Apple’s long-rumored smart home hub will have an iMac G4-style design and a host of unique features, Bloomberg» reports Mark Gurman.
The smart home hub would feature a 6-inch square screen, with variants that could be placed on a counter or mounted on a wall. It has a single FaceTime camera on the front, with microphones and speakers in its connected base. Gurman described the design as follows:
The hub is about as thick as an iPhone, and its screen is surrounded by a quarter-inch black bezel reminiscent of older iPads. It has rounded corners and no sharp edges. The device has no battery, so it must be plugged in at all times, and there are no volume or power buttons.
The product comes in Apple’s standard gray aluminum finish and includes a USB-C port for power delivery. The display sits atop a round metal base with several rings of punched speaker holes and connects to it via a polished metal arm. Users can manually tilt the screen forward or backward. And the base has a rubberized bottom to help it stay on a table.
The standard version is reminiscent of the famous iMac G4 from 2002, featuring a large screen resting on a half-dome base.
Apple also developed a second version, named J491, designed to be mounted on a wall. It has a thin square-shaped base below the screen that houses the speakers and microphones. The base sits flat on the wall below the screen. This version also needs to stay connected to power via a USB-C cable.
Apple envisions customers placing multiple devices in their home. Users will be able to control smart home devices, make video calls and intercom-style messages, play audio, and view photo slideshows. The device will also be able to serve as a kitchen information center, with the ability to watch videos and search for recipes with voice commands.
They will also be able to recognize who is talking to them or approaching them, and display personalized content and responses accordingly. The interface will automatically change depending on who is using the device, and there will be a mode for visitors that will hide personal information.
The smart home hub will identify users through their voice or facial recognition, but the latter system is said to be less reliable than Face ID, and users will be able to enable a secondary authentication method through an iPhone if they wish. The iPhone will also serve as a backup when the hub cannot correctly identify a user. In dark rooms, a Mac-style Edge Light feature will illuminate the area around the screen to help the camera recognize the user.
The device allegedly mixes interface elements from the Apple Watch, Apple TV and iPad. Siri AI continues to feature the same dark visual style used on other devices. iPhone-style widgets are available and users can choose a wallpaper and rearrange apps and widgets by holding them down, just like other Apple devices.
The UI is heavily built around slideshows and clock displays, similar to the revamped sleep mode on the iPhone Duo. A clock is said to look like “a lava lamp with a time overlay that shows the time in digital form with the minutes shown below.” Users can then swipe from the clock screen or photos to open the app launcher.
The device will include many of Apple’s most frequently used apps, including Calendar, Messages, Photos, FaceTime, Notes, Reminders, Music and Podcasts. The home screen features Apple Watch-style apps that open to iPad-style interfaces with multiple panels. For example, the Messages app has a two-panel layout like on the iPad. When a user taps a thread in their conversations list, a second pane opens to display the conversation thread. This interface is said to carry over to many other applications by default.
The device is expected to be introduced on Tuesday, October 13, alongside the new HomePod mini and Apple TV models.
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