Welcome to In the News for November 13th, 2026.

I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com.

And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhone JD.

Brett,

this morning I was making my coffee

and I got a text message on my Apple Watch.

So I looked down on my Apple Watch

and it's a text from my good friends at Apple

saying, today's the day.

Items in your order should be coming.

The home view is coming today.

Today is the day.

So is it, it's not there yet.

Is it there yet?

Yeah, you're right.

Not yet?

Oh, my goodness.

It is being delivered to my office.

So we'll have to look at the tracking app to see where it is.

But yes.

I think these are some of my favorite recordings sessions that we've done, Jeff.

It's either been an iPhone or I can't remember.

There was something else a couple of years ago that you were waiting on.

And it came right in the middle of the recording session.

And those are some of my favorites.

So hopefully the Home View will do the same thing today because,

oh, my goodness.

wow,

did you have lots of links to home view reviews today?

Because apparently most of the tech journalists that we follow

have been using them for the last week,

right?

And wow, just some really good insights.

And I'm not going to say that the reviews are all over the place,

but I felt like they ran quite a gamut from like,

hey, this is really fantastic or this part is good.

There's some things that I'm questioning.

Some other people were talking about more on the software side.

And is it does it really work the way it's supposed to the pros and cons on there?

Anyway, just very informative because it is such kind of a new device.

And I feel like some people, a couple of the reviews mentioned the fact that it's not a

tablet,

right?

But it's not a HomePod.

So it's not just a speaker.

It's kind of it's messing with my brain a little bit about where this fits in.

And I'm going to be so curious,

maybe the next time that we have the recording session

to hear maybe how you have been dealing with it over the past week,

like all these journalists

have.

Yeah.

And I mentioned right now we're taking next week off because of some scheduling issues.

So we're going to be back in two weeks that Friday after Thanksgiving.

And at that point,

I will have been playing with it for two weeks.

There was I tried to read every review I could

find yesterday and watch just about all the videos.

It wasn't it wasn't. I mean, there was a lot,

but it wasn't a ton of I mean, there wasn't more than 10. I'm sure there's some in other countries

that I haven't seen yet,

but it was actually in some ways it was fewer than I thought there would

be.

I was amazed at the things that were consistent and it was interesting the things

that were different. So just to sort of start there,

everyone seemed to say that the hardware

was incredible.

I mean,

universally people said Apple nailed this.

And not only from the people

that have been using similar products like the Amazon Echo and Echo Shows and the Google,

other companies have been playing in this area for a while.

Gosh, I feel like I'm going back in time

And remember 20 plus years ago when other companies had made MP3 players and then Apple comes in with the iPod and people like that.

That's the way to do it.

And I feel like people are saying the same thing about the home view.

This is the best version of this.

The screen,

it's nice to have a screen because it's so much more useful than a HomePod to be able to actually glance and see like timers and music art and everything else, pictures.

And yet you don't necessarily really want a big screen because Google makes these devices that can sit in your kitchen that have something as big as a laptop screen almost,

if even bigger.

And they're like, it can get too big.

It's in the way.

This is really small.

So many reviewers say,

when I took it out of the box,

I was almost amazed how small it was.

But it's just big enough.

And everyone seems to say that it's really cute.

It's adorable.

And if you're going to have something in a family space or even just on your desk,

it's nice to have something that's sort of cute and adorable.

So that's just,

you know, the initial feels.

Okay.

The usefulness,

people have said like,

it really,

for all of its core functions,

it really is very nice.

Like it's really useful,

whether you're talking to Siri

or getting information on it

or doing recipes or doing timers

or as a smart home device,

taking a look at some of your cameras in the house

or the temperature of the time

or things like that.

They're like, gosh, it works really well.

And Apple has clearly taken,

you know, so many reviews have noted

that it's like a little bit of this.

a little bit of that.

It's different things that Apple has done.

The perfect example is the Apple

watch.

We all know that when Apple came out with the Apple watch,

which was what 2015,

right?

It's

been 11 years now.

Yeah.

Yeah. When Apple first came out with the Apple watch,

it was a very

cool device,

but I had a sense of Apple wasn't even quite sure what it was going to be useful for.

And it took them a couple of years to figure that out.

They've now taken what they've learned from

what information does it make sense to be able to glance at your Apple watch and then see it

and then drop your wrist again and go back about your business.

That same information,

like glanceable,

things that are just immediately useful,

they have informed the, all of that has informed the home view.

So it's just got that great information that's really there.

And so that part really, so it's a little bit like the Apple Watch.

It's a little bit like a HomePod speaker because it's a good speaker.

I was pleased to hear people say that the speaker quality,

I was afraid that the speaker quality would be worse than a HomePod.

I saw that.

And instead people are saying just the opposite.

It's actually better than a mini.

It's not quite as good as a full HomePod,

but you wouldn't expect it to be because a full HomePod is more expensive and doesn't have a screen.

So obviously, you know, it would be crazy to be better than a full HomePod.

And it's not as big either, and you don't want it to be as big.

And yet,

if it's – I mean, in my mind, I have HomePod minis in my house,

and they are perfectly good for music.

I mean, I'm not an audiophile,

but I really – it's not just – I don't want to be, like, perfectly good.

No, no, they are really good.

I truly enjoy listening to music in my home from the HomePod minis.

And now I have something else that will be just as good in my kitchen.

So I've got my stereo pad and my stereo pair in my living room.

I've got another one in another room.

I walk into my kitchen.

The music can just flow from room to room.

That's going to be good.

So it's a little bit like the HomePod.

Didn't I read in one of these at least that those HomePods will work with this HomeView, right?

Absolutely.

Okay, that's awesome.

That's really cool.

It's just like adding another HomePod to your home.

You just have another room that's got it.

I mean,

heck, I even have like my Apple TV uses AirPlay too.

So like when we're having a party and there's one room in my house that has a TV in it, which is separate from our living room,

and I will have – the music continues in there too.

So if people happen to wander into that room, it just continues on.

So this would be another device in that seamless home audio.

And yet it's a really good Siri speaker.

I mean it's got the A18 chip in it,

which is more powerful than the MacBook Neo, to put it in context.

I mean, the MacBook Neo,

we're going to be talking about that a little bit later on today,

is a nice little simple,

powerful computer.

I mean, this is a more powerful chip than even some Apple computers that they're selling right now.

It's not as powerful as the latest iPhone.

That's an interesting perspective.

But so it's going to handle Siri.

Now, look, Siri still has issues.

Siri can still be slow.

We know that from our iPhones.

It can be the Siri.

I can be slow here,

too.

But,

you know,

overall,

for its core functions,

people are saying it actually works really well.

Another interesting thing that I have learned is that because this is a device that for many people will fit sit in a common area.

One of the things I was concerned with for day one is so it's one thing for me to have my geeky little iPhones and iPads that I use myself.

But if I'm going to put something in my kitchen,

that means that like the other people that live in my house,

most importantly,

my spouse,

have to also be willing to live with it.

And review after review has said that even,

you know,

somebody that's not a big tech savvy person,

you know, they're like, wow,

this is actually useful.

Everything seems to be,

and we're going to get much more on this once they come out today and more people look at it.

But the acceptance factor, you don't have to be a total uber geek.

Like even just the regular folks are saying, this is a useful thing to have in your home.

And more than one review that I've read today has said,

actually,

you know, my husband said that now he wants to have another one to put in his study.

You're like,

you know, and even though they're not a big tech person.

So that I think it,

Apple had to nail that.

And part of that's how cute it is.

Part of that's how useful it is.

Apple had to have a good overall acceptance factor.

So that is,

that's something else I've been thrilled about.

Okay.

Yeah.

And at least one of these reviews,

just quickly, I was going to say that either his spouse or

his partner,

they had it in the kitchen, to your point, it needs to be in a local,

you

know,

a space where a lot of people can access it.

And I think for most people that will probably be either the kitchen or very close to the kitchen area where a lot of people congregate in a family house.

But almost all of the reviews said that recipe like this is the best recipe reader.

And to where the spouse was, like you said,

that this one journalist wasn't that excited about technology and stuff,

but they ended up starting to like it.

Like, hey,

you know, at first they were like, I don't know how I'm going to use that.

But then they're like,

wait a minute,

I found a couple of uses.

Like, it's really nice to kind of glance down there on there.

And I hate that this is a very expensive recipe reader.

But hey, if that's what works,

that's good.

But the other thing, just quickly to underscore what you had said earlier,

I found so many people like the interface with like interacting with your smart home was just very interesting more to me.

I mean,

that makes sense.

And I think that was one of the core features.

And that's one of the things I'm very excited to hear about you talk about once you put this in your home.

And if you find that it's starting to work out because it's not just for,

you know, I would think for you,

you're the one that would probably do most of your smart home stuff from your phone.

Maybe your spouse will or or the kids would.

But now if they have access to all of those controls through a home view,

I wonder if they would be able to utilize that a little bit more, too.

Yeah.

And all the reviews say that Apple has really nailed the smart home integration.

Like this is a great device for whether you're touching the screen to turn things on and off

or looking at cameras or everything,

or maybe if you're just talking back and forth to Siri.

And did you watch the Joanna Stern video of it? She has a cute one.

I have not yet, but I bet that was good.

But she talks about like there were actually some things that right out of the box,

it wasn't working as well with, and that Apple has already told her that they're addressing that.

So that's from a smart home controller and stuff,

that's going to be really good.

Now,

one thing that I'm curious about myself is I have, if you

have,

if all of your smart home technology is matter thread compatible,

you're golden.

If it's

HomeKit compatible,

you're golden.

Now,

when you have things that are on their own platform,

like for example,

some of the, some of the Nest cameras or,

you know, the ones that you and I use

at our home, the Eufy cameras. Eufy's right.

Eufy, Eufy has a mode to support HomeKit. I have that

mode turned off right now because you can get higher quality video if you don't support it.

One of the things that Jennifer,

who was the Verge review?

Jennifer Patterson-Tui,

I think is her last name.

But one of the things that she pointed out in her review as well, and she wasn't talking about the UP in particular, but she said if you have smart home products that don't natively work with this,

there are workarounds.

And this gets into the geeky thing.

Like I know that there is a thing called HomeBridge,

which is – it's a very geeky thing.

But like it can basically take some of your things that are not compatible with HomeKit and put them on HomeKit.

this is something that I will be exploring in the future.

For me so far,

I really haven't cared that

my Eufy stuff is not a home kit,

but it might be that I find that I want it to show up on this home

view.

And so maybe I will look at installing one of those on my Mac at home because my Mac's always

on at home.

So anyway, those, those are the more advanced features to come down the road.

So the

Jason said it, I think Jason Snell in his review that when he first started using it, he's like,

it started being something that this is sort of neat to after 10 days later,

he's like, gosh,

I'm really like relying upon it.

Like this is, it's moving from interesting to almost essential.

And I've heard other reviewers say that too.

So this is, I think Apple did a really good job.

So this is all the good news.

Now,

the bad news,

or not bad news, but just like the cautions are that, and we hear this

so often for Apple hardware, you know,

the iPhone duo is brilliant hardware,

but the

software may not be quite there yet.

I mean, we hear this over and over again with Apple products and people are saying the same

thing.

This first 1.0 version of the HomeView,

there are some places around the edges that it feels like the software isn't quite there yet.

But the good news is, I mean, Apple can't update the hardware once you purchase it and stick it in your house,

but they can update the software.

And I hope that there is enough people using this, that Apple gets enough feedback and,

you know, all the data that they collect and stuff from,

you know, and securely and everything,

that there will be,

I'm confident,

updates to this software that will start by fixing the things like,

for example,

Joanna Stern noticing that it didn't work with some smart home things in Siri,

but then it will move into improving it, coming up with screens.

Some people have said that there

are parts of the little,

the things that really mimic what an Apple Watch does is excellent. And

that makes sense because Apple has been working on the Apple Watch for the last 10 years. They just

move that to bigger screen.

But then the parts where Apple is doing something for the first time

ever,

like the smart home controls,

although they are incredibly powerful.

Some people have said that maybe the just from a user interface standpoint,

they're like,

maybe there would be a better way to present the user interface for smart home controls.

This is like because this is the first time Apple has done a product like this.

This is something that I'm confident they will learn with over time.

But that almost makes me it's I don't see that as a downside.

It's almost something to look forward to because I know the product will improve.

You know, I'm going to get one today.

I'm going to be setting it up in our kitchen.

And then I'm sure six months from now,

the Apple will come out with software updates and the user interface will add new features and be even more useful.

So that's a promising part of it, too.

One of the things that every review mentioned was the fact that there is no app store right now.

So in other words,

you are limited,

I guess,

is maybe the best way to put it, as to what apps.

Although I knew that all the Apple apps were available, but then there are some additional apps like Overcast in Spotify,

I think,

are available.

I'm not sure how you get those.

And it's through CarPlay because it's a bizarre thing.

CarPlay,

that's right.

Okay.

Okay.

What does a HomeView have to do with a car?

But as long as you have an app that works with CarPlay, and there's not a lot of apps that do it.

That makes sense.

But for the apps that do like music streaming apps, the developer really doesn't do anything.

It just automatically works with the HomeView if it works with CarPlay.

And so Spotify,

Overcast,

some of those things are going to automatically work.

You know, I sort of laugh at the fact that TranscriptPad, which is,

you know, an app that

I use for my lawyer stuff for listens to transcripts, it has a feature that I can actually listen

to a transcript in my car.

I will be curious to see, could I listen to a transcript in my kitchen?

I will be trying that tonight.

Will I often be listening to transcripts in my kitchen?

Probably not.

Maybe you're going to be listening.

Come on.

If nobody else is in my house and I'm getting ready to take a deposition and I just want to listen to the last deposition,

why not?

I might run transcript in my kitchen.

That would be funny.

So that's – I guess it's creative that that works.

But I do get a sense that like there's going to be a 2.0 version,

right, at some point where Apple is going to maybe not have a full app store.

They will probably find a more sophisticated way to have third-party app support of one kind or the other.

That's fine.

To me, that's inevitable.

I mean, because that's the way the iPhone started out, right?

To be the very first iPhones,

we did not have an app store.

And I mean, of course, we didn't have anything to really compare it to at that point.

We were just happy with everything that was on there.

But when the app store came around, I mean, you remember that was just an entire multiple worlds opened up.

Then the stuff that we can do with the iPhone, we can't imagine not having an app store there now.

Now,

I'm not saying that there has to be an app store for the home view.

But the point that I'm getting to, I think what you were just saying is like,

I just want to be able to support multiple more things.

And I mean,

I feel like within a month, Apple is going to be coming out with some updates to this,

Jeff, because everything that everybody's talking about here, the vast majority of stuff is just from a secure from a software standpoint.

And all of that can be rolled out with some improvements.

You know, once things get out in the wild,

as it were in the public,

then Apple,

they're getting data back all the time from all of this stuff.

And they know exactly some of the things that they can they can update and improve on this.

Let's talk about privacy a little bit.

I was exactly going there,

Jeff. Thank you. That was exactly where it's going because some

have said since this is a device that sits in a, you know, a general public area,

multiple people can use it. It's supposed to recognize different individuals in the family.

Some review said it did a good job of like locking down when the person walked away.

But the Verge review said that the mom,

Jennifer Patterson, the reviewer, could still

continue to read her daughter's iMessages after the daughter walked away.

And of course,

the daughter was not happy about this.

So I don't know how how this can be improved.

I'm confident

that it can be improved,

but that some of this may have to do with the hardware as well as just the

software,

too.

Apple has had to be the ability to have multiple users on one piece of hardware for

a long time, like for Mac,

for example,

you can technically have different users log in.

Nobody

on it.

In your home, Brett, you have an Apple TV. Do people use the multiple?

Oh, you do.

Actually, I would say that they do because I've got like my shows that I like and then my daughter

like doesn't want to sign in that way.

And then some of the apps will allow you to do different

profiles as well. Well, that's different. Yeah, I mean,

yeah, I know. Yeah. You come into Netflix

and sometimes we will change the profile.

OK, well, that's interesting. We've nobody ever changes

that on my on my Apple TV.

That's just everything under my profile.

But this is the first device

that you'll actually have a reason to do it, because when the home view knows that it's talking

to you,

it can tell things that are specific to you, not only just your specific Siri AI questions,

but also it can access your messages and it can access your emails and it can access just like

your iPhone can access that stuff, your calendar.

And so it will provide that information to you.

And yet when you walk away and the next person walks up,

you want it to provide the information

to them. So Apple really had to,

this,

Apple has had multi-user in the past,

but like nobody cares

if somebody sees what shows I was watching on Apple TV

because then they're watching the wrong account.

That's a minor.

But this does matter because messages can be private,

right?

And your calendar and all that sort of stuff can be private.

And so I was curious how Apple would nail this,

especially since it doesn't have a true Face ID camera on it.

It has a camera,

but it's a lower quality camera.

So it doesn't have that same high quality,

you cannot fake it like an iPhone does with the Face ID.

And so through the combination of it's less sophisticated camera,

listening to your voice

and knowing that your voice is your voice.

And if somebody else tries to hold up a picture of you in front of you, they know it's not

your voice.

And then also the fact that your iPhone is physically in the same house,

it sort of tries

to guesstimate who's in front of it.

And when I first heard that Apple was doing it this way, my thought was, this sounds a

little janky.

I can't imagine this is going to work in real life.

It's not going to work very well.

And I was impressed that of the reviews,

except for that one from The Verge,

so many of the

other ones is like,

gosh, it just worked.

Like, they're like, I'm talking to it.

And I walked to the side and my spouse walks up and like instantly it recognizes that it's

my spouse,

not me.

Okay.

Okay.

I was like, wow, this actually works better than I thought.

And then there was the one Verge review that said that her daughter was using it to use

messages.

Her daughter stepped away and got on the couch.

So still very close to it.

But the mom stepped in front of the screen and not only did it allow the mom to continue

to see her daughter's messages for a few seconds,

but the part that was even more concerning

to me is it wasn't just that it was confused.

She said that at the very top of the screen,

it said, I recognize that it's you,

the mom.

Should I switch over to your user account or whatever?

And I'm like,

wow.

So like, that's a problem.

That means it actually understands that the daughter is no longer there.

And yet it is still showing her messages for a second or two.

Yeah.

So and that may have been in the video part of the review, not the written review.

But now it also means to me,

again,

there's a every place there's a problem. There's an

opportunity.

Apple can tweak this.

And my hope is that they will figure out a way to do it.

I will also say that,

you know,

in I mean, I guess you have to know what your relationship is.

If my wife saw my messages,

believe me,

there's nothing confidential in there. You know,

I was joking about that in my post today that, you know, if you're having an affair or something

like that, don't use your messages app with your home view.

You know,

it's like the, it's really

not a big deal. And the fact is for two or three seconds.

And you know, the reality is our most

teenage kids going to sit there and look at their messages on a home view.

No,

they're going to use

their messages on their iPhone.

So, I mean,

the scenario is a little perhaps far-fetched,

but it's

just something to consider.

So, I mean, you need to just keep in mind that Apple,

I'm impressed

that Apple has, has made the user switching as good as they seem to have done it. And I'm using

it myself in a couple hours tonight.

But it's clearly,

at least in this 1.0 version, not 100%

perfect.

But except for something that could be really private,

like messages. I mean, you wouldn't

want your spouse to read your messages about the birthday present that your spouse was thinking

about getting for you or something like that. That would obviously be something you wouldn't want.

But on the other hand, for most things,

I just want to be able to talk to it and have it know

what's on my calendar.

And then if I step to the side and my wife talks to it and it knows what's

on her calendar.

I just want that to work.

Right.

And it sounds like Apple has done a real,

a pretty good job at it.

I can't wait to taste that, to test this in real life.

It's just a very interesting and complicated problem for Apple to solve.

Okay.

Real quick,

because I know we're going to talk about this once you get it, but you got the

version that has the base on it, right?

The full base on there,

because a lot of these tech

journalists,

apparently Apple sent them to,

they sent one that has the base on it.

And then

They had the wall mounted version as well.

So I guess they could test out both of the versions.

Do you regret getting the base model?

Do you think you want the wall mounted?

Or would that be like a second one maybe that you would get at some point?

If it's good enough.

I really don't think so.

The wall mounted version is particularly nice if you're using it truly as a smart home device.

Because then it's something that anyone can walk up to, press buttons to not just turn on individual lights.

But like one of the reviewers had it like if you set up a scene in the Apple Home app, you can have a scene of like,

you know,

one reviewer had like a good morning and a good night scene.

So she just tapped the good night

button.

It automatically turned off every light downstairs in our house.

And I do this routinely

because I'm always the last person on my house to go to bed.

And so like I will walk through the

house and, you know, as I'm done in this room, I'll say, hey, you know who,

you know, turn off the

living room,

turn off the dining room. And I just say,

and I love the fact that I can just be

literally walking through the bottom of my house as I had to come upstairs for the night.

And I just

shout into the air and the different HomePods, wherever they're located, hear me and do what

needs to be done.

So I personally like just speaking to it.

But if you wanted to have something on your wall that you would like tap, I could see

it being useful for that.

I personally think that the model,

as long as you have a space for it in your common

place,

whether it be in your living room or your kitchen or whatever else,

I think that

the model with the bass is the one that most people are going to gravitate towards.

Plus,

you get a little bit better audio that way too,

because the bass version has like

a subwoofer in it.

So the sound's going to be a little bit better,

but it's nice that Apple made that alternate

version.

I am intrigued.

I mentioned this quickly in my review in my post today.

I'm just as intrigued about people taking that wall-mounted version and doing something

creative with it.

Like that one person Making

their own base.

Yeah.

I think

it was a tech radar maybe or something like that.

He had

3D printed a little thing to stick to the back of it.

And he

had like one of those extra arms like you have in front of you right now, holding up your

microphone in front of you.

He had like a neck, he had an extra one on his desk.

And so he just stuck the home view there.

And I'm like, this was sort of interesting because like he's sitting there at his computer

desk and he can just sort of look up to the side and he's just got a hovering home view

there.

Right.

Oh,

that is interesting.

You know, so that sort of creative stuff would be,

you know, I love the people have come

in.

So more things like that.

So maybe the wall mounted version will be useful for some people if you actually want

it on your wall.

And it will be useful for other people because they might find some creative way to mount it in a place that Apple hasn't necessarily thought about.

But once people do it, they're like, oh, yeah, for some uses, that could actually be really,

really, really cool.

Yeah,

here's the picture here.

He's got this little,

it's almost like a boom,

like a monitor,

it looks like to me.

Yeah, yeah.

But instead of a big monitor,

it's just a little wall mounted.

But you're right.

I mean, to me, this is always what's most exciting.

Apple is going to come out with, you know, a new product.

But then once it's out in the wild,

people are going to do all kinds of fun, creative,

experimental things with it.

And that and that will be that will be interesting as well.

OK,

we'll move on.

But in two weeks when we have our next recording,

I just I can't wait, Jeff.

I'm excited to hear how you have been utilizing it, what you've been experimenting with.

This the price on the home view is two ninety nine.

Right.

That's the retail price from Apple.

I think I've already seen it maybe for $10 less at certain places.

I think maybe even posted.

Yeah, yeah.

You posted today that Amazon has it for $2.89 on there.

That's still, I don't know.

That's a little on the high side, but it's Apple pricing.

It's more than a HomePod mini.

It's less than a HomePod.

We'll see how useful it is.

I mean,

of course, it'd be nicer if it was cheaper,

but something to think about.

That's not the only device that is available out today.

the brand new well or i guess i would say the upgraded maybe apple tv 4k um just a couple of

i feel like it's minor kind of updates kind of the guts at least i think right the chip is a

little faster on here uh well they do say improved remote i don't know what changed with the remote

but one of the things one of these reviews that you linked to today i thought said it best

like probably the reason that most people would maybe get this Apple TV is to future proof it,

right? Because I mean, I'm still using an Apple TV that's probably four years old,

perfectly adequate.

I think it was one of maybe the first 4K that came out.

We love it. I mean,

we use the Apple TV almost every day.

I mean, it's just something that's been incorporated into

our lives,

which in a May makes me think of, you know,

it's the home view going that same way.

Okay,

we'll wait and see about that.

But I'm just saying like now, I don't know that I,

this is enough for me to upgrade my Apple TV 4K.

But if you're in the market,

you know,

getting to the holiday season,

maybe definitely this is the one you're going to want to get.

I completely agree, Brett.

Nobody should upgrade.

I mean, unless you have a truly older Apple TV,

but if you have any Apple TV,

that's got the word 4K in the name and they've been coming out with

different versions of the Apple TV 4K for a very long time now,

there's no reason to upgrade.

Having said that,

whenever you are,

you know, if you're buying a new one for somebody or

something like that, the downside is the cost is way too high. I hate the fact that Apple is

charging so much for the Apple TV. I wish they could charge a lot less.

But putting that aside

for a second,

it is a slightly better Apple TV.

For example,

like you mentioned, the processor

is faster.

Does anybody need a faster processor and an Apple TV?

Probably not today,

but maybe in

five years,

it will be helpful.

Maybe there will be some feature in five years that takes advantage

of the faster processor,

but for today,

nobody needs it.

If you wanted to have surround sound

using HomePods, that's a very specific use case.

You want to have four HomePod or HomePod minis

around you for surround sound, you need to have this new one to do it.

I have, you know, I have

had like surround sound in my TV room for decades,

just like using a regular amplifier and four

speakers.

And I plugged that into my Apple TV and that works great.

So in that,

for that very

specific use case, if you want to specifically use HomePod minis and HomePods to have surround

sound,

you need the new one.

And then the other real new feature is that it has a microphone on it.

So like, if you like the idea of walking into a room and being able to talk into the air and have

it hear you,

you want to have the version with the microphone.

Now,

if you already have a HomePod,

or if you already have this brand new HomeView that also has a microphone,

or if you just want

to talk to your iPhone,

but then you don't need this.

But you know, if the one and only thing that

you have in your downstairs is the Apple TV and you like the idea of being able to talk in the air,

well then,

and your TV's on, mind you, your TV has to be on for this to work in the first place.

So it's a very specific use cases.

So,

you know,

there are very minor tweaks for some people that

would be useful.

There's also the new and improved Siri remote, but you could purchase the new and

improved Siri remote. If you really wanted to have the updated Siri remote, you can buy that

yourself.

So,

you know,

it's a minor upgrade.

Nobody should buy this as an upgrade,

But if you needed to replace or buy somebody their first Apple TV,

I guess this one's a little bit nicer.

And,

you know,

that is nice.

Again,

I really wish it was $150,

$200.

I mean, what is it?

It's $200.

It's $299.

$299,

yeah.

I mean, I feel like this,

you know, both this and the HomeView cost the same amount of money.

And for the HomeView,

I feel like you're getting a pretty good deal.

You've got a screen.

You've got the HomePod.

You've got everything else.

It's a good deal for $299.

This one for $299,

gosh, I don't see it, Apple.

I mean, look, Apple knows what their market is.

And I'm just hoping that over time they'll drop the price.

This thing really should be $200 or less.

That's my only complaint.

Agreed.

Yeah.

You know, in an ideal world, it would be $100.

But, you know, who knows?

So I am interested, I guess, what the new Siri remote is or the upgrade.

This is a 9to5Mac.

This is Chance Miller.

He says the Siri remote looks the same as before,

but now supports precision finding in the Find My app.

Do the remotes right now have Find My?

I can't remember.

Yeah.

I guess,

but not precision finding,

right?

Right.

So they don't have precision finding.

And so what this new remote gives you is number one,

if you have a newer Apple Watch or Apple

iPhone,

you can actually get like the arrow that points you directly to the point of the

couch where it is.

And then second of all,

the new remote has a tiny little speaker in it,

which is perhaps

the most useful part.

Like if you've lost, like if I can't find my keys,

yes,

I'm going to use the arrow to

walk around my house.

But the main thing I'm going to do is I'm going to ping it because I've got like a little

an AirTag attached to my keys

so that if I can't remember where my keys are,

I can make them ding.

And then I'm like, oh, that's where they are.

I forgot that I left them in the kitchen.

And so this remote has it.

So if losing your remote

is something that happens frequently to you,

well, you still don't need to get the new Apple TV.

You could just buy the remote,

but you could buy the new remote for $69.

And is it worth you spending 60 bucks

to find your remote?

I leave that to you.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago,

and Apple announced this,

if you've got small kids in your house

that love to like play with the remote

and hide it in their toy box,

well then yeah,

maybe it's worth 60 bucks

so that you can find that remote.

But you know, my kids are older now.

So that's,

they're no longer hiding remotes in my house.

Home view,

upgraded Apple TV 4K,

but that's not all.

We can also today,

apparently,

I don't know if it's even available if it's open yet,

but we talked about the Apple home collection

a few months ago.

This was announced,

I think in conjunction

with the home view right and the apple tv these are separate like devices like door locks and

cameras i think apple is working with at least lg uh from the electronic side and another one

sensei electronics something like that um they were not available they were announced in kind of

like almost like a footnote i feel like there wasn't really a lot of hoopla but apparently today

at some point today you can pre-order these um i was looking at some of the pricing i don't think

the pre-orders were available but some of the pricing on these whoo it's there these are a

little on the top end as well uh including the apple tax here if you buy one of these products

you're going to pay a little bit more than you would pay for a product that's not part of the

you know the apple home collection on the other hand you know it is 100 going to work with the

Apple stuff.

It's going to work with your home view.

It's going to work with home kit. It's going

to work with everything.

And, and it's also going to be nicely designed.

It's not going to have

gaudy stuff on it, beautiful logos.

I mean, they're all nicely designed, so it's going to work well.

It's going to have a nice design.

Now, I mean, again,

this is, we're just talking about the

Apple TV.

I hate that it's $299,

but like, you don't have to spend $299 on Apple TV.

You could spend $50 to $100 on an Amazon Fire Stick or a Roku or something like that,

But you got to deal with the aggravation, the ads,

the fact that it's not going to be perfect.

For me,

I'm going to pay a little bit more money.

And if I'm buying one for my loved ones,

I'm going to say, look, spend a little bit more money because you're going to be happier in the long run with the Apple one.

And I think that that's what Apple is going for with the Apple Home Collection is they're not going to be the cheapest device in the category,

but they're going to look really good.

They're going to work really well,

and they're going to be hassle free.

So is that worth spending an extra $1,500 on your door lock,

on your camera?

For me, it is.

For other people, it won't be.

You know, Viva La Choice.

I'm glad that we have,

you know, you can get what you want.

This is the LG Smart Deadbolt Lock.

$350 is the price on this.

And it does look pretty,

though.

I have to say,

this is not like a deadbolt I have ever seen on a door before.

There's a thermostat here.

There's the indoor camera.

There's an outdoor camera.

These are all in conjunction with LG Schneider Home Room Sensor.

Schneider Electronics is the other company that I was mentioning.

It doesn't look like that they're still available.

I can't like add it to my bag.

So I don't.

Oh,

maybe this one I can.

This is the LG Video Doorbell.

So the pre-orders are open right now so that you can get one of these if you're interested.

But I think, you know,

this is true.

The reason that it was introduced with the HomeView is because we know that these devices will definitely work with the HomeView.

And maybe some people would be interested in that.

Yeah.

And in fact, I mean, talking about price,

how much did you say that one was?

$350,

you said?

The doorbell, the LG Smart Deadbolt Lock is $350,

yes.

$349.95.

So that's a good example

because it supports this very latest technology

that your door can automatically unlock

when you get closer.

It's that fancy.

Yes.

And there's only like two other door locks

that support it right now.

Oh yeah, we've talked about those before.

One of them was made by Schlage.

And I'm looking on the Schlage website,

their devices that support it are also between $329 and $400.

And so it actually is pretty price.

For this one, at least, it's price competitive.

Now, some of the other ones,

like the cameras,

you can actually get cheaper cameras.

So my point is just shop around.

You know, it won't necessarily be overpriced.

It could be competitively priced.

It just depends upon what you're looking at.

A couple of other things that you linked to today.

I thought this was interesting.

This was a story about the iPad mini versus the iPhone duo,

which we talked about this quite a bit last time.

I remember,

but I just thought this was good.

Riley Hill at SlatePad.

Just some points that I hadn't really thought about.

Even the iPad mini that he is using with the matte screen on the iPad mini,

right?

Where the iPhone duo has already a matte screen internally, like the bigger screen on there.

I guess I never really thought about the iPad mini with a nanotexture available here.

And I can tell you, the more I read about this iPad mini,

Jeff, I keep getting a little interested in it, to be honest with you.

Yeah,

the nanotexture on an iPad mini,

I mean, if you know you're going to use it in areas with a lot of light,

certainly if you're going to use it outside,

then I do think that makes sense.

If you're really primarily going to use it in your living room,

then I probably would not get the nanotexture

because you can just adjust your screen so that something's not reflecting on it.

And you do lose a tiny bit of the image fidelity with the nanotexture screen.

On the other hand, for some people, the nanotexture screen is fabulous.

And of course, it does a great job in the iPhone Duo in hiding the crease.

What was interesting to me about this review is it's part of a bigger picture.

The iPhone Duo has now been out for a couple of weeks,

right?

And much like I've said in the past, some people love it.

It's their favorite iPhone.

It's cute.

The utility of having something small in your pocket and you open it up and you have like

a bigger screen like an iPad,

people rave with it,

rave about it.

And then on the other hand,

I'm seeing more and more reviews that are similar to the take

that I posted a few weeks ago after playing with one in the Apple store and saying, gosh,

you know what?

I don't think it fits in my life.

And so you need to decide.

I saw one thing.

I hate to even repeat this because I don't know if it's true or not.

And it could be completely false.

But one report I saw online said that they are hearing that in some circumstances,

up to 30% of the people that buy an iPhone Duo are returning them.

I have no idea if that statistic is correct.

And it probably isn't.

It's probably an exaggeration.

But the point is there are certainly some people that are buying an iPhone Duo,

trying it out because they want to try it out because it's the cool new thing.

And they're realizing, gosh, I don't think that this is for me.

And so,

again,

people of choice.

I love that people,

for some people, it's there and it's fabulous.

And so to get back to this particular review,

if what you really want is a small,

portable iPad-style screen that's not nearly as big as a regular iPad and certainly not as big as an iPad Pro,

but you just want something small and really useful,

there is a decision to be made about whether you get the iPhone Duo or whether you get the iPad Mini because the screen sizes are similar.

And the iPad Mini,

being a full-fledged iPad,

can do everything that the iPad can do.

Right.

And so this is what Riley is saying in this review.

He's like, on paper,

I should be loving the iPhone Duo more.

And yet in practice,

just the iPad mini just does more of what I want it to do.

And yes, I can't fold it in half and stick it into a tiny pocket,

but I can keep it unfolded

in its regular state.

And it'll fit in a larger pocket,

a coat pocket maybe.

And depending upon what you want, if you want a screen that's bigger than an iPhone,

but

still is pretty small,

you need to think long and hard about this.

because the iPad mini is going to be much cheaper,

you know, half price basically of an iPhone duo.

It's going to do a lot more than the iPhone duo.

In many cases,

you cannot fold it in half,

but it's a really close call.

Here is our public service announcement for the day.

If you have an iPad mini,

or certainly if you have an iPhone,

iOS 27.2.1 has been out.

It has some, just some small fixes,

I think,

from a security standpoint,

But at this point,

I would say get it updated as soon as possible.

Although I will tell you, Jeff, I don't know if you encountered this.

Last night I saw this and I was trying to update both my iPhone and my iPad.

And for like one of the first times in a long time that I can remember,

both of the devices kept giving me errors.

They kept saying like this is encountered an error.

It can't update.

And I wasn't able to update either one of them.

And then this morning,

my iPad updated just fine.

but my iPhone continues to say that there's an error when it tried to update this.

I'll try to install it now and see if I get the same error.

So again, I'm just throwing, I hadn't seen that in forever.

Most of these smaller updates like this just go lickety split.

But anyway,

be that as it may,

and sound like you haven't had that same experience,

this is definitely worth going.

Oh, now my iPhone is going to update just fine on this now.

So even if that happens,

it just takes maybe a little bit longer,

but definitely go through into the update.

I have had issues in the past where for some bizarre reason,

an update didn't work,

but that hasn't happened to me in a long time.

And it certainly did not happen this week.

I updated my iPhone,

my iPad,

my Apple watch, everything updated.

You did just fine on there.

And I think I even have a Mac update as well.

I haven't done that.

But then I believe I'm assuming that the Apple watch and Apple TV have updates as well.

I got to check on that on there.

OK,

OK.

So all of it.

And again,

these are just I don't know if there's anything security wise that you want to point out in here.

Most of these are very minor or frankly, I don't even I don't even go into the guts of what they are anymore.

Like if they come out with a very point point update like this,

I'm like, it's it's just a no brainer.

Go ahead and do that, because I just want to make sure that everything is fixed that needs to be fixed on there.

I agree.

Last little video.

You even warned me on this,

Jeff.

You said do yourself a favor and grab a tissue before you watch Apple's first 2026 holiday video.

It's this has almost become like a tradition.

Every holiday period,

Apple,

I can remember several of them.

There was one I think it was with the iPad,

right?

That somebody made like a movie for the family,

right?

Am I remembering that correctly?

There's been several of these from the holiday side.

You even warned me.

You said, do yourself a favor and grab a tissue.

And I'm like, I'm fine.

I'll be OK.

What do you think happened?

I watched this little video.

It's called The Dreamer, an Apple holiday film.

It is worth three minutes of your time.

they do so good on these videos jeff it's like mini movies and they're just amazing

if you have kids especially if they're a little bit older so you've watched them grow over time

this just hits you in all the places because all the places reminds you that you know kids do things

that is awesome that are awesome kids do things that it's not the right thing you know i don't

want to give away anything for them but there's there's one point where the kid's doing something

in this one that i'm like then it's driving the parent you know a little crazy and yet afterwards

They look back on it nostalgically.

And gosh,

I've had those same moments with my kids.

This is just whoever Apple hires to come up with these,

you know,

I mean, the writers,

the directors,

I mean, they are just like mini, mini movies and they're wonderful.

And it's not a hard sell.

They don't even talk about the Apple products to the very end of it, even though the hero

of the video,

it's great.

And what was interesting to me is I don't, you know, as you mentioned,

Brett, we see these

every year, right?

Yeah.

I don't remember seeing one as soon as,

what are we, two weeks of Thanksgiving right now?

This is early,

which makes me think that this is perhaps just one of many.

I mean, I have no inside information.

I know.

But my guess is that we are going to get another cute Apple holiday video focused on the iPhone

and, you know, maybe another one focused on the home view.

Who knows?

I have no idea.

So my hope is that this is the first of many because I will tell you it's like,

you know,

what's the joke about pizza?

You know, great pizza is great.

And even bad pizza is pretty good.

You know,

Apple always does a fantastic job with these videos.

Some of them are out of the park outstanding.

And others are just like interesting,

but still worth watching.

This one is really good,

but I look forward to more.

So thank you, Apple.

And I know that they're commercials,

blah, blah, blah.

Oh,

yeah.

But thank you,

Apple,

for making these videos.

These holiday videos are just a treasure.

And Apple needs to start making tissues.

Like they just need to manufacture tissues

that go along and then they can sell.

It's just like it's a cleaning cloth

or, you know,

$29 to buy a little box of tissues

from Apple branded tissues

because they're so good.

And I just quickly, I'll point out,

you can look for this little Easter egg because Jeff and I, we talked earlier,

we both found this little nerd Easter egg when the kid is young.

So theoretically,

this is like several years prior to current day.

The father comes in and takes a picture with his iPhone.

And so Jeff and I talked about this earlier.

When he first pulls up the phone,

it's showing the back of it.

And what I'm doing,

of course,

just because,

again, I'm geek,

I'm looking at that phone.

I'm like, is that an iPhone Air?

Like, what phone is that?

And then it switches back to the screen of the phone where the dad is using it.

And the buttons look weird.

And then I recognized this is an older iPhone as if it was an iPhone from 10 years ago when the kid is younger.

I mean that the fact that you even threw in those little tiny details,

just to me that right there, I started crying because it was so good.

Not to mention the fact that you're following the child of this.

So anyway,

what great video.

I'll make sure it's linked in the show notes and everybody should go and just enjoy a little bit of fun and watching that and some tears,

possibly happy tears.

If you have any kids in the know.

All right.

So I saw this.

So I follow a travel blogger by the name of Zach Griff.

Okay.

And he's also a tech guy.

So he actually carries two iPhones apparently when he travels,

Jeff.

One is like a regular.

I think it's like an iPhone 18 Pro.

And he also has a duo.

So when I saw this video, I also thought about you because I know you canceled your iPhone

duo pre-order.

But if you had not,

at some point you were thinking about using two iPhones,

right?

Well,

we have talked about the iPhone handoff before,

but I had never really had a chance to see somebody utilize it until I saw Jack Zach Griff show this.

I did not know that there are like little additional icons that will show up when you hand the same phone number off to a second phone.

So here it has to be certain carriers.

You can have one phone number and you can share that phone number between the two phones that you have.

Right.

So this is only going to be interesting for the point.

Oh,

seven percent of the of our listeners.

Right.

Because how many people have two iPhones?

I don't know.

And if you most people that have two iPhones,

one is for business and one is for personal.

Right. So I know that this may not apply to a lot of folks.

But if for whatever reason that you do have two iPhones can't be an iPhone and an Android,

it's two iPhones.

You can see Zach is showing here.

There is little tiny little icons that will show up and typically where your signal strength is for your cellular that can tell when you are handing off the phone number to one or the other the one of the other phones.

This is absolutely supported by Apple.

In fact, they have a whole page here on iPhone handoff.

Now, I think I think this is only supported by T-Mobile here in the United States.

Although Zach mentions that it can also work with Verizon.

I think that you have to have some kind of a specific plan that you have to set up in here.

But there's that green notification that will tell you when that same phone number switches from one phone to the other.

And I just thought that that was interesting.

Yeah, he says Verizon and T-Mobile.

So T-Mobile is the one that Apple mentions on their system here that they officially support.

But for anybody that has two iPhones,

this is a good,

fun way to maybe use the handoff.

You don't even have to switch out the eSIM.

You don't have to go through anything.

It's just the handoff of using the same phone number for two different iPhones.

So that's my little tip that I was watching for Zach.

I just said,

I know this had come out a while back,

but I guess I don't know how many people

have two iPhones,

but I thought that of you, Jeff,

if you did get an iPhone Duo,

you could

use the same phone number for both devices.

Yeah, I had thought about this when I was contemplating getting an iPhone Duo.

And I use,

I currently use AT&T and AT&T does not support the feature and have said that

they don't plan to support.

So it would have been an issue for me.

I'll mention, first of all, thank you.

I did not realize that there were different icons that show up.

Of course, Apple had thought through a good way to do it.

So that's very interesting to see.

The other thing I'll mention is that if you have,

even if you have this sharing thing,

your Apple Watch can only be paired with one device at a time.

So you can't, not even at a time.

Like it's just one device.

So like,

let's say, for example, you have an iPhone 17 or an 18 and you also have an

iPhone duo and you decide today I'm going to take my iPhone duo with me.

I'm going to leave the iPhone 17 at home while your Apple watch is still on your wrist.

Just keep in mind that certain Apple watch functions rely upon communicating with your

iPhone and your Apple watch will not be able to see your iPhone because the iPhone it communicates

with is still going to be at your house and you're walking around with the duo.

So just keep that in mind that it's, it's, it's another factor.

But having said that,

you know,

like you say, iPhone handoff is useful for the top 1% of the 1% of the 1%.

But for those people,

it's good that Apple has come up with this technology.

It'd be better if more carriers supported it in the United States and around the world.

And so, but it's an interesting option for some of them.

So thank you for sharing that.

I had not seen this video and had not heard about that.

My little tip that I had to share today is not a new tip,

but it's just one of those things that you were relying upon.

It's new in that it came out a year ago.

So not our current iOS 27,

right?

This came out with iOS 26,

so just over one calendar year ago.

And it was the feature that for years and years and years, if somebody sent me something in a text message and I wanted to copy it and paste it somewhere else,

the only way you could do it is to copy the entire text to the message.

And if the text message was five words, it's not a big deal.

But if somebody – some people will type like a longer two or three sentence message,

and I really only want to get a couple words.

And so it used to be that your one and only option was to capture the whole thing.

And because I'm so used to that, I still find myself forgetting,

oh,

yeah,

I can actually just copy with a part that I want.

And so just as a good little reminder to you from number one,

reminder number one,

this feature exists.

And reminder number two,

here's how it works.

Hold down the text bubble that you, you know, for a second.

And when you hold down for a second,

a little pop-up menu shows up with all the different things you can do.

And one of the things you will see in that pop-up menu is the word select along with a little icon next to it.

And if you tap select,

now what will happen is you will see the little selection bars at the beginning, at the end of the message.

And you can just drag those selection bars so that you're just around the words that you want.

And then as soon as you change that,

automatically a little pop-up thing will come up and say copy.

And then you can just copy those particular words.

And now you have only the words in the text message that you want on your clipboard.

And now you can go into another app or another text message or wherever you want to go and paste just those words.

So it's just,

you know, even though it's been around for a year,

I don't use it often enough

to remember that it's there.

And just this week, I was like, gosh, I know I can do that.

How do I do that?

And they're like, oh,

that's how I do it.

So it was a reminder to myself.

Hopefully it's a good reminder to others too.

I'm really glad Apple added this feature.

Nice to have.

That's fantastic.

And thanks for the reminder.

I just wanted to say my iPhone,

as I was talking,

you know, I did upgrade to 27.2.1.

And I have to tell you,

the biggest change that makes me uncomfortable is the Apple Music

icon changed.

You know how the Apple Music icon is always that red icon has been that red one for a

long time.

I mean, it's why I think we talked about this a while back, but now it's white with two

music notes on it.

So I guess it's the same,

the same app, but it's just like,

that's just so weird because

that's not how my home screen looks with the Apple Music icon on there.

Did they change anything else?

I think everything else looks the same,

but anyway,

just wanted to follow up.

And by the way,

so when we talked about it, I did start that,

that update and that's how

quickly it went.

So just for anybody that's wondering about the updates, I wanted to just, uh,

that's a real time update.

And my real time update is when we started recording my podcast, their podcast, I said

that my home view was arriving between noon and five today.

And the bad news is that the latest UPS website is it's now saying it's arriving at my office

between four 15 and eight 15.

Now,

I ain't going to be here at 815 tonight.

So let's just hope it's closer to the 415.

As long as it's here before I leave.

Please, UPS.

You know,

because showing up at my office at 815 ain't going to work, Mr. UPS.

So hopefully that's not not.

But again,

OK,

those delivery windows are often, you know,

it could be walking in my door any second.

We shall see. Fingers crossed.

Well,

I won't be able to hear about it next week.

We're going to be off next week.

So everybody, we won't have an eye podcast next week.

But in two weeks,

we are going to record the Friday after Thanksgiving because,

you know, Jeff and I enjoy doing this quite a bit.

And plus,

we're going to have a lot to talk about with the home view.

I want to know, but you can record that.

You're not going to be standing out in line at a Walmart to get there at five o'clock in the morning on Black Friday.

That's not me.

OK, everything's online.

Who stands in the line anymore?

I know there's a lot of people that do.

But my goodness,

it's like that's not me, man.

I'll just do it online.

Thank you very much.

Maybe I'll get a home view myself.

We'll have to hear about that.

All right.

Thanks as always,

Jeff.

And we'll talk with you in two weeks.

Talk to you then.

Thanks, Brett.

Bye-bye,

everybody.