Apple plans to announce a smart home hub, the first update to the HomePod mini since 2020 and its first new Apple TV box since 2022 on Tuesday 13th October 2026. That information comes from unnamed people familiar with Apple’s plans, so it is unconfirmed until Apple says so.
The smart home hub is a small screen on a speaker base that controls smart home accessories, plays music, shows photos and makes FaceTime calls. The latest details describe a square display of roughly 6 inches (earlier rumours said 7) on a tilting metal arm above a round speaker base, in the style of the 2002 iMac G4, plus a wall-mounted version. The hub has no battery and plugs in over USB-C. It is meant to recognise who is talking by voice or face and show that person’s own messages and calendar, with a guest mode that hides them.
Siri AI, Apple’s rebuilt assistant, is what all three products are built around. It began rolling out in beta on 14th September in English only, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish due next month. The refreshed HomePod mini and Apple TV keep their current designs and get faster chips to run it. The Homepod Mini gets new colours, reported as green and pink. Apple TV is not on Siri AI’s supported list yet, as we noted on Sunday, so the new box is where the assistant would reach the television.
Part of this is firm. The Apple TV and the new HomePod mini colours are backed by Apple’s own image files, found on 25th September. The smart home hub has no such backing. Neither does the date. The story first ran in July, naming all three products and saying the push would start “soon”. The date is what has been added.
No price, on-sale date or specific chip for the hub has surfaced. Whether Apple will hold a video event or release the products by press release is also unknown.
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