Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Apple makes phones and computers. Today Apple shows a new product. The name is HomeView.
HomeView is a small screen for your home. You talk to it. You can also touch the screen.
It helps you control lights and music. It uses Siri. Siri is the Apple voice helper.
There are two kinds. One sits on a table. One goes on a wall. People can buy it in November.
- screen
- the flat part of a device that shows pictures and words
- home
- the place where a person lives
- touch
- to put your finger on something
- control
- to make a machine do what you want
- lights
- the lamps that make a room bright
- voice
- the sound a person makes when speaking
- wall
- the side of a room, going from floor to ceiling
- buy
- to get something by paying money
Level 2 - Elementary
Apple is holding an event called Welcome home on Tuesday, and the main product is expected to be a smart home device called HomeView. It is a screen that also works as a speaker, and Apple wants it to be the centre of a connected house.
Inside is an A18 chip, the same family of processor used in recent iPhones. Users will mostly control the device by speaking to Siri, but the screen also responds to touch. Reports say it will support only a limited set of Apple apps and will not have its own App Store.
There will be two designs, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. A countertop model sits on a metal speaker base and will come in space gray, silver, starlight, or pink. A wall mounted model has a flat square base and will come in space gray or silver.
Even though Apple is showing HomeView on Tuesday, it is not expected to ship until around mid November. The new Apple TV 4K and the new HomePod mini arrive earlier, on 30 October. Apple has not announced a price.
- event
- an organised public occasion, such as a product launch
- device
- a piece of electronic equipment made for a particular job
- speaker
- a piece of equipment that produces sound
- chip
- a small electronic component that processes information
- processor
- the part of a computer that carries out instructions
- countertop
- the flat work surface in a kitchen, used here to mean a device that sits on it
- ship
- to send a product out to customers for the first time
- price
- the amount of money something costs
Level 3 - Intermediate
Apple takes the stage on Tuesday for an event titled Welcome home, and the centrepiece is expected to be HomeView, a screen and speaker combination designed to sit at the heart of a connected house. The company has spent years watching rivals build smart displays while its own home strategy rested on a small speaker and an Apple TV box. HomeView is the correction.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the device pairs a display with an A18 chip, the processor family used in recent iPhones, and positions itself as the Siri command centre for the home. Control is voice first, with touch available on the screen itself. Crucially, the software appears deliberately narrow: a limited set of Apple applications and no dedicated App Store, which suggests Apple intends the hub to be an appliance rather than a platform.
Two form factors are reported. A countertop unit rests on a metal speaker base and arrives in space gray, silver, starlight, or pink, with audio quality said to exceed the newly refreshed HomePod mini. A wall mounted version uses a flat square base and comes in space gray or silver. Screen size remains unsettled in the reporting, with figures of six and seven inches both circulating, and no price has been confirmed.
The release calendar is unusual. HomeView is being unveiled on 13 October but is not expected to reach buyers until roughly mid November, after the new Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini land on 30 October. The name itself surfaced first in a trademark filing lodged by a shell company, a familiar Apple tactic for concealing products until the moment of announcement.
- centrepiece
- the most important or prominent item in a group
- rival
- a company or person competing for the same customers or goal
- command centre
- the single place from which something is directed or controlled
- appliance
- a device built for one fixed purpose rather than general use
- platform
- a system that other developers can build software on top of
- form factor
- the physical size and shape of a hardware product
- trademark
- a legally registered name or symbol identifying a product
- shell company
- a company that exists on paper, often used to hide who is really involved
Level 4 - Advanced
Apple's Welcome home event on 13 October carries more strategic freight than its domestic branding implies. The company has, for the better part of a decade, approached the connected home as an adjacency rather than a market: a competent speaker here, a set top box there, and an assistant whose reputation lagged its competitors. HomeView, a display and speaker hybrid built around an A18 processor, represents the first attempt to give that scattered effort a single locus of control.
The architecture reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman is revealing in what it withholds. HomeView is to be governed principally by voice, with the touchscreen as a secondary affordance, and it will run a deliberately circumscribed set of Apple applications with no App Store of its own. That is not an oversight but a thesis. Apple appears to be wagering that the household hub succeeds as an appliance with a narrow and dependable repertoire, rather than as an open platform whose capabilities expand unpredictably and whose failure modes multiply accordingly.
Hardware choices follow the same logic of constraint. Two variants are expected: a countertop unit seated on a metal speaker base in space gray, silver, starlight, or pink, with acoustics said to surpass the freshly revised HomePod mini, and a wall mounted sibling on a flat square base in space gray or silver. Reporting diverges on display dimensions, with six and seven inch figures both in circulation, and Apple has disclosed nothing on pricing. The name itself emerged through a trademark lodged by a shell entity, the company's customary instrument of concealment.
The staggered calendar deserves attention. Announcing on 13 October while deferring availability to approximately mid November, behind the 30 October arrival of a refreshed Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini, gives Apple a month of narrative control before reviewers can test the claims. It also signals that the hub's value proposition depends on the rest of the ecosystem shipping first. HomeView is being positioned less as a product than as a conductor, and a conductor is only as persuasive as the orchestra already in the room.
- adjacency
- a neighbouring area of business treated as secondary to the core one
- locus
- the central point where something is concentrated or controlled
- affordance
- a feature of a design that shows the user what action is possible
- circumscribed
- kept within deliberately narrow limits
- thesis
- a proposition put forward and defended as deliberate strategy
- repertoire
- the full range of things a person or system can do
- staggered
- arranged to happen at separate intervals rather than together
- value proposition
- the case for why a customer should find a product worth buying
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