A Nice Cave Somewhere

Dan Moren (0:02)

It's time for episode 677 of the Clockwise Podcast Room Relay, recorded Wednesday, October 7th, 2026 Clockwise, four people, four tech topics, 30 minutes.

Welcome back to Clockwise, the tech podcast for the clock. Clockwise strikes 13 Because it's the spoo... Okay, I hit the soundboard a little early there. My name is Dan Moren, I'm joined across the internet by my good friend, my pal V1, the only spooky Mikah Sargent.

Mikah Sargent (0:47)

Hello, Dan. I have a scary voice going.

Dan Moren (0:52)

Oh, okay. All right. I see a little vibrato happening there. I appreciate it.

Next time, we'll redo the theme music with some organ music the next time.

Mikah Sargent (1:04)

Yeah, I would love that.

Dan Moren (1:06)

This is of course the Tech podcast nominally, where we talk about four tech topics with two fantastic guests. To my left this week, it is podcaster and fiber artist, Aline Sims. Welcome back, Aline.

Jeff Carlson (1:17)

Hello.

Mikah Sargent (1:18)

And to my left, writer, photographer, late nighter, CNET senior writer, it's the delightful Jeff Carlson. Welcome back, Jeff.

Jeff Carlson (1:25)

Thank you. I love that we're a weekend October and everything is now Halloween-ish.

Dan Moren (1:29)

Yep. That was the contract you signed in blood.

Jeff Carlson (1:33)

That's the rule. All right.

Dan Moren (1:35)

Let's kick things off. We got 30 minutes for topics and mine for you is this.

Leaked images this week show some images and design schematics of smart home devices that Apple is reportedly co-developing with LG. Would Apple's involvement in these products be enough to interest you in these categories either for the first time or to replace any existing devices you might already have? Aline?

Aline Sims (2:00)

No. All right.

Dan Moren (2:02)

Moving on.

Aline Sims (2:06)

You know, I've been looking at the devices that are rumored to be in production or development, and I already have all this stuff. I don't want to spend more money. You know, like, we've got the smart door lock on the door. We can actually use that on. We have an Echo Bee. We have smart switches and smart plugs and smart everything, and I'm not going to spend that money again. Like, this stuff is largely expensive. Not all of it, but a lot of it. And I just feel like most of the people who are invested in smart homes are already really invested in smart homes.

So I kind of feel like it might be a little late. I'll be really interested to see how this does.

Mikah Sargent (2:53)

Head of Nail, meet Aline.

I agree. The other thought was, oh, Apple, why'd you take so long? Because, yeah, I've got almost exactly the stuff that you have too.

Same thermostat, and like my lighting setup is great how it is. I don't need any of these categories, solved for the only thing, and I don't know if it would even be what would come from LG, which is something that Mark Bloomberg had mentioned, which was the camera that's not a camera, but is a camera that is sort of like looking for state changes in a space. I don't know if that would have been that's supposed to be one of these LG branded devices or not. But that was something that was genuinely different that could interest me.

Save from that, yeah, I think this is the problem too. It's like the people who are going to be gung-ho about the smart home. Yeah, they have the stuff that they want, and it's hard to change to new stuff, and the value prop has to be quite big for that to be a difference. But maybe it's a place for new people to dabble.

Jeff, what are your thoughts?

Jeff Carlson (4:03)

Yeah, I think that's just it. I think this is a way to give an Apple sheen to hear something that anybody can use. You don't have to know any of the ins and outs because we're Apple, and we figure things out for you. And LG just happens to be our partner on this. So I think a lot of this is, let's normalize this for people who may have heard of these kind of devices and didn't want to deal with the complexity, or maybe they've looked at the market that is, I don't know, seems very fractured, seems very, like you really have to know what you're looking for.

And this may be like a nice clean golden path for you to put smart things in your house.

That said, it really needs to be something that's different or something unique, or maybe some other take for me to consider actually getting one of these things. So, you know, again, it'll depend on what they do and what we see, but in terms of am I going to get one of these? Probably not. Or a bunch of other people? Eh, I don't know. This might be like the Belkin of the Apple Store, where it's going to be a little more expensive, it's probably going to be good. I don't know who's actually buying it.