Apple Announces October 13 ‘Welcome Home’ Event for Smart Home Lineup

Apple has announced a second fall event for Tuesday, October 13, teasing it with the tagline “Welcome home” — a strong hint that the spotlight will fall on the company’s long-awaited smart home lineup, including a brand-new home hub, a refreshed Apple TV 4K and a new HomePod mini.

FAKTA

• What: An “Apple Experience” product event in Tribeca, New York, on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. ET.
• Teaser: Marketing chief Greg Joswiak posted a video of the retro rainbow Apple logo being embroidered, captioned “Welcome home. October 13.”
• Expected: A new smart home hub (“HomePad”), a new Apple TV 4K and a refreshed HomePod mini — all built around Siri AI.
• Home hub (rumored): Roughly 6–7 inch square display, new homeOS, face and voice recognition, FaceTime calls and smart home control.
• Context: The device was reportedly delayed for years until Siri AI was ready; Siri AI entered beta in September 2026.

Welcome home

The announcement came on Thursday, October 8, when Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, shared a 17-second teaser clip showing hands embroidering the company’s classic six-colour logo into a hoop, one stripe at a time, before the words “Welcome home” and “October 13” appear underneath.

Media invitations describe an “Apple Experience” in Tribeca, New York, at 9:00 a.m. ET. Apple has not yet announced a livestream or a public presentation time for the wider audience.

The long-awaited home hub

The star of the show is expected to be an all-new device — widely dubbed the “HomePad” — that sits somewhere between an iPad and a HomePod. Reports describe a roughly six-inch square display designed as a multi-person household device: it would recognize who is speaking or approaching and show that person’s messages, calendar, contacts and preferred apps, while a guest mode keeps personal information hidden from visitors.

The hub is expected to run a fresh operating system dubbed homeOS, with a dashboard resembling the StandBy mode on iPhones. Rumors point to two versions: a wall-mountable tablet-style model and a countertop model sitting above a speaker base on a tilting arm, in a nod to the classic iMac G4 design. Both would need USB-C power rather than running on a battery. Expected features include FaceTime calls, music and video streaming, intercom communication with other devices, and control of connected smart home accessories.

Apple has reportedly been working on the device for years, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reporting that it was delayed until Siri AI — which entered beta in September — was ready to power it.

Apple TV and HomePod mini refreshes

Alongside the hub, Apple is expected to refresh two products that have waited years for updates: the Apple TV 4K, untouched since 2022, and the HomePod mini, unchanged since 2020.

Both are expected to keep their current designs while gaining faster chips — an A19 or A19 Pro for the Apple TV, and an S-series processor plus Apple’s N1 networking chip for improved Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the HomePod mini — so they can run Siri AI and Apple Intelligence. The HomePod mini is also rumored to come in new colors, and beta code has hinted the speaker could even gain a small display with an Apple Watch-style interface. An upgraded Siri Remote is expected for the Apple TV.

A big October for Apple

The event caps a packed fall for Apple. At its September 9 event the company unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, its first foldable phone — the iPhone Duo — a new Apple Watch and AirPods 5. The October event would be the company’s fourth product moment of 2026, following March’s “Apple Experience” sessions, June’s WWDC and September’s iPhone launch.

For more on how AI is reshaping consumer technology, see our report on OpenAI’s always-on AI agents.

Conclusion

Apple’s “Welcome home” event could finally answer the question the company has been circling for years: what does an Apple smart home look like? If the rumors hold, October 13 will bring not just new gadgets but a new front in the battle for the living room — against Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub — with Siri AI as Apple’s weapon of choice.