These 3 new Apple Smart Home products could arrive in October, according to the leaker

Following the announcement of the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods 5 and new Apple Watch updates, Apple is already preparing another big release in October, this time focused on smart home products. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple CEO John Ternus is preparing to launch an all-new smart home hub that has long been rumored to be introduced by Apple, the first update to the HomePod mini since its debut, and the fourth generation of the Apple TV 4K. The main feature of all these products, according to Bloomberg, is Siri AI, introduced with iOS 27 and expected to expand to new languages ​​in the coming months.

Siri AI was initially promised during the WWDC 2024 keynote as part of Apple Intelligence announcements. Although Apple was able to provide basic AI functionality, it was only with the help of proprietary Google Gemini models combined with Foundation Models and Apple’s private Cloud Computing that Siri was finally released.

As the star of these products, this new Siri will be responsible for tapping into people’s personal information, such as messages, emails, notes and photos, and helping you with on-screen data, Visual Intelligence, which could teach you how to make a recipe based on what you show the device, in addition to other tools like creating shortcuts in natural language, including automations for the home, the appropriate Genmoji, tools Writing and Image Playground. Here’s what Apple is expected to announce in October (and no, no new Macs are expected yet).

After years of delays due to lackluster Siri, this all-new smart home hub will feature a 6-inch square screen that can sit on a countertop, resembling the iMac G4 (similar to a prototype robot leaked by Apple itself), or mounted on a wall. The device is expected to be as thick as an iPhone with a large black frame that looks like an old iPad. According to Bloomberg, this smart home hub will help multiple people in a household by recognizing them vocally or when they approach the product. Depending on who is nearby, this device will mine people’s contacts, messages, calendar appointments, and other data.

Bloomberg says Apple will offer less reliable facial recognition than Face ID, so users may have to authenticate information on their iPhone if they don’t want to use just voice or their face. According to the publication, Apple envisions users placing several of these products throughout the home so people can communicate through them, watch videos, make FaceTime calls, and more.

As for the first generation, Apple focuses on a main front camera and multiple microphones and speakers. No rear camera is provided. The device will likely need to be plugged in at all times, and it will come in standard gray aluminum. The display will tilt forward or backward. In the future, Apple will release a version with a larger 9-inch screen, featuring a robotic arm with 360 degrees of freedom.

Introduced in 2020, Apple never updated the HomePod Mini’s hardware. Although the company has refreshed some of these speaker colors over the years, Bloomberg suggests that the new version will look like the current iteration, but with new colors and improved processors. Among the new options, the HomePod should be available in green and pink, which should be added to the dark and silver models. Although the journalist does not specify which processor the new HomePod mini will be equipped with, he claims that it will be enough to support Siri’s powerful AI models.

If this turns out to be true, it will be interesting to see if Apple would be willing to add an A17 Pro or M1 chip to this speaker, along with 8GB of RAM, as these are currently the minimum requirements for Apple Intelligence. While the company might argue that a device focused solely on audio might not need as powerful a chip or as much RAM, we’ll still have to wait for the official announcement.

That said, Apple already raised prices for the HomePod mini a few months ago, so a new generation might not be more expensive. Still, it’s a little worrying that we haven’t had any news on the audio capabilities of the speakers. After all, the HomePod mini already costs more than most speakers its size, while lacking bass and booming sound. Even though this generation features Siri AI, a poor audio experience could cause this device to fail.

In the same report, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggests that the fourth generation of the Apple TV 4K will arrive in October. According to the journalist, Apple will also include a faster processor to support the new Siri AI, but the design is expected to remain the same. Given that the current Apple TV has an A-series processor, it’s not a stretch to imagine Apple adding the iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro chip to this new machine, along with 8GB of RAM.

So far, Apple has been very quiet about the Apple TV and tvOS 27. While we’re finally listing some features arriving for the Apple TV with this big software update, Apple isn’t highlighting them on its operating systems webpage, and the current setup makes it odd that the Apple TV is the only platform without Apple Intelligence or Siri AI.

According to Woozad, leaked data suggests that a new model will be released soon. Although the exterior design is expected to be the same, this new version will likely receive Apple’s N1 connectivity chip with Wi-Fi 7 support and a revised Siri Remote. At this time, it’s unclear exactly what’s new with this Siri Remote, although proper Find My support has been a requested feature for years. We also hope that once Apple introduces the new Apple TV, the company will talk more openly about tvOS 27 and ask whether this set-top box will also support the new picture and audio capabilities of the latest TVs and projectors.