Apple may be making wearables with ‘eyes and ears’ for iPhone

Apple is reportedly developing AI-powered smart glasses, AirPods and a wearable pendant linked to the iPhone.

Apple isn’t usually the first company to experiment with new products and form factors, but the Cupertino-based tech giant has been reportedly working on new wearables for quite some time now. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the tech giant is now accelerating the development of AI-powered hardware, which includes a pair of smart glasses, a Humane-like pendant that can be pinned to a shirt or worn around the neck, and new AirPods with AI capabilities.

With Siri all set to get the AI treatment in the coming months, the publication says all three devices will be built around Apple’s digital assistant and use visual context to perform actions. Also, these rumoured products will be linked to the iPhone. While the AirPods and pendant are said to be equipped with low-resolution cameras as they will only help Siri work, the glasses will reportedly have a “more upscale and feature-rich” camera capability.

The report goes on to say that during an all-hands meeting with employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would be pushing new “categories of products” powered by AI and that they are “extremely excited about that.”

With Meta’s new smart glasses already popular in the market, it looks like Apple might also launch its very own smart glasses, which will compete against Zuckerberg’s Oakley and Ray-Ban offerings. Code-named N50, Apple is reportedly distributing a number of prototypes to employees in its hardware engineering division, with plans to publicly launch them sometime next year.

Similar to Meta’s majority of smart glasses, Apple won’t be packing in a display but instead will rely on microphones, speakers and cameras. As is the case with the company’s products, they will reportedly have a premium build quality and camera. However, unlike the Oakley glasses, Apple is considering using two camera sensors – one for vision and another for taking photos and recording videos.

As for the pendant, Gurman says that, unlike the Humane AI pin, Apple’s solution will be an accessory for the iPhone instead of a standalone device, with some employees calling the “eyes and ears” of the phone. He added that Apple has now added several AI-powered features to the product, one of which includes the live-translation mode introduced last year.

Talking about Siri’s upcoming AI upgrade, Gurman says Apple is considering readying the new version for iOS 27, which will most likely be launched alongside the iPhone 18 series this October. Powered by Google’s Gemini large language model, the AI-powered version of may also have a chatbot-like interface.

Apple isn’t usually the first company to experiment with new products and form factors, but the Cupertino-based tech giant has been reportedly working on new wearables for quite some time now. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the tech giant is now accelerating the development of AI-powered hardware, which includes a pair of smart glasses, a Humane-like pendant that can be pinned to a shirt or worn around the neck, and new AirPods with AI capabilities.

With Siri all set to get the AI treatment in the coming months, the publication says all three devices will be built around Apple’s digital assistant and use visual context to perform actions. Also, these rumoured products will be linked to the iPhone. While the AirPods and pendant are said to be equipped with low-resolution cameras as they will only help Siri work, the glasses will reportedly have a “more upscale and feature-rich” camera capability.

The report goes on to say that during an all-hands meeting with employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would be pushing new “categories of products” powered by AI and that they are “extremely excited about that.”

With Meta’s new smart glasses already popular in the market, it looks like Apple might also launch its very own smart glasses, which will compete against Zuckerberg’s Oakley and Ray-Ban offerings. Code-named N50, Apple is reportedly distributing a number of prototypes to employees in its hardware engineering division, with plans to publicly launch them sometime next year.

Similar to Meta’s majority of smart glasses, Apple won’t be packing in a display but instead will rely on microphones, speakers and cameras. As is the case with the company’s products, they will reportedly have a premium build quality and camera. However, unlike the Oakley glasses, Apple is considering using two camera sensors – one for vision and another for taking photos and recording videos.

As for the pendant, Gurman says that, unlike the Humane AI pin, Apple’s solution will be an accessory for the iPhone instead of a standalone device, with some employees calling the “eyes and ears” of the phone. He added that Apple has now added several AI-powered features to the product, one of which includes the live-translation mode introduced last year.

Talking about Siri’s upcoming AI upgrade, Gurman says Apple is considering readying the new version for iOS 27, which will most likely be launched alongside the iPhone 18 series this October. Powered by Google’s Gemini large language model, the AI-powered version of may also have a chatbot-like interface.