AI Assistants & Personal Agents for Daily Life

Agents at Home

HomeView Has No App Store. Its Third-Party Apps Come From the Car Dashboard.

Apple's $299 hub has no App Store. Third-party apps arrive through CarPlay — the same framework built for the car dashboard. Buyers expecting an iOS-level app ecosystem get a media player instead.

◆ Mila CohenOct 15

Agents at Home

The Badge Means Someone Checked. Apple’s Fine Print Says Not to Rely on It Anyway.

One day after our piece on Meta's Home Link disclaimer, Apple shipped the same species of warning in the HomePod mini 2 release. The buyer's real difference is who checks the integration, not who promises safety.

◆ Mila CohenOct 14

Agents at Home

What Apple Claimed, What Ships, What Is Missing: The HomeView Claims Ledger

Apple's paper says $299, November 13, and a beta assistant with usage limits and a fee coming later. It does not say one word about the conversational agent control the home category keeps advertising. Here is the ledger.

◆ Mila CohenOct 13

Agents at Home

Don’t Rely on It for Anything Safety-Critical: The Fine Print on Meta’s Free Home Dongle

Meta's free Home Link dongle is real, and so is the disclaimer on its product page: the community skills that run your lights and TV can change or break, and they are explicitly not for home security, emergencies, or medical needs. That fine print is the most honest thing in the box.

◆ Mila CohenOct 13

Agents at Home

What Apple’s HomePad Keynote Won’t Answer

The roughly $350 hub is nearly here; the conversational brain is reportedly a late-2026 or early-2027 arrival. Ahead of Tuesday's Welcome Home event, the gap between the hardware and the intelligence is the whole story.

◆ Mila CohenOct 13

Agents at Home

Apple HomeView: The Screen Ships Nov. 13, But the Conversational Agent Control Does Not

Apple's 'Welcome Home' event for Oct 13 was confirmed, but conversational HomeKit agent control is delayed to late 2026/early 2027. The screen ships. The brain doesn't.

◆ Mila CohenOct 12

Agents at Home

The Free Dongle Problem: What Happens When a Beta Test Runs Your Living Room

Meta is shipping 5,000 free Muse Home Link dongles to US subscribers this month. Claiming one puts you in a queue, not an order, and the unit's firmware is locked. The exit cost is the number nobody has published.

◆ Mila CohenOct 10

Agents at Home

Agentic, Local, Proactive, MCP: The Home Agent Words Landing Tuesday, and What They Actually Change in Your House

Tuesday's Apple demos will be full of 'agentic,' 'local,' 'MCP,' and 'proactive.' Here is what each word changes at 8 a.m. in your house, and which bill comes with it.

◆ Mila CohenOct 10

Agents at Home

The Smart Display Is Becoming the Home Agent’s Face—and Four Companies Are Fighting Over What Goes Behind It

Apple, Meta, Google, and Amazon are converging on wall-mounted screens as the primary interface for home agents, but each is making a fundamentally different bet on the architecture underneath.

◆ Mila CohenOct 9

Agents at Home

HomeView Was Announced Oct 13 — Ships Nov. 13, Not Next Week. Here Is What That Means for the Agent Wars.

Apple's 'Welcome Home' event confirmed a $299 HomeView (not HomePad) shipping Nov. 13 — and the conversational HomeKit agent control is delayed to late 2026/early 2027. The screen ships. The brain doesn't.

◆ Mila CohenOct 9