New 'HomePod mini' and Apple TV will track your location for HomeKit, AR

A leak claims that Apple's "HomePod mini," and new Apple TV, will precisely track your location, or that of your devices, in your home, to trigger HomeKit actions, or even AR.

Ahead of Apple's "Hi, Speed," event and its launch of the "iPhone 12," a new leak claims to have details of other devices that may be announced. Whether they're unveiled at this event or later, the claim is that both a new "HomePod mini" and Apple TV will be Ultra Wideband base stations that work with U1 devices to exactly track your location.

According to regular leaker Jon Prosser, the tracking will enable HomeKit to, for instance, lock doors, and turn on lights, as you walk around. He also claims that this will actually facilitate expected new Apple AR features in the Find My app.

HomePod mini & the new Apple TV will both act as UWB base-stations

- Will precisely track your location as you walk inside house with other U1 devices.

- Use info for media controls, brightness/volume control, & door locks.

Turns regular hardware into HomeKit hardware.
— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) October 12, 2020

Prosser goes on to say that this feature will also "be used in the Find My app when you're away from home to alert you if any of your devices have been moved within or taken from your home."

In response to AppleInsider, Prosser says that the updated Apple TV won't be unveiled at the "Hi, Speed" event but the HomePod Mini will. HomePod Mini will be priced at $99. Prosser seems to infer that the HomePod Mini's smart home powers may not be ready for launch but that the inclusion of the U1 chip is a confirmation that the features are coming, though that isn't the most watertight argument.

Apple's "iPhone 12" event will be streamed live online and across Apple devices from 10:00 PT, 13:00 ET on October 13.

Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod or HomePod mini. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider Daily," and you'll get a fast update direct from the AppleInsider team.

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16 Comments

saarek 1578 comments · 16 Years

About 4 years ago

I hope this will make actions easier to setup for when people leave or arrive.

it was a pain setting the heating to switch off when everyone leaves the house and to turn back on again when someone gets back, was unreliable to so I went back to IFTTT and Life360 to do it.

22july2013 3725 comments · 11 Years

According to regular leaker Jon Prosser, the tracking will enable HomeKit to, for instance, lock doors, and turn on lights, as you walk around.
I presume that for it to know where "you" are, you need to be carrying something, either an iPhone or perhaps an AirTag. In any case I've been waiting for this technology for 30 years. It has taken much too long.

kkqd1337 468 comments · 12 Years

HomeKit has been desperate for a low cost hub for forever

If the mini pod is $100 I’ll have one

I personally think the Apple TV is too
expensive to buy if like me you just need it to use as a hub, and the iPad is very expensive and obviously not ideal for lots of reasons.

mike1 3432 comments · 10 Years

kkqd1337 said:

HomeKit has been desperate for a low cost hub for forever

If the mini pod is $100 I’ll have one

I personally think the Apple TV is too
expensive to buy if like me you just need it to use as a hub, and the iPad is very expensive and obviously not ideal for lots of reasons.

Huh? The point is that the devices which are likely to be in your home are already hubs. I seriously doubt that too many people without one of these Apple devices are sitting around waiting for a lower-cost hub before jumping into the HomeKit ecosystem. They've already bought into loss leader Amazon devices.

saarek said:

I hope this will make actions easier to setup for when people leave or arrive.

it was a pain setting the heating to switch off when everyone leaves the house and to turn back on again when someone gets back, was unreliable to so I went back to IFTTT and Life360 to do it.

It's not just HomeKit. Individual product apps also have a hard time figuring out how to do this if more than one person lives in the house.
They also seem to want location access all the time in order to know whether you are home. Sorry, but I am not giving these apps that permission.

HoneKit should be able to handle it better. It only needs to know if the last device left the range of the hub. So, whether it's my wife or me are the last to leave, any automations would begin when we left my WiFi network and could be altered when I was back in WiFi range. Since my WiFi connects when I pull in front of my house, that would give t time to turn on welcome lights and unlock the door before I got there.