Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) plans to advance its long-delayed smart home offensive on October 13, marking a key product expansion under new CEO John Ternus.

According to people familiar with the matter, the centerpiece of this strategy is a smart home hub codenamed J490. Apple also plans to announce the first update to the HomePod mini since its 2020 debut, along with its first new TV box since 2022.

This represents an important early test for Ternus, who took over the company on September 1. Apple views the smart home as a lucrative opportunity 鈥?and one of its famous "next big things" 鈥?but the tech giant has previously struggled to gain traction in this category, falling behind Amazon and Alphabet's Google.

These products also serve as a showcase for Apple's new Siri AI assistant, a technology the company has been developing for years. The revamped Siri has suffered multiple delays, and these smart home devices should help highlight Apple's efforts to finally catch up in artificial intelligence.

According to the people, the home hub will feature an approximately 6-inch square display, available in both wall-mountable and countertop versions. These individuals requested anonymity because the products have not yet been announced.

The new HomePod mini and Apple TV will retain their existing designs but feature faster processors to support Siri's more powerful AI models, according to the people. The new HomePod mini will also come in new colors including green and pink. Apple aims to eventually update its larger HomePod speaker as well.

Bloomberg News has previously reported on these new devices and their connection to Siri AI. A spokesperson for the Cupertino, California-based company declined to comment.

The hub's defining feature is its ability to serve multiple members of a household. It is designed to recognize who is speaking to it or approaching it, then display personalized content and provide answers based on that person's data and accounts.

For example, when a user approaches, the device will display that user's contacts, messages, calendar schedule, notes, and preferred app layout. When another recognized family member approaches, the interface can automatically switch. It will also have a guest mode to hide personal information.

The device identifies users through voice or facial recognition systems, though the latter is less reliable than Face ID on iPhone. If users do not want to rely solely on voice or facial recognition, they can request secondary verification on their iPhone. When the hub cannot correctly identify someone, the iPhone also serves as a fallback.

In dark rooms, a ring of virtual white light will illuminate the area around the screen to help the camera identify users. Apple envisions users placing multiple such displays throughout their homes. They can be used to control thermostats, door locks, and other connected products, as well as for video calls, intercom-style communication, music playback, and browsing photo slideshows stored in Apple's iCloud service.

The company also views the device as a communication and information hub in the kitchen 鈥?users can look up recipes, watch videos, or make FaceTime calls by voice while cooking.

Since the device is designed to be stationary, it has only a single FaceTime camera on the front and no rear camera. The product's microphone and speaker are located in its connected base.

The hub is about as thick as an iPhone, with a 0.5-centimeter (quarter-inch) black bezel around the display, reminiscent of earlier iPads. It features rounded corners with no sharp edges. The device has no battery, so it must always be plugged in, and it has no volume or power buttons.

The product features Apple's standard gray aluminum finish and includes a USB-C port for power. The screen sits atop a circular metal base with several rings of perforated speaker holes, connected to the display by a polished metal arm. Users can manually tilt the screen forward or backward. The bottom of the base is rubberized to help it stay stable on a tabletop.

The standard version's appearance is reminiscent of the famous 2002 iMac G4 鈥?a large display sitting on a hemispherical base. Apple has also developed a second version, codenamed J491, designed specifically for wall mounting. It has a thin square base below the display to house the speaker and microphone. The base mounts flush against the wall below the screen. This version must also remain connected to power via a USB-C cable.

This launch has been years in the making. Apple concluded years ago that it needed a stronger presence in the home market 鈥?a market where competitors like Amazon and Google have made significant progress. Apple's first attempt was the original HomePod in 2018, which performed poorly. The lower-priced HomePod mini did better but never became a big seller.

Apple eventually settled on a new path: combining an AI-powered operating system and voice assistant with a HomePod-like device featuring a screen. The company is also developing a privacy-focused home security camera and sensor, codenamed J450, capable of detecting which room a person is in. That product is planned for a later release and will not record video.

Another product in development is an upgraded version of the home hub that combines a larger 9-inch display with a robotic arm, allowing the screen to move through space. This more advanced model's display is designed to rotate 360 degrees.

Apple initially aimed to launch its first smart home display, new HomePod mini, and Apple TV in 2024, synchronized with the new Siri. But delays to the digital assistant forced Apple to also postpone these home devices. With Siri AI launching on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other Apple products this month, the company finally has the conditions to introduce its new smart home product line.

The new Siri relies on large language models 鈥?developed in collaboration with Google (GOOGL.US) 鈥?and can retrieve information from the open web. It is designed to work more reliably than the previous version of Siri and give users smoother control over devices, smart appliances, and apps.

The hub device follows the dark visual style of Siri AI on Apple's other products. Its operating system blends elements from Apple Watch, Apple TV, and iPad interfaces, including iPad-like app designs and Apple Watch-style icons presented on the home screen. It also has iPhone-style widgets, such as widgets for checking stock quotes, calendar schedules, and weather.

The interface is heavily built around photo slideshows and clock displays, similar to the new StandBy Mode on the upcoming iPhone Duo foldable phone. One clock resembles a lava lamp with a time display overlaid on top 鈥?hours shown in digital form with minutes listed below. Users can then swipe up from the clock or photo interface to open the app launcher.

Apple has included many of its most commonly used apps, including Calendar, Messages, Photos, FaceTime, Notes, Reminders, Music, and Podcasts. Users can choose wallpapers and long-press to rearrange apps and widgets, just like on iPhone.

Individual apps also borrow from iPad. For example, Messages uses a two-column layout: when a user taps a conversation in the list, the second column opens to display the conversation content. This interface extends to many other pre-installed apps.

Beyond hardware, Apple is also developing a broader smart home ecosystem, expanding on its HomeKit software and supporting new categories of connected products. The company is working with third-party manufacturers to develop new devices designed specifically for the Siri AI home platform.