A short promotional clip reportedly found inside the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate has offered what may be the clearest indication yet of what Apple intends its long-rumoured camera-equipped AirPods to actually do. The video was spotted by MacRumors, which reported that the earbuds are apparently far enough along to have marketing material sitting in shipping software.
In the demonstration, a man holds a book up so that the camera on the AirPods can read the title, and a voiceover suggests that the world around the wearer becomes something that can be saved for later, on request. The footage indicates that the camera feeds what it sees to Visual Intelligence, with Siri then able to answer questions about the wearer’s surroundings and file the information away. According to MacRumors, the software makes direct reference to setting up Visual Intelligence on AirPods rather than on an iPhone, which reads less like an internal experiment and more like a feature with a launch behind it.
There is also a warning reportedly built in. Should hair cover the earbuds, the wearer is told to clear the obstruction so that the most accurate information about the environment can be gathered — a small detail, but one that suggests how dependent the whole idea is on an unimpeded line of sight.
The product carries the internal codename B790, which was first reported by Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, and MacRumors found further references to B790 elsewhere in macOS Tahoe 26.7, alongside mentions of a long list of unreleased Apple hardware.
Gurman’s reporting adds a layer of intrigue to the codename. He has written that Apple has spent years developing camera AirPods under the designation B798, a device originally slated for 2026 before slipping to 2027, while a competing internal version — B790 — has been progressing in parallel.
On what the hardware might look like, Gurman has reported that the earbuds resemble the AirPods Pro 3 but carry longer stems to accommodate the camera components, and that a small LED will indicate when visual data is being sent to the cloud. The cameras, he has written, are not designed to capture photographs or video at all, but to take in low-resolution visual information that the wearer can then question Siri about — asking what might be cooked with the ingredients on the counter, for instance, or leaning on the cameras for turn-by-turn directions. Prototypes are reportedly in the design validation test stage, one step short of production validation, with testers said to be using them actively.
Gurman has reported that Apple had hoped to ship the earbuds in the first half of 2026 before delays to the overhauled Siri pushed the schedule back, and that the improved assistant is now on track for September. Should that hold, the earbuds could appear alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and the foldable iPhone Ultra, at a hardware event now less than a month away.
Disclaimer: This content has not been generated, created or edited by Finance SC. Publisher:
Source link
Source link
