Bloomberg reports Apple's home hub, HomePod mini and Apple TV for 13 OctoberBloomberg reports Apple's home hub, HomePod mini and Apple TV for 13 October

Apple plans to launch a smart home hub, a new HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K on Tuesday 13 October, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported on 30 September.

This is a leak at the reported grade: a named journalist with a long record on Apple, rather than code or images. Apple has announced nothing and has not commented. Bloomberg's report sits behind a paywall that refused our requests, so the details below come from MacRumors, 9to5Mac and AppleInsider, which all quote it and agree on the date and the three products. According to those accounts, the HomePod mini and Apple TV keep their current designs and gain faster chips to run Siri AI, and the HomePod mini adds new colours including pink and green. All three were first planned for 2024, Bloomberg says, and have been waiting on Siri AI.

The products themselves have a second, independent basis. On 25 September MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris found Apple's own images of a HomePod mini in new colours and a reference to an Apple TV 4K (4th generation), a week before Bloomberg named the date.

What is expected on 13 October?

• Home hub: a square 6-inch display, a tabletop version and a wall-mounted one, code-named J490 according to 9to5Mac's reading of the report.
• HomePod mini: the current design in new colours. AppleInsider lists black, white, blue, pink and green.
• Apple TV 4K: the current chassis with a faster chip for Siri AI.

The outlets disagree on the Apple TV's chip. AppleInsider says it will use the A20 Pro with 8GB of memory; MacRumors' summary of earlier rumours gives an A19 or A19 Pro with 8 to 12GB. Neither attributes its figure to Bloomberg, so both are unverified, and we use neither.

What is not coming

The full-size HomePod is not part of the launch. Gurman wrote only that Apple aims "to eventually update its larger HomePod". The current model dates from 2023, runs on the S7 chip from the Apple Watch Series 7, and costs $349 in the US after a June price rise, according to MacRumors. Bloomberg also describes a home security camera and sensor that can tell which room a person is in without recording video, and a higher-end hub with a 9-inch display on a robotic arm. Neither has a date. AppleInsider puts the security devices in 2027.

On software, Bloomberg says Apple is expanding HomeKit to new categories of connected products and working with other manufacturers on devices built for a Siri AI smart home, MacRumors reports.

Will there be an Apple event?

Bloomberg did not say. Daring Fireball's John Gruber had already floated 13 October as a date for handing iPhone Duo review units to reviewers in person, and argued that an all-new device with a new interface needs a keynote video. MacRumors points to October 2023, when Apple streamed an online event and then held hands-on sessions, and expects an announcement within a week if there is one. The iPhone Duo goes on sale on 23 October.

Our take

Two parts of this are firm and the rest is not. The date comes from the reporter with the best record on Apple's launch timing, and two of the three products are confirmed to exist by Apple's own images in leaked files. Chips, prices and whether there is a keynote are all still open, and where the outlets fill those gaps they contradict each other.

The more telling detail is the delay. Three products held for two years so they could ship with Siri AI makes Siri AI the whole pitch, and Siri AI is still narrow. We reported that Siri AI launched in English only, and that the iOS 27.2 beta adds five languages while three of their home countries still cannot use it. A home hub sold on voice will reach those countries late or in reduced form, and none of the reporting says how Apple handles that.

The HomeKit work may matter more than the hub. A controller is only as useful as what it controls, and new device categories plus partners building for the platform would change what an Apple home can do in a way one screen cannot. Bloomberg gives no categories or partners yet.

APPDOOK's practical advice is simple. Anyone about to buy a HomePod mini or an Apple TV 4K should wait two weeks, because both are reported to be replaced on 13 October and the leaked images make that more than a rumour. Owners of the full-size HomePod face a less comfortable wait: once these ship it will be the only Home product still on the old Siri, with no date for its successor.