Apple invited select media and creators to an event in New York on October 13. With “Welcome Home” as the theme, the invitation strongly hints that its long-awaited smart-home push is finally about to begin.
Rather than being held at company headquarters, the event will be in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood. And it’ll start at 6 a.m. PT.
‘Welcome home’ points to new Apple smart-home products
Apple hasn’t said what it plans to announce, but the invitation’s wording leaves little doubt about the general direction. The company has reportedly been preparing a major expansion of its smart-home lineup, including a new home hub that combines a display with a speaker.
Word of the event first leaked out last week, leaving many people wondering when the invitations would go out. That finally happened on Thursday.
“We look forward to welcoming you to an Apple Experience in Tribeca, New York on October 13, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. ET” reads the invitation sent to influencer Marques Brownlee (MKBHD).
Welcome home. October 13. pic.twitter.com/ChelGSDOTI
— Greg Joswiak (@gregjoz) October 8, 2026
What the rumors say about Apple’s October 13 event
Concept art: Cult of Mac
Apple hasn’t said what it plans to announce at the October product launch event, but the invitation’s “Welcome Home” heading leaves little doubt about the general direction. Especially after months of rumors about the company’s work preparing a major expansion of its smart-home lineup, including a new home hub.
The much-rumored device is expected to have a roughly 6-inch square display and will either use a swiveling base or be mounted on a wall. It is designed to serve as a central control point for the home, with Siri providing much of the interaction.
Apple’s upgraded AI-powered Siri has finally arrived, and a main point behind the company’s smart home hub will supposedly be to put the voice assistant at the center of users’ lives, whether it be in the kitchen, bedroom, home office, etc.
The device should also provide easy access to calendars, recipes, FaceTime video, and more.
New HomePod mini and Apple TV could join in
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac
Apple will supposedly have more than one new smart-home product ready for the Welcome Home event next week. Reports indicate that an updated HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K are also in the works.
The new HomePod mini is expected to get a faster processor and Apple’s N1 wireless chip, while the next-generation Apple TV 4K could receive a substantially faster processor and additional memory.
The upgrades to both products are reportedly intended to add support for Apple’s new Siri AI. They’ve apparently been waiting for the artificial intelligence upgrade, which took Apple much longer to develop than it had originally expected.
Apple’s current HomePod mini dates back to 2020, while the Apple TV 4K hasn’t received a major hardware update since 2022. That makes both products overdue for an upgrade.
But no new Macs
While Apple has plenty of new Macs in the pipeline, don’t expect them to be part of the October 13 “Welcome Home event. Leaks indicate Apple is planning separate product launches later in the month for these.
That means the much-rumored OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro could make its debut in October. An M6 MacBook Pro and M6 iMac are also expected this fall.
So to be clear, the October 13 event appears to be focused squarely on Apple’s smart-home ambitions, with the Macs likely getting their own time to shine a few weeks later.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 26 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
