Friday, November 13 is the day Apple's smart-home gamble finally becomes something you can buy. According to MacRumors, Apple will release two new products that day: the all-new HomeView smart display and the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K — and both cost exactly $299.
The price symmetry is the tell. The Apple TV 4K used to cost $129; Apple more than doubled it to $299, matching the HomeView dollar for dollar. That means on launch day, Apple is asking shoppers a strangely honest question: which screen should run your home — the one on the wall or the one under the TV — at the same price either way? A Siri AI A19 box with a Find My remote and four-speaker surround via HomePod mini 2, or a 7-inch Siri AI display that recognizes six faces and personalizes the Home Screen for each of them.
The rollout order matters too. The HomePod mini 2 — announced alongside both products on October 13 — already shipped October 30. November 13 completes the set, just in time for the holiday quarter, and hours after John Ternus faces his first earnings call Monday afternoon. Expect him to get asked how pre-orders look.
And then there's the missing continent. The HomeView won't be sold in the European Union, because Siri AI remains unavailable on iOS there under regulatory constraints. Apple's line, as reported, is that it is "working constructively with the EU in an attempt to find a path forward" — with no timeline attached. Apple launching its flagship Siri AI device while legally unable to sell it in Europe is the clearest sign yet of how much the DMA-era standoff is costing Apple in product terms, not just fees.
One thing to watch between now and the 13th: HomeView's own software has already leaked features Apple never announced. Code sleuths found settings strings in HomeView Software 27.2 describing a HomeKit Secure Video camera mode — Off, Detect Activity, Stream, Stream & Allow Recording — with a green light and chime when recording starts. Apple hasn't confirmed any of it, and code strings aren't promises. But if Apple flips a camera feature on at launch, the $299 standoff gets a third contender: the security camera the display already has.
— via MacRumors