Apple smart home display rumors, more

Welcome to 9.5 Mac Daily 4 Tuesday, March 10th, 2026.

I'm your host, Chance Miller.

We are sponsored today by BenQ.

Leading off today, Apple has updated its leadership page to reflect several recent

changes to its executive team.

Towards the end of last year, Apple announced that Lisa Jackson, its vice president of

Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, would soon retire.

As a result, her organization would transition to then Senior Vice President and General

Council Catherine Adams, ahead of her own retirement towards the end of 2026.

At the same time, Apple also said that Jennifer Newsted, an ex-legal advisor to the Department

of State in the U.S. and most recently met as Chief Legal Officer, would become General

Council on March 1st.

Apple has updated its leadership page now to list Adams as the Senior Vice President

of Government Affairs and added Newsted as the Senior Vice President and General Council.

Apple has also refreshed the bio of Eddie Q, changing his title from Senior Vice President

of Services to Senior Vice President of Services and Health.

This change is a result of Apple's decision to fold its Health and Fitness division into

services as part of a broader leadership shakeup after Jeff Williams retired as COO last

year.

And finally, Apple has added Steve Lamey to the leadership page as Vice President of

Human Interface Design and Molly Anderson as Vice President of Industrial Design.

Lamey was appointed to the role late last year when Apple announced that Alan Dye, who

never made it to Apple's leadership page, was leaving his job as Vice President of Human

Interface Design to join Mehta.

Molly Anderson, meanwhile, had already been leading Apple's Industrial Design team since

2024, so it seems Apple has made a calculated decision to once again add its design leadership

to the leadership page.

Next up today, a year ago, Apple unveiled the M4 Max and M3 Ultra Max Studio desktop

computers.

In addition to things like Thunderbolt 5 and higher SSD limits of 16 terabytes, Apple

advertised the Max Studio as featuring up to 512 gigabytes of unified memory.

At the time, Apple said that this was the highest ever amount of RAM in a personal computer.

It was a big marketing point of the Max Studio, particularly for things like running large

language models with Apple touting support for over 600 billion parameters stored entirely

in memory.

But at the same time as the introduction of new MacBook Pros and the MacBook Neo last week,

Apple has removed that highest RAM upgrade option from the Max Studio.

Others ordering a new M3 Ultra Max Studio today no longer have the option to configure

it with up to 512 gigabytes of RAM.

The issue is likely due to global supply constraints thanks in large part to high memory needs for

servers powering artificial intelligence.

The M3 Ultra Max Studio still does offer the most configurable RAM in a Mac with its highest

and 256 gigabyte option.

That compares to the M2 Ultra Mac Pro that offers up to 192 gigabytes and the M4 Max and

M5 Max MacBook Pros that offer up to 128 gigabytes.

But again, as it stands right now, if you need more than 256 gigabytes of RAM, you'll

have to look elsewhere.

We are sponsored this week by BenQ, the makers of Mac Ready monitors designed to look just

like your Mac.

BenQ's Mac colors technology makes the MA series look identical to your Mac's built-in

display, with the same vibrancy, the same color accuracy, and no fiddling required.

You also get USB-C1 cable connectivity so your Mac charges and connects with a single

cord.

Plus BenQ's display pilot 2 software for quick control of brightness, volume, resolution.

The stand is fully adjustable with height, swivel, tilt, and even a full 90-degree pivot,

and the Nano Gloss panel delivers that premium glossy look that Mac users love.

You can check out the full lineup including the gorgeous MA27 OUP by hitting the link

in the show notes.

BenQ is also running a giveaway with no purchase necessary.

You must be 18 or older and a resident of the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, or Canada

excluding Quebec.

All details are in the show notes.

My thanks to BenQ for sponsoring the show.

In other news, Apple has been developing a smart home display for years, but the product

relies on the promised upgrades to Siri to ship first.

A new report today says that Apple's goal for shipping this smart home display has now

been pushed to the iOS 27 cycle, likely in September.

The product was first scheduled for spring of 2025, but was postponed then to let Apple

finish its work on the new Siri, an integral piece of the device's interface.

Apple then planned to release the display this month when it hoped the new Siri would

be ready.

With Siri however delayed once again, Apple is postponing the smart home device once

again.

The smart display itself has been finished and ready for several months, but Apple is

looking to release it around September when it anticipates the new Siri will finally

be complete.

The government says the smart display looks like a square iPad that can either be affixed

to a half domed, shaped speaker base or a wall attachment.

It's designed to be a central AI hub for your home, with a user interface that includes

a list of circular app icons and a similar arrangement to an Apple Watch home screen.

The highlight is a facial recognition-based system that can recognize people when they

walk up to the device.

With that face ID authentication, the product can then display personalized data like calendar

appointments, reminders, notes, music, and news preferences.

The operating system is said to be based on the underlying TVOS platform used for Apple

TV.

John Ternis, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, has been playing

a central role in these efforts and believes that smart home products are central to Apple's

future growth.

Apple has also been working on a new home pod without a display and an updated Apple TV

set top box, but both of those are also tied to the new artificial intelligence features.

Ultimately, as Bloomberg explains, this predicament where the hardware is ready but the software

isn't underscores the need for Apple to catch up with artificial intelligence.

Siri lies at the heart of this AI strategy, and there are many future products depending

on the technology.

This includes the smart display, the Apple TV, the home pod, future camera-equipped

AirPods, smart glasses, and more.

That wraps up another episode of Ninety-Five Mac Daily.

As always, you can find all of the latest Apple news on Ninety-Five Mac dot com, follow

along with me on threads at Chance H. Miller, and we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode

of Ninety-Five Mac Daily.