Apple has officially announced an event for Tuesday, October 13, and the tagline points squarely at the home. Marketing chief Greg Joswiak revealed it on October 8 in a teaser video on X carrying the line “Welcome home.” Members of the press have been invited to an Apple Experience in Tribeca, New York, with the event starting at 9:00 a.m. ET. Apple hasn’t said whether the event will be streamed, and it hasn’t named any products.
What Apple is expected to announce
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that the lineup centers on a smart home hub with a display, a new HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K.
| Product | Expectation for October 13 |
| Smart home hub (informally “HomePad”) | Expected |
| HomePod mini | Expected |
| Apple TV 4K | Expected |
| LG-made accessories | Not ready for a few months; unclear whether they will be shown |
The hub is the main event. The “HomePad” name is not confirmed, but reports describe a square display of around six inches, available as a countertop model and a wall-mounted one. The countertop version reportedly sits on a speaker base with a tilting screen and takes design cues from the iMac G4, while the wall-mounted version uses a thin square base. Both are said to run on USB-C power. Reported features include controlling Home accessories, recognizing household members, a guest mode and FaceTime.
The HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K are both reportedly staying with their current designs but getting faster chips to handle Siri AI. That would be the HomePod mini’s first hardware refresh since 2020 and the Apple TV’s first since 2022. Leaked artwork suggests the new HomePod mini will come in new colors, including green and pink.
The LG accessories
The more surprising part of the story is a wider set of smart home accessories that Apple is reportedly developing with LG. According to FCC and UL Solutions filings from LG, which don’t mention Apple, the company is making seven devices: a wired video doorbell, a thermostat, a smart deadbolt, a temperature sensor, and indoor, outdoor and floodlight cameras. Several of them support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread and Matter, and the lock also supports UWB for unlocking as you approach.
LG will build and brand the products, while Bloomberg says Apple helped develop them and can shape their design, features and engineering. The timing matters here: the LG accessories aren’t expected to be ready for a few months, so even if Apple mentions them on October 13, they won’t be on shelves that day.
Why now
Apple’s own smart home lineup has stayed small while Amazon and Google have built out much larger ecosystems. Gurman says the hub and the refreshed devices are arriving now because they depend on Siri AI, which shipped with iOS 27 in September in English only and is gaining more languages in the iOS 27.2 beta.
M Adnan Akram is the founder and lead writer at Phoonomo, covering mobile technology with a primary focus on Apple and the broader smartphone industry, alongside emerging developments in AI. He follows product launches, spec leaks, and industry trends closely to keep readers informed with timely updates.
Discover more from Phoonomo
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
