they saw the outrage at meta glasses and decided "I need this"
this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
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People would enjoy these features. But they want it to happen without a camera, somehow.
So they are supposedly verboten features. Never to be done.
I want this in the same way I want a web browser on my toaster. So glad people like me finally getting our way.
So now I have to stab every person wearing airpods if I don't want to be spied on by the Five Eyes intelligence agencies?
Every day I'm thankful US tech is less and less popular outside the west.
Hard pass and also don’t have $400 for shit that’s not going to hold a battery charge for long.
...users can query Siri about, like asking the AI assistant what they should cook with the ingredients they have in front of them ... may also use the cameras to help with things like turn-by-turn directions.
Those are some pretty underwhelming use-cases. I can't see the world beating a path to anyone's door for that. Even if you were so excited about these features that you were willing to overlook the privacy concerns, it seems like the phone you've already got would probably be just fine as a conduit for such services.
And if we're not ignoring the privacy concerns these use cases are definitely not worth putting everyone in front of you under this form of surveillance for a US tech giant and ultimately the US government. The price for society to pay is way too high.
Yeah. But mind that the bulk price of mediocre cameras is insignificant next to the sales price of AirPods.
I think the idea is that people can walk around and chat with their AI companion, and it sees what they see. No need for any fussing about with hardware. That's exactly Apple's thing. Effortless technology for people who don't want to deal with the mechanics of technology.
Take a picture of your fridge with a better angle than your ears have.
Use GPS.
Done. I held up my GPS-enabled smart phone I paid $50 for 10 years ago to my eye line, better yet I was able to get a real-time preview of the angle of the picture to ensure everything's in shot.
Surely it will all run on the phone anyway
If your phone is too much of a pain to get out of your pocket, surely a watch or bracelet is a better form factor for this.
Does no one at apple have long hair?
Why is this shit legal...
Yeah, because I really want my fucking headphones recording video.
I think most people won't be worrying about their own headphones.
Very true.
Or people walking around me with their camera headphones pointed at me even when they don‘t realize it. Fucking love this big brother economy.
It's Apple. People will buy them no matter what
The AirPods’ cameras “aren’t designed” to snap photos or video but instead can take in “visual information in low resolution” that users can query Siri about, like asking the AI assistant what they should cook with the ingredients they have in front of them, according to Gurman. They may also use the cameras to help with things like turn-by-turn directions.
So you got to hover that leek next to your ears? Nice they are low resolution but if they can recognise something sitting on a kitchen counter in front of you then that is not a relevant argument. They can 100% be used to identify people standing in front of you as well and that is going to be outside anyones control.
That shit illegal in states that have recording laws. Someone needs to sue.
Apple is also developing smart glasses and an AI pendant that could launch as soon as early 2027, according to Gurman.
Nobody asked for this. This AI push is stagnating innovation.
Also, link is paywalled. https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.theverge.com/tech/926376/apple-airpods-cameras-ai-production
This AI push is stagnating innovation.
I think it's the other way around, corporate consolidation (including capturing our governments and getting all research funding) killed innovation a while ago and now AI is just the latest non-idea that is being used to cover up that none of the corporations have any new ideas. Even Apple's latest good idea, ARM laptops, was basically done by cheap Linux nettops a decade ago.
Also, ARM laptops were Steve Jobs’ last big idea. He put in place Apple’s last 10 year plan before he died. The first M series laptop came out nine years after his death.
The reason being that Apple is actually considered to be one of the founding members of ARM so they have unique access to the core. Moving to ARM was always the plan after moving to Intel. Apple was the first company to produce a portable ARM device, the Newton back in the early 90s before Jobs’ return.
So even that innovation isn’t exactly new.
A solution in search of a problem
every day brings another reason for me to just stay in my fucking room
Wait until you're an adult. Staying in your room turns into never leave the house
i'm well over 45. thankfully got my "midlife crisis" out of the way in my 20s, before fullblown fascist surveillance police state happened. don't need to go anywhere, i'm set
Do you live out of your bedroom at well over 45?
no ragrets
If you're still in your parents house at that age... Good luck
i'm not, but thanks. not sure how "live out of bedroom" = "live at parents house" but whatever.
i'm doing perfectly fine with life. but i'm already on enough cameras everywhere i go, don't need to add apple fanboi influencers/youtubers to the mix. i'll stay in my room
👍
I like AirPods (Pro) but this is a real no-go (for me). If this really gets pushed and in the stores, will not purchase them.
I wish companies would just get away with AI and unnecessary crap like this.
I LOVE my pros but also for sure would not buy headphones with shitty AI garbage in them. I’ve never enabled Siri on anything and never will
No more using my headphones for masturbation. 😆
You'd just be paying it forward. Ten minutes after you watch some girl's roommate jilling off, she's watching you crank your meat handle.
The AirPods’ cameras “aren’t designed” to snap photos or video but instead can take in “visual information in low resolution” that users can query Siri about, like asking the AI assistant what they should cook with the ingredients they have in front of them, according to Gurman. They may also use the cameras to help with things like turn-by-turn directions.
That doesn't sound "low-resolution" to me. Also, does anyone really trust them not to record the camera feed? It needs to be sent to the cloud for this thing to work, they're going to record it, and nothing is ever deleted.
Just because the user isn't given the images, doesn't mean the video isnt' recorded.
"Aren't designed to" is very different from "designed not to".
Not necessarily, you could compute embeddings on device, but that requires decent compute.
And embeddings are reversible and don’t preserve privacy. It’s not meaningfully better than video.
It's Apple, it will most likely run "on device" - so the iPhone the airpods are connected to in this case
who's going to use this when it makes the battery life almost nothing?
my ear buds are good enough but still only last for so long just listening over Bluetooth. two way conversation makes them drain even faster... two way plus video? come on!
A resolution low enough to be able to identify "ingredients they have in front of them". And they're also planning to launch smart glasses (read: spyglasses) and AI pendants (read: consumer bodycams), as to be able to compete with Meta and OpenAI (with regards to harvesting data without consent?) But I guess you first introduce them into one of your most widely-adopted wearable, where the high probability of people being spied on, isn't as obvious compared to relatively uncommon spyglasses or bodycams.
Pray for nukes.
"Well, the plague didn't work. I guess I'll try raining hell fire." -- God
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