The company’s smart screen debut heavily relies on an iPhone or iPad — for better and for worse.

Apple's entry into the smart display category was rumored for years. By the time its debut home hub device arrives this week, the company will be nearly a decade behind its main rivals in the space. In true Apple fashion, it refused to rush new products just because most of the competition was doing it. Now that the HomeView ($299) is here, Apple is hoping the iPhone faithful will like its mix of elevated design and newly expanded Siri capabilities.

Unlike smart displays from Amazon and Google, Apple's approach relies on a companion device. That means you'll need either an iPhone or an iPad to mirror apps using technology similar to CarPlay. As you'd imagine, that means the HomeView's usefulness, like CarPlay's, is directly tied to how much you use Apple's core apps — things like Messages, Calendar, Photos, Reminders and others. You'll also need to have some smart home devices to make the most of the smart display and be willing to use Safari as your recipe box. If all of that is OK to you, and if you're willing to give Siri access to personal data inside some of those apps, the HomeView can quickly become a very versatile device with something for your whole family.

I have fond memories of the iMac G4 . It was the first computer I used in a design lab in college, and I loved how I could reposition the display to suit the task at hand.

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