There have been rumors for some time that Apple is working on a HomePod with a screen, as part of its broader expansion into the smart home space. And this launch has moved a little closer, with the discovery of a reference to a new product in new beta software.
Apple news site 9to5Mac made the discovery on Tuesday. A device codenamed “Z314” is mentioned in the third beta of tvOS 17.4 beta 3 as being capable of running the operating system. Needless to say, no such device has been released to market yet. Among current Apple products, tvOS is managed by Apple TV and HomePod, although the latter uses an adapted version without a visual interface.
Beyond just revealing that the product exists, the code suggests that it has reached “an advanced stage of development,” as 9to5Mac puts it. In-house and production versions of the device have been built and tested, the site explains. For comparison, the HomePod and HomePod mini had the pre-release codenames B238 and B520, respectively, while the iPads had codenames starting with J, K, or P; there haven’t been any Z-family codenames before, suggesting it could be an entirely new category of device.
9to5Mac further reveals that the Z314 device features an A15 Bionic chip, which matches the 6th generation iPad mini and has also appeared in many iPhones. It’s more powerful than a chip that should appear in a standard (i.e. screenless) HomePod; the HomePod 2023 uses an Apple Watch S7 processor.
Last year, highly respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that a HomePod with a screen would launch in the first half of 2024. For all the latest news on this project, keep an eye on our rumor roundup regularly update.
