Apple home display device with a 7-inch Liquid Retina screen and an A18 chip, rumored earlier under the name HomePad.
HomeView, Apple's $300 hub, has twice the RAM of Amazon's $180 Echo Show 8 and a smaller 7-inch screen. The extra $120 buys silicon and memory, while Pocket-lint's spec list gives the Echo the larger display and a Zigbee radio.
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Apple will ship the $149 HomePod Mini 2 on October 30 with Siri AI to follow in a later software update. The price is $20 above the model it replaces, and no launch report dates the update, so buyers must judge $149 without a ship day for the AI.
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ZDNET's writer is keeping 11 Echo devices after Apple priced HomeView at $299, against $179 for Amazon's Echo Hub and $199 for the Echo Show 8. The verdict comes from Apple's announcement and one household's setup, so it is a forecast of switching costs.
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Apple introduced six Apple Home devices co-developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, its first hardware for the platform. Third parties still manufacture them, and The Verge says it has not tested any.
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Apple opens pre-orders for the $299 HomeView, a 7-inch square-screen smart display in stand and wall-mounted versions. The Ambient says it acts as a hub for HomeKit and Matter devices, with Thread built in and no app store at launch.
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Apple's HomeView pre-order pages, for a 7-inch device with an A18 chip, list no purchase, cart or payment function for Siri AI, Forkast reported. With no agent transaction defined, the merchant-of-record default stays in place.
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