Apple Is Building a Control Panel for Your Home

• 1:25 PM EDT

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Bloomberg reported this week that Apple is preparing its biggest-ever push into the smart home category, built around a hub device that runs the company's upgraded Siri AI assistant, along with an updated Apple TV box and a next-generation HomePod mini.

The home hub is the headline product, and it's designed to work less like a single-purpose speaker and more like a control panel for the whole house. It would manage smart locks, lighting, and speakers from one screen, keep an eye on home security cameras, and — in houses with more than one hub installed — use an intercom system to talk between rooms. The hub also handles video calling, displays photos and calendars, and plays music.

Its standout feature is facial recognition: the screen would recognize which household member is standing in front of it and adjust automatically, pulling up that person's own calendar and notes and resizing the display based on how close or far away they're standing.

Apple is also working on a security camera system meant to compete directly with Amazon's Ring, along with a more advanced version of the hub that includes a moving arm, letting the screen physically reposition itself — for example, to keep everyone in frame during a video call as people move around a room.

All three devices are said to be close to launch, with the TV box and speaker arriving this fall and the home hub following sometime between October and early next year.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/apple_is_building_a_control_panel_for_your_home/24864.