As expected, Apple’s “Welcome home” event was all about the home. On 13 October the company introduced three products: HomeView, a hub with a 7-inch screen, HomePod mini 2 and a refreshed Apple TV 4K, the first in four years. All of them revolve around Siri AI, the new version of the assistant.
For anyone living in Italy there is an important caveat, though: Apple quoted prices in dollars, and for now there are no euro prices and no date for our market.
HomeView: the screen for your home
HomeView costs $299 and can be pre-ordered now, with deliveries from 13 November. Apple made clear it will not be available in the European Union.
It is a device with a 7-inch Liquid Retina display, True Tone and automatic brightness between 0.3 and 500 nits. The screen is attached to a domed base with a speaker by a steel hinge that lets it tilt. The body is aluminium. The base houses two wide-range drivers, a downward-facing woofer and two passive radiators, with support for Spatial Audio, Handoff from iPhone and multi-room playback.
There are two versions:
- tabletop, in silver, galaxy, pink and space grey;
- wall-mounted, in silver and space grey, with three mounting options made by Schneider Home.
The screen can show different “faces”: Photos, Flow (which reacts to movement), Snoopy (which changes with the time and weather), Home Modular for home accessories and Home Camera, which shows up to nine videos side by side. HomeView recognises up to six people, each with their own screen, and offers FaceTime with Center Stage, an intercom and hands-free conversion of recipes from the web with timers.
HomePod mini 2
The compact speaker goes up to $149. The first model cost $99 in 2020, and Apple had already raised it to $129 earlier this year. Pre-orders are open, with release on 30 October, in pink, green, blue, white and midnight. Pre-orders cover the United States and more than 23 other countries and regions, but Italy is not mentioned.
The design is the same as the previous model. What changes is the chip: the S10 replaces the S5, with audio processing that adjusts dynamic range, volume and acoustics in real time. The visible novelty is Sound Glow, a light on top that follows the rhythm of the music. The speaker recognises up to six voices in the household and can detect smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, a feature that requires the new Home architecture. HomePod software 27.2 is required.
Paired with the new Apple TV 4K, two HomePod mini 2s (or two second-generation HomePods) form a four-speaker surround system.
Apple TV 4K
The box costs $299, comes in a single 128 GB version with Gigabit Ethernet and arrives on 13 November. The chip is the A19, with a CPU up to 50% faster and a GPU up to twice as fast as the previous generation. There are far-field microphones, so you can call up Siri without pressing the button on the remote.
The new Siri Remote has Find My and Precision Finding and a built-in speaker so you can track it down. It is also sold separately at $59 and is compatible with all Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD models.
Siri AI: the sticking point for Europe
On HomePod mini 2, Siri AI will arrive with a later update, in English and only in certain countries: the United States, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom. A note from Apple states that on iPhone and iPad it will not initially be available in the EU. Requests can be processed on the device or in Private Cloud Compute.
The more personal features require an iPhone or iPad compatible with Apple Intelligence.
What we think
The line-up is coherent, and the HomePod mini 2’s $149 price tag is a notable jump from the $99 at its debut. The real value of the three products, however, lies in Siri AI, and that is precisely the part that will reach Europe later.
For an Italian reader the sums are simple: until Apple announces availability and euro prices, HomeView is a product to look at, not to pre-order. HomePod mini 2 and Apple TV 4K could arrive, but without Siri AI there would be less reason to replace what you have. If you already own a recent Apple TV or a HomePod mini, you can wait. For more context, we wrote about what to expect from the event in this article and about the assistant also here.
Written by the SpazioiTech newsroom with the help of AI tools, from facts verified across at least two independent outlets, and checked before publication. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Translated from the Italian original. Read in Italian
