Two October Apple events and more Home Hub leaks on the AppleInsider Podcast

William Gallagher (0:04)

Hello, welcome to the Apple Insider Podcast, I'm William Gallagher. Our sponsor this week is Origin. More about that later, but not if you're a subscriber, because if you're a subscriber, you'll never know about Origin.

Well we might mention it later, just in case. Fill you in, that kind of thing. But more urgently, more importantly, I am joined as ever by Wesley Hilliard, who has been writing about basically the news of the week, really, which seems to be we thought Home Hub was coming. We thought we knew its colors. Now, it's just how much home stuff can possibly ever come from Apple in one go, and is it coming from Apple?

Wes, explain everything. Off you go.

Wesley Hilliard (0:45)

Well, it turns out Apple has a bunch of stuff ready to go. We don't know when it's coming though. First off though, absolutely sure.

October 13th, some sort of event which could mean anything. There's not been any invites. There has been some hints as to the fact that it's happening, but nothing concrete. Plenty of rumors, but I don't think we're gonna see like a big press event. This is going to be a press release with accompanied video where Apple's gonna have probably one big video or two or three smaller videos just kind of explaining these new products, especially the Home Hub. And for sure, we know Apple TV update, new HomePod Mini and this Home Hub. So we're gonna be stealing a little bit of HomeKit Insider's valor today or Smart Home Insider and talking a lot about Apple Home and its initiatives. And for Apple Insider Plus, we're gonna be diving into a bit of a predictions run for William and I for what could be announced next week and what our ideal Apple Home would be, so.

William Gallagher (1:58)

Okay, so I'm just thinking, all of this is supposed to happen on October the 13th, but on October the 12th, Apple is opening the kind of pre-pre-orders for the iPhone Duo, then October the 16th, actual pre-orders, then October the 23rd it comes out.

Who has, who can keep track of it and have the money for all of this stuff?

You hesitate, I saw you hesitate about whether or not there will be an actual event. We're all calling it an event, different meanings of that. But the one thing that stops me thinking this will just be a press release is the HomeHub, because Apple TV, 4K, I mean, I don't really see how much you can possibly add to the existing one, even all these years later. And we understand the HomePod Mini is going to come in new colours, which would be nice to see, but it's not earth-shaking. So I think, yeah, a couple of press releases pop into the Apple Store to catch them later. But then there's that HomeHub. And I am dying to know what that looks like. I want to be sold on it, don't you?

Wesley Hilliard (3:01)

So this video will most likely start out with the Apple TV being the centre of your home. And the idea that it is your matter hub, your Thread Hub, your Apple Home Hub. And it is all of these things. It's your controller for everything. It's your remote access to your home. And then Apple is going to say it's also your home theatre and introduce the new HomePod Mini and say that you can have four paired together for a home theatre experience. I'm really hoping that you can mix and match. And the Gen 2 HomePod will be included in this because I really want two Gen 2 HomePods and two HomePod Minis behind me to be a home theatre for myself. But code shows, this is actually increasingly complex. Apple might actually be doing some trickery here, and I'm very interested in this.

It looks like if you have a home theatre hooked up to your Apple TV that your Apple TV can recognize, even one, say, from Sony, like connected through a receiver, you might be able to include your HomePods in addition to your home theatre and have them sync their audio together. Now, this isn't confirmed, but the way the code reads, it sounds like Apple TV and HomePods are going to be working together to sense your home theater. But the phrasing could also just mean Apple's home theater through HomePods. And that's more likely the case and less complex, but either way, it's very interesting. I don't have a lot of interest in setting up a complex home theater, especially one with wires or audio lag over wireless speakers. The HomePods have worked amazingly, and I'm very interested in continuing my home theater experience with more HomePods. I will say this, William, if Apple allows a mixed home theater experience, I think I would not mind having a central channel speaker and a subwoofer in addition to two large HomePods, left and right channel, two small HomePods rear channels.