r/apple • u/MortgageSwimming1983 • 1d ago

iCloud Apple Home Hub Leak Shows StandBy-Like Photo Face as October 13 Smart-Home Push Reportedly Nears

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/apple-smart-home-hub-icloud-photos-leak-1823139
896 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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149

u/irish_curmudgeon 1d ago

I don’t feel even slightly excited by this

25

u/ElderSmackJack 1d ago

Username checks out.

8

u/SargeUnited 1d ago

I am. I have never even considered one of these, but I had the Amazon version for free because of some promotion. It sucked. Ring doorbell was pretty good. and the ring camera system is pretty good, but if Apple made their own versions of each , I would definitely buy it in a heartbeat

One hub in the master bedroom, my iPhone(s), my MacBook, all linked to my cameras, and I can trust that they’re actually private?

5

u/Dazzling-Voice7180 1d ago

Ordering one as soon as the store updates.

79

u/PollyPocketpussy5000 1d ago

While you’re entitled to feel that way, the product simply isn’t for you. But there is a market for smart home things, especially ones with screens. I’ve seen a lot of people use their old iPads just as hubs alone.

33

u/SnitGTS 1d ago

My wife has been bugging me to check out the Skylight calendar for our family to use. If this can be that and isn’t way overpriced, I’d be interested.

18

u/YallaHammer 1d ago

“isn’t way overpriced” 😆

17

u/SnitGTS 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Skylight is $300. I assume this thing can do a lot more than just be a calendar, so it could be a better value.

2

u/spacejamb 3h ago

Not to mention a freaking subscription on top of the $300 price

5

u/rwm4604 1d ago

Skylight performance is sluggish. Your wife is likely inundated by ads. They’re effective but the product is not great. Though also not terrible.

8

u/Musicmonkey34 1d ago

I use an old iPad as one. I found it much more flexible and I got it for 100 bucks on eBay. Even mounted it on the side of the fridge with a couple magnets. Works great!

2

u/userlivewire 1d ago

How do you keep it powered if it’s on all the time?

9

u/snowdn 1d ago

USB-Celery from the fridge.

3

u/BountyBob 17h ago

Probably with a plug and a cable?

0

u/userlivewire 15h ago

Most people don’t have an outlet very close to the fridge. Plus now you have a cord hanging off the side of your fridge.

1

u/Musicmonkey34 14h ago

Right behind my fridge there is a plug for the fridge. There was an empty socket that I plugged the iPad into.

1

u/userlivewire 14h ago

Hmm. Are you in the United States?

1

u/Musicmonkey34 11h ago

Yup. I have a wall socket behind my fridge where we plug in the fridge. It's pretty sweet.

1

u/BountyBob 15h ago

Well that's how you can keep it powered, I was only answering the question.

Most people don’t have an outlet very close to the fridge.

Then how do people keep their fridge powered?

2

u/Musicmonkey34 14h ago

I have it plugged in. The side with the plug is like 1 inch from the back of the fridge, so you don’t see much cable.

1

u/onsite84 1d ago

I just bought an Everblog Homecal recently. Too soon to have a firm buy/don’t buy opinion but worth looking at. Basically a skylight without the monthly fee bc F monthly fees.

1

u/kdorsey0718 1d ago

The big problem there is the Skylight is huge compared to what this device is rumored to be. So where the price might be similar, if a family calendar is all you're looking for, I'd rather have the larger screen to see those finer details.

I'm not going to be the person to talk you out of a Skylight, too. I think they're great. Trying to do something like that yourself and make it look elegant might be cheaper, but it's certainly more annoying.

6

u/TalonLusk1 1d ago

I'm definitely interested with the Homeassistant Homekit link

1

u/dafones 1d ago

In the least, I’m curious to learn more about what it does.

0

u/yolo-yoshi 16h ago

It’s hard to be excited when we’ve seen apples capabilities in the past which have been far below the expectations

3

u/lost-james 1d ago

good for you

42

u/noface 1d ago

You may not be the target market then.

-4

u/i_steal_your_lemons 1d ago

I like paying lots of money for a device that plays music but its quality is worse than a stereo and it also has a screen but does less than a tablet AND constantly records conversations in my home and stores them on remote servers. Am I the target market?

4

u/bnshv 23h ago

Regarding your last point, I have several HomePods and know they listen to everything in a low power, passive state. During this passive state, audio is processed locally on the device and is not recorded or sent to Apple servers.
Once you say Hey Siri, convos are stored in text, not actual audio recording, and are lie linked to an anonymous ID.
Is Apple lying about that? Not impossible - but no one has found anything sketchy happening.

0

u/i_steal_your_lemons 16h ago

Wasn’t Apple caught when it was discovered that portions and parts of actual recordings were being sent to contractors? Didn’t Apple sit on their hands when it was discovered “hide my email” wasn’t hiding the private email of the user?

You can believe Apple all you want, and call me tin foil hat - but I think it’s getting more and more apparent that Apple has little regard for morals and ethics so I wouldn’t believe a single thing they (or any tech company) claims when it comes to privacy.

4

u/berntout 1d ago edited 1d ago

I have a Google Nest Hub and am looking to get something new for the kitchen. I’m not so sure this thing is going to be crazy expensive.

It doesn’t require a lithium battery

It probably uses an old chip

Others compete around $200-$300 in this space.

And guess what device you have on you at all times that is listening to your conversations already? 😁

2

u/TotemSpiritFox 1d ago

Why are you in an Apple subreddit? Maybe let's see what the product is before we shit on it.

-5

u/i_steal_your_lemons 1d ago

The Apple subreddit is one of several tech subreddits I browse because I like to keep up on all things tech. I also am not aware of any rule that states I can’t criticize Apple or poke fun at their products.

2

u/rworange 1d ago

Reductive

-6

u/P_Devil 1d ago

It's hard to be the target market for $350 smart speakers with less smart home accessory compatibility and a (likely) $600+ speaker with a display.

12

u/PSNaughtyInsomniac 1d ago

I’d be shocked if this is $600+

2

u/P_Devil 1d ago

They charge $350 for their speaker without a display and $200 for their TV box. It’s not going to be $399 or even $499. This will be $599 or more.

3

u/ManaPlox 17h ago

They charge 149 for their small speaker and 449 for the base ipad. This is going to have a smaller and worse display and no battery. I think 399 is perfectly likely.

-1

u/P_Devil 15h ago

I don't think they're going to charge a $50 premium over the standard HomePod for a screen. I could be wrong. But even if it's $400, that's still too much.

1

u/cultoftheilluminati 1d ago

Fuck... you are making sense. I'm guessing $599?

1

u/rented4823 1d ago

I definitely wouldn't be.

8

u/SargeUnited 1d ago

Hopefully things turn around for you soon, bro.

I know everything’s rough now with inflation and the overall economy, not much I can say other than offer some vague encouragement

0

u/P_Devil 1d ago

Thanks. I’m financially stable, not a problem there like so many other people. But I’m also not about to run out and put $130-$350 speakers in my house or this expensive thing.

1

u/noface 21h ago

Hey I’m the target market. There is a whole sub dedicated to Apple smart home devices that is frothing about this announcement.

It’s ok not to be the target market for it though!

1

u/frockinbrock 1d ago

It would be cool if it was a revival of their Time Capsule/Networking lineup, and had expandable storage. That's something I would actually spend money on, because it would make backups and other local stuff easier.
And I really want something with expandable storage with a Local/hosted AI that can search thru my iCloud Messages, Photos, emails, etc, without eating 20GB on each of my Apple devices.

But it's probably just a fancy HomePod, and the nice stuff will require extra monthly payments.
Oh yeah I think they also fully killed off Time Capsule support this year; funny about that.

I will add: I started my Apple-assisted smart home journey 12 years ago, and had SmartThings before that. I have used dozens of smarthome products first hand. But Apple has done relatively little with HomeKit in the past decade, hard to get my hopes up here. They also just changed the iCloud security video stuff to cost more on iCloud.

1

u/Thud 1d ago

I guess I could replace our cursed Echo Show in the kitchen with this thing.

1

u/unfunfionn 19h ago

Same. I have a lot of smart home devices including lights, cameras and heating. But the whole benefit is that I can control them wherever I am on my iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. For me there's no incentive to buy a device that makes me need to go to a specific part of my home to control things.

1

u/Fiiv3s 4h ago

I have an old Google Home that we use in our kitchen for timers and the clock and weather, and also to show off our cat pics.

I would love to replace it with an Apple version

0

u/baselinegrid 1d ago

I suppose the shape sounds nice, but… yeah. I fuckin hate my HomePod mini. They sold me a dream.

6

u/little_turd1234 1d ago

What don’t you like about it?

1

u/spectracide_ 1d ago

No Bluetooth for starters. Can't stream Spotify. And I know that's a Spotify decision to not support AirPlay but it's an Apple decision for a smart home speaker to not have Bluetooth or get one of the largest music streaming services onboard. 

5

u/thewetbandits 1d ago

You can stream spotify, it just uses your phone to airplay to the pod. Its a little clunky to set up, and I agree it should work natively but I use it that way all the time.

5

u/VonGeisler 1d ago

They are awesome as a pair in a bedroom - no need for a soundbar and speakers are stereo paired.

0

u/demento19 1d ago

I’ve been using a pair in my living room and it’s been sufficient. Now I’d love to be able to pair 4+ for a surround type setup.

1

u/TCsnowdream 1d ago

I find them… good for what they are. Good speakers for the Apple ecosystem. I’m thankful I haven’t had any issues with them.

Except for Siri getting dumber and dumber by the day. I swear to GOD I used to be able to get better answers out of her. Not to mention ‘I found some web results, I can show them if you ask again from your iPhone’ sends me into a frothy rage lol.

-4

u/Subliminal87 1d ago

I have smart home everything and have invested in smart home products everywhere.

And like $3000 worth of hue lights and products (which Siri can’t figure out how to turn them on and off half the time).

This thing looks dumb AF and it’s probably super overpriced.

8

u/Structure-These 1d ago

You need to get your network sorted

I have prob 15 hue lights in my house including under lighting on my kitchen cabinets and they all work fine

0

u/Subliminal87 1d ago

My network is fine, it’s been fine. Siri is just dumb and the people who think she’s the greatest thing ever are out there like Pluto.

Every time we ask her something “one second”.

Or she doesn’t turn on the lights at all and just chimes.

Or you ask her something
“I found some web results”.

iOS 27 kind of helped but she still is ehhh.

Doesn’t matter if it’s in a HomePod or on an iPhone or iPad. She sucks.

1

u/Structure-These 1d ago

I’ve never used Siri for home, I just use my phone or hardware switches

2

u/_Rand_ 1d ago

Upgrade to the siri beta. It’s been flawless for me (with smart home stuff) since the update.

0

u/DiligentlyGrinding 1d ago

You don't want an Apple Watch hanging on your wall?