--- title: "Apple’s $1,000 robot may make FaceTime calls, turn on lights and tell your cat off" description: "CEO John Ternus wants Apple to take robots seriously. Its first home robot, years in the works, still needs a reason to cost $1,000" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-11-02T18:32:21Z modified: 2026-11-03T05:20:24Z url: https://rews.cc/a/apple-s-1-000-robot-may-make-facetime-calls-turn-on-lights-a-121ce1 language: en tags: ["apple", "robotics", "ai", "face-time", "smart-home", "tech"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Apple’s $1,000 robot may make FaceTime calls, turn on lights and tell your cat off *CEO John Ternus wants Apple to take robots seriously. Its first home robot, years in the works, still needs a reason to cost $1,000* By Nate Ledger · November 2, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/apple-s-1-000-robot-may-make-facetime-calls-turn-on-lights-a-121ce1 ## In brief - Apple is reportedly developing a home robot, code-named J595, that could be sold as HomeView Ultra - The target is reportedly 2027 at $1,000 or more, though delays could push the launch to 2028 - Prototypes date to 2018; Tim Cook approved further work, and CEO John Ternus is reportedly pushing household robots - Reports differ on whether it roams the home or is a 9-inch screen on a swiveling arm; Apple has not announced it - Apple’s stationary HomeView display costs $299 and goes on sale November 13 Apple, according to people who worked on its robotics projects and spoke to The Information, is building a home robot. The code name is J595, and it could be sold as HomeView Ultra, after the HomeView stationary smart display Apple just launched. The target is reportedly 2027, at a possible price of $1,000 or more. Development delays could push it to 2028. As [Jeremy Hsu summarized it for *Ars Technica*](https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/11/apples-roaming-home-robot-may-do-facetime-switch-lights-on-and-yell-at-your-cat/), the reported feature list goes like this: it supports FaceTime calls, it switches the lights on when someone walks into a room, and from time to time it orders the family cat off the dining table. I want to be fair to the cat feature. It is probably the most useful thing on the list. The project has a long history. The first prototypes date back to 2018, and Tim Cook, then CEO, approved further work on it. Since then the team has spent years refining the software and adding more AI. The aim, as The Information describes it, is to give the robot enough abilities that it amounts to more than a “fancy way to make FaceTime calls,” so that the price can be justified. Now John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO, is reportedly pushing household robots harder, which presumably makes the people who spent eight years trying to justify that price feel a little more urgency. ![A retro robotic arm on wheels points toward a red and white cat sitting proudly on a cloth-covered table.](https://rews.cc/img/60c3ddc61f595ae8f920ff4c6716b45e6a436e44.webp) ## What is it, exactly? There’s some disagreement about what the thing physically is. *Ars Technica*’s version is a robot that moves around the home on its own. Other write-ups of the same report describe something less mobile. [9to5Mac’s account of the report](https://9to5mac.com/2026/11/02/new-report-on-homeview-ultra-product-covers-features-pricing-more/) has a 9-inch screen on a swiveling arm, which works out to a smart display that can turn to face you. In that version, the price is around $1,000 and could rise depending on what components cost, and the hold-up is software, not hardware. Apple hasn’t announced the product, the name or the price. So for now the most honest description is “a screen that moves, to some degree.” Whichever it is, the comparison that matters is with Apple’s own lineup. The regular HomeView, which Apple unveiled in October, [costs $299 and goes on sale November 13](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-10-13/apple-unveils-299-homeview-smart-home-hub-new-apple-tv-4k-homepod-mini-2), according to Bloomberg. It has a 7-inch screen, according to [gHacks](https://www.ghacks.net/2026/10/14/apple-launches-the-299-homeview-its-first-smart-display-with-sales-starting-november-13/). If the Ultra comes in at $1,000, that’s about 3.3 times the price, or $701 extra. What the $701 gets you, roughly, is motion: the screen can follow you, look around the room and act on what it sees. When I [wrote about the HomeView launch](https://rews.cc/a/apple-s-smart-home-event-is-about-defending-the-iphone-s-tol-da0feb), I argued it was less about light bulbs than about keeping the iPhone’s toll booth in place as the home gets smarter. A $1,000 version is the luxury lane through the same booth. ![A stylized robot with a blank screen blocks an open doorway with a striped barrier beside a bowl of dark round objects.](https://rews.cc/img/a00dbf82ea2a4ea1025a85c2673229b9fb0a1e75.webp) ## The pricing problem The incentives are where it gets interesting. Picture yourself as a product manager at Apple. (This is a hypothetical. I don’t know any of these people.) Your hardware has been mostly ready for some time. Your price is $1,000 because a screen on a motorized arm with cameras, sensors and a good chip costs a lot to make, and Apple doesn’t do thin margins. So the price came first, and now you need features big enough to fit it. FaceTime, unfortunately, already runs on the phone in everybody’s pocket. Turning on the lights when someone enters a room is something a motion sensor has done for decades, for very little money. The cat thing is charming, but it isn’t $701 of charming. That explains why the software is taking years. Making the robot move was never the hard part. The hard part is finding the thing it does that a cheaper device can’t, and that’s a product question dressed up as an engineering one. The AI is supposed to answer it, and it keeps not quite answering it yet. ![A retro illustrated robot sits on a workshop bench with its chest door open, revealing an empty compartment lit by a single hanging bulb.](https://rews.cc/img/4418a694f6ea06f389841f3103b3579c4320bddf.webp) The *Ars Technica* comparison is a robot vacuum, which is a fair one. It’s also a roaming household gadget with cameras and sensors, and it often costs less than $1,000. The difference is that a robot vacuum’s job is obvious: the floor is dirty, the vacuum cleans it, you can see that it worked. J595’s job, as reported, is ambient. It makes the house feel a bit more attentive. Some people will pay for that, but it’s much harder to put on a box. ## Why build it anyway Being early to something is worth a lot to Apple, as is not being late. Robotics money has been [pouring in this year](https://rews.cc/a/robotics-startups-raised-more-money-in-six-months-of-2026-th-0901a7), mostly into machines that are still [figuring out how to use their hands](https://rews.cc/a/silicon-valley-bets-33-4-billion-on-robots-that-still-can-t--c52a68). A company with Apple’s balance sheet and a new CEO who wants a robotics story can easily justify a few years of internal work. The worst case is a niche product that sells modestly to people who already own four Apple devices. The best case is that the robot becomes the thing in your kitchen that runs your Apple home. A second-tier Apple product has a pretty high floor. Even so, after eight years of development, the clearest description of the feature list still comes down to a video phone that follows you around, a light switch with a camera, and a cat supervisor. The plan is to sell all three in one box for more than three times what Apple charges for the version that just sits there.