HomeView: Apple's reported smart home hub due Tuesday

**Reported** HomeView is the name of the smart home hub Apple plans to announce Tuesday, TechCrunch reports, citing Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman describes a Siri-powered device with an A18 chip and a screen, one that controls the other smart home devices in your house.

**Reported** Two models are planned, per Gurman: one for a countertop and one that mounts on a wall.

TechCrunch frames the HomeView as Apple's most serious push into the home so far. The company's earlier attempts did not take. HomeKit, its framework for other makers' devices, and the HomePod speaker both got little traction, TechCrunch says. Reports that Apple was building something for the home have circulated for a couple of years.

Also reported for Tuesday

• New Apple TV hardware and a refreshed HomePod mini, per Gurman
• A plan to work with LG on three products, which he reported earlier in the week: a smart lock, thermostat and doorbell

The LG piece is the tell. Apple has never needed partners to sell a phone. A hub that talks to a doorbell and a thermostat only works if other companies make the doorbell and the thermostat.

If you were about to buy an Apple TV or a HomePod mini, wait

Gurman reports replacements for both are coming Tuesday. Buying the current model days before a new one appears is how you end up with the older hardware. Waiting costs you a few days, and the launch is close enough that our standing advice applies: don't put off a purchase for a rumor unless the launch is under six weeks away. This one is days away.

What we don't know

TechCrunch's report has no price and no ship date, and no word on how the two HomeView models differ beyond where they sit. A hub you talk to every day is judged on what it does when the internet is down, how much of the work happens on the device itself, and whether the assistant is any good. None of that is settled by a spec sheet.

A hub is only as good as the assistant inside it, and Apple has not won the home yet.

Our view: the HomeKit and HomePod record is a reason to try a HomeView in a store before you buy one, not a reason to write it off. Wait, until there is a price and a review you can read.

• Apple
• HomeView
• LG
• Mark Gurman
• Siri
• smart home