An artist’s rendition of a HomePod with a show
But extra rumors have appeared about Apple planning a brand new HomePod with a display, house hub, or another new machine for the home. An enormous leak and information from Apple itself could imply that the machine is inching nearer to launch.
Whether or not it is by means of patents, provide chain leaks, or now code references, it has lengthy been the case that Apple is believed to be engaged on a brand new HomePod. It is variously been predicted to be a HomePod with a display or a TV sound bar, and it’s all the time nearly to launch, besides by no means fairly this yr.
Apple, as an illustration, has been researching take the material outer protecting of a HomePod and make all of it touch-sensitive. Individually, Apple has checked out whether or not that very same cloth will be was some type of show.
Again in January 2024, there was the most recent of some clues to Apple contemplating making a platform known as “homeOS.” On this case, it was a reference to that time period in a beta of tvOS 17.4.
However Apple has already bought a platform for units just like the HomePod. When Tim Cook dinner opened WWDC 2024, he confirmed a slide itemizing six of them, starting from macOS to visionOS, but additionally together with “Audio & Home.”
Apple’s platforms, as proven by Tim Cook dinner at WWDC 2024
It is true that this is not homeOS by title, however again throughout WWDC 2016, Craig Federighi confirmed a really comparable listing of platforms that included OS X. The slide was written in order that the “X” stood out to the facet of the neat row of iOS, tvOS, and so forth.
“As we look at [the name] alongside its younger brethren,” mentioned Federighi, “something sticks out. We realized that there’s a name that would be so much clearer and so much more elegant.”
Proper there, Apple modified Mac OS X to macOS. Simply as with Audio & Residence, that did not change that this was a platform, it was solely a branding distinction.
So rumors of Apple making a homeOS are lacking that it already has. And whilst you can have a platform with simply two HomePods and an Apple TV, you may also increase it.
The newest Apple Residence Hub machine rumors
Now references have been discovered to a tool with the identifier “HomeAccessory17,1.” The “HomeAccessory” half is a beforehand unknown class of Apple units. HomePods, as an illustration, have identifiers starting “AudioAccessory.”
So this might be a brand new kind of machine, which might recommend it is not a HomePod, or might be a reclassification of current units. This new code discovery, and former studies, a minimum of means that the machine will run tvOS.
That needn’t imply that that is in reality a brand new Apple TV, though once more variations of which can be regularly rumored. This new code discovery additionally contains new Apple TV machine identifiers.
Nevertheless, HomePods really run on tvOS too, or a variation of it, so probably “HomeAccessory” might imply a HomePod, an Apple TV, or one thing else completely.
The remainder of the identifier is probably vital, although. The digits on the finish of “HomeAccessory17,1,” point out that this unknown machine can have the identical A18 processor because the iPhone 16 vary.
That is resulting in a presumption that the machine is a brand new HomePod, with a display, which can embody Apple Intelligence. Sooner or later this stops being a music speaker and turns into a Mac.
Simply as with the fabled Apple Ring, this isn’t to say that the machine will not be all of these items. It’s to say that we will not know, and supposition primarily based on the anticipated processor ignores different prospects, together with ones we all know Apple is investigating.
The “HomeAccessory17,1” identifier was noticed by MacRumors.