Testers unearth touchscreen UI in tvOS beta, signs point to a touchscreen HomePod

Rumors of a touchscreen HomePod stretch back to 2021.

See full article...

 

[TimeWinder]

If we've got a crystal ball that can give specific prices for the unknown devices with the unknown form factor that delivers unknown features for unknown purposes delivered at an unknown date, I'd much rather use it to predict Apple's stock price.

More seriously, this article seems to have way more layers of speculation on top of speculation even than the usual Apple rumor. I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to take away from it at all.

 

[jerome71]

"the Apple TV’s operating system has changed so little in the last decade"

I beg to differ: there's been a lot of interesting stuff a few years back, like 4K, Dolby Vision, spatial audio, etc.

 

[WonderSteve]

I rather have a HomePod soundbar that is also an Apple TV.

I am not sure what benefit does a HomePod with touchscreen has? To control HomeKit accessories?

 

[Thom Kidd]

I rather have a HomePod soundbar that is also an Apple TV.

Seconded. Right now I've got the AppleTV's audio output going through two Homepod Minis, but I'd buy an integrated AppleTV/Soundbar in a heartbeat.

 

[adespoton]

I rather have a HomePod soundbar that is also an Apple TV.

I am not sure what benefit does a HomePod with touchscreen has? To control HomeKit accessories?

Well, I don't know about others, but to me, a HomePod with a touchscreen would be an obvious way to manage Home Assistant via Safari or a dedicated app

 

[Frodo Douchebaggins]

I rather have a HomePod soundbar that is also an Apple TV.

I am not sure what benefit does a HomePod with touchscreen has? To control HomeKit accessories?

and to see homekit camera feeds, which would be kinda nice actually.

I've been thinking about buying a used iPod touch to wall mount to have an ongoing feed from the doorbell camera, since my front door doesn't have a peep hole and sometimes I don't have a device handy to see who's ringing the doorbell before I open the door.

 

[Tundrok]

I'm of the mind that making an Echo Show competitor is absolutely pointless. It serves no meaningful purpose and that device category is clearly dying out. It was cool many years back but now it is on the decline.

 

[S3th13]

The problem with Homekit and most consumer grade devices managing smart homes is an unreliable ecosystem. If I purchase one of the higher-end, dedicated systems then at least I know the IoT, widgets, sensors, and devices that I invest it will all be supported and work in 10+ years even if I decided to stop upgrading. I appreciate the the innovation that they bring, but at a certain point, I'm more interested in a basic set of features with rock solid reliability.

 

[bfortin]

Seconded. Right now I've got the AppleTV's audio output going through two Homepod Minis, but I'd buy an integrated AppleTV/Soundbar in a heartbeat.

As someone using two full-sized HomePods as a Stereo Pair I would love to have a HomePod Max with a subwoofer and two HomePod minis as rear speakers. But also, as someone who recently got a Roku Streambar on sale I’d also like if at least one of the HomePods could do HDMI-out and act as an AppleTV, or if they could connect wirelessly to TVs using AirPlay 2.

 

[Photon_plumber]

That pictured interface would look at home, and native, on an iPad. I would be a natural fit looking at how the two devices can interact.

 

[zombi3g]

A touchscreen HomePod sounds ridiculous. The whole point of the homepod is to scream at it from a distance. If you’re going to use a touchscreen you might as well use an iPad or your phone.

 

[wrylachlan]

Last year Apple released DockKit - an API that allows motorized iPhone dock arms to follow you as you’re moving around during a video call. My money is on this device being essentially the same - a heavy base with a motorized screen on an arm for FaceTime and whatever else.

You say ‘Hey Siri’ and it snaps to attention pointing the screen at you as a visual cue that it heard you and is ready for instructions. If you’re cooking, the recipe is always pointed at you no matter where in the kitchen you are. Call your brother while puttering around the room, no problem, it just follows you.

With the guts of the device in the base and a modern thin and light screen technology you could have a quite large screen without any problem with the hardware engineering. And if they made it look like an old sunflower iMac there would be much rejoicing in the Apple world.

 

[TheFLP]

A touchscreen HomePod sounds ridiculous. The whole point of the homepod is to scream at it from a distance. If you’re going to use a touchscreen you might as well use an iPad or your phone.

A HomePod stays in one place, whereas phones and iPads could be anywhere. A HomePod with a screen would always be right-side up and oriented roughly the same way, so all you have to do is walk across the room, wake it up and start poking the screen.

I'm not into yelling at my stuff, unless Siri gets smart enough to make it worthwhile, so there's a place for an iPad that can't wander off. Gets at the reason I have a Stream Deck controlling Home Assistant and Apple Music on my Mac.

 

[Ronin_48]

I rather have a HomePod soundbar that is also an Apple TV.

I am not sure what benefit does a HomePod with touchscreen has? To control HomeKit accessories?

I’d love to replace one of the Homepods in a stereo pair with a device that shows the weather forecast, current conditions at home and who rings the video doorbell without the need to turn on the projector they are connected to.

 

[__seb]

Think it might be called HomePad?

 

[adio]

You know that whatever this thing is, if it comes out, the price is going to be double what the speculation is. It's Apple. Don't get me wrong I've got my foot in just about every bit of tech Apple does (bar Vision Pro) but their pricing always exceeds expectation.

Anyway, like others have said, if Apple did come up with a soundbar inc AppleTV I would be there in a heartbeat too. Right now I'm using the AppleTV with a pair of second gen HomePods and it's great but I'd love to be able to combine that all and then repurpose the HomePods. If they were do let you use HomePods or the Minis as satellite speakers too... ahh. Fantasy. Lovely fantasy though.

All the fantasy aside I'm also looking forward to the latest OS updates that let you specify a default hub for HomeKit. I definitely see the degradation when for whatever random reason the default hub becomes something other than the AppleTV, and my AppleTV isn't even wired into the network.

 

[josephandrews222]

If we've got a crystal ball that can give specific prices for the unknown devices with the unknown form factor that delivers unknown features for unknown purposes delivered at an unknown date, I'd much rather use it to predict Apple's stock price.

More seriously, this article seems to have way more layers of speculation on top of speculation even than the usual Apple rumor. I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to take away from it at all.

Yes. The author here has been at the Apple game for awhile. I enjoy reading his educated speculation.

 

[MadMaximus]

What if this is to replace the remote feature on iOS and iPad OS rather than a touch screen Home pod?

 

[mikewhy]

I too am wondering the point of such a device (although I do like the combo soundbar + AppleTV mentioned above).

All my HomePods are tucked away because there's barely any interaction happening on them, everything is controlled via a phone / tablet / Mac / AppleTV.

 

[gkorper]

If this rumor is true then it is a very bad sign for Apple product management. Not only is it a product category that consumers have repeatedly rejected but it doesn’t even have a good fit in the product lineup.

 

[iim]

And here I’m trying to keep the fingerprints off of my OLED.

 

[Nooge]

A touchscreen HomePod sounds ridiculous. The whole point of the homepod is to scream at it from a distance. If you’re going to use a touchscreen you might as well use an iPad or your phone.

You could also scream at this from a distance, but now you have another way to interact with it that allows a bunch more features. Perhaps features that you don’t have on your phone, such as the display and camera following you around the room. It also will presumably be meant to be used by multiple people, which iPhones and iPads aren’t.

Hell, the iPad does almost all the same things as an iPhone, yet Apple sells more iPads than Macs, so clearly the iPad is a successful product. Different form factors and software differentiation can justify additional products.

 

[lkernan]

Well, I don't know about others, but to me, a HomePod with a touchscreen would be an obvious way to manage Home Assistant via Safari or a dedicated app

You are better off with any cheap Android tablet for that. Strap it to a Bluetooth speaker for the full effect.

 

[Bzored]

"the Apple TV’s operating system has changed so little in the last decade"

Does it need to change for no reason? Change for the sake of change is a bad idea.

 

[ZornGottes]

A touchscreen HomePod sounds ridiculous. The whole point of the homepod is to scream at it from a distance. If you’re going to use a touchscreen you might as well use an iPad or your phone.

I beg to differ; as said elsewhere - show homekit controls, open the front door, intercom with children upstairs, swivel to the person talking/commanding when relevant, attach a small iPad mini like screen to a sunflower iMac like base and I can finally replace my 10y old iPad Air 2 in the kitchen!

 

[GaitherBill]

If it’s $300 I ain’t buying it.

Maybe for $200 depending on how good it sounds.

 

[Snarky Robot]

A touch-screen HomePod would be a blessing. We have the echo show 15 and the principle was sound. Be able to mount it like a mini TV, touchscreen and spoken command interfaces, control over smart home devices. And when it was working, it was great. Toss on sports while I’m cooking, have recipes up, make household announcements, call folks. It even had a camera so it could distinguish between people.

It had two main problems:

1. It was from Amazon
2. It was from Amazon

The first problem occurs because, as widely published, Amazon is freaking out over losing money on Alexa. Which leads to the “I can also do (task)” or various other advertising features to steer you towards features they are pushing immediately after asking to do a task you do want it to do. Which is the opposite of what I need. Ads became the dominant interface element, constantly showing stories I don’t care about, features I don’t need, etc.

The second problem means zero cohesive interface. Some apps? Touchscreen. Great! Others? Well, it assumes you’re actually using a Fire TV. Which I’m, you know…not. So you have to go to the device, pull up a digital remote control, use it to use the app, and then hide the digital remote if you want to see the whole screen. Fun, right? Then there are the grab bag of skills which aren’t all of them if Amazon is feuding with someone or wants to push their own services. And you manage it through the horror-show that is the Alexa app.

An Apple device that doesn’t try to force me to make purchases every time I use it? Stellar. It would hopefully connect to the same services I have, it’ll hopefully have the same smart home features I have on my phone/iPad. It’ll hopefully have games, etc. So: very useful. As long as it does the one thing that Amazon managed to do well: recognize faces so that it knows who is speaking to it so it knows which users content to use.

It’s certainly not something that everyone needs in their life, but people mount their iPads to walls to achieve this same effect. Having an actual device to do it, without the hassle of Amazon would be great. As long as they have the larger version. A tiny phone-sized screen wouldn’t help with some of what I need. Because the sooner I can get away from products made by cheap manufacturers with shitty software and terrible interfaces filled with ads, the better.

I just want to be able to walk into the room, start shouting orders, and have it have the same feel as using any other Apple device.

Oh, and if they make a big one? Have a way to attach it to a TV mount, please.

 

[ArcCoyote]

I see Plex is selected there. Absolute best option for a local media and Live TV/DVR server if you still use a digital TV tuner of some kind. I still have Verizon Fios TV using a CableCARD, because it's actually cheaper than streaming and you can log in with TV provider to most services you have channels for. For example, HBO/Starz is $10/mo, and that gives me full access to Max with no ads.

I used to use Windows Media Center and then NextPVR, but schedules direct went up to $35/yr, and a Plex pass is only $40/yr which includes EPG data, so....

 

[everything-etc]

"the Apple TV’s operating system has changed so little in the last decade"

I beg to differ: there's been a lot of interesting stuff a few years back, like 4K, Dolby Vision, spatial audio, etc.

The operating system is the user interface /s

 

[ArcCoyote]

Apple is finally making an Apple branded TV with a built in Apple TV.
The good news is it will be 85"
The bad news is touch is the only way to interact with it.
What, you never had to get up to change the channel as a kid?

 

[williamlondon]

Apple is finally making an Apple branded TV with a built in Apple TV.
The good news is it will be 85"
The bad news is touch is the only way to interact with it.
What, you never had to get up to change the channel as a kid?

What a childish comment.

 

[ANuminousOne]

The perfect implementation for me would be a Siri-based HomePod-like device with a magnetic charger integrated in. Snap on any iOS or iPadOS device and turn it landscape and the device loads up tvOS as its main interface instead. Functions just as an Apple TV would in this implementation with sound being routed automatically to the docked speaker. Bluetooth would allow daisychaining multiple other speakers for surround sound or “whole house audio“. Bonus points if Wi-Fi connectivity would allow for a Sonos-like experience throughout the entire home. Double bonus points if the docked HomePod also had a battery based option for easy relocation.

 

[Drop table users;]

The Apple TV is perfect as it is.
At most they can give it an m4 and sell it as the Apple TV Pro for gaming.
Considering that there are AAA games available in the App Store being able to just buy an Apple TV to play them would be awesome.

What Apple really needs is some sort of home control device that is NOT based on voice control.

So you could scatter them around your home for doing things like turning on lights, unlocking doors and viewing cameras.

A home control device on the night stand with a screen would be awesome.

The iPad can kinda sorta be repurposed to to this.
But the standard home is interface is not friendly with this use case.

 

[Drop table users;]

Apple is finally making an Apple branded TV with a built in Apple TV.
The good news is it will be 85"
The bad news is touch is the only way to interact with it.
What, you never had to get up to change the channel as a kid?

Apple isn’t making any such thing as it’s obviously a terrible idea.

I love how you make up some scenarios in your head and then get mad at Apple for the thing you made up.

You would get along with my ex swimmingly.

 

[Drop table users;]

The operating system is the user interface /s

You just summarized the inner voice of pseudo tech enthusiasts everywhere.

Wowed by superficial change, disappointed by substantive change.

 

[NetMage]

"the Apple TV’s operating system has changed so little in the last decade"

I beg to differ: there's been a lot of interesting stuff a few years back, like 4K, Dolby Vision, spatial audio, etc.

Sadly it also has come with unfixed bugs (going back losing your previous place since 15), and the increasing enshittification of the TV app as it’s home screen has become a giant ad server especially for AppleTV+ content even when you aren’t a subscriber.