Mark Gurman Reveals Apple’s Next Device

Apple leaker Mark Gurman reported today that Apple’s next new device is a 6-inch “AI wall tablet” that will spotlight Apple Intelligence. This is the third in a quick series of Gurman leaks that all point to a new focus on smart displays for the consumer electronics giant. That it’s also the least dramatic of those potential products is perhaps telling: Gurman says that Apple could release this thing as soon as March 2025.

Apple will position this coming product, code-named J490 internally, as a “command center for the home,” Gurman claims. It will be marketed as a way to control home appliances, chat with Siri, and “hold intercom sessions via Apple’s FaceTime.” It will include several Apple apps, including Safari, Apple News, and Apple Music. And it will display photo slideshows, of course.

J490 is a “wall-mounted display that can control appliances, handle videoconferencing, and use AI to navigate apps” and it will “spotlight the new Apple Intelligence AI platform.” Apple CEO Tim Cook allegedly believes this device “will make Apple a force in the smart home segment,” and he’s made it a priority for the company’s engineering and design departments. It’s been in development for three years.

The device is described as looking like “a square iPad” with a “roughly 6-inch screen.” It’s about the size of two iPhones side-by-side and has a “thick edge” around the display. There’s a camera on the top front, and it features a rechargeable built-in battery and internal speakers. It will be sold in silver and black versions.

The OS for the device is code-named “Pebble.” It uses a touch-based UI, of course, but it apparently looks like a blend of Apple Watch UI and the iPhone’s Standby mode, and it will offer widgets and an iOS-like Dock. And Apple expects most users to interact with it via voice. Gurman says the hardware was designed around App Intents, a system that “lets AI precisely control applications and tasks, which is set to debut in the coming months.” It will utilize sensors to determine how close users are and then change its display accordingly.

“For example, if users are several feet away, it might show the temperature,” he writes. “As they approach, the interface can switch to a panel for adjusting the home thermostat.”

Apple is also developing add-on attachments for the device. At least one is for wall mounting, while Apple will also sell a base with “extra speakers” so customers can put the display “in the kitchen, on a nightstand, or on a desk.” Security will also be a focus, and the device will integrate with the rumored security camera that Laurent wrote about earlier today.

The Apple device is compared to Amazon and Google smart displays, obviously, and it will arrive before more expensive but similar devices with larger displays. The most futuristic of these is the oft-rumored version with a “robotic limb” that resembles the classic iMac G4 from yesteryear and will move the orientation of the display so that it turns with the user as they walk around a room. That device could cost as much as $1000. But Apple hopes to sell this smaller device at a price that “approaches” the $150 to $250 that competing smart displays cost. And that its customers will buy multiple units, putting them throughout their homes.