Apple HomeView branding details

While I respect and read John Gruber a lot, he does not get the HomeView as a product concept. But in typical John Gruber fashion, he did catch an interesting detail about the branding:

I’ll start with a nomenclatural sidenote: Apple seems to be going with “Apple HomeView” as the product’s name. E.g., the URL slug for it on Apple.com is apple-homeview/, not just homeview/. Few people notice and no one who doesn’t work in Apple product marketing cares, but they actually do the same thing with Vision Pro — in Cupertino, it’s “Apple Vision Pro” (once again including the URL slug). Yet this week’s new HomePod Mini is just “HomePod mini 2” and the existing 2nd-generation HomePod is just “HomePod (2nd generation)” — not “HomePod 2” or “Apple HomePod”. I certainly intend to just call it “HomeView”.

I agree with many people that the marketing video to show off Apple HomeView didn’t do a good job selling the product. I think the feature that will make Apple HomeView worth it is asking Siri AI questions and getting visual responses. Combine that with quick access to home controls, music controls, your photos from iCloud, and your calendars from iPhone, and you have a compelling product - at least for me.

Hands-on with Apple Home Collection

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy at The Verge has a great overview of the Apple Home Collection devices. These are Apple's initial group of smart home devices made specifically to work well in Apple Home without any additional apps or accounts. I saw these devices with Jennifer and others at Apple’s “experience” last week in New York. Jennifer’s article is a nice overview of the devices. Apple featured the Schneider Electric thermostat and the LG indoor camera most prominently in their demos. They seem like the two devices most ready to ship so far. Also, these devices will be a price shock for people comparing them with brands that want to get you using their app and services. It’s part of what you pay for with Apple Home Collection, but I bet only a small group of existing Apple Home users will feel it's worth it. These products are mostly for people who haven’t bothered with most smart home cameras and gadgets because they want a pure, Apple-like version.

Apple TV prices over time

Prolific author and all-around Renaissance man Glen Fleishman has an interesting chart of Apple TV set-top box prices over time. The one thing I don’t like is that, since the chart focuses on entry-level models, it doesn’t show that the most recent Apple TV generation was only $50 cheaper than the current one. No one into smart home tech should have bought the entry-level Apple TV from the last generation if they intended to use it as an Apple Home hub. Regardless, this chart shows how the Apple TV really crossed a price line with this latest update, surpassed only by the initial, experimental version.

The Schedule

Last week I went to the Apple Experience in New York! I published a video recapping that, along with a review of the Sonos Beam Ultra. We also did a live stream Thursday night, going more in depth on Apple’s announcements and what I saw at the event.

I hope you have a great rest of your Sunday,

Eric