Report: Apple’s smart home ambitions include “tabletop robot,” cameras, and more

Apple has purportedly been working on new smart home devices for years now.

Rumors about a touchscreen-equipped smart home device from Apple have been circulating for years, periodically bolstered by leaked references in Apple's software updates. But a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman indicates that Apple's ambitions might extend beyond HomePods with screens attached.

Gurman claims that Apple is working on a "tabletop robot" that "resembles an iPad mounted on a movable limb that can swivel and reposition itself to follow users in a room." The device will also turn toward people who are addressing it or toward people whose attention it's trying to get. Prototypes have used a 7-inch display similar in size to an iPad mini, with a built-in camera for FaceTime calls.

Apple is reportedly targeting a 2027 launch for some version of this robot, although, as with any unannounced Apple product, it could come out earlier, later, or not at all. Gurman reported in January that a different smart home device—essentially a HomePod with a screen, without the moving robot parts—was being planned for 2025, but has said more  recently that Apple has bumped it to 2026. The robot could be a follow-up to or a fancier, more expensive version of that device, and it sounds like both will run the same software.

Apple is also reportedly testing a series of home security products, including cameras and smart doorbells that support facial recognition technology. According to Gurman, facial recognition could be used to automate smart home tasks such as unlocking doors, turning off lights, or playing music.

Apple's smart home pipeline is reminiscent of some of the work Amazon has done over the last few years, particularly oddball experiments like the Astro robot and the 15- and 21-inch versions of the Echo Show smart displays; Amazon also offers security cameras under the Blink and Ring brands. However, Amazon has also cut back on some of its hardware efforts recently, possibly because it was having trouble recouping its investments.

Gurman says Apple's smart home devices will be enabled in part by a new version of Siri that's backed by large language models such as those used by ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, and other chatbots. This "more personal Siri" was originally planned for 2024's iOS 18, but it was delayed to this year's software releases after Apple had trouble getting it to work reliably. Gurman says Apple is testing two versions of the new Siri—one called "Linwood," based on an internally developed language model, and one called "Glenwood" that uses externally developed models like Anthropic's Claude.

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Posted Thursday 14 August 2025 at 12:53 pm AEST (my time).

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