Apple confirms $299 HomeView as it resets smart home ecosystem

The $299 Siri AI-powered HomeView leads the charge with Apple’s new Home range, though the next-gen Apple TV also now costing $299 is less welcome news.

When we previewed the Apple HomeView, we thought that a $350 price point was on the optimistic side. It turns out that we were off the mark, and it’s launching most everywhere at $299. Most everywhere? One of the wrinkles that’s emerging post Apple’s PR dump is that it will not be available for sale in the EU while Apple wrestles with regulators over some of Siri AI’s latest features.

There is a lot to like about the new device, however. Its 7-inch Liquid Retina display sits on a domed aluminum speaker base, joined by a stainless steel tilting hinge. It runs an A18 chip and has an automatic brightness range of 0.3 to 500 nits, which will mean some squinting in bright sunlight.

It recognizes up to six people by face, and each gets their own Home Screen with apps and widgets, which is a nice touch.

As the centerpiece of the new Apple Home push, it can show up to nine live feeds at once. It also listens for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and provides FaceTime with Center Stage and Intercom. Recipe tools with hands-free timers are included too, recognizing that most people will immediately plonk the HomeView down in their kitchen.

The wall-mounted version is not going to provide the same audio experience, as the freestanding aluminum dome also includes a custom down-firing woofer and dual force-canceling passive radiators.

Pricing and availability

Pre-orders are open now and HomeView ships November 13 in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, and New Zealand. Singapore pre-orders open October 15, and South Africa goes through authorized resellers.

Apple TV (4th gen)

It’s difficult to start anywhere else but with price when it comes to the Apple TV. The device uses a comparatively large amount of memory to prevent buffering, among other things, and the third-generation models had already had a significant price hike in June. The $129 model climbed to $199, and the $149 model jumped a massive $100 to $249. At $299, though, it feels like an uncomfortable new ground floor, offering a premium price and experience when most people are frankly just after something that plugs into their HDMI 1 socket.

So, while we wait for Apple to release a slimmed-down model, what do you get? An A19 chip that supports AV1 decoding, a (likely) single 128 GB configuration, WiFi 7, Gigabit Ethernet, a rear HDMI 2.1 port, and Bluetooth 6. The key upgrade is that, for the first time, four HomePod mini 2s, or matching pairs of HomePod and HomePod mini 2, can form a four-speaker surround setup, which has interesting potential.

Siri AI is a big part of the new device and provides a compact overlay so you can ask questions while watching (helping with those “What have they been in?” queries). Three far-field microphones allow hands-free Siri, while a new Siri Remote also has beefed-up mics and adds a built-in speaker and Precision Finding for when the device goes AWOL (though that needs an iPhone 17 or newer).

The surround audio is a nice feature, but this is an upgrade-cycle replacement for most people, and it will be interesting to see how it sells on release.

Pricing and availability

Apple TV (4th gen) costs $299 and ships November 13, with pre-orders open in the US and 29 other countries and regions.

HomePod mini 2

As widely and successfully trailed, the HomePod mini 2 gets an Apple S10 chip and comes in some new colors, namely pink, green, blue, white, and midnight.

It can serve as the default speaker for any Mac with WiFi 6E or later, as a single unit or part of a stereo pair, which is going to be handy for all those Mac minis out there.

Most of the upgrades here are about dovetailing it better into the new Apple Home ecosystem. It works out where it is in relation to the fourth-gen Apple TV so it can serve as part of matching front or rear pairs, listens for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and more. It also has a new Sound Glow feature, where the top surface glows and pulses with the music, reacting to bass and treble. Colors come from the album artwork.

Siri AI is not available at launch. It arrives later as a free software update where available.

Pricing and availability

Pre-orders are open now in the US and more than 23 other countries and regions. It reaches stores Friday, October 30, for $149.

Apple Home Collection

Last, but by no means least, the Apple Home Collection is a lineup of smart home accessories designed in collaboration with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric that starts releasing in December. It includes four LG cameras, one of them a video doorbell, that capture up to 2.5K video, plus a door lock, two thermostats, and two temperature sensors.

When we wrote about them in our Apple “Welcome home” preview, we speculated that having accessories made by LG would help make them competitive in a crowded market. But with prices such as $249 for a wired video doorbell and $199 for an indoor camera, they’re definitely more expensive than Amazon’s Ring ecosystem, for example. The cameras will piggyback on existing iCloud+ subscriptions for a minimal event video history, but they’re coming in at the higher end of the market, for the moment at least.