As I write, it’s Monday 19th October, and I feel sufficiently recovered from jet lag to offer some further perspective on Apple’s big Home event that took place last week in New York City.

I was there (hence the jet lag), and it was a fascinating experience. Apple chose NYC to reveal its latest version of the Apple TV 4K, a new HomePod mini 2, and a completely new device called the HomeView. The latter was, of course, what everyone rushed towards when we were let loose in the first-look area, but I was just as excited about one of those other new products.

We switched wholesale to the Apple TV at home about three years ago, and it remains a constant breath of fresh air. We haven’t missed Sky (the UK’s biggest satellite TV provider) once, and I remain constantly impressed by the image and sound quality pumped into my AV system from that little black box. There’s just one problem - it’s a bit slow. That A15 chip is, clearly, showing its age. It also lacks Siri AI, and that’s something I’ve been really keen to explore across even more Apple devices since it arrived in June last year.

The new Apple TV 4K may not look any different (bar that centred power light), but it does contain the updates we needed: a new chip (the A19, which Apple claims is up to 50% faster), Siri AI compatibility, and a new remote which finally has a speaker built into it to make finding it easier. I can’t wait to get the new Apple TV 4K into our home setup and put it through its paces.

Let’s not beat around the bush, though - the biggest news last week was the HomeView. It’s Apple’s long-rumoured HomePod-with-a-screen device, and it’s not what I was expecting at all. This isn’t an iPad stuck to a HomePod; it’s a square-screened device with - or without - a speaker base, that’s loosely based on CarPlay. That means no App Store, and little functionality beyond the Apple ecosystem and some chosen home accessory partners (in this case, LG and Schneider). It costs £299/$299, regardless of whether you buy it with the speaker base. That’s a choice which is hard to justify, but, in my opinion, it could have been a lot more expensive.

My first impressions of the HomeView are on the Mark Ellis Reviews channel now, but stay tuned for the actual review. 😉

~ Mark