Apple Wants to Lock You Into Your Home - DTNS 5372

Tom Merritt (0:09)

This is the Daily Tech News for Tuesday, October 13th, Spooky Tuesday, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you the important context, and help each other understand.

Jason Howell (0:20)

Yes. Today, Apple is coming for your home. Even spookier, right? It sounds so ominous. And I've been actually playing around with Google's flagship Argon model for a little more than a week, so I can tell you how well Google's doing at the catch-up game in the frontier space.

Tom Merritt (0:35)

Fantastic. I'm Tom Merritt.

Jason Howell (0:37)

I'm Jason Howell.

Tom Merritt (0:38)

Let's start with what you need to know with the big story.

Of course, Apple announced several smart home-related products today, including the new HomeView Smart Hub. Joining us to run through all the announcements is Nica Montford from Snob OS.

Thank you for joining us, Nica, and Sarah Lane dropping in. Good to see you, Sarah. You as well. Fantastic. Let's start with the HomeView. That's the name, HomeView. It's a 7-inch square touchscreen display, just as German foretold, running on an A18 chip, same one that's in your iPhone 16, or at least in my iPhone 16 It uses Siri AI and can tell with facial recognition who's talking to it. It can remember up to six people, so that when you're looking at it, when you're talking to it, it can personalize the responses. That's a little more secure, too. Nobody can see your messages, your photos, your calendar, your make-your-FaceTime calls, see your reminders. Those are all apps that it can have, except you. You can also pick up or leave off from conversations with Siri on an iPhone or iPad. You can get it in four colors if you get the tabletop device with that little round base, kind of looks like an old Mac, or in two colors if you get a wall-mounted device, and you can order both versions right now, $299 each, shipping November 13th. The wall mount option, however, won't go on your wall unless you get the mount, and the mount is sold separately. $60 if you want to plug it in by USB-C, or $89 if you want a good old-fashioned AC wired plug, and they say power over ethernet is going to be coming next year. That wall mount will be $130, unless you're in the EU, which case you can't get this at all, because Apple is working to clear Siri AI with regulators there. Before we get to the rest of the announcements, Nica, what'd you think of the HomeView?

Nica Montford (2:25)

It's been on my prediction list for the last couple of years, so I'm finally glad that I can mark it off. It's like, I guess if you have enough patience and persistence, it'll eventually come around. I'm glad to see it finally come to fruition, and I truly believe it was ready before now. But with all of the issues with Apple Intelligence, I don't think Apple wanted to release yet another advice that wouldn't be fully functional with its software. So now that we have Siri AI, people are using it, it's doing its thing.

Now we get this home view, which I had been calling HomePad. I think it's...

Jason Howell (3:03)

I think a lot of people were, yeah.

Nica Montford (3:05)

Yeah, it's a great, I think, looking device.

It definitely, for me, I could see the use case for me. I wouldn't want the wall mount. I would want the one that kind of comes with the little base, because you're on your phone, in the kitchen, you're trying to look up a recipe, you're trying to follow it, but then your phone goes to sleep, you keep tapping it, tapping it, going back in. So having a dedicated central home management device that has a stationary position that you don't have to move around or take with you, and the way that it works directly with the iPhone, it can hand off from either direction. I think it's a nifty looking device.

Tom Merritt (3:44)

You said wood, so you didn't order one yet, it sounds like.

Nica Montford (3:46)

I have not ordered one yet.

Tom Merritt (3:48)

You haven't pulled the trigger, all right. I haven't pulled the trigger. Sarah, what about you?

Sarah Lane (3:53)

I have thoughts. Okay, so first of all, let me say that Nica talking about kitchens, I've got an Echo Show 8 circa 2019 in my kitchen, which there are some issues with it. It's not the most fabulous device at this point, but I really like having a display in the kitchen. Now, not everybody is like, I don't hang out in the kitchen all that much.