Imagining an Apple Smart Display for the Kitchen
Parker Ortolani, writing at 9to5Mac, imagined an Apple-designed smart display:
When a smart display isn’t in use, it should show a beautiful clock and/or pertinent information of your choosing. Apple already knows how to make beautiful clocks. They could extend the same watch faces that make Apple Watch such a beautiful timepiece to a larger display. Some of the complications could make the jump too, like Fitness rings.
There’s a lot to like about Parker’s concept. He’s right that all the pieces already exist within Apple’s ecosystem between aerial screensavers from tvOS, watch faces from watchOS, apps from iPadOS, and compelling hardware of course. One thing that I would add to the concept is widget support, which would be perfect for more dynamic, glanceable content.
Personally, I’ve had my eye on a Google Nest Hub as a kitchen device since the right solution from Apple doesn’t exist. While sticking an iPad in the kitchen is close, what it’s missing is a hands-free mode (Siri doesn’t cut it), and an ambient mode. For an ambient mode, I’m thinking of how the Nest Hub displays photos or a home status dashboard when not in use. A digital photo frame that ties into iCloud Photo Library would help my wife and I to more frequently enjoy all the memories we’ve captured over the years.
For FaceTime calls in a kitchen environment where people are rarely stationary, Center Stage would probably do the trick. But additional flexibility from a physically moving stand, like the Echo Show, would be welcome, too.
If such a device was introduced by Apple (running homeOS?), I’d be sorely tempted. Check out Parker’s piece for more on how Apple could pull together technologies from their various product lines and services, plus concept images.