Name: Apple HomeView
Brand: Apple

Apple has built the kitchen-counter screen that Amazon and Google have sold for years, and given it a trick neither rival leads with. HomeView looks at whoever walks up and changes what it shows. It recognizes up to six people in a household by face, so one person sees their own messages, calendar and reminders, and the next person to step in front of it sees theirs. Anyone in the European Union who wants one is out of luck: Apple is not selling it there.

The reason is Siri AI, the rebuilt assistant that runs the device. Apple says HomeView “is not available for sale in the European Union, as Siri AI is currently unavailable in iOS in the EU,” and that it is “working constructively with the EU in an attempt to find a path forward.” The assistant also speaks only English for now, so the hub launches only in English-speaking markets: the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and South Africa. Buyers in Japan, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey or Norway are not on the list either.

HomeView is a seven-inch display on a rounded speaker base, joined by a steel hinge that tilts the screen, and it comes in a tabletop version and a wall-mounted one. It handles calendars, messages, photos, FaceTime calls and music without anyone reaching for an iPhone, and it works as the control panel for the house. It can stream up to nine camera feeds at once, change the thermostat, switch on lights and lock the front door, and it listens for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and alerts your phone when one goes off. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the device “is designed to be shared by everyone in the home yet feel completely personal to each user.”

Around the hub, Apple is selling something it has never sold before: the Apple Home Collection, a set of locks, cameras, thermostats and sensors designed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. The piece that changes daily routine is LG’s Smart Deadbolt Lock at $349.95. It uses ultra-wideband radio to sense an iPhone or Apple Watch carrying a home key and unlocks the door as its owner walks up, with no tap and no code. Next to it sit a $249.95 video doorbell with two cameras, indoor, outdoor and floodlight cameras priced from $199.95 to $399.95, and two smart thermostats, one from LG and one from Schneider, at $199.95 each. That puts Apple in direct competition with Amazon’s Ring and Echo Show and Google’s Nest, which have owned the front door and the kitchen counter for years.

Apple’s argument against those rivals is about who can see the data and what you pay each month. Home app data is end-to-end encrypted, and Apple says neither it nor LG nor Schneider can read it. HomeView processes camera and microphone data in a sealed-off part of its chip. Camera recordings go into the iCloud+ storage that many iPhone owners already pay for, with ten days of event history, instead of a separate camera plan. The lock’s core functions keep working without an internet connection, and the accessories support the Matter standard, so they are not tied to Apple’s ecosystem alone.

The catches are real. iCloud+ is still a subscription, and its tiers set the limit: the 50GB plan covers one camera, up to five cameras need the 200GB plan, and more than five need the 2TB plan. The hands-free unlock needs an iPhone or Apple Watch with ultra-wideband. The Home Collection is even narrower than HomeView: the cameras and doorbell are coming to the US, Canada and the UK, while the lock, thermostats and sensors stay in the US and Canada. Apple’s record in the home is also patchy. The original HomePod never caught up with Amazon’s and Google’s speakers, Bloomberg reported that problems with Siri AI held these products back, and HomeView ships with Siri AI still labeled as a beta.

Apple also refreshed the two devices that already act as home hubs. The new HomePod mini costs $149, $50 more than the original, gets a faster S10 chip and also listens for smoke alarms. The new Apple TV 4K adds three far-field microphones, so Siri hears you without the remote, and the remote itself now has a speaker so it can be found when it disappears into the sofa.

HomeView costs $299 in the US, £299 in the UK, CA$429 in Canada, A$449 in Australia and ₹39,900 in India. Pre-orders opened on October 13. The HomePod mini arrives first, on October 30, and HomeView and the Apple TV 4K follow on November 13. Most of the Home Collection lands in December, with some accessories slipping into early 2027, and ADT will offer paid professional installation through Apple’s US stores.

Until Apple and Brussels settle the Siri question, the most personal device Apple has made for the home will recognize six faces in Toronto and Sydney and none in Paris or Madrid.

Tags: Apple, Siri, LG Electronics, Schneider Electric, Apple Home Collection, HomeView