The Vergecast - Apple Home rumors, ranked

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Apple's big hardware event is coming next week. iPhones are the main draw, but senior reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy has her eyes on the rumors around — what else? — smart home gadgets. Andrew O'Hara from the Smart Home Insider podcast joins Jen to fire up the Rank-o-Matic and speculate on which rumored gadgets are most likely to see the light of day. Further reading: OpenAI’s next big AI model has ‘entered the AGI era’ Nvidia is buying Hugging Face for almost $13 billion Microsoft slashes Xbox Cloud Gaming to just 15 hours a month for Ultimate subscribers Microsoft opens up Xbox Cloud Gaming with new pay-as-you-go option Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [e-mail] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to the Vergecast, the flagship podcast of the Apple Home Pad, hopefully. I'm Jennifer Patterson Tuey, and on today's show, I'm joined by Andrew O'Hara, a writer and video producer for Apple Insider and host of the Smart Home Insider podcast. With Apple's full hardware event right around the corner, we're going to talk about the Apple Home Hardware Rumors, and whether the long-awaited, hotly anticipated, Apple Home Pad slash Hub slash Smart Display will think. finally make Apple Home great. Again, we'll rank the top rumors that we think are likely to become reality and talk about the ones we are most excited to get into our homes. But first, here's a look at everything that's happening on the verge today. I'm David Emel, and this is 90 seconds on the verge for Thursday, September 3rd, 26. Today, OpenAI released GPT6 Astra, which it says is a generational leap in capability with state-of-the-art performance in computer use, browser use, software engineering,

cybersecurity, science, and professional work. The model was released today to enterprise customers with daybreak access, but it'll roll out to plus, pro, business, and enterprise users over the coming days. Hopefully, this model doesn't break containment. Nvidia has announced it's acquiring AI repository platform Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion. Nvidia says it will keep Hugging Face an open platform for the entire ecosystem, and that Nvidia compute will not be required to build or deploy through the platform. The last official valuation of the company valued it at $4.5 billion, and the company previously

rejected a $500 million investment from Nvidia last year that would have valued it at $7 billion. Microsoft is slashing cloud gaming access to just 15 hours a month on GamePass Ultimate plans. It previously included unlimited hours, but Microsoft says the change should only impact 4% of users. It also announced it's releasing a new pay-as-you-go option for cloud gaming. price in for that has not been announced yet. You can read more at Theverge.com. That's 90 Seconds on the Verge for Thursday, September 3rd, 2026. Recommendations can't be amazing.

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So grab a snack, pull up a chair, and join us. Subscribe to Happy Hour with Ina on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be available every Wednesday starting September 16th. Welcome, Andrew. Thanks for joining me. Really excited to dive into this topic, one near and dear to both of our hearts, one we've talked about a lot in the past. I know, but this time it feels more real. It's like things are happening now.

It is. It is. Things are happening. Apple Home is happening, hopefully, fingers crossed. But just to kind of set the stage for listeners who are not clued in on the smart home, Andrew, can you just give me a brief rundown of what Apple Home is? I mean, Apple really jumped in the smart home space. It's been more than 10 years now. when they first launched HomeKit. And it was, you know, kind of pitched as a very secure version of, like, the smart home.

Because in the early days, you had a ton of Amazon devices that were just kind of getting rubber-stamped certifications that were fraught with security issues and things like that. And Apple came out. Yes. Not necessarily on Amazon devices. And the A-word assistant that we won't say. But there were so many, you know, concerns around stuff like that. And Apple came out with its own version of the smart home stuff called HomeKit. And they even had, like at the beginning,

you needed a specific hardware chip that you had to buy from Apple, which not only slowed things down in acquiring these chips, but then also made things more expensive because you had to buy hardware components from Apple as part of their MFI program. And, you know, it was very secure. It made all of that really nice. And it has since got a little bit more lenient with that

as Apple figured out how to do much of the same stuff through just software. But it is grown up so much then. HomeKit became a large part of the framework for, matter, you know, the open standard now, including like the pairing process and onboarding process and all of that. And in kind of today's version of the smart home, it does support matter alongside the other major ecosystems, at least to some degree. You know, there's little bits of inconsistencies there, like with cameras, but for the most part, Apple still kind of sticks with

where they were. It's a lot, there's many more accessories now. It works similar to the other smart home ecosystems, but privacy, security. all of that is still very front and center with Apple Home. I mean, even cameras like until iOS 27 and all these launch, all the AI processing is done locally on your Apple TV or your HomePod, anything like that. So they've really put that as kind of their big push in the smart home space. And as we talk about stuff in today's episode, I think that's going to be kind of a common topic. Big differentiator really from the other major platforms, at least.

But what is the one thing that Apple Home has really? really been lacking over the years. I mean, there's been many things. Okay, but the one thing that is very relevant to today, I know you've been excited for for a long time, is a way to control your smart home without using your phone and without using your voice, right? So they have been behind in this.

They have not had a smart display. And this is the thing that has been rumored for like three years now at least, And we're honestly surprised they didn't, this didn't come to the force sooner because Apple has been really lagging behind Amazon and Google here who have had smart displays for years at this point. And I know that from your perspective has been a solely Apple home user, you've been quite jealous of like the Nest hubs and the Echo shows, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of help, what would make it useful to you to have a smart display, do you think? I mean, there's a lot of them. And obviously, so I broadened out. I'm obviously now that matter is much nicer to play with, with multiple ecosystems. I do have a Samsung smart thing set up. I do have like one Amazon thing, but I don't even leave that plugged in. But it exists here in the house. And I do have like the, I can't even think of what it's called, but the Nest Max, the Google smart display, I have one of those as well. And I really like the display.

I even have like the Ufi E10, which is kind of like, you know, their version of a smart display. But I like that kind of just central home point for all of your devices, an easy way to control things. See your cameras without having, like you said, to pull out a phone or a tablet. If you walk into something, I just want to be able to control something. Just make it really easy to gain access to all of those things as well as other relevant information. I think it makes obviously perfect sense because we've seen it with other products. to include your smart home controls along with your daily necessities like weather, calendar, things like that.

So to combine those things into a similar or a complete form factor is what I've been wanting. I want what all of these other ecosystems have had for years. But with Apple's magic touch on it, and I think as we talk about some of the rumors, like Apple has some really cool little tricks that it does that is going to make this extra compelling to me compared to some of the other ones that had been out there for a while. Yeah, yeah, excellent. Yeah, well, this is, as you can probably tell, this is the one that we are both most excited about, I think.

We've already ruined the ranking. I know, I've ruined the ranking, sorry. But in terms of likelihood, I'm on the fence a little bit on this one. But yes, okay, so we have a Vergecast Rankomatic that's going to help us rank the seven Apple Home Hardware Rumors in terms of the most likely to be in our home. next week and also and then in terms of which ones maybe just be vaporware if they end up in number seven. So, okay, so we, I think, let's start with the smart display because that really is,

as we said, the one that we're most excited about. Honestly, this is a really big lift, I think, for Apple. I think they have to do something really new here. And the rumors have been kind of all over the place. I mean, there's, there's been a little consistency, but there's also just sort of been like, oh, it's going to have MagSafe, oh, it's going to be removable, oh, it's going to be a home pod with a screen attached to it, blah, blah, what do you think? What do you think we're going to get and what do you actually want this device to look like? Basically, what I'm expecting is a 7-inch display based on the latest, like, Bloomberg leaks. It sounds like it's going to be like that 7-inch size tablet on top of a half dome size, so kind of like half a home pod, or it's going to look like,

you know, the iMac G4 back in the day. But essentially, you know, a little seven-inch tablet on top of a dome. I think that is very, very likely. There seems like there's going to be two versions of this. I could see that happening of it being wall mountable versus the other one. And when they've said rumors about like mag safe, that could just be essentially just means magnetic. I could see them doing some sort of like wall mount version that you screw on. And then it just kind of snaps onto your wall that you could still pull off and try.

charge or something like that to make it happen. Yeah. That's a whole other thing, but I'm very curious at how Apple makes a wall mount work, because I cannot imagine Apple asking people to do any sort of wiring. Installation. It's a big thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's not going to do that.

So I'm guessing it's going to be probably battery powered or with a cable that drags down. And then we're going to get third-party options from like Belkin or something that will allow you to do like an in-wall wiring kit for those who are like extra ambitious. to pull it off. But I do think it'll be roughly seven inch size. There'll be a tabletop version and some sort of wall version of it. I don't think that we're going to get any sort of app store at the beginning. My guess is we're going to get a bunch of the Apple apps like Safari, News, home, calendar, reminders, all of those. FaceTime. Yeah, of course, all of that kind of stuff. Like an iPad, basically. But with a different interface. Yeah, it's going to be some sort of kind of like

amalgamation of like standby mode and Apple TV is what I'm going to imagine kind of like a combination of those interfaces because we see things like the screensaver interface for Apple TV that looks like it's destined for this device with a

swipe up and changing them similar with control center how it just slides over or slides down it looks like it would be perfect on something like this and it's also this new operating system is supposedly based on TVOS so would make sense there But I don't think we're going to get a full-fledged app store,

but I think that is part of the brilliance of this. I had been saying this, and now this latest leak in the MacOS 267 RC has seemingly confirmed what I've been saying for like a year now, which is that Apple is going to take its widget and live activities interfaces that they brought to the Mac and put it on this. That makes sense. You can already put any of your iOS widgets and live activities from your phone

on your Mac and it's not running anything, you know, on your, your Mac. I think it can do the same thing here. And with that, combined with all the app intense and interactive widgets that it's been able to do, you're essentially going to get apps. But developers would have to do nothing on day one to, to more or less make their things work. And I was looking through all of my stuff recently. Sonos just launched live activity with complete playback control.

That could show up on your smart display. You get a full Sonos control on this. Day one. All of the major smart home brands already have very robust, like, control widgets that you could use. Ufi, SwitchBah, Akara, Amazon has one, Google Home has one, of course, Apple Home. So all of those, to control all of your third-party ecosystem things, would be on this. Yeah. Calder's. Every calendar company has their own, like, Fantastic Cal, Google, Amazon, whatever. Control security systems. I know I have one for Abode.

ADT, I think all of them have those. You could have those there. So they wouldn't need to have their own apps on this device. No, they wouldn't have to do anything. Anything. And that would make it a lot easier to bring into your home and set up how you like. Because it seemed to me that it was most likely to just lock you into using Apple Home, using Google, using Apple Calendar, using FaceTime.

But you're thinking this might give it a little bit more breathing room to not be so walled garden-like. Widgets are fully interactive now. So you can actually control stuff. Right. And yeah, it could just run off of your phone. And that rumor said it would show the widgets but hide personal information until it recognized you using the built-in camera and facial recognition. Once it recognized you, then it would show your personal information. So it would have full multi-user support like we do on Apple TV, technically.

Right. And that's going to be key here because whilst we have that on home pods, it's a little spotty. Too many times a day I get, who am I speaking to from my Siri? I'm like, eh. So yeah, it'll be, that's something that Apple really needs to focus on. And this is the problem that has been what we've had with using iPads as a home controller, which is something that people have been doing to date to try and fill this gap, is that they're not multi-user. And yeah, it's not easy to switch.

And so a visual interaction makes a lot of sense, face ID. You see who it is. They also have a guest mode you would assume for people be able to use and control devices. I just want something simple. I want Apple to crack the simple smart home interface. I don't want to have to deal with tons of little buttons or taps. I want to be able to walk towards, say what I want, and it just appears, and I can tap. Like, you know, turn the lights on and the brightness appears.

And I think they've got, and hopefully there'll be some sort of motion sensing, UWB or something. So it recognizes you as you approach and adapts the display for you. Yep, some sort of proximity stuff, yep. Okay, so where do we think this is on the probability scale? Is this like one or two, or are we thinking later this year, maybe three or four? This has been, I don't know what they're going to do without, like, spoiling the rest of our list here. There's other rumors for things like Apple TV and HomePod that are perhaps more likely. So, like, this would have to be a minimum of three.

Yeah, that's what I would say. really surprised slash confused if Apple introduced like part of its smart home plan and not the other part. I know. I know there's like a rumored October event where we could see this, but it just seems weird. It's like here's an Apple TV and HomePod, but not the display. We're going to wait one month until we show that off. So I don't know. I think at a minimum I'm going to have to say three.

I think it's more likely than some of the other stuff. Well, and that was, so I think that leads us right into the new HomePod and the new Apple TV, which kind of feel like sure things. Like, the rumors are that they've been ready for ages, but something's been holding it up. What might that be, City? What might that be? Yeah. So, yeah, what are we getting with new Apple TV and new HomePod Mini here? So HomePod Mini is so long in the tooth.

What, six years old now? Really old. So yeah, you got to do this one, Apple. You got to. There's no choice, really. Yeah, 100%. And so, Jen, here's, okay, switch into conspiracy hat a little bit.

Part of me wonders when they do this. Like, I wonder if they could do some sort of pairing with the home pods and the smart display. Because right now, your home pod is running off of Apple Watch chips, right? Just like the current ones are. So could they do something like bring Apple intelligence and the new version of Siri AI to this home smart display and then relay the more complicated messages through this hub

and not have to put a crazy high, like not an A17 Pro in here. Right. But then again, also like the new version of Apple Watch does have kind of Apple Intelligence on it now, you know, with WatchOS 27. So maybe you'll do that, but we're going to have some form of Apple intelligence.

I think it's like a guarantee like Siri AI will be here because right now Apple's assistant is so inconsistent. I don't want my home pods to answer me when I talk to my, to Siri. I know. This is, it drives me nuts trying to add something to the shopping list. And my phone and then my home pod and they'll be like competing with each other. The home pod can't tell if you're stumbling over your phrases. The home pod can't do, you know, almost any of the intelligent stuff that you can now do on your phone.

And then the TV is a whole separate thing. It has an even more limited set of controls. We need that unification. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that no matter what this is going to have to have some sort of, you know, Syria, that's what this has been held up for. That's going to be your biggest thing.

Other than that, like, updated, you know, acoustic, probably second generation ultra wideband ship to a pre-like handoff experience. I don't know if they'll do anything with like people tracking in the home or if that's just like a pin it for possible later utilities with things. but I think likely upgraded chip. I don't know if they'll do it in an N1. You don't really need Wi-Fi 7 on something like a smart speaker. Yeah.

But they could throw it in because they just made a whole bunch of those N-1 chips and they just have them lying around. But other than that, it's probably going to sound better and have Apple intelligence. And that's probably key. That's one of our other top seven is Siri in Apple Home. Because in case people weren't aware, it's a lot like the whole Google Home Gemini thing that's going on right now is that the assistant that you use in your home with Apple is completely different from the assistant you use on your phone. And this is talking about the new assistant on iOS 27. I'm currently on the beta for that, public beta for that. So yeah. And that is a very frustrating disconnect because your home and your phone are not separate. You use the two of them together a lot. So yeah, we really need that. And I think actually this may.

even bump the home smart display to four because I think we're going to have a new Apple TV, a new HomePod Mini, and a new Siri in September, because that lays that foundation, that lays that groundwork for making this Apple Home shift into new hardware. I think that's long time coming and pretty guaranteed that we're going to get that. Apple TV, we've actually had a number of updates recently. So what do we think is going to be about this one? Is it just the Siri AI bump, or are we going to get anything else? And maybe more on-device Apple intelligence?

Yeah, I think there's going to be a number of new things with this one. Now, compared to something like the HomePod Mini, because they're definitely not putting an A-17 Pro in there, the new Apple TV, I think, will have at minimum an A-17 Pro to support actual, like, on-device Apple Intelligence. We've seen with, like, the new versions of Apple Software, they specifically have like these powerful on-device models and some that are limited to the more recent devices. So I don't know where they'll land with Apple TV because it doesn't need quite as much.

But my guess is A17 Processor enabling Apple intelligence, we will have likely Apple's N1 chip. I think there were some code references to Apple's N1 networking chip. So Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and still thread, which is jumping to 1.4 with TVOS 27. Yay. Only one behind. I know about time. So we'll have those. There was also a late leak that showed we would be getting a new remote.

Bloomberg first said this and then this was in like that MacOS code. That's exciting. My husband won't use the Apple TV because he hates the remote. What is, but it's, I think it's going to look basically the same. I'm just hoping that they put in Find My instead of whatever they have now. That's the one thing when I was reviewing like the Google TV. I know the button, the streamer, the button on the back that rings your remote. So simple, so good.

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For the home. We can't do better, Siri, without the other two. So I'm going to go Apple TV as number one, mainly because I want it so much. So much. Okay. And then HomePod Mini 2. Yes. New Home Pods, which I'm not sure about Maxi, probably just Mini.

We may get Maxi later. Sorry. Yep. Not official naming. And then Siri in the home, which probably won't have. have a different name, but the differentiation here is this is the different voice assistant that is slightly more tailored to the home and to communal use as opposed to just your phone. Okay, so one, two, three, four, we got these are all coming this year, I would say.

Fingers crossed. What do you think, Andrew? Do you agree? I think so. I guarantee it. I'm wondering just if maybe they'll announce like the smart display, you know, at the same time as the events, but it won't launch because that's, you like it's fuzzy with the room. on terms of like announcement versus availability,

they could announce this thing, let the phones and other tech get bigger highlights, and then launch that this smart display can hit shelves a few weeks later to kind of keep that Apple PR train rolling to just kind of spread it out. So they could do something like that, even if it doesn't require much dev support. That would be an awful lot of saying Apple Home in a iPhone keynote, I mean.

Oh, my gosh, I just so excited then. We'll see. We'll see. We'll have to have a Vergecast game for how many times they say Apple Home and the next event. Okay, so we have three left that we're going to power through because they're all quite exciting, but also hugely dubious rumours at this stage. So we've got a robotic tabletop display and we have security cameras. So an Apple doorbell and an Apple security camera. What are you thinking about these three? I mean, the most, let's start with the security cameras, because that kind of leads on from what we've been talking about.

Like, it fits into Apple Home to bring their own first-party hardware security cameras. So maybe an indoor camera and a doorbell camera. But they've never made an Apple Home smart device. This would be a first. The Homepods don't count. Apple TVs don't count. Those are hubs. They're not devices for running your,

they're not devices that you use in your, a home like a camera is. So this would be a big shift. So how likely do you think these are and which one is more likely would you say? If I was, you know, putting money on it, I think that the camera, the security camera, dedicated camera would be more likely than the doorbell just because doorbells can require wiring. And that just is very un-appled to have to do any install or have a pro doing any install. Chen, I know you taught, like we talked these doorbell companies and they talk about how they have, well, you can do a white service option where someone shows up at your house and does the install. And I don't think Apple's going to want to get close. So if I'm putting money, the camera is going to be

more important because it's plug and play. And even though there are so many cameras out there, I think this one could be very big for Apple. Obviously, it's competition in Google and Amazon have their own first party cameras that they are offering. And in the world that we are at right now, I think security and privacy are such huge things. Yeah. And I think it ties in with the AI stuff. And to really do a lot with AI in the home, you're going to need cameras to be able to do that. Yeah, the visual information that feeds in.

I just wrote a piece about Gemini for Home and how they, how Gemini can take the text descriptions and match that to things that you are doing around the home. like, so having that data fed into the home from the cameras gives so much context to a smart home system that could potentially unlock significant value in the way that your smart home can maybe be a little bit more autonomous and could potentially sort of run, help run your home for you, which is sort of that ambient home goal. But cameras, people don't really, I don't know, even from Apple, do you feel comfortable? Do you have cameras inside your house monitoring you while you're in your home?

That I just don't, I just don't, and I just don't see that as something that a lot of people are going to want to do. So it's a security camera when, you know, turns on when you leave, which is something that Apple Home does very well. But you're right. Privacy and security are what Apple is selling here, and they've done that very well in the home. And really, they only have to beat Amazon and Google on trust here, which isn't going to be that. hard at this stage. So there are a lot of cameras out there, but there aren't a lot of cameras that people say, I feel 100% confident putting this inside my home. And I feel like Apple probably has the Trump card there. What do you think? I think that's absolutely their play. Because it can,

once your home starts reacting or like doing things predictively, it can be creepy. And you want to have, if you're going to have something in there that does that, you're going to need like the one that's most secure and private. We do have cameras in the house because we have so many pets and stuff. When we leave, we watch them. So like it needs to be, we for sure have to have cameras in the house, but we don't have them in any of the bedrooms or anything. But at least in like the living room, dining room, main areas, we do have cameras. And I just think that's Apple's play there. To use that for AI and just really hammer home all these privacy security things is going to give then that leg up. But the home predictive stuff could be two years away from Apple at a minimum

doing anything with it. But it could start just with a basic. That's very optimistic. It's Apple. They can start super tiny. Like, I mean, technically Apple's been doing AI for how many years now just with the little stuff of, you know, on device, core ML, the stuff showing up in control center. Like that is AI predicting what controls you're going to need before you need it. And it's just been in control center, and it's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. No, you're right. There are little touches there, and we may see more.

But I actually think the doorbell camera makes more sense just because it is a much more popular device. Like, a lot of people want doorbells. What do you think Apple's going to do with install? Like, I know it's just a weird question to hit so much, but how do you think Apple approaches that? Yeah, I mean, well, there was rumors about it being some kind of like a magsafe device. So, like, I don't know.

But that has to get wired first. Some kind of battery pack inside, I don't know. I mean, yeah, it could go completely battery. Yeah, so that you don't actually have to wire anything. Although, Apple HomeKit Secure Video only work with wired doorbells right now. So their whole infrastructure is around wired cameras. I know there are workarounds. Well, those workarounds are if you have a hub for them, like the Akara one,

what if the new smart display? Oh, the new smart display would be the hub for the camera. That would make a lot of sense. Maybe these come together too, because that's one of the biggest uses for a smart display is seeing your video doorbell when someone rings the door. You can obviously do that with your Apple TV today. When someone rings the doorbell, you can have the video show up on your big screen, but it's also nice to have it on your little screen that's on your desk or on your kitchen counter.

I think the doorbell just makes more sense for the actual consumer. Fine. If it's battery powered, I'm with you. We'll do five. We'll save five from the doorbell. Doorbell five. I do love the facial ID feature on this that's been rumored, though. Do you?

I do, because I've used it. I've used face unlock with other cameras, and I've actually really enjoyed it. I was surprised. Compared to UWB, which one do you prefer, or do you want both? I liked both. I think the problem with UWB is you've got to have your phone on you. With face unlock, you don't have to have your phone on you. That's true.

It does make a difference. especially for families, if you have kids that don't have phones. I think it's a broader use case face ID and with Apple, people are used to it. You use it to unlock your phone, so I use it to unlock my door. And I think that is just there's more of a consumer use case in that. I think there's more of an AI use case in the camera. So we'll see. Let's go with five for doorbell, six for security camera. So that sound good? Sounds good. And then the last one, the most exciting one.

Okay, least likely to happen ever, I don't actually think this is going to happen. Robotic tabletop display. So what is this one, Andrew? You do think it's going to happen? Oh, 100%. I want the lamp. The lamp. So this is what has been rumored.

Like, within Apple, they call it the Pixar lamp, this robot. And there's actually a video of Apple testing a similar robot lamp that they did for a sort of a white paper to prove that you need interaction with a device that is endearing. And so it sounds like this device might be designed to sort of be your friend. Is that? Is that what you're hearing? I mean, we've heard, who knows where all these things are going to go together? But this is my thought. I think this is 100% like very likely to happen. I'm not going to say guarantee. Apple can scratch things at any point in the process for any reason. And it could be a little less exciting than some of the rumors say. Like you talk about being your friend, I don't know about that.

We've heard versions of Apple testing out like the... Well, apparently it's codenamed Charismatic is the OS that's going to be used. But I heard that was the name for Apple's home OS, which could just run on the smart display. Right, yes. But Charismatic is quite telling. But we've heard that Apple might have a version of Siri AI just really. running as a version of the little finder face or little finder guy. Yeah.

So what if, Jen, it's literally just an adapter or an updated version of this smart display that uses the technology that Apple's already had out for a few years. The tracking. Dot kit. Yeah. This is no longer an existing product. I'm holding up like the Belkin tracking stand pro, which was, I think, recalled. It was, yes.

So you should not have that. I should not. This is a fire hazard, apparently. But yeah, it can move, it was able to move and follow you around. And that's what this rumored tabletop display is going to be. It's rumored to be like a seven-inch display, right, on a motorized arm that can move around with you and, like, react to you. Yeah. Is the rumor. It could just, instead of being on a stationary base, like we have with, you know, rumored for the launch of a half-home pod mini with a seven-inch display, what if it's just a big,

version of that base that has dot kit built into it that follows you around the room. That's far less exciting than a robot. I thought it was going to be a robot, Andrew. Give me robots. I mean, we're getting there. You got to start somewhere. You have to start on your counter. I keep seeing, I don't know, because it's, you know, X or Twitter, you see one video and then you see a thousand of the same video.

But for the last several days, I've just seen all the companies launching their own versions of the Pixar lamps, and I just keep seeing videos of them. videos of them as AI assistants rotating around literally is just lamps. But I could see Apple making a version of, you know, it's assistant that has some sort of UI to it and then on some sort of dot kit base with an improved speaker that feels very much like a personal assistant, a personal robot sitting on your counter. Okay, Andrew, we've got it. We've ranked the likelihood of the products arriving. And number one is Apple TV.

We think that's a shoe-in. HomePod Mini, maybe not Maxi. We didn't really get to that. Number two. And then at number three will be Siri in the home. It gets the Apple Intelligence. And those three are, you know, neck and neck at the finish line. Followed closely, hopefully, number four, the smart, the home smart display, the Apple Hub.

Apple Home Hub. Who knows what it's going to be called? Apple Pad. Apple Pad sounds good to me. Homepad. There we go. There you go, Apple. take that one. And then number five is a Apple doorbell camera. Number six, an Apple security camera.

And then number seven, the robotic tabletop display that looks like the Pixar lamp and that's going to be charming. That seems not likely in my books. Andrew is a lot more optimistic. Thank you, Andrew. Really appreciate you joining me to sort this one out. And we'll have to get back together in a few months and see if we got it right. Hopefully we do. Sounds great. That's it for The Vergecast. Remember to subscribe to The Verge for ad-free episodes of our podcasts, exclusive newsletters and more. We love to hear from you.

Email us at Vergecast at Theverge.com or call the hotline at 866 Verge 1-1. The Verge cast is a production of The Verge and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today's show was produced by Josh Kahas, Eric Gomez, Brandon Kiefer and Travis Larchuk. Bye!