As my colleague Zac Hall remarked yesterday, the Apple home strategy is a mess. This guarantees a conversation about what the business wants to achieve in customers’ homes. Because Apple TV and HomePod are both in strange conditions, it added to me that it might be valuable to imagine how the two product lines can come together. Insert HomePod TV …
Smart exhibits in the home have become an important component of the smart home story. Whether it’s the Google Nest Hub or the Amazon Echo Show, Apple’s biggest competitors have both realized that they can sell more expensive home speakers by adding a screen to them.
Apple has all the key things they need to create an amazing smart screen for HomeKit. It starts with the same 10.2 ″ Retina display panel from the $ 329 iPad. It’s cheaper and certainly not nearly as pretty as the iPad Pro’s screen, but it’s still a nice one. And since you will not take a closer look at it, it is not really necessary to have the best version. Mount the screen on a smaller iMac foot with adjustable angles, and you have a perfect home screen.
Clock faces and screen savers
If a smart screen is not used, it should display a beautiful watch and / or relevant information of your choice. Apple already knows how to make beautiful watches. They can extend the same clock levels that make Apple Watch such a beautiful watch to a larger screen. Some of the complications can also jump, such as fitness rings.
Just like Apple Watch, you can tap and hold to turn off your watch. It is much easier than the solutions that current smart screens use. Usually you have to go through the settings.
The screensavers on tvOS are a much loved part of the platform and will provide beautiful digital clock wallpapers. Whether it is hiding over a city at night or over some cliffs during the day, the exhibition can display beautiful scenery whenever you want.
tvOS on smaller screens
tvOS is an important part of this story. HomePod and HomePod mini already use variants of tvOS with HomeKit support. Apple can use the existing tvOS interface and optimize it for smaller screens. There are some important changes I want to make to improve the experience. Most of these changes revolve around requiring touch input.
You just have to swipe on the clock to reveal your programs below it with each row of four programs. Instead of the pictures that appear on Apple TV, the watch will stay there with the ability to swing horizontally between different views such as weather and calendar.
tvOS needs some new apps to round off the smart screen. The first one is a new Home app. TvOS currently has HomeKit services in the new control center. But a dedicated app is very important in a product like this. It should show large buttons and touch easily.
When it comes to smart screens, sound is incredibly important. You can, of course, use Siri to play any video or audio you want to play. The same amazing programs for music and podcasts would be broadcast from Apple TV. You can see beautiful album art as well as lyrics. All the apps available on tvOS can also be downloaded from the App Store on HomePod TV. Each service would already be ready on day one.
The iPad Pro has incredible four speakers. Due to the aluminum base and the lack of the need for a battery, a lot of extra space is opened up. The same amazing speakers in the 12.9 ″ iPad Pro could theoretically fit in a smaller device and still deliver the same booming sound.
You can also pair the HomePod TV with HomePod minis to create an even better audio experience in any space.
Facetime and TrueDepth profiles
It will also be ideal for Facetime and Facetime Audio calls. The camera above the screen will get the same LED that is currently on MacBooks to indicate when the camera and / or microphone is on. Even better, if they include a TrueDepth camera module, the HomePod TV can tell which family member is using the device and display different profiles. tvOS already has the infrastructure for different profiles.
Closure
This product is absolutely an extremely premium device. It will probably be more expensive than the original HomePod even was. But customers will better understand the value they get from a device with a screen, even at a higher price point.
There are so many different things that can be done with a product like this from Apple. It can serve as a small sidecar screen on your desktop. With Apple Arcade games, it can be a small mounted gaming tablet that you can pair with a controller. The possibilities are kind of endless.
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