Rather than functioning as conventional cameras, the sensors are expected to feed information into Visual Intelligence. This would allow Siri to answer questions about what is around the wearer or save information they encounter throughout the day.
This is not the first report suggesting Apple is developing AirPods with cameras. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously claimed the earbuds would collect “visual information in low resolution,” effectively acting as eyes for Apple’s AI features.
Potential uses could include asking Siri questions about nearby objects, saving information without taking out your iPhone, or receiving more detailed turn-by-turn directions based on the wearer’s surroundings.
The AirPods shown in the video resemble a slightly thicker version of the AirPods Pro 3, with longer stems seemingly providing room for the additional hardware.
Apple has not officially announced the device, so its final name, price, features, and launch date remain unknown. However, previous reports suggest the AirPods could arrive as early as September alongside Apple’s next generation of iPhones.
In addition to privacy concerns, why is it that every time battery capacity is improved, they find a new way to drain it? They don’t even last a full day
I guess they’re out of ideas. When the original idea was to listen to shit in your ear.
Tech is so fucking cooked. They are clearly out of ideas and grasping at straws. This is the dumbest thing I’ve heard… So far.
I bet you every latest iPhone carrier individual thinks that this is the coolest thing on the planet
It’s joever, pack up
If you care about privacy move to a country that actually allows pro-human laws to pass instead of pro-capital
They are building a mobile surveillance device that will collect them the data they need to compete with the other tech giants pursuing AI. They aren’t grasping, it’s calculated and intentional. You seem to still think they build consumer goods for our use and not for their own.
Agreed, but will people even buy them? I like to think not, but how many morons got new iPhones for “Apple intelligence”
Wish Linux had cross device seamless operations like clipboard sharing and self hosted settings sharing
That second bit exists w/ freeipa+ansible
Device interoperability is seen as a security vulnerability by the “Support Open Standards” community
Obligatory KDE Connect comment.
it’s inevitable imo. I’ll never wear this tech but we’re not too far off from a dystopian cyberpunk future, next it’ll be smart contact lenses, then implants, then genetic splicing (the technology prob already exists). stopped using apple a decade ago for several reasons
So either private changing stalls in every locker room, or we go the starship troopers route where they have mixed showers and no one cares.
“People don’t want cameras on their glasses”
“What if we put them on their airpods?”
We ostracized the glasses by calling them “pervert glasses”
We can do the same with “pervert pods”
Or pPods, if you will
Enters a Mexican restaurant. ICE arrives minutes after.
So pervert air pods
Oh so they’ve learnt nothing from Meta’s pervert glasses?
They know. They’re willing to risk it for the data they’ll get.
Amazon has these.
It’s happening.
Using pervert glasses for work is a whole other layer of cyberpunk bullshit.
🤢 every day I’m disappointed that Amazon is somehow still in business.
PervPods
You were SO close.
StarePods
PornoPods?
spyPods
The world is moving to a risk management style surveillance network inspired by the Gestapo. If we treat everyone like a criminal, is the new world government’s ideology then we will eventually catch you. I think there was a novel talking about mass surveillance networks to enforce government policies like a dystopian novel.
You must be a criminal because if you don’t have anything to hide why are you worried?
A surveilled society is a polite one.
You must be a criminal because if you don’t have anything to hide why are you worried?
Go. Fuck. Yourself. Then go read 1984. Then show me your browser history and all the pictures on your phone, since you have nothing to hide.
Either this was an attempt at sarcasm that didn’t work or you are a naive kid who lives in a bubble, and if so read some history books and some diverse news sources
He never uses /s and I’ve seen him eat way more downvotes than this. But yes, he’s playing on a Robert A Heinlein quote.
Tag the account. They’re doing a bit
Polite is what horrifying brutality wears to an interview.
or pervPods?
The issue of mass surveillance goes far beyond being a pervert, SpyPods definitely captures that better, just isn’t as emotionally gripping.
But like calling the Meta glasses “Pervert Glasses” it’s not about being technically accurate in your description of the scope of surveillance, it’s about making it socially unacceptable. It’s why using “weird” worked so well for Waltz - it didn’t provide an all encompassing description of why Trump and his ilk were dangerous and bad for the country, it just nailed how to shine a light on how they’re socially unacceptable (to rational and sane ppl obvs.)
Yeah I know, our culture sacrifices truth and accuracy in order to emotionally manipulate each other to accept our value system. Its insane, highly coercive and foolish.
It’s frustrating I know, but I truly think it’s less culture and more just hairless ape brain stuff. Our brains are lazy by evolutionary design and in terms of social communication, it’s sadly more effective to aim straight for the emotional limbic system. We should be creatures capable of sustained rational thought, but… <gestures broadly> that obviously isn’t the case and never has been. It’s all much worse when you’re someone not as prone to emotional appeals, but the trick is to appeal to the emotion and then follow it up with a little bit of the objective reality.
Seems like Apple didn’t get the memo as public opinion has turned on having cameras absolutely everywhere. I get that it’s for “visual intelligence”, but that’s just some marketing to try and convince people this doesn’t make you look as pervy as wearing the Meta Raybans.
Visible cameras being everywhere. People are dangerously tolerant of what they can’t see.
Thiel needs the data. Remember they’re working together.
But, like, why though? Who asked for this?
Because they have to compete with other tech giants and their AI initiatives or they will be left behind and eventually bought out by one of them. All these companies are in fierce competition with each other for survival right now. You still think they make products for our benefit? Those benefits are necessary for us to participate, it isn’t why they make those products.
Palantir and flock
These better be very visually distinct from ordinary AirPods - I do not want to be mistaken for the sort of twat who would wear something with a camera in it 🫤
Yeah, as a glasses-wearer, I am seriously thinking about getting some totally rimless glasses so no one thinks I have the pervert glasses…
I grew up on TNG and always wanted my glasses to have the powers of Geordi’s VISOR… but not like this…
I did exactly that when I bought my new glasses a few months ago. I chose thin wire frames.
We’re gonna bring wire rims back in style!
I’m hoping this is bullshit, but this is a fast track out of the Apple ecosystem for me.
If anyone actually wants this they they don’t have the intelligence to consider the consequences.
Either way I hope it’s announced this month as I need new headphones.
Maybe BS, but I’d wager only partly true, because the kind of sensors needed for basic local environment awareness aren’t “cameras” in the usual sense even if the have an array of photoreceptors like a camera uses. It might be better described as a higher resolution version of the IR light detectors currently used.
Regardless, given a few undeniable technical realities, like ridiculously tiny batteries and the bandwidth requirements of video vs available BT throughput, there is 0% chance of these earbuds becoming pervglasses-like surveillance wear.
Reactionaries and sourgrapists don’t give a rats ass about truth, however, so prepare for sensationalist headlines no matter what.
It’s high resolution enough to take notes about your environment and answer questions with Apple intelligence. If it’s as restricted by Bluetooth bandwidth, battery, etc as you claim, it would be a useless feature. It doesn’t need to record 24/7, just take a snapshot every 5 minutes and if something interesting is happening maybe then start recording
Individual photos could be transferred. And most of their recent SOCs can do on-device image interpretation. That’s how their Photos app captions and labels pictures. It’d probably work OK for large objects even at low fidelity So I think that’s possible.
Still not really sure how they would capture video. At nearly any resolution it would heavily tax the grain of rice size battery, on top of the processing power needed for encoding a video stream, and that’s assuming their new chip includes P2P WiFi capability to solve the bandwidth issue.
What I expected they might try was passive spatial mesh construction using either SLAM or LiDAR to integrate with their spatial computing and accessibility or indoor navigation. But if all it’s doing is describing what can be captured in a photo, that sounds plausible.
That’s a really good point about the sort of image quality they could capture and transmit given the tiny battery… but if they sacrifice the battery life or NC development to add in some AI data gathering it’s a step too far for me.
