For more than a decade, Apple has told other companies to build smart home devices for its platform. This week, Apple launched its own. The Apple Home Collection is a lineup of cameras, thermostats, sensors, a smart door lock, and a video doorbell, all codeveloped with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. They arrive alongside HomeView, Apple's first smart display.

Even after 12 years of HomeKit, Apple's smart home ecosystem still felt underdeveloped, especially compared to the competition. Amazon's and Google's ecosystems support more products, and both have popular in-house brands: Ring and Nest. Apple had nothing of its own to point cu …

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I'm just going to come right out and say it. I love the approach Apple has taken with the HomeView. I think it's the shared, always-available household interface that my family might finally use. Is Apple's first smart display my dream smart home dashboard? No. But is it the right product for Apple Home at this moment? Absolutely.

A lot of initial reactions to the $299 HomeView (which looks like a giant Apple Watch on a flatter metallic HomePod Mini) ask why you would want it when you can do most of what it offers on your iPhone or iPad. And yes, its features replicate many of the things you already do on the devices you use all the time. B …

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Apple has just announced the HomeView, its first smart home display - and I just got hands-on with the device, which features a gorgeous 7-inch square touchscreen and built-in Siri AI. It's designed as a smart home controller, personal assistant, and home hub for your household, so there was a lot to check out.

The first thing that struck me about the HomeView was its size. It's much smaller than I expected, and the screen almost entirely hides the small aluminum base that acts as a speaker. The Liquid Retina display is bright and responsive to touch, and it displays photos and the HomeView "faces" brilliantly.

You can swipe to change fa …

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We've just gotten a closer look at Apple's new video doorbell, security cameras, a door lock, and thermostats following the company's "Welcome Home" event on Tuesday. The six new devices are part of a new Apple Home Collection, which the company co-developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.

The LG smart lock costs $349 and comes with support for Apple Home Key, allowing you to unlock your door hands-free with UWB. You can unlock the door with a PIN code, too, or by using the physical keyhole beneath the keypad.

There's also a new $249 video doorbell from LG. It comes with two cameras that support up to 2.5K resolu …

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Apple's HomePod Mini 2 is here, and we've gotten a close-up look at the second-gen smart speaker.

The HomePod Mini 2 comes with an upgraded S10 chip capable of powering Siri AI, though Apple says support for new AI features will roll out as part of a future update. It also offers a sound glow feature that matches its LED lights with the colors of a song's album art and can work as your Mac's default speaker.

Physically, the HomePod Mini 2 is almost identical to its predecessor, but the colors have changed. There's now a pink model and a green model, and the blue has changed colors. There's still black and white for those who want basics a …

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This week, Apple is hosting its first-ever dedicated smart home event. While the company hasn't shared details about what it will reveal at the "Welcome Home experience" in New York City on Tuesday, October 13th, it doesn't take an army of internet sleuths to deduce we'll get news about Apple Home - specifically, new hardware. Apple finally seems to be taking the smart home seriously.

According to Bloomberg, Apple will release a smart home display alongside a refreshed HomePod Mini and Apple TV. The display, which MacRumors reports may be called HomeView, is arguably Apple's first dedicated Apple Home hardware since it launched the HomeKit …

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