Apple executives revealed that the new HomeView is the culmination of years of design efforts to balance audio, privacy, and most importantly Siri AI.
As the first buyers receive the new HomeView, two Apple executives involved are discussing the device. Talking to TechRadarthey describe the development of HomeView as a difficult but rewarding journey due to where it is intended to be used.
“Home life is extremely busy, you know, it’s complicated, it’s complex, and people move around,” said Matthew Costello, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering, “and we wanted a device that was really designed specifically for that environment.”
Cecilia Dantas, Home Product Marketing, said the overall goal was to “give you exactly what you need right now.” He added that it was critical that HomeView “did this with absolute ease.”
Dantas says the plan was always for each person’s data to be available to them, but in private. “It comes from your iPhone,” he said. “If you leave, [if] you bring your iPhone with you, it goes with you and isn’t kept on the device at all.”
However, it’s not just meant to be about calendars and reminders. Dantas says he uses a shared family album on his HomeView and updates as others add it.
HomeView can display photos on the screen when not in use.
“I’m really proud of the moments of connection it brings,” she said. “It’s delightful to see the photos appear.”
Long development
Costello said that ultimately HomeView “was really built around Siri.” He said Apple wanted to connect Siri AI into a “community nature device in a home.”
“We thought [that] it was a really important moment,” he said. “Together with our Design Studio, we went on a long journey of exploration to understand ‘how do you create something that is a unique form for the home?'”
While the Siri AI software was central to the design, development actually started with the display. The company wanted a shape that “was unique from other form factors within Apple.”
“So we got the proportions you see today,” he continued. “That then led to a lot of decisions about where to place things.”
Learning from the HomePod
The main components that needed to be arranged inside that form factor were the HomePod-like speakers. But it wasn’t just a question of where they could fit, because HomeView comes in two very different versions.
“Getting the display right with the audio, and then the split audio architecture between having the higher frequency kind of speakers in the head,” Costello said of the main screen, “and then the lower frequency woofer in the base was something we worked on.”
“How can we extend it to the wall version too?” he asked. “It’s been a really fun and hard-fought journey to get to where we ended up.”
HomeView gets personalized information, like calendar events, from your iPhone.
Beyond the speakers, though, Apple says great attention was paid to the display. “I love that it’s the lowest light performance we’ve ever designed into a product,” Costello said, “at 0.3 nits.”
“So, officially, I represent the dimmest product we’ve ever seen within Apple,” he continued. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I’m super happy about it.”
In addition to hardware development, Costello said that “we’ve really built this UI tailored for the home, so the apps and experiences that matter in the home environment are really front and center.”
HomeView first reactions
AppleInsiderAndrew O’Hara agrees enough with Costello and Dantas to say he wants to buy five HomeViews. But at the same time he discovered that it is obviously a first generation device and that it has obvious flaws in addition to its equally obvious potential.
