Apple officially moves into your living room today. In this episode of The Nerds List Daily, Geeked breaks down the two brand-new pieces of Apple hardware that both go on sale Friday, November 13, 2026 — both for $299, and both fighting to be the center of your home.
First up is the HomeView, Apple's very first smart home display: a 7-inch Liquid Retina screen on a dome-shaped speaker base, running the new, more conversational Siri AI. It controls your lights, locks, thermostats and cameras, takes FaceTime calls from the kitchen counter, shows your photos and widgets, and recognizes up to six people in your household. The tabletop version ships with everything in the box — but the wall-mounted version's mount, cable and power adapter are all sold separately, so it can end up costing more. It is also not on sale in the European Union, where Siri AI is not currently available in iOS.
Then there is the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K, also $299 — a full $100 more than the old one. The A19 chip, far-field microphones for hands-free Siri, a Siri Remote with Precision Finding, and surround sound with up to four HomePod speakers as front and rear pairs. Is the upgrade worth it? That is one of the big questions of this holiday season.
Geeked zooms out on Apple's biggest smart-home push ever — HomePod mini 2, the Home Collection accessories arriving in December, and a fight with Amazon and Google for the living room — and then picks your weekend movies: the gothic Ebenezer and the livestreamed-heist comedy How to Rob a Bank, both opening in theaters today.
Listen to the episode below, or find The Nerds List Daily on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4AztPOtRX69DGECBcrJPrh
Key moments
- 00:00 — Apple moves into your living room: two new devices, both $299
- 00:39 — HomeView: Apple's first smart display
- 02:02 — $299, tabletop vs. wall-mounted — the wall mount extras are sold separately
- 02:43 — New Apple TV 4K: A19 chip, hands-free Siri, four-speaker surround
- 03:50 — The $100 price jump from $199
- 04:12 — Apple's biggest smart-home push ever
- 06:50 — Weekend movies: Ebenezer and How to Rob a Bank
- 08:23 — Geeked's buying advice
“Last week was about the desk. This week is about the couch.”
“A great streaming box on an old television is still an old television.”
Transcript
00:00 — Welcome to the nerds list daily. I am geeked. It is Friday, November 13th and today is the day Apple officially moves into your living room
00:08 — Not with a Mac, not with a phone, but with two brand new pieces of hardware that both go on sale today
00:14 — Both costs the same amount of money and both want to be the center of your home
00:19 — We are going to talk about the home view
00:21 — Apple's very first smart display and the brand new Apple TV 4K and then we are going to pick your weekend movies
00:28 — Because two very different films open today and both of them are worth knowing about
00:32 — If you want to read along or catch up on anything we cover, you can always find us at the nerds list.com
00:39 — Let us start with the big one the home view
00:41 — Apple announced it on October 13th at an event it called welcome home and after a full month of pre-orders
00:47 — It finally goes on sale today
00:49 — This is Apple's first dedicated smart home display and it is the product Apple fans have been asking about for years
00:55 — The idea is simple you put it on a counter or a table or you mount it on a wall
01:00 — And it becomes the control center for your entire house
01:03 — It has a seven inch liquid retina display sitting on top of a dome shaped speaker base
01:07 — And it runs on Siri AI
01:10 — Apple's new more conversational version of Siri that is supposed to actually understand you instead of just waiting for the exact right phrase
01:19 — So what does it actually do?
01:21 — Pretty much everything you would want a home hub to do it controls your compatible smart home devices
01:26 — So lights, locks, thermostats and cameras are all a tap or a voice command away
01:31 — It has FaceTime built-in so you can take video calls from the kitchen counter while you're making dinner
01:36 — It shows your photos plays your music and shows you widgets for things like the weather your calendar and whatever's playing in the house
01:43 — It even recognizes the people in your household with facial recognition for up to six different users
01:48 — So it can show each person their own stuff when they walk up to it
01:51 — And because it sits on a speaker base
01:53 — It is also just a music speaker in its own right which matters because a home hub that sounds bad is a home hub
01:59 — Nobody wants to keep on the counter
02:02 — The price is $299 and there are two versions at that same price the tabletop version comes with the display a
02:08 — cable and a power adapter in the box and it comes in four colors silver starlight rose pink and space gray
02:15 — The wall-mounted version is also $299
02:19 — But there is a catch-worth knowing before you buy it the mount itself the cable and the power adapter are all sold separately
02:25 — So the wall version can end up costing you more once you add everything you need to actually hang it up
02:30 — Apple also says the home view is not available for sale in the European Union right now because Siri AI is not currently available in
02:37 — iOS in the European Union
02:39 — So this is a launch for the United States and a handful of other countries first
02:43 — Now the second piece of hardware and honestly this one might matter to even more people the fourth generation
02:50 — Apple TV 4K also goes on sale today also for $299
02:55 — This is the new streaming box and it is a real upgrade over the old one
03:00 — It runs on the a19 ship which is a big jump in speed and it has far-field
03:05 — Microphones built-in which means you can talk to Siri hands-free from across the room without picking up the remote at all
03:12 — The Siri remote itself got an upgrade too with precision finding support
03:17 — So if you lose the remote down the side of the couch and let us be honest. We all do your phone can point you right to it
03:25 — The other headline feature is
03:27 — Surround sound the new Apple TV 4K supports surround sound with up to four home pod speakers
03:33 — Set up as front and rear pairs which turns your living room into a proper little theater without buying a sound bar or a receiver
03:42 — That is a genuinely nice trick and it is one of those things that only works because Apple controls the whole stack the box and the speakers and the software in between
03:50 — Now the price did go up the old Apple TV 4K cost $199 and this one cost $299 which is a full $100 more
04:00 — Apple is betting that the faster chip the hands-free Siri and the four speakers surround are worth it
04:06 — Whether that bet pays off is going to be one of the interesting questions of this holiday season
04:12 — Let us zoom out for a second because today is not just about two gadgets
04:15 — It is about Apple making its biggest push into the smart home ever the October 13th event was not a one-product announcement
04:22 — Apple also put the home pod mini 2 on sale on October 13th for
04:27 — $149 and it has a whole line of home collection accessories things like cameras and thermostats and a lock built with LG and Schneider
04:35 — Electric that start arriving in December the home view is the centerpiece the Apple TV 4K is the entertainment anchor
04:42 — And the home pod mini 2 is the cheap way to put Siri AI in every room put together
04:48 — Apple is trying to do what Amazon and Google have been doing for years
04:51 — But with its usual pitch it all works together it respects your privacy and it looks good sitting in your house
04:59 — One more detail that tells you how seriously Apple is taking this launch the software that runs the home view called home view
05:05 — software 27.2 actually shipped on October 30th two full weeks before the hardware went on sale
05:13 — That early release gave us a look at features like wallpapers and control center options
05:18 — And it is a good sign that Apple wanted the software to be solid on day one instead of patching things after people had already bought it
05:24 — If you pre-ordered the home view it should be arriving today and if you are still deciding the early software release means the reviews
05:32 — Landing this weekend should be based on the real finished experience not a beta
05:36 — And here is why the timing matters
05:39 — Apple is launching all of this right before the holidays
05:42 — Which is exactly when people buy this kind of stuff
05:45 — And it is walking straight into a fight with Amazon and Google who have owned the smart home for years with their echo and nest devices
05:52 — Those devices are cheaper and a lot of people already have them
05:56 — So Apple is not going to win on price what Apple is betting on is that people who already have iPhones and iPads and Macs
06:03 — Will pay more for something that fits into the system they already use with better privacy and a nicer design
06:10 — That is the same bet Apple has made with almost every product it has ever launched
06:15 — And most of the time it has worked out pretty well for them the next few weeks of sales numbers will tell us whether that bet pays off this time too
06:24 — Now I want to be clear about something because we talked about Apple just last week last Wednesday's episode was all about the max the m6 MacBook Pro the new iMac the OLED iPad mini and that touch screen MacBook Pro today is a totally different Apple story last week was about the desk this week is about the couch if you're trying to decide where your money goes last week was the productivity conversation and this week is the living room conversation and there's no rule that says you have to buy into both
06:50 — All right, let us talk about the weekend because your new Apple TV 4k is going to need something to play and two movies open in theaters today the first one is Ebenezer directed by T.I. West and it is a gothic take on a Christmas Carol
07:04 — Johnny Depp plays Ebenezer Scrooge and he is joined by Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchett Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley, Daisy Ridley, Sam Claflin and Andrea Reisbro
07:15 — This is not the cozy musical version of the story this is a dark fantasy a ghost story set in Dickens London about a miserly businessman who gets dragged through his past his present and his future and given one last shot at redemption it is a wide release from Paramount and if you like your holiday movies with a little dread in them this one is aimed directly at you
07:37 — The second movie is How to rob a bank directed by David Leach the guy behind atomic blonde Deadpool 2 bullet train and the fall guy
07:46 — This one stars Nicholas Holt Zoe Kravitz and a so why Pete Davidson, John C. Riley and Christian Slater and the premise is pure modern chaos a crew of bank robbers live streams their heists and becomes famous online
07:59 — which is great for their follower count and terrible for staying out of prison because a veteran FBI agent and a brilliant software engineer are now hunting them down
08:08 — It is rated R it runs two hours and two minutes and it was originally supposed to come out in September before moving to today
08:15 — If Ebenezer is the brooding pick this is the loud funny popcorn pick and honestly it sounds like a perfect Friday night movie
08:23 — So here is my advice if you are standing in the Apple store today or staring at the website trying to decide if you want a home hub and you're already deep in the Apple world
08:33 — The home view is the one to look at but go for the tabletop version unless you really want it on the wall because the wall mount extras add up
08:41 — If you mostly just want a better streaming box the new Apple TV 4K is the upgrade especially if you already own home pods and want that four speakers around setup
08:50 — And if you already bought the home pod mini 2 when it came out on October 30th congratulations you already own the cheapest ticket into this whole new smart home lineup
09:00 — One last thing before we wrap up the apple side of things
09:03 — If you're buying the home view as a gift remember that the person you're buying it for needs to be in the Apple world already for it to make sense
09:13 — Because it leans on iPhones and iPads and Apple accounts to do its best work and if you're buying the new Apple TV 4K
09:22 — Check whether your television supports the latest high dynamic range formats first because the box is only half the picture literally
09:30 — A great streaming box on an old TV is still an old TV and you deserve to see what that a 19 chip can actually do
09:38 — That is our Friday Apple takes over the living room with the home view and the new Apple TV 4K both on sale today for $299 each
09:46 — And the weekend gives you a ghost story and a heist movie to argue about
09:49 — If you pick up either device or if you see either movie I want to hear what you thought
09:53 — Come find us at the nerdslist.com and tell us which one won your weekend
09:57 — This is the nerdslist daily I am geeked and I will see you tomorrow morning
0 Comments