Apple reportedly plans to deepen its smart-home push under new CEO John Ternus, starting with the launch of a long-delayed hub on 13 October.

Bloomberg reported the smart-home hub, code-named J490, will feature a roughly 6-inch square display mounted on a perforated speaker base, with the countertop version featuring an arm that allows users to tilt the display. A dedicated wall-mounted variant is code-named J491. The grey aluminium device runs on USB-C power without internal batteries or physical buttons.

The hub will use built-in microphones and a front-facing FaceTime camera to identify household members by voice or appearance, then display their calendars, messages, notes and contacts.

A virtual white ring light will illuminate users approaching in low light, while an iPhone can provide secondary authentication if facial recognition fails. A visitor mode will hide personal information from guests.

The tech giant expects customers to place multiple displays around the home for intercom calls, music streaming and control of HomeKit accessories. In the kitchen, the hub could also provide voice-guided recipes.

The iPhone maker is also updating its supporting accessories. The HomePod mini and Apple TV set-top box will retain their existing designs but gain faster processors capable of running Siri’s upgraded AI models.

The HomePod mini will also be offered in new pink and green colours. Apple is separately developing a premium 9-inch display mounted on a 360-degree robotic arm, as well as a refreshed full-sized HomePod, for later release.

The news site previously reported in March 2026 that Apple’s smart-home display was postponed because its revamped Siri digital assistant was not ready.

While Apple currently offers the HomePod, HomePod mini and Apple TV streaming box, it has long trailed market leaders Amazon and Google for branded smart-home hardware.

The post Apple lines up smart-home push with fresh devices appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Wilson Connectivity launched weBoost Sky, a signal booster designed to help standard smartphones connect to low Earth orbit satellites from inside moving vehicles.

The company’s CEO Bruce Lancaster told Mobile World Live it ramped up work on the product after T-Mobile US and SpaceX unveiled the T-Satellite service around the 2025 Super Bowl.

“It’s time to productise that,” he recalled telling the weBoost general manager, adding the project drew on Wilson’s earlier research into Starlink and rural connectivity.

The problem weBoost Sky is addressing is that a vehicle’s body can weaken the link between a handset and satellites hundreds of miles overhead.

It supports PCS Band-25, currently used by T-Mobile for its Starlink service. Lancaster said Wilson prioritised the band because T-Mobile and Starlink were furthest into commercial satellite deployment.

Lancaster noted compatible phones can switch between nearby terrestrial Band-25 towers and satellite coverage as needed.

weBoost Sky houses the amplifier and external antenna in a roof-mounted unit roughly the size of a double stack of playing cards. A coaxial cable connects it to a small interior antenna, while power comes through USB-C or a vehicle’s cigarette-lighter socket. The device attaches magnetically, or with an adhesive plate available for aluminium or composite roofs.

“The issue really here is an uplink,” Lancaster said. “It’s not the downlink that’s usually the limiter; it’s the uplink connectivity that’s the problem.”

Its product raises uplink power from about 200 milliwatts to 1 watt, the maximum allowed by the Federal Communications Commission for consumer signal boosters. Mounting the antenna outside the vehicle also limits interference from the roof and low-emissivity glass.

Wilson sees it appealing to forestry crews, field workers and fleets which regularly travel beyond terrestrial coverage explaining he expects the stronger uplink to make satellite messaging more reliable.

Sky went on sale on 28 September for $149.99 through weBoost’s online store, major US retail stores and specialist radio-frequency dealers.

Privately-held Wilson Connectivity, formerly Wilson Electronics, makes its hardware in St George, Utah, and operates an R&D centre in Dallas, Texas and has a location in Cambridge, UK.

The post Wilson targets D2D connectivity boost in vehicles appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Anthropic is reportedly seeking a valuation of more than $2 trillion in a public listing while also warning in a leaked prospectus AI could pose a catastrophic or existential risk to humanity.

Reuters reported the AI startup recorded a $42 billion net loss in 2025 after reviewing its IPO prospectus. About $34 billion reflected an accounting charge tied to financing which could convert into shares, while compute and infrastructure spending tripled to $7.3 billion.

The filing shows Anthropic faces $518 billion in cloud, compute and infrastructure commitments in the coming years.

Revenue jumped 12-fold to nearly $4.6 billion, though its operating loss widened to $8 billion from $3 billion in 2024.

The prospectus also flagged customer concentration with two customers generating nearly a quarter of 2025 revenue while several were not locked into long-term contracts.

The filing also outlined safety risks exposed by Anthropic’s research, including autonomous systems disrupting code and manipulating information in controlled tests.

Reuters previously reported the IPO could be delayed until after the November US midterm elections. Rival OpenAI is reportedly targeting a listing next year.

Trump weighs in
Speaking at the White House surrounded by tech titans and government officials, NBC News reported President Donald Trump pushed back on heavier AI guardrails.

Flanked by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Trump stated there was agreement among the executives there should be “tremendous self-regulation” by the companies”.

“There’s a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation, and we automatically have regulation with the Department of Justice, the FBI, all of that,” Trump said.

The news site reported in addition to Huang and Musk, Trump’s AI lunch and summit also included including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, AMD CEO Lisa Su and OpenAI president Greg Brockman.

While US states, including New York, and communities have put data centre laws or moratoriums in place, Trump said the group of executives “loves local communities, they love our country, and they’re going to work with local communities for the data centres in particular”.

He also stated AI-related data centres “are going to be very popular” across the US due to the efforts of the technology companies in attendance.

The post Anthropic targets $2T valuation despite AI concerns appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Apple CEO John Ternus (pictured) is reportedly reshaping the company to speed product development and put engineering back at the centre of its strategy.

Bloomberg reported Ternus, who replaced Tim Cook on 1 September, wants to broaden Apple’s device line-up and strip out organisational layers.

Sources told the news agency Apple could move away from its usual product launch cycles and cut some middle-management roles to bring executives closer to engineering teams.

Ternus was previously the company’s SVP of hardware engineering and is reported to believe Apple needs to launch products faster and take more risks to compete in the AI era, while also seeking new revenue as growth in its services business slows.

Bloomberg reported Apple has begun cutting costs.

It reported the hardware engineering division recently cut managers and around six directors responsible for coordinating product schedules and teams.

Restructuring of teams working on Siri, Vision Pro and AI software engineering is also underway and Apple reportedly reduced staff at the Fitness+ group, which develops audio-only versions of its exercise classes.

Bloomberg noted the new CEO is keen to see how AI could cut development cycles and automate some tasks.

It stated Apple has a large product pipeline for 2027 including AirPods with external cameras, its first pair of smart glasses and a redesigned iPhone on its 20th anniversary.

The post Apple CEO Ternus refocuses on engineering appeared first on Mobile World Live.