There have been fairly a number of rumors over the previous 12 months suggesting that Apple is engaged on a HomePod with a show. Apple’s reply to the Nest Hub or Echo Present, such a tool would be capable of present you views from HomeKit-compatible cameras or doorbells, visually show calendar or climate data, keep on FaceTime conversations, and extra.
The sleuths at 9to5Mac have discovered what could also be the perfect proof but that such a tool is on the way in which. Hidden inside the tvOS 18 developer beta 3 is an interface clearly made for touchscreens–one thing you wouldn’t usually discover in an working system made for Apple TV.
The hidden PlasterBoard interface has a keypad just like the one on the iPhone and iPad.
This technique shell, known as “PlasterBoard,” is suspected to be the working interface for a HomePod with a show. HomePods at present run an working system primarily based on tvOS, so it is sensible to seek out this interface there.
PlasterBoard, at the very least within the tvOS beta 3, doesn’t have rather more to it than a lock display interface with a numeric keypad just like what you’d discover on an iPhone or iPad. However inner improvement could be a lot additional alongside–that any of that is tucked away in a beta that acquired out to the general public (even in a developer beta) seemingly means there may be vital work occurring behind the scenes.
We might guess that such a tool would ship in 2025, but when the software program effort is additional alongside than we suspect, it may doubtlessly make it a shock this fall.
To be able to reap the benefits of Apple Intelligence, a brand new HomePod could be required—show or no show—because the processor inside HomePods as we speak isn’t able to operating the requisite AI fashions. To be able to run Apple Intelligence, this new system would want to have at the very least an M1 or A17 Professional processor with 8GB of RAM.