Apple Likely To Launch Siri AI Smart Home Hub With A Screen Next Month

Apple is reportedly looking to launch a personal AI hub as soon as next month. After launching the new iPhones, Apple Watches, and the AirPods 5; Apple CEO John Ternus is reportedly now gearing up to launch a new smart home hub with Siri AI and a screen. By the looks of it, Apple is betting big on Siri AI, and is expanding its product portfolio with AI-laden features.

New smart home hub to be unveiled in October

In his latest newsletter, analyst Mark Gurman reveals that Apple is readying his smart home product for reveal as soon as October. Apple is largely rumoured to host another launch event next month, and one of the products expected is this new personal AI hub.

Internally codenamed J490, the device is described as a hub for the home rather than a mobile companion. This is a hardware and software platform meant to unify smart-home controls, video calling, intercom features and media playback, tied together by a new Siri AI-driven interface. Gurman reports the product is already being tested broadly in Apple employees' homes ahead of launch.

On the hardware side, the report describes a roughly square display available in a stand-mounted version - likened to 'a HomePod mini chopped in half' - or a wall-mounted option, with an interface Gurman describes as blending elements of iOS, tvOS and watchOS. Comparisons are drawn to Amazon's Echo Show, though with a notably smaller screen.

A standout feature, per the report, is facial recognition via the front camera, letting the display identify who's looking at it and surface personalised content like apps, notes, calendar entries, news and media. Gurman suggests this approach could hint at how Apple eventually brings facial-recognition unlocking to the iPhone Duo, which currently relies on Touch ID, without needing the depth-sensing hardware Face ID typically requires - though he notes Apple would still need to address security concerns tied to easier unlocking.

Siri AI as the Centerpiece

According to the report, Siri's revamped AI capabilities — formally released this month as part of iOS 27 — are what finally unlocked the home hub's development, after Apple reportedly first planned a version of the product as early as 2024. Gurman writes that Apple envisions the assistant handling cross-device lookups, media requests, and more complex tasks within apps like Notes, Reminders and Calendar directly from the home display.

Gurman frames this as a calculated move, coming at a moment when OpenAI is preparing an AI-first computer of its own and Apple has no headline-grabbing new hardware to counter it with. The latest iPhones, running Apple Intelligence and the newly launched Siri AI, become the default proof point.

The report says Apple has laid off a number of employees working on Fitness+, including staff behind audio content such as the Time to Walk and Time to Run series. Gurman writes that while audio releases will slow, they won't stop entirely for now. He characterizes the move as an early step in broader cost-cutting for the service and predicts Fitness+ could eventually be folded into Apple's revamped Health app, which is already set to include instructional video content.