We’re just a couple of days away from Apple’s “Welcome Home” event on October 13, and Mark Gurman from Bloomberg pushed out a massive rollout of details for many products that are expected to be announced over the course of a few weeks. So let’s begin with what I think is the most exciting product to look forward to, and that is Apple’s all-new smart home hub.

According to the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, he expects the home hub to be called the “HomeView”, so this implies that it will be offered alongside the existing HomePod and HomePod mini. Apple did secretly file “HomeView” and the “homeOS” trademarks a few days ago, according to MacRumors, so this may check out.

The design of the HomeView is expected to resemble the iconic iMac G4 with a display that’s attached to an adjustable arm on top of the metal hemispherical base. While it’s expected to come in two variants: wall-mounted and countertop-base, the finish options will be different between the two variants. The default countertop model will come in four finishes: silver, space gray, starlight, and rose pink, but the wall-mounted model will come in just two finishes: silver and space gray.

Additionally, the HomeView will be powered by the A18 chip. This is the same chip that powers the iPhone 16e, the iPhone 16, and the iPhone 16 Plus. I’d expect the HomeView to use the binned variant with 4 GPU cores since it would make sense for Apple to use the leftover supply of those chips.

In terms of other features, Gurman expects the HomeView to feature better sound quality compared to the upcoming HomePod mini. This could make sense given that there would be enough space inside the HomeView’s base for bigger speakers. The biggest feature for the HomeView will certainly be Siri AI, and while voice commands will be the primary input for HomeView, its built-in square display will also support direct touch input for accessing widgets and apps. Speaking of apps, don’t expect to install third-party apps, as HomeView will be limited to only the built-in apps such as Music. Just think: the original iPhone didn’t get an App Store when it debuted in 2007 until the following year, so maybe we could see a dedicated App Store for “homeOS 28” (or whatever the HomeView’s OS will be called) next year? We’ll see.

In terms of availability, Gurman expects the HomeView to start shipping around mid-November, but it’s possible that pre-order for the device will begin on October 13 – the day we expect Apple to announce other products for the home. Still, we would have to wait a bit longer to get our hands on this HomeView. Gurman has no word on the final pricing, but I think it will certainly be worth the wait.