Apple HomeView on a sideboard, in a press image from Apple. Image: Apple
Apple’s new Siri has moved into the living room. The company unveiled HomeView, its first smart display, alongside a new Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2, all built around Siri AI, the rebuilt assistant powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence that reached iPhones with iOS 27 last month.
HomeView and the Apple TV 4K cost $299 each and HomePod mini 2 costs $149. All three can be pre-ordered now in the US. The catch: HomeView won’t be sold in the European Union at all, because Siri AI still isn’t available on iPhones there.
HomeView: a 7-inch screen that knows who’s looking
HomeView has a 7-inch Liquid Retina display on a stainless steel hinge above a domed speaker base, in silver, starlight, rose pink and space grey. A separate wall-mounted model, in space grey and silver, uses mounts from Schneider Home. Apple says it recognises up to six people by their faces and switches to each person’s own Home Screen, messages, calendar and reminders, while shared photo albums and music stay open to the whole household.
Siri AI handles the smart home by voice or touch, from thermostats and locks to camera feeds. With a paired Apple Intelligence iPhone or iPad, Siri can draw on each person’s calendar and messages; without one, everyone still gets its general knowledge and conversation. It runs on an A18 chip, and Apple says requests are handled on the device or through its Private Cloud Compute servers.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, pitched it as one screen for a whole family:
It recognizes your face to shift from a household screen to your own experience, fills the room with incredible sound, keeps you connected to the people who matter most with FaceTime, and makes it easy to control your smart home.
Greg Joswiak, Apple
A new Apple TV 4K that listens hands-free
The fourth-generation Apple TV 4K gets an A19 chip, which Apple says is up to 50% faster on the CPU and up to twice as fast on graphics, plus three far-field microphones, so you can talk to Siri without picking up the remote. Siri AI takes over the full screen to suggest shows and answers follow-up questions in a small overlay while you watch, such as where a series was filmed. Four HomePod mini 2 or second-generation HomePod speakers can now be paired for surround sound.
Older boxes aren’t left out. Siri AI comes as a beta to the Apple TV 4K from the second generation onwards, in tvOS 27.2. It needs the home’s owner to have an Apple Intelligence iPhone or iPad with Siri AI switched on, so anyone still on the Siri AI waitlist will have to wait.
HomePod mini 2 gets Siri AI later
HomePod mini 2 has an S10 chip, a new Sound Glow light on top that pulses with the music, and five colours: pink, green, blue, white and midnight. It can recognise up to six voices in a home. Siri AI isn’t there on day one, though: Apple says it arrives in a future free software update. Apple hasn’t said whether the original HomePod mini will get it.
Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide home product marketing, said that with Siri AI, the speaker “understands you better than ever.”
Prices, release dates and where you can buy them
- Apple TV 4K: $299, pre-orders in the US and 29 other countries and regions, in shops from November 13.
- HomeView: $299 for either model, pre-orders in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India, Singapore from October 15, South Africa through resellers, all on sale November 13. Not sold in the EU.
- HomePod mini 2: $149, pre-orders in the US and more than 23 other countries and regions, in shops from October 30.
Siri AI itself works in English only at launch, in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and South Africa, with Canadian French to follow on HomeView. Apple’s small print adds that Apple Intelligence features using its server-side models have daily usage limits, and that “expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future.”
Why it matters
This is Apple’s first real attempt to put its new assistant at the centre of the home, where Amazon and Google have long led and Meta is now pushing Muse. Whether Siri AI can close the gap we described in our look at Apple’s AI race now depends on how well it works in kitchens and living rooms, and Europe will have to wait.
Sources: Apple Newsroom (HomeView, Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini 2).
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