Episode 910: Apple's upcoming smart home efforts
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Is apple finally going to make a real effort in the smart home market in this episode of the macworld podcast? Well, example, a few recent reports on some rumor products and ipad like control center, smart home cameras and apple television set and more. It's coming up, so stay tuned.

The ball podcast i'm a loyal a here with Jason cross.

Good morning.

and Michael Simon and sir.

So a couple .

of recent reports saying that apples working on creating a bigger presence in the slide market with a few products that are in the works. So on this episode, we're going to give our thoughts and some of the rumors that have come up. But first, maybe we should go over quickly apple sprint presence in the smart whole market, which basically comes down to what now I was going the home pod and what a few s for third parties. That's IT really I think .

it's it's really the home APP. It's really all IT is like .

yeah market IT as .

a smart home device, a marketing the smart home speaker music, it's its main thing.

although I mean IT .

works but .

to do but that that is as much smart home as an echo is or something like that but .

yeah yeah yeah, that's true.

But the other main thing is that they've got their home map, home map eyes. You need either an apple TV or home pod to be a home hub too, if you want any of your smart home stuff to be accessible a from when you're not at home, from the external internet IT just .

like communicates with all of your little home, get gadgets, sends to the up and and that control them .

wherever you are, right and IT keeps the state alive and that your bridge to the internet um and they've been updating and adding all that something that support for matter that they're big into matter actually and matter keeps getting update and so that gives you access to more of we've started a smart was what they call their camera aps.

There's a home kit camera, A P I now that lets you home kit secure camera or something yeah interestingly, can't gives you like an encrypted video camera stores. So you're just not sending your video feed off to an A W S somewhere. So h having people look at IT and process IT of stuff. So it's a way to have like secure video and a processing or video locally.

They still arena's T A ton of home kit cameras out there. If you have one, it's great. If you don't, there are still ways to kind of like rigger IT to work with the home map.

But for the most part, you got to buy a new camera. That's why apple so behind here is because their home kit, way back when I was originally, I was I was a hard requirement. And a lot of these smaller companies and even the larger ones were like, we just not onna do that were going to support Alice. We're going to support google assistant because I was software as easier, then apple change that. And now there are a lot more home kit accessories ies out there, but still not nearly as many as google and alex a, and they always cost a little bit more, is sometimes at a couple of box, but there are always more expensive than the non homework at once.

Like we said, there's matter which is sort of the new way of saying like OK sort of having amazon ecosystem works with echo and then google's works with google and then apples works with kid like they all kind of got together and say, okay, one standard for these things, but they don't have as many matter, works with lights and vans and door locks and stuff. But IT doesn't do a lot of the other categories specific. They're still kind of building out new categories .

every and it's still new hardware like it's not harder. We're going forward here.

There spent a few things that have gone for more updates to support matter. You're still yeah .

limited yeah. So for example, I have simply safe, uh, as my home security thing and it's not IT like the camera doesn't work through through. The host doesn't work.

Yes, I say I have some. I have ring stuff and is the same way I have a home das the network, such story device. And I run A, I run a like a home kit IT. There's like a bridge that you can run on there that that connects that sort of like .

Green camera .

is a stuff like that that yeah no that hobo home brew is a way to install a apps from from command line. I can't remember what is called, but it's at hope.

Something similar to that.

But the problem is is very flaky with certain things like its super flaky. I have an old next term stat. I didn't get the matter update and its super flaky with that IT like works for a day that stops working and stuff.

You know it's not ideal. That's not exactly how you wanted to work. So that's we're they're behind that home points are too expensive than the one.

yes. So there's some problems that apple is going to you really some more products in this market is, is there's a whole different discussion. But apple kind of have this chAllenge of trying to find new markets and new revenue streams because I can't rely on the iphone forever.

Yeah, there was there. This is all part of larger pitter thing of like apple, uh, IT. There's never going to be another the next iphone.

There was talk of like vision pro being that sort of thing like A R V R. But that's never really gonna happen. Never going to be another thing that people buy hundred million of every year. So they are making a bunch of small bets on small products. And vision pro.

sorry, even a vision pro word to take off. As Jason says, like it's it's you don't buy glasses every years, three years or five years like the iphone was a one in a million shot that paid off. I mean, it's ridiculous numbers.

Somehow apple convinced the world and they were really the first to do is like you needed to phone every single year, you know, knew what before was I wasn't like that, like we kept their phones for till I died off or broke. yes. And you know then you know what? The iphone, they they change decade. And then a lot of people, I do, I if I didn't work here, maybe would be different, but I get a new iphone every year and I I pay for what I do .

think give IT to me an people don't but it's still ah it's still frequent. And yeah right .

the point is needed.

Yeah there are the hope is that they get another airports, right? Another second hand accessory that think it's sell millions of and stuff. And to do that, they're gna place a lot of smaller bets, doing less complicated, smaller things that are more like accessories and not whole new platform. And the smart home stuff figures into that theyll be other things. They'll be healthy .

stuff in everything to. And we could see the first product in this a new effort as early is the spring. Uh, mark garman from bloomberg reported that apples working on A I guess like a long mt .

mounted call home home pad for the purposes .

this .

everybody begged .

on to that wall mount thing and he just said, like you can mount IT on a wall and then he would you can also put IT on a stand and they'll have a speaker you can dog IT to and all the same stuff never is like you will put IT on the wall what yeah well.

I just think the kind the idea is, is that it's kind of like a control center for your smart LED stuff.

Yeah, apple doit doesn't generally encourage things to be put out.

I like IT would .

like the ipad is an ipad is not then have a and can for even the studio.

Spay is officially had some sort of ounces kit thing would be new for them. Is this supposed to be a lot like a sixth screen? So it's like like they said, sort of like two iphone stuck together, kind of like .

like a little in an ipad mini, I guess. But square.

yeah, it's a smaller or bigger dependent like a square, like square up an ipad mini, right? And that's this kind of size. Um I kind of think that maybe a little small considering that you'll be standing away from IT a lot.

But I yeah you're saying that like the standby, most on iphone will be like to default screen from a distance which you know our big giant which .

and is easy to see yeah the version of that with like right photo slide shows in some new more information, more of your smart home info but like that general ui, any will have a new user interface experience. The reports said they were considering doing an APP store for, but then they said no. So and I think that's probably smart like we don't need to hold other thing for people to make apps for just making an appliance.

But it's proposed to be affordable. It's supposed to be aimed mostly around syria and apple intel gent like you talk to. I don't know how apple intel gent gna work on IT. Like if it's trying to your phone that seems like if it's gonna more affordable, they're not onna put IT ship in there that supports running apple intel gent locally, but you need a meeting .

pro yeah pad the ipad mini has that and that for ninety nine, is that is that affordable?

yes. I mean it's it's more than this thing supposed to cost. But then again, if this is smaller um and it's more uh doesn't have the whole U I and that's a apps store and all the other different and maybe maybe the thing three.

So what's affordable for us to ty nine?

I think it's supposed to be in the two hundred, three hundred nine.

There's affordable for us and affordable by apple standard.

I mean, that's affordable by apple standards for a smart home control pad. But IT also have a camera and do face time and like, control your smart home stuff and do you and this is one hundred percent what I want from them. This is, this is the last nail. That is my home .

home for a while. Yeah, I have an ego spot in my kitchen, but I would love to replace.

Yeah, I have a google home home in my kitchen. The main reason I keep IT and google assistant is getting worse and worse is getting worse. Understanding me, it's getting answers time. It's not connecting to my new lights half the time and then IT won't stop talking when it's IT has an era and like stop, stop it's and meanwhile, i'm starting to just like get frustrated and then ask series something on my home pod and it's giving me more good answers, more of so the the the thing is shifting there. Uh, if this also does apple, intel, gent, especially the hooks in a ChatGPT and stuff like they're doing iphone, that would be excEllent.

The main reason I keep IT, the only reason I haven't replaced with a home pod is because there's no screen and look up recipe or or you've got three timers going because you're cooking. You just anna, look over at you don't want have to ask how much times like to my tyber and way, but the voice to tell you. So yeah, this is this, what I want .

to so how how is this device different from a home pod with a screen? Or is IT the home pod with the screen .

that's been rumored in those? Do things a hole pod with the screen, if you take in a face value, would be a musical situation with that would be no audio driven. This sounds like it's more a smart home driven like the other part of homestead.

I'm sure helping speakers inside IT, i'm sure they are maybe have a speaker dock that you can plug in into that has Better finality, sound and all that stuff. But I think they're gona lean into the smart himself, which you know, as we said before, they don't really do with home pod that's not thought of in that way. It's thought of as a high end apple music speaker .

does so much you. Home home control necessary screens to sea statues? Yes, yes. And and so home pod camp really be a good home control center so that yeah you can say it's just a homepage with a screen, but the with the screen there does a lot of heavy lifting that everything that's now others are you interface. So what is the what does .

the screen show you? So IT turns home kit and the home map from something that people may or may not use to something that's like this is like the thing now that the control your all all, all the smart things in the .

I really hope there's a Better interface than the current home APP as IT exists on iphones and ipads for this thing because the whole APP is just a bunch of squares.

That is, I wouldn't be surprised if is very similar to that.

But yeah.

it's much yeah, it's not horrendous. It's Better some of the other ones i've used, but they could be a lot Better.

IT just needs to show status for different kinds of devices in a more clear way that is specific that kind of device you know um yeah that needs he needs some work in some of those plays but yeah I mean an end of course, because he has a screen, you're going to throw a camera in IT. Now you can do face time, face time you know which you know I that's for me, that's everything because my families all got iphones and stuff and they'll face time.

And I know the world is on what's up on everything, but i'm not onna get my parents and everybody had downloaded and set up for what's up. There's never do that. So if I want to face time the while i'm in the kitchen cooking or something, i'm gonna use face time regardless of what platform is. So then this is the only way that's going to happen. I go show and run face time on IT like the .

apple TV uh core like the way that kind of you can throw IT from your iphone, apple T V. I I never used that because it's pain, because I am am still going to my iphone for the video. So like like I don't have a camera, my television, so it's nice to see them in enough like what i'm talking to in a big view but to see me, i'm still hold in my thing like this and looking it's just easier.

just easier. You a mount and then you're looking below your T V every time, like every time you're looking at them because the cameras down low IT is like you're looking up like IT IT doesn't work well yeah so yeah, this is if this isn't super expensive, this is a solution. I want they are making apparently an expensive version of this for .

later yeah.

and it's a about time .

that they finally really lead into face. I mean, face time is like the most apple thing ever. They they popularised all this video converter. Ff, yeah, right, right. If if it's not IT might be and they and they really haven't leverage IT in the the like IT should be like podcasting like this is our thing and you need our stuff to do the best and people.

So really device this .

will help. They did blow the an endemic right.

They had an opportunity to make face time like the ference during the panel.

I can, they was right, and I was for personal stuff and not for businesses and not for like everyone talked about zoom, nobody talked about this. And even if they were using IT.

they still talk to about zoo time from other devices and stuff. And then eventually they got a thing we're like, you could join a face time that somebody else started to schedule through a link and that was weird to schedule and send people a link. And IT wasn't good, you know. So yeah, they had an opportunity.

And this there um this is this device is distinct from another 入门 device that we heard about before， which is an a fancy ipad on a robotic ARM on a speaker that will have a robotic personality and that's supposed to be becoming twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven and something like that and be expensive and give me like a dollars or something like that. But it'll be able to move the screen to face you or to look around the room. It'll use A I to see who the people are around and or events that are happening when you're not home and send them to you.

And it's meant to be something you talk to. And IT has a own A I personality and stuff like that. So that like that is a whole other product.

I'm sure we'll do home natural as well. But that's that's not what this thing is they're talking about. It's that's not coming soon, whether this is going out. I also trying to something about the spring.

I think that this product is like a what they go to like like a trial balloon. Like if this flops, I know they were ever gona see that robot and stuff, they were be going to see any of these, like these rumors of accessories, maybe, maybe a an indoor outdoor wifi camera. I think this is the test. Like if this thing succeeds, then they will no kind of push to other stuff.

could be find the timing of IT interesting because the rumor is that they hope to get this out by the spring. And the big thing happening this spring with with apple intelligence is that when the personalized theory comes, that's when the theory that like builds a personal context of you from all of your text messages and your context and all that other stuff so IT understands about you, and then you can do things.

So if this is meant to be a product to show that off, that is gonna that for all the people in your home. And my guess would be it's not gonna do IT on the device because that's not very immutable user friendly experience. It's going communicate with your phone to do all the apple tells yourself on your phone and it'll just come out of the speaker. But like if that's the thing now, it's the why you wanted talk to because IT knows about you personally, right?

So that's .

that's my my guesses. We're going to see a spring event that's gonna something like iphone .

s this thing also apple intelligence .

and also like all developing new syria, apple intelligence that we heard about before. But like this will be the grand release kind of .

thing yeah I mean, apples been they've been used in that built thrap of intelligence tag line said. But ah I bring event with light attention. Ipad, iphone S C and this device all somewhat affordable, really showcasing like how apple intelligence fits into everybody's life. And it's affordable.

And yes, I can really lead into that. The new series is here, and IT does all these things. And the new series is one of apples.

One, let let me one, you know, one of the four fronts of all this new AI stuff is the next step beyond all of these chat pots. The GPT chapt pots is agents, the, the A, S, that can go out, do something for you, buy, shop, buy something like to do things. And that's part of what apples doing with this new theory thing.

They kind of touched on IT with their W D V D C thing, but they're building hundreds and hundreds of new APP tense so that syria can do stuff for you within the apps that you have. And IT can do that now in a very, very limited sense. You can like q up a playlist. There's something like that. And like this is hundreds and hundreds of new abon tenants let developers build apps and let siri do stuff in those apps um so that this seems like that's how this device is gonna be so useful for somebody outside of just literally controlling your home through the home map. Essentially is if it's if it's seri knows who you are when you say something and it's tied into you and I communicate with your phone and you can do all these things within your apps and all the son, this is a much Better home product, like a home smart home product today in all of our current amazon echoes and all the other .

right might mentioned the room about the wifi, uh indoor outdoor cameras. That was uh a report by matching coal that apple could do in twenty twenty six. I thought I was kind of a weird product for apple because that seems like A, I don't know me, too basic of a product, too much of a demonic product to me.

do you mean but I think it's all about like, is smart home, is the apple smart home ecosystem thing? Gonna be gona catch on quickly. And I think that's where this is.

Connect the dots here a little bit. I feel like I feel like I can see apples.

That's my point. IT feels like if there's a bigger picture for those cameras that not being fill.

I think I can to see IT because like, so thinking about the way they scribed that robot device thing, that thing that like will be able to robotically turn the screen to face you and have a personality and self. One of the things I talked about that being will do is, you know, it's going to use its camera to see what's happening in your home.

Like that's an A I think like IT recognizes people, recognizes pets, could see if something broken into or something bad, a fire is starting, whatever, send you alerts when you're not all all that kind of up. So it's there's the cameras watching and is always running some sort of local on device A I to analyze what is seeing and and be able to act on that or give you information. So maybe that's the tian here that these cameras aren't just going to be a .

secure it's is yet secure surveilLance .

where you can just see a feed and and the ones now are kinds them like the smart campers now can detect a person and they are wrong half the time. It's like a weird shadow that move and you're like there's a person in your living room. You're like what it's like the tree made a shadow move or something.

But but that kind of thing take into the way next level because they're gonna. It'll work with any homework you have your apple tvs or whatever it'll be running some intelligence is not a secure video. It's gonna smart about IT, about knowing what's going on in what IT sees. And so maybe that's the ecosystem of their buildings, that same tech, their building for that robot thing. It's just the camera part, and you'll .

be able to put them wherever and and but again, it's all contingent on this medical ipad home.

I really wonder if if this bombs do, they move forward and then IT has to be a whole thing. I can see apple getting three or four of the kinds products together and selling them in a bundle. I can see being twenty, twenty seven. And you can buy the home at the pad, three cameras and an apple T.

V. for.

Seventeen hundred dollars said may be.

But like apple T V, like a .

small I that river popped .

up .

again. Like there can see A T V set. I'm there are not going to do A T V set. Oh my god, it's so much of a worst idea now than IT was blood of years ago.

I've ten years ago when when they were like talking about that before, there was like point. But I get IT could be super premium and have apple T. V built IT.

Now there the TV APP is built in every smart v already anyway. And really premium T V sets at a giant size or dirt is everywhere. There's just no there's there there's no margin for them to take. There's nothing for them to do with A T V set that's like, wow, and we can get a thirty percent margin and just charge more than samsung and SONY and everybody else. There's just it's got that window opportunities closed.

Yeah I I have to be crazy affordable. I mean, there are high and T, V sits, but they don't sell the numbers at apple needs. And as Jason says, like just like five years ago and A I N T V screen was like three thousand dollars and that was like eight hundred. Crazy how much to come down.

They just put one in your car at costco. Stony, you're just going out. They're just like here's a sixty five match .

TV like.

少爷 IT will be IT will be uh uh a doing if apple were to somehow create a fifty five to sixty five H T V said that did only stuff。

Just the mid Price cities that have thin margins from like samsung and Sonia supply at the quality level of those is so good now that they're just not going to be able to go like, yes, but ours is the super high quality one.

You're not going to see that quality like it's it's crazy yeah .

arms just yeah everything does variable refresh rate and yeah even like a and eighty and olet screen is still .

under two grant yeah the apple of the ipad for eight hundred .

and that's .

only thirty incident like IT would be crazy to see how expensive IT would be like what they are marketing service and what you would get for just .

like how much Better does that have to beat IT justify rappers thirty percent and .

care something like, okay. But there's no there no content so who cares like one and you just can't see, okay.

really close to a giant create. So the TV is not that happened.

but but that would be fun if if this rumor stuck around around .

to the two to three years. Yes, yes, exactly. I put fallible iphone above this one.

Like the chart. Ever, ever gonna happen still much. yeah. Probably .

iphone car, apple T V. And what other .

smart home stuff do you want apple to make? I'll I am, i'm sure, called smart home, but i'll put IT in this same sort of everyone still always wants an airport. They want the return of the apple.

And I always say, like again, that's another thing. Like again, free from your cable company, he's gonna pay for. But and I see them some stuff.

I signed up for frontier a out here I am on the east coast frontier fiber about a year ago. And they just sent me like, uh, uh, uh an ero wifi 6 measure system like this part of IT .

already yeah .

if apple words too make something like that and the list， the error is really good. They're all good. More bees really good too. IT would be five hundred dollars and the ads like with like two little satellites tes and and a main hub yeah I want to be like like a hundred and fifty books and it's like what why am I buying that when I get IT from whoever yeah and it's not so IT with not is I am aware it's not free. I'm paying for IT, but it's you know it's still cheaper than that would cause me from the upfront cost from from apple.

right? Because you is not like if you don't kit the around, you get a discount on right, your internet, you're are paying for that and then you're not going to use IT, you're going to go apple one. So but I can I can see them doing something like, okay, IT would be a home hub for all your smart home stuff, have all kinds of like privacy protection stuff chilled into the at the router level.

So even people who aren't using an iphone or something can get like the private browser experiencing no that kind of stuff, uh and and tracking cookies, blocking tracking cookies and all that, the kind of stuff like I thought router level maybe could have some storage or something to do, like secure home video. So I can see them doing something there, but I just don't think it's a high that can be a high prior. Like but what other homes stuff did would you want them to make? I I kind of want of me to do a torben just good. I think they .

make .

a great it's a camera yeah yes. But he needs to be a button and an inner com. And I bet they would. Apple would make you a Better sounding in her com and like a Better quality video in the torbin would look great. You know, like I kind of kind of wanted to do that.

I mean, lights are covered. The the hue are fantastic. I can imagine they bring much more that, uh, plugs. Forget IT, there's so many of them. I think there's so many .

companies making so many kinds of smart lights.

Now this is and the high end high and locked up. And as j son said, there's like a turn below that. Um I mean, I don't know maybe like a thermostat, like the like the nest the google nest doesn't really play well with apple stuff.

Uh, I just got A H what is that you fight? Is that the name of the company? K, I take, I take as you fight, which is good, but it's still not it's you know it's not quite as elegant as apple would be. But again, that would cause four hundred box if .

that all the next stuff supports matter. If I could be stuff supports matter. Like I just something, what are they competing with? I feel like there's a garage orbiters or on this, like I want something to fixed that work, but I imagine .

I would.

And you have to pay for IT to yet to subscribe to IT to just do basics I think you can do. And then, oh yeah, and it's got a camera, but you can only access IT with in the APP. And then they used to have a thing that you could buy to do home kit like a bridge, but they stop.

They just continue that. They don't do that anymore because all these hobbies, sts like rig up stuff that you can buy. But it's that's kind of like in that razberries e like hobbist thing words. It's not that it's not hard, but it's not as easy as everyday things. This is a mess and I but I can imagine that making a god oper no.

I don't think benefit.

I don't know what I O I I mean I I could .

see them teaming with like a bunch of third party companies to promote in the door, promote them with these other .

products if they built a framework that everybody else could use. And then it's yeah that works with home kid of stuff and IT IT gives you all the information you and IT just automatic opens when you drive up and do do other things. But the the two biggest garage for opener companies, chAmber landon, lift master, are the same company and and they're invested in like making you pay for the mike.

You think so they're just definitely not gonna like why what bit IT do they see from an apple partnership there? So yeah, I don't think that's gonna en. I think smart garder opers gona continue to be a mess for a while.

I can't imagine apples going to get things like smart sprinkle that I can see the making a lock. I look at things like the year e lock and stuff like that like and I think and and and they have their home kids turkey. We just got a new door that has I have just slogan, but it's the one with the the home key, the support so you can tap your phone or tap your watch to IT. So and it's great. And I can see them wanting to make a really sleek, secure thing like that, that has a bunch of easy .

features you or again, even just partnering with someone else to make at the exclusion .

of whatever apple school, yes, uh, but they already have home key support, a bunch of .

products. yes. Well, that does IT for this pm. Podcast episode one hundred and ten. Thanks to Jason cross.

Thank you.

Thanks to Michael Simon.

Thank you, sir.

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