Apple’s ‘HomeView’ smart home hub expected to ship in mid-November

Apple’s newest smart home hub, HomeView, will be available around mid-November, about a month after its unveiling at Apple’s “Welcome home” event on October 13, according to BloombergIt’s Mark Gurman.

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman said that HomeView, “at least as of now,” will follow the launch of the new Apple TV 4K and new HomePod mini models, which will arrive in customers’ homes and stores on October 30.

The HomeView will be positioned as the Siri command center of an Apple-powered home, combining a display with an A18 chip. It will be available in two versions, including a countertop model with a metal speaker base, offered in space gray, silver, starlight and pink, and a wall-mounted version with a flat, square base, limited to space gray and silver. The HomeView will offer better sound quality than the new HomePod mini, according to Gurman.

The device is controlled primarily by voice, although its screen supports touch input. It supports a limited selection of Apple apps and there will be no dedicated App Store.

The HomeView name first appeared in a trademark filing by a shell company, a discovery reported Friday by Woozad and credited by Gurman. The “view” part of the name reflects how the device is intended to be used, in that it is a screen that people look at and control primarily with their voice.