If the latest reports are correct, we’re less than two weeks away from Apple revealing its long-rumored home hub device. If you’re excited about it and already making plans on how to incorporate it into your home, then you’ll appreciate the latest report that reveals the colors of the new device.

According to a post by itspdfu (who has previously posted leaks that have panned out), Apple will offer four colors for the new device: Rose Pink, Silver, Space Gray, and Starlight. The information was gleaned from a feature itspdfu discovered called Photo Face, which displays four background colors that seemingly match the color of the device.

Notably missing from the color choices is black, but Space Gray could come close enough, depending on the shade Apple uses. Starlight is a light bronze finish that has been offered on the MacBook Air, iPad, and AirPods Max. Apple has offered Rose Gold and Pink devices in the past, but Rose Pink is a new name. However, there were rumors that the iPhone 13 Pro Max was going to come in Rose Pink, but that color never shipped.

The Home hub is expected to have a 6-inch display and come in two forms: a design “reminiscent” of the iMac G4, and another that is mounted to a wall. It’s not clear if Apple will reveal the new smart home products at an event, but rumors point to October 13 as a possible launch date.

Apple may be less than two weeks away from releasing an all-new product in a new device category: a smart home hub. The device is said to be the start of a big push into the smart home category, which Apple has really only dabbled with so far. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple is finally set to announce it on October 13, after years of waiting for the new Siri AI to arrive, which will play a central role in the new device.

According to the most reliable leaks and rumors, this is what we know of the device’s design and operation:

• It will have a square aspect ratio with rounded corners and a 6-inch (diagonal) display.
• It won’t have a battery, relying instead on USB-C for power.
• It will have a metal, round base with perforated holes for the speakers and microphones.
• It will attach to the countertop base via a polished metal arm, “reminiscent” of the classic iMac G4.
• It will have a single front-facing FaceTime camera.

Additionally, the device is said to run on a new operating system that combines the “StandBy” type widgets and display of the iPhone, screens and faces like the Apple Watch, and some of the media capabilities of Apple TV. A secondary version that mounts to a wall is said to be in the works, too.

There will be clocks and photo displays, of course, but the device will primarily control smart home devices via a Home app of sorts, and include Apple Music, Calendar, Podcasts, Messages, FaceTime, News, Notes, and Reminders. There is no reported mention of an App Store, so it appears as though this is an accessory rather than a standalone platform.

A core feature is said to be user recognition. Since this is meant to be stationary in your home and not portable, it has to work for all the people in your house. So it recognizes people via their face and voice, and then customizes the display to their own preferences, showing their own data and accessing their own calendar, notes, reminders, and so on.

But if you’re expecting an iPad-like experience, think again.

A tiny 6-inch display

Apple sites like ours have been reporting on this so-called HomePad for ages. Apple has had it more or less ready to go for a long time, but it will rely on Siri for use, and Siri only just got its big brain transplant, so the home hub has sat on the back burner. We’ve largely envisioned a larger device that can act as a centerpiece of a room, something like an iPad or a small iMac.

But based on the latest rumors, most of the renders and mock-ups you see online have the scale all wrong, and it may have given you the wrong impression of its size.

Macrumors

Over at MacRumors, you will have seen the above mockup, with the square screen over what looks a lot like an iMac G4 base. There’s no scale present, so of course it could be tiny, but the size of the text and number of tiles on the screen makes it seem like it’s hovering over a big iMac G4-like base. That makes the display appear closer to 8-10 inches on a side, or maybe 12 inches diagonal.

9to5Mac

Mockups like this one from 9to5Mac are common, too, with a display (in this case not square) on top of a standard HomePod. The regular HomePod is 5.6 inches wide. So this mockup shows a screen at least 7 inches wide, or 8.75 inches diagonal.

A square display with a diagonal measurement of 6 inches is only 4.25 inches on each side. That’s only about 1.5 times as wide as an iPhone 18 Pro. Amazon’s Echo Show and Google Nest Hub are both larger than six inches and have widescreen displays. The HomePad will seem minuscule by comparison.

Foundry / ChatGPT

Our shameless AI-generated mockup shows what that would look like to scale. Perhaps the base will be a HomePod mini-like half-dome. Maybe it will be more of fat, round coaster. But a rounded-square 6-inch display is really rather small—for comparison, a regular iPhone is more than 30 percent taller!

This scale makes some sense, especially if Apple is trying to make this an affordable device where you buy several and scatter them around the house. But it also speaks to how Apple intends its customers to use it.

How might you use it?

A square display that is only six inches diagonal makes this device much more like an iPhone on a stick than an iPad, or even an iPad mini. That really limits its usefulness for large rooms. This isn’t the kind of thing you can hope to read while standing 10 feet away or hold FaceTime calls from across your living room. It’s more personal than that.

The ability to use it in the kitchen is going to depend very much on the size of your kitchen and where you put it. With enlarged text, you might be able to read a recipe from five or six feet away, but not much more than that. FaceTime calls are really only going to feel good when you’re right up near it. On the other hand, this becomes the perfect little gadget to sit on your bedside table, working as a smart alarm clock, noise machine, and podcast speaker.

While it doesn’t really make sense as an “across the living room” device, it would fit nicely on the end table next to your couch. It seems to be something that’s a little easier to ignore when you’re not using it, rather than a centerpiece. More like a HomePod mini than an iMac in that way.

It also means the base will be of limited size, and that puts limits on the sound volume and quality. Don’t expect the room-filling sound of the big HomePod, but rather something best for podcasts, audiobooks, or music at a modest volume and close distance.

Of course, we won’t really know what it looks like or how big it is until Apple announces it. The rumors about its design have been remarkably consistent over the last couple of years, but we don’t have leaked CAD drawings or parts from parts suppliers or anything like that to go from to know the scale. If the rumors are accurate, you should expect this home hub to be something “desk scale” rather than “room scale.”

If you’ve been saving up to get an iPhone Duo when it launches on October 23, you might need to scrounge together a few more dollars. According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is gearing up to make its “long-delayed push into the smart-home market” before its new folding phone even arrives.

Gurman says the products will arrive on October 13, but doesn’t specify whether there will be an online event or a mere update to its website. But the centerpiece product is definitely event-worthy: a home hub “reminiscent” of the famed sunflower iMac G4.

According to the report, several versions of the home hub, which has been casually dubbed HomePad in the press, are in the works. The so-called “standard version” has a 6-inch display “about as thick as an iPhone” surrounded by chunky black bezels “reminiscent of older iPads.” It will come in Apple’s “standard gray aluminum finish” and has a design that mimics that iMac G4:

The screen sits above a metal, round base with multiple rings of perforated speaker holes and connects to it through a polished metal arm. Users can manually tilt the display forward or backward. And the base has a rubberized bottom to help it stay on a table.

There is a second version of the hub, Gurman reports, that is designed to be mounted on a wall with “a thin, square-shaped base beneath the display that houses the speakers and microphones.” He notes that this model will need to remain connected to power at all times, which could make for some unsightly dangling USB-C cables.

Other than its retro design, the hub is “designed to recognize who is speaking to it or approaching it, and then display personalized content and provide answers based on that person’s data and accounts.” It will switch views automatically based on who walks up to it using voice and facial recognition. However, Gurman notes that the camera system “is less reliable than Face ID on the iPhone.” It can also use a nearby iPhone to authenticate the viewer and will have a “mode for visitors that hides personal information.”

The hub will run a new Siri AI-based operating system that “blends elements of the Apple Watch, Apple TV and iPad interfaces,” and will reportedly display photo slideshows and digital clocks when not in use, similar to Standby mode. Gurman says many of Apple’s first-party apps will be included on the device, including Calendar, Messages, Photos, FaceTime, Notes, Reminders, Music and Podcasts, but it doesn’t appear to have an App Store, at least at launch.

Apple is also expected to launch a new HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K with faster processors. The mini is expected to come in new colors but otherwise look the same as the current model. Gurman says Apple is also “working with third-party manufacturers on new devices designed for the Siri AI home platform.”