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

AppleInsider

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.

HomePod and Apple TV

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.

saarek

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

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

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

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.

mike1

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.

kkqd1337

mike1 said:

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.

Well... let me explain in more detail... I am one person waiting for a low cost hub and can't be alone

I have an ancient iPad on iOS12 that I currently use as a hub. I'm not sure it will support latest homekit features, and battery life is terrible/appalling. A new iPad is expensive, and I don't need or want one.

Then, I'm really not a TV fan, and even if I wanted Apple TV, my TV has an AppleTV app. So that's a no-go.

A cheapish speaker that will act as a hub i wouldn't totally resent buying.

I mean ideally I would like some $20 box i can just shove in the attic. 

multimedia

The U1 chip is in the new Series 6 WATCH. This could be why.

Rayz2016

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."

Vase knocked over. Cat leaving quickly via back door flap.

randominternetperson

At $100 Apple will sell as many of these as they can make during the "holiday season."  

AppleZulu

mike1 said:

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.

How Apple handles this sort of granular location data is going to be important. As they are positioning themselves as the more privacy-oriented tech company, I would expect there to be deliberate attention paid during the product announcement to location info being handled in-device only, and how it will be inaccessible to anyone who might seek to use it in real time or after the fact. Aside from the government-related heebie-jebbies, there are probably all sorts of marketing organizations that would pay top-dollar to know just exactly how much time you spend on the can, or whether you sit still while the TV is on, or whatever. Presumably Apple will be up-front about not making that information available to anyone. Meanwhile Google and Amazon will be excited by the opportunity to serve you ads for food as you walk through the kitchen and toothpaste as you head into the bathroom in the morning.

0ID0

I'm oversaturated by this ongoing tracking.
I will nominate for the Nobel prize the first company which will give up citizen tracking!

0ID0

multimedia said:

This could be why.

Why? Why to track?
Would you like to be stalked by some unknown individuals on the street, at work, at your home 24 hours a day ???

22july2013

0ID0 said:

I'm oversaturated by this ongoing tracking.
I will nominate for the Nobel prize the first company which will give up citizen tracking!

Your point will be valid if the location tracking data was available to Apple (or the government) but we haven't seen the details yet, and it may not be available to anyone other that yourself. I feel 95% comfortable in predicting that no one but yourself will have access to the tracking data. Although there might be an option to allow another iCloud account to track you. 

0ID0

Your point will be valid if the location tracking data was available to Apple (or the government) but we haven't seen the details yet, and it may not be available to anyone other that yourself. I feel 95% comfortable in predicting that no one but yourself will have access to the tracking data. Although there might be an option to allow another iCloud account to track you. 

I was talking in general about tracking, those hundreds of companies beside Apple, Google, Fu*kbook where no one knows WHAT data is collected and aggregate and WHERE is the real end destination. 
Apple promised that iOS 14 will warn you when apps start to track you... Where is this feature? Seems that for Apple money is more important as own customers privacy, whatever the advertising says!

22july2013

0ID0 said:

Your point will be valid if the location tracking data was available to Apple (or the government) but we haven't seen the details yet, and it may not be available to anyone other that yourself. I feel 95% comfortable in predicting that no one but yourself will have access to the tracking data. Although there might be an option to allow another iCloud account to track you. 

I was talking in general about tracking, those hundreds of companies beside Apple, Google, Fu*kbook where no one knows WHAT data is collected and aggregate and WHERE is the real end destination. 
Apple promised that iOS 14 will warn you when apps start to track you... Where is this feature? Seems that for Apple money is more important as own customers privacy, whatever the advertising says!

You said that there is no current feature to warn you when apps want to track you. That's odd, I get warned every day, multiple times per day, when an app wants to know my location, and I usually press the button to prohibit that. Why aren't you getting those warnings? Maybe you need to check your iPhone Settings. There's detailed information under Settings / Privacy / Tracking / Learn More. Maybe you should turn something back on, because I'm getting tons of warnings.

22july2013

multimedia said:

The U1 chip is in the new Series 6 WATCH. This could be why.

I think you just sold me on a Series 6 Watch. It's much easier wearing a Watch than carrying an iPhone around. However I suspect that AirTags will provide the same U1 chip location detection as the Series 6 Watch so I may need to carry only an AirTag on me to control my smart home in the future.