Do you remember “Everything is a Remix,” the series of work by Kirby Ferguson? His main premise is that almost all the creative work we see in the world derives inspiration from what came before it.
I think Apple’s just-announced HomeView may be the latest entry in the list of things that prove Ferguson’s point.
To put it in another set of terms: the HomeView is “new but somehow familiar,” to borrow a Jony Ive phrase. I think it applies to just about every aspect of this product.
I’m a little surprised by this bit of news, and sad that my beloved orange model is gone.
Mark Gurman, writing two days before Apple’s event this week:
The centerpiece is a new smart home hub called the HomeView. Equipped with a display and an A18 chip, the product essentially serves as the Siri command center for an Apple-powered household…
The HomeView comes in two versions: a countertop model with a metal speaker base and a wall-mounted version with a flat, square base that sits against the wall beneath the display. The countertop offering will come in four colors: space gray, silver, starlight and pink, while the wall-mounted version will be limited to space gray and silver.
Next week should be fun.
After my recent post about how Apple Maps butchers the Great American Pyramid, several readers sent in images of other pyramids Apple has rendered properly. One in particular is quite painful to see — Luxor Las Vegas.
Here is the hotel in satellite view, and then in Apple’s 3D rendered view:
It seems that Apple does have the technology to make smooth pyramids!
Mark Gurman, writing about Apple’s upcoming move into more smart home devices, which we may see as early as this month:
At the center of the strategy is a smart-home hub code-named J490, according to people familiar with the matter. Apple also plans to announce the first update to the HomePod mini since that device’s 2020 debut and its first new TV set-top box since 2022.
…
The hub’s defining feature will be its ability to serve multiple members of a household. It 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.
This morning, I saw Basic Apple Guy’s recent post about Apple Stores popping up in Apple Maps, and I was reminded that we have some fancy Apple Maps features here in Memphis, too.
I present to you downtown Memphis, looking east from the Mississippi River:
Yes, we have a Bass Pro inside a pyramid. No, it doesn’t look like Apple’s rendering of it:
Ramesses now stands at the University of Memphis, but that’s a story for another time.
Life is full of trade-offs. I often think about this in terms of vehicles. If you have a big family, a minivan is probably the right call, even if it means sacrificing performance. A luxury sedan may be nice to sit in, but it will cost you big bucks. You can drive a pickup truck, but you will probably pay for it at the pump.
In the world of technology, trade-offs change nature over time. The first iPhone was amazing, but it was expensive and only ran on AT&T. The original MacBook Air was an incredible piece of engineering, but it ran hot and slow.
Dr. Drang, bouncing off my recent post on Apple’s dimensional drawings:
When I zoomed in on Stephen’s page, I was initially confused, but then I realized what seemed odd to me. You see, I’ve spent an awful lot of the past 40 years looking at engineering drawings, and I can’t think of any that looked like this. That’s because the drawings I’m used to are for making the depicted product, but the drawings Apple’s offering up here aren’t for that. These are for others—not Apple and not its suppliers—to use for making cases and other accessories. I figured it was worth a quick post on what makes a drawing like the one above so different from what I’m used to.
Apple’s 27 OSes are rolling out today, and there’s a lot of great stuff to read:
Mark Gurman has good news for Apple Store visitors:
In many stores, Apple will replace the video walls with dedicated Genius Bars, marking a return to a familiar element from an earlier era. The design resembles the Genius Bars of the past but with an all-wood look. There will be two counter heights for accessibility, while the wall behind the bar will include storage drawers and large posters highlighting new products.
The eve of iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders seems like a good time to look back at the iPhone 17 family’s adoption. Here’s the 17 family data as a percentage of overall usage for Widgetsmith.
Generally, they followed the usual adoption pattern and overall did very well, ending at around 20% of total usage.
With the exception of the Air really struggling to find market share. For comparison, the 16 Plus ended its first year at around 1.4% (vs. the Air’s 0.3%).