Apple HomeView smart display: reviews praise the hardware, question authentication and privacy

Left · 1Apple's HomeView is a 7-inch square touchscreen smart display that comes in tabletop and wall-mounted versions, both priced at $299. 1 Left · 1The Verge's reviewer called it a new favourite smart display, saying it is superb at controlling a smart home, an excellent hands-free kitchen companion, a good speaker and a good digital photo frame, and that it is the first Apple smart speaker with Siri AI, which the reviewer called an improvement though still slow at times. 1 Left · 1HomeView includes a Thread radio and Matter controller and acts as an Apple Home hub, which The Verge describes as the first with an always-on screen. It works with HomeKit and compatible Matter devices. 1

Left · 1The Verge's main complaint is the mix of communal and personal use: HomeView gives access to texts, calendar and reminders when the owner's iPhone or iPad is at home on the same Wi-Fi network. The reviewer found the authentication checks clunky, said being sent to the iPhone too often interrupts hands-free use, and said they could easily read their 15-year-old daughter's text messages, and vice versa. 1 Left · 1The Verge also criticised the lack of physical volume or mute buttons. It said the wall-mounted model effectively costs more than the tabletop one, because it comes without a mount or power adaptor: with Apple's $39 adaptor, buyers start at around $400. Schneider Electric mounts cost $59.99 (USB-C) and $79.99 (hardwired AC), with a $129.99 power-over-Ethernet option to come. 1 Left · 1The Verge judged it best for households deep in the Apple ecosystem, especially those with younger children who only need lights and music. It said some people will balk at their texts appearing on a large kitchen screen. The reviewer's teenage daughter said "I'll just use my iPhone", while their husband liked it and asked for one for an office. 1

Left · 1Wired looked at the security design instead. HomeView relies on new "person recognition" rather than FaceID, because Apple concluded FaceID did not suit a device that must switch quickly between users and relies on AI processing that can't all fit in the Secure Enclave. 2 Left · 1Instead, HomeView uses Apple's recently announced Secure Exclave, a dedicated, memory-protected space in recent Apple processors, to handle the video and audio used to work out who is in a room. Apple says early versions were already in place in the iPhone 16 and 17 and MacBook Neo. 2 Left · 1Apple says the Secure Exclave is robust. In a blog post it described using formal verification to vet its "microkernel", and said its goal is "to keep ambient sensor data secure even against highly sophisticated attacks". HomeView and the MacBook Neo also use it to govern the camera and microphone indicator light. 2

Left · 1Wired noted that HomeView also checks that the user's iPhone or iPad is on the same Wi-Fi network and has been recently unlocked. It cautioned that expanding the biometric architecture creates more opportunities for mistakes and vulnerabilities, and that person recognition is not as comprehensive as FaceID and may be more susceptible to reconstructed 3D depth map and voiceprint attacks. 2 Left · 1Wired added that users can choose guest mode or a less involved "personalized" mode that doesn't access calendar or Messages data. 2