How do you interact with technology in the quiet comfort of your own home? Anecdotal evidence suggests that too many of us simply take our scrolling habits home with us, distractedly swiping away through family meals or double-screening during boxsets. If we can’t give up our hard-won instant access to information, trivia and diversion, we can at least find ways of managing it.
Enter the home hub or home display. A category that barely existed a decade ago, these fixed-position second screens serve as portals to digital assistants as well as streaming devices, alarm clocks, kitchen timers and any number of hands-free, voice-controlled functions, as well as meshing and controlling smart home ecosystems. Amazon launched its Echo Show back in 2017 with Google following on the following year with its Home Hub.
Now it’s Apple’s turn to enter the fray. HomeView is Apple’s first-ever home assistant display, a characteristically polished device that foregrounds the physical design, the user interface and the close integration of Siri AI and Apple Intelligence.
If the design doesn’t wow you – and it should, especially when compared to the often rather plasticky offerings from its rivals – then Apple hopes the onboard intelligence and stringent privacy functions will encourage you to switch over to HomeView.
Featuring a seven-inch Liquid Retina display with adaptive brightness that goes all the way down to a soft glow for nightstand use, HomeView is finished in Apple’s signature aluminium. In addition to a wall-mounted version, the principal device sits on a domed speaker base, joined by a well-engineered stainless-steel hinge to adapt the viewing height. Right now, it’s available in silver, starlight, rose pink and space grey (Apple helpfully and predictably matches its USB cable colours to the case colour).
A lot of thought has gone into making HomeView intuitive. In addition to smart home management, streaming audio and making calls, the device has been tailored for use in multi-person households. If you have several Apple accounts on the go, HomeView has facial recognition, so it’ll bring up personalised content when you approach the device. Likewise, the proximity sensor keeps information bold and legible from across the room and switches automatically to a more detailed display as you approach.
What you have on your HomeView is very much up to you. As well as making Facetime calls and sorting through calendars, it can serve up photos from your camera roll and serve as the primary dashboard for smart home devices, from the thermostat and lighting controls through to doorbell cameras and more.
You’ll need a supported iCloud+ subscription to delve into the expansive options, which include new devices in the Apple Home Collection, but in principle it frees up the mind and hands from reverting to familiar scrolling patterns.
Access to the latest Siri AI model is the icing on the cake for those of us who have become used to simply asking random questions out loud, hoping that a suitable device is in earshot. Apple Intelligence is also used to add a layer of sophistication to HomeView’s syncing abilities, whether it’s continuing conversations across devices, recalling personal playlists, messages and calendar items, or simply being contextually aware of who is engaging with the device.
Another neat feature is the ability to dissemble online recipes into a series of bullet points, complete with handily placed timers, to save endless pinching and zooming around a web page.
The interface is clean and beautifully animated with extensive personalisation offerings. Clocks, weather panels, photos and more can be swapped in and out, with the friendly Snoopy IP also making a comeback.
The display contains two speakers with a bass woofer in the stand, making it a pretty decent option for listening to music and podcasts; Apple’s Handoff function seamlessly transfers the current song or episode from car or phone to the device. It can also sync with AirPlay-compatible speakers.
Apple’s inevitable arrival in this space has been achieved with typical panache, allowing those already immersed in the company’s ecosystem to carry on playing within its fragrant walled garden. For everyone else, the quality bar has just been raised.
Apple HomeView is available in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space grey for £299. HomeView Wall Mounted comes in space grey and silver for £299, Apple.com