Hundreds Developing New Apple Device Featuring 'Slim Robotic Arm'

If a new Apple device that is “a smart home command centre, videoconferencing machine and remote-controlled home security tool” ever gets to market, it likely won’t be until 2026 or 2027.

Apple is said to have hundreds of people working on the device, “which uses a thin robotic arm to move around a large screen”, reported Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. “The product, which relies on actuators to tilt the display up and down and make it spin 360 degrees, would offer a twist on home products like Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo Show 10 and Meta Platforms Inc.’s discontinued Portal.” 

Meta’s Portal range was released about six years ago. It included the Smart Camera feature, which was an HD camera that automatically pans and zooms as you move and adjusts to your lighting. The products are no longer for sale, but Meta still offers support to buyers.

The new device – with the codename J595 – would likely be part of Apple HomeKit’s smart home ecosystem, which Apple says “allows you to control your home using your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch”. It also has Siri for voice activation.

There are many questions and not enough answers. Will J595 look like an iPad, a Google Pixel Tablet, or something else entirely? 

Will it swivel and follow you around a room? Will it recognise gestures? Will Apple’s AI be baked into the operating system? And what operating system might that be? tvOS? Will it be powered by the A18 chip?

Gurman says the “idea is for the tabletop product to be primarily controlled using the Siri digital assistant and upcoming features in Apple Intelligence. The device could respond to commands, such as ‘look at me’ by repositioning the screen to focus on the person saying the words – say, during a video call. It also could understand different voices and adjust its focus accordingly”.

Apple execs want to find a way to keep the device to around US$1,000 (A$1,444).