Apple TV streaming speaker and smart screen in the works, report says

    
    The Apple HomePod Mini is the company’s most recent smart home product.
    Chris Monroe/CNET
    Apple is rumored to be working on two new smart home?products — an Apple TV streaming device built into a speaker and a smart speaker with a screen –?according to a Bloomberg report?Monday.
    While fans have been hoping for a new Apple TV for three years, the new speaker would be a separate product — an “Apple TV set-top box with a HomePod speaker” that includes the Siri voice assistant and a video camera for conferencing from the couch, Bloomberg says, quoting an internal source.
    The other device is supposed to be a “high-end” touchscreen speaker to compete with the Google Nest Hub and Amazon Echo Show.
    The market has seen products such as the?Roku Streambar?and the?JBL Link Bar?that blend streaming, voice assistants and a speaker, but Apple’s speaker would go one step further by adding the camera, according to the report.
    Read more:?iPhone 13 rumors: September release, slimmed-down notch, 120Hz display and more
    Though Apple’s headphones have been super successful, the company hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to speaker products. The HomePod was discontinued in March in favor of the new HomePod Mini, while 2007’s?iPod Hi-Fi was discontinued after 18 months.
    Apple did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.