HomePod mini and Apple TV leaked

Have you ever bought a new product on release day and then see images of the product during setup and configuration on your iPhone? There are a number of ways Apple and other companies solve this problem, but one way is to ship some form of the images for those products in software updates released ahead of time.

Smart developers and AI are able to open and decompile these operating system bundles and look for hints of new Apple products these operating systems need to support. This time MacRumors found confirmations of “HomePod mini 2” as well as “Apple TV 4K (4th generation)”. The HomePod mini is also pictured in a variety of colors. This also comes alongside an iPad mini leak.

I’m guessing iOS 27.2 is about a month away from shipping. That could coincide with when these new devices actually show up on customer doorsteps. Regardless, it’s yet another sign that Apple’s long-awaited home products are one step closer to launching.

Shop Different by Ron Johnson

On Tuesday, Ron Johnson’s Shop Different book launched. It’s a curated career memoir that focuses on Ron’s time building Apple Retail with Steve Jobs from a secret concept to a reality. I’m currently on chapter 5 of 16 with the audiobook while painting my deck. If you like Apple corporate history, this is a must-read/listen. I’m really enjoying it, but I tend to also like this kind of reflective memoir, including similar ones from Bob Iger and Oscar Munoz.

The Future of Home Voice Assistants?

Meta had their Connect conference this week, where it announced a slew of new products for their new Muse AI agent, including the Muse Charm. This is a portable speaker used to talk to your assistant. Rumor is that OpenAI is working on a similar portable speaker concept. While the main focus of these is AI agents rather than smart home control, I wonder if this means portable speakers are going to become dominant in the home as well. You can already get battery mounts for HomePod mini, and Sonos has a number of portable speakers that support their assistant. I’m not entirely convinced, but it’s a trend I have my eye on.

The Schedule

Last week, I also posted a video about how I hid the Aqara FP400 in my wall. We also had a live stream where I talked about Apple Home and also explained why I returned my iPhone 18 Pro Max to wait for iPhone Duo, and upgraded to the new Apple Watch Series 12.

I hope you have a great rest of your Sunday,

Eric