Apple’s ‘Welcome Home’ Event Is Official — Here’s What to Expect on October 13

Apple has just announced the much-anticipated October 13 event where it’s almost certain to unveil its latest products for the smart home ecosystem.

In case there was still any doubt that this event will be all about the company’s living room products, the tagline makes it pretty clear. The event is dubbed “Welcome Home,” and was teased on X today by Apple’s marketing chief, Greg Joswiak, with a video clip that shows two women embroidering the rainbow Apple logo, event name, and date.

That should also dispel any notions that Apple will use the event to unveil any new Macs. While several reports suggest a high-end touchscreen MacBook Pro, M6 MacBook Pro, and M6 iMac are all on the horizon, Apple is much more likely to reveal those as part of a separate event. That would probably be true in any case, but Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, is also reported to have a preference for spreading Apple’s product announcements out more broadly.

The “Welcome Home” event is also unique in both the time and location. While Apple typically broadcasts its modern events on video, it hosts in-person attendees for hands-on demos at Apple Park, and therefore schedules the broadcasts at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET).

However, next week’s event will move to the East Coast, taking place in Tribeca, New York, and kicking off at 9 a.m. ET. That mirrors a similar “boutique” event in March that was used to launch the MacBook Neo. Apple is even using the same terminology this time around, inviting members of the press to an “Apple Experience,” rather than an “event.”

The March 4 MacBook Neo event was conspicuously not livestreamed, which suggests that next week’s “Welcome Home” may follow suit, held solely as an in-person gathering. It’s not uncommon for Apple to hold smaller press briefings like these, which are often hosted in an office it has in New York City precisely for this purpose.

What to Expect on October 13

There aren’t too many secrets as to what Apple is expected to show off next week — although we always leave room for the company to surprise us with “One More Thing.”

By all accounts, Apple’s new home products are massively overdue, having been held back by delays in getting Siri ready for prime time.

That includes the two obvious ones: the last Apple TV 4K we saw was in November 2022, and we’re all still using the original HomePod mini that debuted in the fall of 2020.

However, Apple was also reportedly preparing to launch a smart home hub as early as March 2025. It’s probably not a coincidence this was around the same time the more personal Siri was supposed to arrive in iOS 18.4. The hardware was reportedly ready; the software was not.

That’s no longer the case now that Siri AI is out in iOS 27 and the rest of the gang. It’s likely that next week’s event will tacitly confirm the rumors that the delay was truly about Siri all along when Apple finally shows off its “J490” and “J491” smart home hubs.

These are expected to be the same underlying home hub — a device with a six-inch square display — merely packaged in two different ways. J490 is a tabletop version that “looks reminiscent of the famous iMac G4 from 2002 that has a large display that sits on a half-dome-shaped base,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, while J491 is a wall-mountable version that puts the speakers and microphones beneath the display in a thin, square-shaped base.

The hub is expected to run its own operating system that’s been colloquially dubbed “homeOS,” with facial and voice recognition so it knows who is looking at it or talking to it, and apps and widgets to lets users access their personal contacts, messages, calendar appointments, and more.

All of Apple’s new home devices are also expected to be centered around Siri AI, with the Apple TV 4K likely getting at least an A19 chip so it can handle on-device Apple Intelligence. The HomePod mini might not have quite the same chops, but will likely be built to handshake with the more powerful “hub” devices to handle the heavy lifting.

Apple has also partnered with LG to co-develop new smart home gear. We don’t expect to see any of these products launched for at least a few months, although Apple might mention this arrangement in passing during next week’s event. These will be fully LG-branded accessories, and there are reports that Apple is actively working with other companies as well, such as Schneider, so these may be little more than a repeat of similar partnerships we saw in the early days of HomeKit back in 2014 — a way for Apple to encourage companies to get on board with its home ecosystem and ensure their products are fully compatible.