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Spoot: Spotted Early keeps widgets in one place: 3 stories so far. The section currently leads with “Apple finally built a smart home hub, and it brought some friends”, “Apple finally has a smart display you can actually preorder for $299”, and “Apple's robot arm finally gives the HomePod something to reach for”. Apple finally built a smart home hub, and it brought some friends. Apple's HomeView is a 7-inch squircle that looks like a gargantuan Apple Watch bolted to a speaker base, and it costs $299. Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns,… The list below is every widgets story on Spoot: Spotted Early, newest first.
Apple finally built a smart home hub, and it brought some friends
Apple finally built a smart home hub, and it brought some friends. The HomeView is Apple's first smart display, and it arrives with a 7-inch squircle design that looks like a gargantuan smart speaker grew a face. It costs $299 and preorders are open, which is nice because Apple has been threatening to make a smart display for years and years without ever actually doing it. The HomePod Mini 2 also finally exists after nearly six years, coming in at $149 with preorders open and a Friday launch date. Spoot already has a tab open on that one. The whole "Welcome Home" event dropped a slate of new smart home and security accessories too, built with trusted third-party manufacturers. It is the most serious hardware push Apple Home has seen in a long time.
Apple finally has a smart display you can actually preorder for $299
Apple's HomeView is a 7-inch squircle that looks like a gargantuan Apple Watch bolted to a speaker base, and it costs $299. You can preorder it now. It ships November 13th. That is a real date from a real company, which already makes this more concrete than most smart-display launches. The HomeView controls smart home tech, shows recipes, runs music playback, makes FaceTime calls, and hosts widgets. It is clearly the centerpiece of Apple's big push into the home. The question Spoot always asks: Who is this for? If you are already in Apple's garden, this is the front door you have been waiting for. If you are not, $299 is a lot to pay for a lock you did not ask for.
Apple's robot arm finally gives the HomePod something to reach for
Apple event names usually read like perfume ads. Wonderlust. Scary Fast. It's Glowtime. This one, though, landed with a thunk: October 13th, and the HomePod is finally getting something to reach for. A screen. A robotic arm. A speaker that turns toward you like a sunflower with better taste. The invite alone is doing more heavy lifting than a spec sheet, because the question was never whether the HomePod sounded good. It always did. The question was whether it would ever do anything worth watching. Now it moves. That's the razor clam: not the display, not the motor, but the implication that Apple finally believes a speaker should follow you around the room. If you've ever yelled at a stationary device from the couch, you already know why this matters.