Apple might be making a push into the smart home market with the unveiling of its HomeView Hub and Home Collection series, but the technology giant is also leaving room for home entertainment with the next generation of its Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2, both powered by the new Siri AI.
Delivering its most immersive home theatre experience to date, the new Apple TV 4K is powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence, Siri AI, which enables a full-screen AI experience powered by a much more capable and conversational assistant. Users can engage in a completely hands-free experience by asking Siri for movie and show suggestions, even tapping into a user’s personal context for requests, such as drawing from message conversations to pull a friend’s show recommendations, for example. While watching, users can also ask Siri AI follow-up questions about topics that dive deeper into the show, which will show up in compact and subtle overlays so it won’t take away from the viewing experience.
The Apple TV 4K houses the new A19 chip, which delivers up to 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to two times faster GPU performance compared to its predecessor, allowing for greater responsiveness and faster navigation. The new chip also features a dedicated AV1 decoder, enabling more efficient streaming while using less bandwidth.
Similar to the HomeView, the Apple TV 4K can also serve as a hub for smart home accessories, enabling users to access the functions of compatible devices such as doorbells, locks or cameras without leaving the comfort of their sofas, using built-in Wi-Fi and Thread to seamlessly connect and control a user’s smart home. For a hands-free experience, users can also make use of Siri AI to control these functions via voice commands.
A TV watching experience isn’t all about crisp, 4K visuals alone, and that’s where an immersive audio setup comes in. Users can pair the TV with Apple’s newly announced HomePod mini 2 speakers for the ultimate immersive viewing experience, creating a multi-speaker surround sound experience with the devices working in tandem with the Apple TV 4K to intelligently recognise their position in the room, so audio timing and levels are automatically calibrated to the space.
On the topic of the new HomePod mini 2, these small but mighty speakers are powered by the Apple S10 chip and advanced computational audio, allowing them to analyse music in real time for optimised volume, dynamic range, and acoustic performance. The flexible device can also be connected to a Mac, delivering 360-degree sound for both work and play. To up the immersion even further, the speakers also feature Sound Glow, allowing for dynamic lights that match the colours of a track’s album artwork and glow and pulse in sync with the music.
As part of Apple’s overall push for a connected smart home, the HomePod mini 2 can also double up as a control centre for home devices, allowing users to activate door locks, blinds, lights, or thermostats with their voice, or serve as a home hub to enable users to securely control accessories from the Home app on iPhone even when they are away from home. Built with safety in mind, the device also features Sound Recognition, which can identify smoke or carbon monoxide alarms and send a notification immediately to the user’s devices when detected. Using the Home App, users can also check in via the HomePod mini 2 and listen in or talk to the people at home to verify their safety.
The HomePod mini 2 will also feature Siri AI support in the future via a software update, which will bring all the benefits of the enhanced AI companion, such as answering questions or syncing up to a user’s iPhone and iPad data for task assistance.
The new Apple TV 4K will be available for S$399 and is coming to Singapore at a yet-to-be-specified date, while the HomePod mini 2 will be open for pre-orders in Singapore starting 15 October for S$199, and will be available from 30 October in five colourways – pink, green, blue, white, and midnight.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
HSALS
