![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/cdn.iphoneincanada.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Apple-HomePod-smart-home-230118.jpg\" "\\"Apple-HomePod-smart-home-230118jpg")
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Apple\u2019s long-awaited smart home hub could be introduced \u201cas early as next month,\u201d according to Mark Gurman in the latest Power On<\/em> newsletter (via Bloomberg<\/em><\/a>). Gurman calls the device one of the most anticipated launches of CEO John Ternus\u2019 early tenure, alongside the iPhone Duo and a still-pending touch-screen MacBook.<\/p>\n The device is dubbed J490 inside Apple and is reportedly being tested widely in employees\u2019 homes. It has a roughly square screen, with versions that sit on a stand, resembling a HomePod mini chopped in half, or attach to a wall. Gurman says it is most similar to an Amazon Echo Show but with a considerably smaller screen.<\/p>\n Facial recognition through the front-facing camera lets the display identify who is looking at it and personalize apps, notes, calendar appointments, news, music, and podcasts. Apple is doing this without a standard Face ID-level depth sensor, and Gurman says that gives him confidence facial recognition could eventually come to the iPhone Duo<\/a>, which currently relies on fingerprint-based Touch ID, even without the physical space typically required.<\/p>\n The killer feature is Siri, which Apple had planned to debut as far back as 2024 but could not launch until Siri AI was ready; Siri AI was formally released this month as part of iOS 27<\/a>. On the hub, Siri can look up information across devices and accounts, play a podcast or song someone sent a while ago, find an image to display, carry out precise tasks in Notes, Reminders, and Calendar, and conduct complex searches within an Apple interface.<\/p>\n The hub runs a new operating system built around Siri AI, with a home screen, widgets, and clock faces similar to the Apple Watch or the iPhone Duo\u2019s upgraded StandBy mode. The interface is a mashup of iOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and it syncs with an iPhone for setup, extending Apple\u2019s push into Siri AI smart home devices<\/a>.<\/p>\n It all fits CEO John Ternus\u2019 \u201cintelligent personal hub\u201d vision, which positions the iPhone as the perfect AI device and anchor of mobile life, while the home hub, alongside a new HomePod mini<\/a> and a TV set-top box with Siri AI, gives Apple a central role in the household, while the car remains the unresolved piece, along with what the price will be in Canada and beyond.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n