More Details on Apple HomePad, HomePod mini 2, Apple Camera & THIRDREALITY

This week on Everything Apple Home:

🍎 Apple’s future Home hardware takes shape — new discoveries point to the HomePad, a possible HomePod mini 2, Apple security camera, homeOS and two mystery Home accessories.

🏠 New HomePad details reveal references to “Faces”, a “Face Gallery” and Smart Stack widgets, giving us our clearest indication yet of how Apple’s smart home display could work.

🧵 THIRDREALITY is heading to IFA 2026 with new Matter-over-Thread products, including a Smart Soil Moisture Sensor, Smart Button, Smart Plug and Smart Bulb.

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Transcript

Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Everything Apple Home. We potentially have one of the biggest clues about Apple's future smart home hardware. Plus, third reality is preparing a new range of Matter Over thread products to be unveiled at Ether next month. Now let's get straight into it. The big

HomePad and HomePod mini 2

SPEAKER_00 0:15

story this week comes from Mac OS 26.7 release candidate where references to several unreleased Apple products have been discovered, starting with the long-rumoured Apple Home Hub. The latest code not only gives us more evidence that the hardware exists, but also more interesting clues about how the device could potentially work. The code contains a home accessory called J490, a code name previously associated with Apple's upcoming Smart Home Hub. But there's also a reference to J491 that potentially supports previous reports that Apple is developing two configurations, with J490 believed to be a base version, while J491 could potentially be a wall-mounted version. More interestingly, further code specifically reference a home screen featuring something called faces and face gallery. User could potentially select faces and then customize them with widgets. These widgets are also expected to include smart stacks, something we already see on the Apple Watch. So rather than having one basic static home screen sitting on the desk all day or on your wall, the homepad could potentially surface different widgets and information throughout the day, and more importantly, based on the user that's going to be using it. There's also reference to something called B525, which is interesting because the current homepad carries B520, making this a strong candidate for a long-awaited home pod Mini 2. Things get even more interesting with a reference to J229. The identifiers previously discovered in iOS 26 code back last December, where it appeared the device could potentially use multiple sensors, detect alarm sounds, and capture images. This could represent Apple's first dedicated smart product. We're also seeing references to Pebble. Bloomberg has already reported that Pebble is Apple's internal code name for Ohm OS. The operating system is expected to power the new home pad. There are also four colours associated with an unreleased home accessory: rose pink, silver, space gray, and starlight. Again, we don't know which products these colours belong to. They could potentially be the HomePod Mini 2 or the new HomePad. None of these references confirm Apple's final product names, specifications, or even that every one of these devices will eventually launch. So take any of this information with caution until Apple announce anything.

THIRDREALITY

SPEAKER_00 2:24

And finally, Third Reality is heading to Ether this year with several new smart home products. The big focus is matter over thread with the company preparing to showcase new smart soil, moisture sensors, smart button, smart plug, and smart bulb. They'll be at Messi Berlin from the 4th to the 8th of September, and I'll be at Ether myself. So I'll be taking a closer look at what Third Reality and plenty of other brands have come into Apple Home and Matter. So that's everything for Apple Home this week. For deeper coverage on these stories, visit AppleHomeAuthority.com and make sure you're following for more Apple Home news, reviews, and tutorials. Thank you very much. I'll speak to you next week.