybe you listen to a lot of
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  music. It's camera will detect who you
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  are, use AI and say, hey, this is Will he really likes to
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  listen to Spotify and then it'll show me Spotify, possibly pop it
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  right up be like what you know what kind of songs you want to
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  listen to. That would be really
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  interesting. Now that kind of proximity
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  awareness is not something you get from a standard tablet
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  propped up on a counter like we do in our kitchen.
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  We have an iPad. We put it on the counter and
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  play music or look at recipes while we cook.
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  This is going to be a little bit different, more AI involved.
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  Now the hub will also, you know, the sensors in it will detect
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  how many people are in a room and which person is near it.
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  So if I walked in the calendar on the screen, screen should
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  shift to maybe my personal calendar.
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  When my wife walks in, it shifts to hers.
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  Apple is using Face ID for this profile switching, and iOS 26
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  codely confirms that engineers are testing the accuracy of the
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  system with an internal app. Right now the camera is limited
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  to 1080P though, which is lower resolution than you might
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  expect, but is enough for facial recognition and for video calls
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  too, because you're not really going to be making high effort
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  video calls, usually in your kitchen or just hanging out of
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  your house, use your phone for that Face ID, or if you're doing
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  something in your office, you'll have a different camera for
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  that. It doesn't really need to be 4K
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  resolution. Now, Apple has been referring to
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  the operating system internally as charismatic.
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  The name is not been publicly confirmed, but it describes an
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  interface built around clock faces and widgets, and the main
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  view of this thing is a customizable home screen similar
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  to your iPad that can show the weather, home controls, photo,
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  slideshows, and upcoming calendar events.
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  There will be no dedicated App Store at launch.
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  Instead Apple plans to ship the hub with several pre installed
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  apps. So there will be Safari, Apple
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  News, Apple Music, Notes, Calendar, Photos and Home app,
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  and some sort of weather app. Now, Apple is also working on a
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  personified Siri interface for this device.
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  The idea is that Siri would have an animated appearance, and one
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  concept being considered is a version that looks like the
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  classic Mac Finder icon. That would give Siri a face,
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  which changes how people might interact with it compared to
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  just a glowing orb or a waveform.
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  Because right now, we don't know what Siri looks like.
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  We talked to Siri on our phones and we talked to Siri on our
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  other devices, but we don't really have a face to this
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  voice. Now, the new Siri coming in iOS
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  26 is a major part of the product too.
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  Apple intelligence will be supported on the Home Hub, which
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  means the upgraded Siri with better natural language
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  understanding should be available at launch.
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  Now that timing all lines up here.
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  Apple is expected to release iOS 26.4 in March or April with a
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  new Siri, and the Home Hub is expected to ship around that
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  same time. Now, the iOS 26 code leak also
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  referenced the device identified as J229.
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  This is an accessory. It has multiple sensors that can
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  detect alarm sounds and capture images.
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  And the sample has been rumored to be working on a home security
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  camera for this device and have a home kit for it, and J229 fits
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  that description. Now, there's no confirmed launch
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  date for this one, but if Apple announced the Home Hub in the
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  spring, they might preview the camera alongside it.
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  Now, personal detection could enable smart home automations
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  beyond just profile switching. The hub might turn on the lights
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  when someone enters the room and might recognize hand gestures
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  from longer range control. Apple's also considering
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  additional sensors to plug into outlets throughout the home to
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  interface with the hub, though it's unclear if those will
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  actually shift. Now imagine this.
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  You have a home full of these things, and maybe you have one
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  when you walk in the front door. And if it's me, I would like my
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  office light on, might turn on my computer and might turn on
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  some music in the kitchen because at, you know, 6 O clock
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  at night, I'm going to go to the kitchen and I'm going to cook.
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  So maybe that Siri when I walk in the front door, the Siri in
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  the kitchen will start playing some some low music, some
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  cooking music that I actually enjoy and might actually
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  recommend a recipe. Or maybe I could have a recipe
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  ready the day before and Apple Intelligence will have it on the
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  screen when I walk in the front door.
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  Get my kitchen ready for me. Here we go.
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  Let's cook dinner with Apple Intelligence.
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  That would be amazing. So what do we actually know?
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  Right now the hardware is nearly finalized. 2 versions, 1 wall
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  mounted and one with a speaker base, face ID for authentication
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  and profile switching. There's a camera for video calls
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  and face scanning, Apple Intelligence of course, a widget
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  based interface with no App Store at launch that just got to
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  be pre installed apps only, and a launch window of March or
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  April of 2025. But there's competitors.
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  Google's been selling smart displays for years.
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  Amazon has the Echo and several smaller models.
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  Those products already do many of the things Apple is
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  describing now. The difference is integration.
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  Apple's hub will tie into the existing Apple ecosystem,
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  including Homekit, iCloud and also Siri.
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  For people already using iPhones, iPads and Macs.
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  This is a big deal. For people using Google or
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  Amazon devices, Apple century into this market might not
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  change much. I know I have an Apple phone but
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  we use Amazon devices at home. They just tie in with everything
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  we already have. So we might consider having
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  Apple devices instead of Amazon depending on the price range.
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  You know, Google and Amazon, you can pick them up for 100 or
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  couple $100 and on like a Black Friday sale, you get them for
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  under $100. So if Apple has something, you
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  know, competitive with that, but if they have better features and
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  also tie in with my phone better, then absolutely I would
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  switch over to an Apple device. It's going to be like part of
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  the home pod line up rather than just a stand alone product
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  category to this this new device.
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  That would mean it can piece directly with smart speakers
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  that have displays, not with tablets or iPad.
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  So you can keep your iPad around the speaker based version
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  supports that positioning built in speakers come standard in an
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  optional dock. You can add more speakers and
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  the wall mounted device will also have speakers in the
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  future, possibly not at launch, but maybe there will be an add
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  on in the future, not sure. It's basically an iPad for your
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  wall, a small iPad, A7 inch iPad.
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  So iPad mini basically. So we're going to see how that
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  goes. But can Apple differentiate
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  enough to justify what will likely be a premium price
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  though? Face ID and person detection are
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  very strong features, especially for me.
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  I would love that. I would love my house to be
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  automated more. Apple intelligence and the new
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  Siri could be strong features if they work as promised.
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  Google and Amazon have years of iteration behind the products
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  and they sell them at aggressive price points under $100.
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  Apple's Home Hub will need to do something those devices cannot
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  and also do the same things that they do even better.
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