Apple To Announce 3 New Products At Smart Home Event On October 13th? (Apple Bitz XL, Ep. 389)

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Brian Tong (0:56)

All right, everybody, you got to buckle up because the smart home for Apple appears to be coming very, very soon. We will talk about my Apple Watch reviews, the Mac Mini, the Mac Studio, that and a whole lot more. And also the OLED MacBook coming before the end of this month as well. We got a whole lot to talk about. You know what time it is. Let's get to the show.

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the show. It's the Apple Bitz XL. Brian Tong here, your host doing the most for everything. Good and bad inside the world of Apple. It is episode three hundred and eighty nine. I just want to tell you really quickly, we did not have a podcast last week because the last time I checked, I put out twenty eight videos in thirty days and three podcasts and I was gassed. I mean, I'm still gassed, but I wanted to get out more content because there's still more to talk about. So like I teased earlier, we're going to talk about the upcoming rumored Apple Smart Home event. We're going to talk about a little bit of my reflections from my reviews for the Apple Watch, the Mac Studio review, Mac Mini. We've got some iPhone Duo news as well, but we're going to talk all about that. But first, we got to give a big thanks to the sponsors of this show, and that is you.

patreon.com/briantong is how you support my content. It's how you support this podcast and everything that I do. And what do you get when you contribute early access to my content, rewards at different levels and a completely ad free version of this show. You will not hear this sponsor promotion for patreon.com/briantong.

It starts at $2 per month, $5, which is like a cup of coffee. We've got the $10, the $25 and the $100 Platinum Apple level. We also do some exclusive stuff on the Patreon and a nearly monthly live stream Zoom call where a bunch of us just hang out, talk shop. It's really fun and it's a way that we can connect. So patreon.com/briantong is how you support. OK, let's get right into it because look, this season is relentless. We know that the iPhone Duo is, I guess pre-orders start on the 16th. The official launch will be on the 23rd. So we're basically two weeks away from the pre-orders. I just put up two videos that are kind of a point and counterpoint to each other of iPhone Duo. You had me at hello, all the things I like and what I'm really bullish on. And then iPhone Duo, I have concerns, which is all the issues with the iPhone Duo that I'm not so hot about. So you can check out those videos. I think literally it's like 40 minutes of content. It's kind of crazy. So that's happening in the background, right? iPhone Duo and everyone is, there's a lot of buzz and anticipation around that. Even though yes, not everyone is gonna get one. It is a $2,000 phone to start. But while that's happening, we have some other stuff that is cooking. Like Apple is absolutely cooking because the latest report, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, says that there will be a potential Apple event on October 13th or announcement with three new Apple Smart Home products coming. Now this is what we've been waiting for for a while, right? The main, really I guess you'd say the centerpiece would be that rumored Smart Home hub that is this hybrid of some sort of a display with a speaker base that may be more like a display on a HomePod or maybe it's more OG, iMac like, there will be a new HomePod Mini and a new Apple TV expected to be announced on October the 13th. Now, we don't expect too much to change when you talk about the HomePod Mini and the Apple TV. Those are expected to retain their same exact existing designs, but faster chips and most likely more memory to support the Siri AI platform. And then the HomePod Mini is expected to come in new colors. Pink and green will be two of them. We don't know if the sound will be improved, but I hope they will. I still, to this day, use the original first gen HomePods. Yeah, the second gen came out, but they removed one speaker. The acoustic architecture of them sounds different. It sounds thinner. So the original HomePod, if you have one of those, I still think those are actually pretty incredible, but they were too expensive for what they were, and they didn't do enough. So the big takeaway from this October 13th rumored event is that this will be Apple's first foray into what I would say is taking the Smart Home more seriously. I don't think though it could really take off until they have more of an ecosystem. If they have this Smart Home Hub, they need, sure you can connect third party devices. I mean, Acara is an incredible company. I'd be really interested to see if, because they're matter compatible, if they would allow things like people with existing Nest and Google stuff to jump on their platform. My hunch would be no, but if it supports matter and those devices support matter, maybe you're just lacking or you're not getting some features because they're on another platform. The other thing is though, like I said, I think Apple really needs to come out with their own home security cameras, indoor, outdoor and a doorbell and maybe some sort of present sensing type device. If Apple really wants to show us that they're serious, I think they need to lean in and create an ecosystem of their own products within the smart home. And I've said this a few times, if you are not paying attention to what Acara is doing, AQARA, I think that Apple should actually acquire them. I know it's not gonna happen, but they are lock in step with all of Apple's HomeKit features. They're one of the few brands that do it right away. They have a nice aesthetic and easy way to use it. And I could see Acara just slide right into Apple, but most likely they'll still exist as a third party group that talks to whatever this smart home hub is. Now, according to reports, the Apple Smart Home Hub will feature an iMac G4 style like design. If you don't remember that, that was that sunflower. I mean, okay, I call it a sunflower iMac, but it's reminiscent of a Pixar lamp, right? You had the big screen, you had that neck that moved around and you had that speaker base. I don't think they're going to invest in that neck because back in the day, I believe that neck was somewhere around $750 or $1,000 to replace. That doesn't make sense for a device like this, but will it maybe look like it on some more stable neck? Most likely, at least that's what Bloomberg's Mark Goodman reports. So this will feature a six inch display. There'll be variants that could allow it to be placed on a countertop or even mounted on a wall. The display itself will feature a single FaceTime camera on the front, according to Goodman, with a microphone and speakers in its connected base, which is that base of potentially that circular, almost half dome type iMac base.