Report: AirPods with camera in "late test phase"
Apple is working on its first "device for the AI era." It is to be based on its popular earbuds. More specialized wearables are also planned.
Currently, AirPods can only handle audio. That is set to change.
(Image: Apple)
Rumors that Apple wants to integrate a camera into its AirPods have been circulating for at least a year. Now, product development is reportedly well advanced. According to a Bloomberg report from Thursday, Apple is now in the “late stages of development” for the new model series. However, this does not mean the camera AirPods are production-ready yet. The prototypes have reached an (almost) final status with (almost) all functions. A market launch is not expected before 2027.
AirPods Pro 3 with extended stem
The camera AirPods are not intended to serve as a novel photography tool. Instead, Apple is focused on AI: by capturing the environment, they are to become the “eyes” of an improved Siri, expected in the fall with iOS 27. Visual information will be captured at a relatively low resolution – sufficient, however, to perform AI queries. The sensors are reportedly located in the stems of the AirPods, which have therefore been slightly extended; otherwise, the product is to resemble the current AirPods Pro 3.
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The prototype stage that the new AirPods are said to have reached is called Design Validation Test (DVT). This precedes the PVT phase (production validation test), which examines early mass production. However, Apple's problem seems to be less the hardware itself and more the software: for this reason alone, the project, originally planned for release in 2026, has reportedly been postponed. Apple has still not succeeded in implementing its context-sensitive Siri. A Siri capable of chatbot with Google Gemini support is not expected before iOS 27 in the fall.
Application ideas – and a camera pendant
What the practical application of the new camera AirPods will be also remains to be seen. Apparently, the idea is to simplify visual intelligence, for example, by having products or places explained directly into one's ear. One example, according to Bloomberg, would also be a dinner with the help of AirPods: one would only have to look at the available ingredients and would receive a recipe. Further application ideas include reminders based on the camera image – for instance, when it detects a supermarket.
To ensure data privacy, the camera AirPods are to have a red LED that indicates when the camera is active and data is being transferred to the cloud. It remains to be seen how visible this warning will be – a problem that Meta knows all too well from its Ray-Ban smart glasses. In addition to the camera AirPods, Apple is also working on other devices, such as a pendant with a camera. Such AI devices have so far been flops in the market.
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