Apple takes on Amazon with its new smart home tech – starting from £129

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Apple’s new home range is available to pre-order from todayDavid Phelan/The StandardDavid Phelan3 hours agoStandard Shopping

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Apple’s latest products have just been unveiled, and they are available for pre-order right now. As a technology critic, I got a sneak preview in New York.

They include a smart speaker with big sound despite its small size, complete with a display designed to be readable from across the room.

It’s called Apple HomeView, and it has a domed aluminium base with a 7-inch display with a novel square shape. The display is attached by a gleaming stainless-steel hinge so you can angle it perfectly, and it can be customised with wallpapers and apps – exactly like you would an iPhone.

Sit it on the kitchen counter, and it becomes a hub for all the family to use, ideal for following recipes onscreen, playing music through the surprisingly powerful speaker base, checking your calendar, sending text messages and more. What it shows is personalised for you: a 12-megapixel camera recognises who’s in front of it and intelligently adapts apps and other features accordingly.

If it’s private stuff like messages, as soon as you walk away from the screen, nobody else can see it – they’ll need to log in to see their own content – though music playlists are available to everyone in the home. The camera is also suitable for FaceTime calls.

Apple HomeView has a domed aluminium base with a 7-inch display in a novel square shapeAppleThe small size means it’s also suitable for other rooms, even the bedroom, where it becomes an excellent bedside companion. The display is bright (up to 500 nits) but dims down to an exceptionally low level of 0.3 nits, making it Apple’s dimmest display ever – it won’t disturb you at night. Apple says that though there’s a camera, it’s controlled by a secure element in the A18 processor, so neither app developers nor Apple itself can access it.

Users can turn off the facial recognition capability, so the camera in that case could only be used when it was needed for apps like FaceTime. The HomeView also comes in a wall-mountable version. This has dual-driver speakers around the edge of the display (also on the domed version), and it has the same overall functionality. It is audio-tuned for wall placement but lacks the down-firing speakers that deliver strong bass sounds.

The Apple HomePod mini 2 costs £149 and rivals Amazon Alexa Apple The display can be set to show your linked smart home devices like a video doorbell or smart thermostat, with icons readable from across the room. Apple has worked with companies like LG to design some of the initial products in the Apple Home Collection, due out in December.

These include an indoor home camera which automatically turns the camera to point at its base when it sees you’re home, for added privacy. There’s also an LG video doorbell with two cameras: one that looks at the person, one that points down to see when parcels are left on your doorstep (even if the courier doesn’t ring the doorbell).

The display can show a home camera space which can live stream up to nine compatible cameras at a time. Key to the new device is the inclusion of Siri AI, so you can ask it to find the recipe somebody sent you by text, and it appears onscreen (cleverly reformatted to display ingredients first and with automatically integrated timers).

You can ask the HomeView to find your keys, and it’ll make the AirTag attached to them squeal with hide-and-seek delight. And when the HomeView senses you’re home, you can set it to turn on the lights in the living room, for a start.

The company has announced the first upgrade to Apple’s video streaming box, Apple TV 4K, in yearsApple The display can also be used like a small TV so you can watch Apple TV. When not in use, the display can revert to a clock. There are many available, including an elegant one called Fade, which is inspired by a sundial. Setting the clock face is as simple as choosing an Apple Watch face – Apple has designed the interface to be as familiar and intuitive as other devices like an iPhone or iPad.

That’s the secret: it adds powerful smart home capabilities to a new device that can go anywhere in the house – and you can have more than one, of course. Alongside the HomeView, Apple announced an updated HomePod mini 2, with an upgraded display which can mimic the colours of the album art when you’re playing music.

And there’s the first upgrade to Apple’s video streaming box, Apple TV 4K, in years. This has microphones on the box itself so you can talk to Siri without picking up the remote. Oh, and the remote now has Find My built in, so if you lose it, you can hear it make that AirTag squeak just by saying, “Siri, where’s my remote gone this time?” Or something like that.

Apple HomeView, Apple TV 4K and Apple HomePod mini 2 are all available for pre-order from today.

The HomePod mini 2 (£149) is on sale from 30 October. Apple HomeView and Apple TV 4K, each costing £299, go on sale on 13 November.

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