Apple’s long-rumored HomePod with a screen—which I used to call ‘HomePad’ but now seems likely to be called ‘HomePod Touch’—is expected to launch in early 2026. Here are two reasons it can’t come soon enough.

#1: Amazon’s Echo Show is now getting littered with ads

Smart speakers with displays have been on the market for a very long time. The most prominent example is Amazon’s Echo Show.

Thanks to new Echo Show hardware and an upgraded Alexa+ assistant, you’d think that Amazon would be way ahead of Apple. But it seems the product has actually been getting worse in a key area.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy writes at The Verge:

• In recent months, full-screen display ads with the tag “sponsored” have been appearing on current Echo Shows, and users are not happy. These ads are new and very intrusive, appearing between photos when the Show is set to Photo Frame mode or between content if it’s set to show different categories (such as music, recipes, news).
  
• As I type, the last-gen Echo Show 8 on my desk just showed an ad for an herbal supplement between a snapshot of my daughter dancing at her aunt’s wedding and a baby picture of my son. The ad reappeared two photos later, and then again. And again. […]
  
• As these new “sponsored” ads become more pervasive, it feels like a bait and switch. There was no indication on the packaging that you were buying an ad-supported product. There’s no discount for buying an Echo Show with ads, as there is with Kindles. And, because these ads are there almost constantly, they’re more intrusive than the voice assistant suggesting a service or product you might want after you just engaged with it.

We all have different tolerance levels for ads, but I know that if I owned an Echo Show, this kind of unwanted behavior would make the device instantly unusable.

To make matters worse, Pattison Tuohy adds: ”On top of that, Alexa Plus — the company’s big update to its voice assistant — is now also throwing in full-screen ads for its own services. The Echo Show has become a rotating billboard in my office.”

HomePod Touch can’t arrive soon enough.

#2: New Siri on HomePod Touch could finally put AI concerns to rest

In case you haven’t heard, Apple has an AI problem.

Okay, it’s far more complicated than that. For example, the company just shipped a bunch of new Apple Intelligence features in iOS 26 to many millions of users.

But if you want to rehash the “Apple is doomed in AI” narrative, your best argument is simply to point at Siri.

Siri has gotten a handful of AI upgrades in the past year, but the big changes that hopefully make for a “brand new Siri” are still MIA.

Rumors indicate those big Siri upgrades are coming around March or April, alongside the new HomePod Touch product.

Siri’s new powers were reportedly so crucial to the HomePod Touch that Apple pushed its original intended release back a full year.

In other words, HomePod Touch could be the poster child for what the new Siri can do.

Apple no doubt wants to start silencing its critics around the topic of AI.

Launching a compelling new Siri, alongside a brand new product to show off that AI prowess, could be a good first move.

Source: 9to5mac