Apple unveils HomeView

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Apple unveiled HomeView, the company's smart display built for Siri AI. We'll talk more about it in moments, but first one of AI's promises on the less humanity destroying end of the spectrum, is to make everyday life a little smoother. Instead of tackling each item on your to-do list by yourself, perhaps a reliable AI tool could cross a few entries off for you, leaving you to attend to the more important bits.

Getting a recap of the last 20 e-mails in your inbox might let you dive into your work faster in the mornings, or at least give you a couple of extra minutes to stare into the middle distance while sipping your coffee. If you're committed to the Google ecosystem, Gemini Spark might offer a way to automate the tasks you'd rather farm out. Spark is an agentic personal assistant announced in May at Google's annual IO Developer Conference. You can give it a task and it can run in the background, taking what Google describes as proactive action while still adhering to your instructions. The Gemini Spark website gives a few examples of what you can do with it, like turning your last 50 email responses into a style guide covering how you answer emails or setting up a tracker for internships. It's integrated into Google Workspace apps like Docs, Calendar, Slides, and Gmail, as well as personal intelligence. A feature Gemini uses to customize suggestions based on information from your Google apps. Head over to engadget.com for the latest from Erin Carson, How to Use Gemini Spark to Automate Tasks.

And online profiling isn't new. And for that matter, neither is Amazon's About You page, which was introduced back in May. The personalization behind it has been around for much longer. But the feature, which acts as a sort of dossier of details Amazon uses to personalize your shopping, has gotten a lot of attention lately. Part of the reason for the renewed interest is that About You's notes can be, well, oddly specific. One thread's user posted a screenshot showing that it said she has flat buttocks. In a Reddit thread, one person said it described them as having mismatched trash bins. Another Redditor rattled off a triad of strange observations. Has a mother, owns a tiny funnel, and receives boxes from Amazon.

Small world. Whether you find those details harmlessly amusing or a little creepy, it's worth seeing what info Amazon thinks it knows about you. And Gadget's Will Shanklin unpacks more. Find how to find your Amazon About You page and how to edit it right now at engadget.com.

It seems like an eternity since the first reports that Apple was working on a smart display to rival Amazon's Echo Show came out. And at long last, the company has finally revealed its take on the smart home screen. HomeView is a touchscreen device that acts as a hub for various connected devices, as well as a personalized control center for audio and more. The device was built for Siri AI and can adapt its content and features based on which of your family members are using it by pulling data from their iPhone or iPad. The centerpiece of the HomeView is a 7-inch square liquid retina display. To me, it looks like an enlarged Apple watch, and the tabletop version with a base comes in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray colors. This model has a base that contains a down-firing woofer and two force-canceling passive radiators to bolster the audio performance of the two full-range drivers in the display. Connecting the screen and base together is a stainless steel hinge that allows you to adjust the viewing angle. If you prefer a wall-mounted option, Apple offers the HomeView without a base, but the overall functionality is the same. Interestingly, there are no buttons on the HomeView. The touchscreen display and your voice are the two ways to interact with the device. The display has a maximum brightness of 500 nits and goes all the way down to 0.3 nits, which is the lowest brightness Apple has ever offered on any device. That second number is particularly important in the home for early mornings, or if you plan to place the HomeView on your nightstand. The smart display's main passive screens are called faces, which are customizable with things like art, photos, and various clock designs. Once the HomeView is unlocked, you'll see a home screen with four areas for widgets, similar to how you can customize your Apple watch interface. At the top of the display, there's a 12-megapixel FaceTime camera with center stage for video calls. Like the Echo Show and other smart displays, HomeView is certainly equipped for catching up with friends and family in a way you can see them. Additionally, the device supports voice and video apps on top of native iOS apps like Calendar and Weather. HomeView functions like CarPlay in that you don't download apps to it, but the display will show you recently used apps on its menu for easy access. And, like Apple's HomePod speakers, you can hand off things like audio or even recipes from your iPhone by holding your handset close to the HomeView.