According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is working on three new wearable devices. The company is reportedly developing smart glasses, AirPods with cameras and “extended AI capabilities” and “a pendant that can be pinned to a shirt or worn as a necklace”.
All three are “being built around the Siri digital assistant”, which “will rely on visual context to carry out tasks”. All products will be tied to the iPhone, and they will all have cameras, but the AirPods and pendants will come with lower-resolution cameras that are only meant to help the AI, not actually take photos or videos.
The glasses, on the other hand, will be “more advanced and feature-rich” with better cameras. Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed in an all-hands meeting with employees earlier this month that the company is working on new categories of products enabled by AI. Cook said, “The world is changing rapidly” and that’s why Apple is investing in new technology.
Before it launches entirely new product categories like this, perhaps Apple should finally launch the comically delayed smart, AI-powered Siri? It also needed Google’s help for this, so it’s unclear how good the glasses, pendants, and new AirPods will actually be.
And speaking of pendants, a similar idea was tried by Humane a few years ago with disastrous results, and the obvious question remains: Why wouldn’t you just use your phone? Or your smartwatch? Apple’s pendant will be an iPhone accessory, not a standalone device intended to replace your iPhone, like the Humane AI Pin, which works as an always-on camera for the iPhone, including a mic for talking to Siri.
Some Apple employees reportedly describe it as the “eyes and ears” of the iPhone, which certainly doesn’t sound scary at all. The pendant also won’t have as much processing power as the Apple Watch, it is “closer to the computing power of the AirPods than the Apple Watch”, which once again raises questions about why it is being developed at all. Anyway, if it is not canceled in the meantime then it is coming next year.
Apple’s smart glasses are apparently coming next year too, and they won’t have a screen. But they will have speakers, mics and cameras. Speaking of which, Apple is reportedly looking to differentiate it from the Meta’s Ray-Bans by giving them better cameras and better build quality. The frames are developed in-house by Apple “in a variety of sizes and colors”.
They will have two cameras, one for “high-resolution imagery” and one dedicated to computer vision – described as “similar to the technology used in Vision Pro”. This will “give the device environmental context, helping it to more accurately interpret its surroundings and measure distances between objects”.
That’s because the goal of these glasses is to presumably act as an AI companion throughout the day, watching what you’re doing in real time (until the battery drains). You’ll be able to look at an object and ask what it is and get help with everyday tasks. Glasses will add event data from posters directly to the calendar, and create context-aware reminders, such as prompting you to pick up an item when you’re looking at a specific shelf in the grocery store.
For navigation, Siri will reference real-world landmarks, and ask you to walk past the described vehicle or building before turning. And it’s all a little more convenient than your phone, which means Apple really has to improve the design of these glasses to succeed.
All of these products seem like solutions to fix a problem, or, to put it bluntly, Apple is desperately trying to find the next big thing, because the Vision Pro certainly wasn’t.
