Apple’s smart home hub could arrive next month with a square screen, face recognition, and Siri AI

Apple’s long-delayed smart home display could go on sale as early as next month, and it arrives with a trick no Apple device has shipped before. The front camera will recognise who is standing in front of it, and it will do this without the depth-sensing hardware that Face ID normally requires. Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter reports that the device, known inside Apple as J490, is already being tested widely in employees’ homes.

The launch would be the first significant hardware moment of John Ternus’s time as chief executive.