New Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini Features Uncovered in Beta Leaks
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If the latest reports are accurate, Apple will be holding some kind of event next Tuesday to showcase its ambitions for your living room, during which we expect to see a new Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini, and the long-awaited smart home hub.
Last month, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman pegged October 13 as the date, and while he was initially unclear about whether this would be an event or merely a quieter press unveiling, it was a safe bet that if Apple was preparing to release its “J490” home hub, it would almost certainly want to hold an event to show it off — and Gurman confirmed that in this week’s Power On newsletter.
Although it’s a bit odd that we haven’t seen any press invites for this yet, as Apple normally sends those out a week before an event, a video stream hardly needs a week’s notice, and it’s possible the company may be limiting in-person attendance to a more select group.
Either way, there are plenty of indications that Apple has something in the works, and the latest tvOS 27.2 beta that came out this week contains more hints on what the new fourth-generation Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini will be capable of.
Previous reports have pointed to the set-top box gaining an A19 chip, which makes sense as it’s a given that Apple will be embracing Apple Intelligence and Siri AI. As a result, the latest tvOS code now includes all the standard privacy disclosures and other notes on opting in to features like Siri and Dictation and Siri data sharing — none of which are relevant for the current Apple TV hardware.
According to MacRumors, tvOS 27.2 also includes a new Siri Messages UI framework, suggesting that Siri might be able to read back text messages sent to a nearby iPhone and display smart reply options on the Apple TV.
Meanwhile, Aaron Perris found additional code references that point to new interactions in iOS 27.2 that could allow nearby home accessories to show controls in the iPhone’s Dynamic Island using HomeKit’s proximity manager frameworks.
Whether the new Apple TV 4K gets 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM will largely depend on the chip Apple goes with, as the Unified Memory architecture of Apple silicon pairs the RAM with the processor. That means an A19-powered Apple TV 4K will only have 8 GB of RAM, leading to the possibility that Apple might use the A19 Pro from the iPhone 17 Pro lineup to give it 12 GB and ensure it can handle the company’s most advanced foundation models for things like expressive voices for Siri AI.
That could be even more important if the new Apple TV 4K is expected to serve as a home base for Siri requests made to the new HomePod mini. After all, Apple’s smallest smart speaker is widely expected to stick with an Apple Watch chip; the current HomePod mini packs in the S5 from the 2019-era Apple Watch Series 5, and most reports have pointed to the refreshed version getting the S9.
In this case, the HomePod mini would likely depend on an Apple TV 4K or Apple’s new smart home hub for AI tasks in much the same way the Apple Watch relies on the iPhone.
Additional code has appeared supporting the idea that Apple is building a quad-HomePod Home Theater setup, with leaker pdfu noting references to automatically matching speakers to a surround system, a new method for passing Siri requests to an Apple TV, and a new light animation that rejects touch events while Siri AI is thinking.
Perris also found new SF Symbols in the third beta of macOS 27.2 that include visual depictions of four speakers in “whole room” and “home theater” groups.
Since we’re not expecting a new full-sized HomePod until sometime next year, we have to assume that these features will either work with the existing second-generation HomePod models or that Apple is simply building the early groundwork for this. Nevertheless, there’s a good chance that some or all of these might be dependent on the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K and its more powerful A19-class chip.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
