Apple Rumored to Be Working on AirPods With Built-in Cameras

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but anyone feel like Apple is slowly having an...over-engineering problem?

The Apple Vision Pro, this... the new iPad Pros with FUCKING M4 CHIPS THAT ARE RUNNING IPADOS (??????)

Like what is happening in their product development department lately?

"If you can't reinvent the wheel, then just make the wheel more expensive." -Tim Apple, probably
- Listen, I can't lie...my iPhone X is the best phone I've owned. Bought in 2017 and still going strong with promised support until 2026/27. I still have fond memories of "paying" my parents back for it (I was child labour 😀)
- Or they have a ton of M4 sized wheels and it’s easier just to use the same wheel for everything
They need to take their talent and apply it to stuff that could actually use it, rather than rehashing stuff that is already good. An Apple clothes dryer that actually can sense dry clothes and doesn't break easily. An apple garage door that doesn't suck. An Apple Ebike that lasts ages and is repairable (and gets people out of their cars).
I think an Apple bidet could be neat. A toaster, too.
- Did you just put "repairable" and "Apple" in the same sentence?
- The bidet is under development. It is going to have cameras to confirm cleanliness using ai.
- ... I don't know if I trust Siri to wash my asshole tbh
- That would probably disrupt the brand too much.
- An Apple bidet which adds a colonic health section to your Health app
- Yeah…

Will the camera look inside of your ear?

iWax
- iWax on … iWax off
Yes and tell you your IQ, and notify your doctor that you don't wash in there.
Its gonna look out at the world so you can ask it questions and it can tell you about what youre looking at

First there were glassholes. Now we'll have earworms?

You mean butt plugs with cameras pointing onwards into it?
- I would buy that

bringing "in-air" gestures to airpods

I can't wait for stories of people brushing their hair away and the earbuds take that as a sign to raise the volume too high or something equally dumb to happen because they won't be able to differentiate between a normal gesture meant for it and something not meant for it.

Gesture controls are cool, but what happens if they are too sensitive to movement or think gesture xyz is the same as gesture zyx?

These already have IR sensors for gesture detection
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hy-concealed-smart-earbuds#/
Using cameras instead of simpler IR sensors are going to hurt battery life
I think the problem would be there aren’t sensitive enough and you have people walking around talking to themselves and waving their hands all around in frustration
- If someone is wearing them you will never be truly certain if a bee is flying around them or not.

Cost as much as an iPhone

They haven't even thought of adding fans for the hot days. Is anyone even thinking of users at Apple?

And this is why the Humane Pin was always a dumb idea. Apple, Google, Samsung, etc just needed to license some LL and diffusion models, then slap camera on all the headphones they make. Boom - instant humane like experience that’s faster, lighter, better looking, has better battery, etc etc.

No futuristic projector UI, but that thing was pretty busted anyway.

The big problem with the humane pin was that it was trying to do processing on the teeny tiny device and that used all it's battery up in 15 mins generated 300 MW of heat.
Why not just use the phone in your pocket that's actually designed for this kind of data processing?
- As I recall, the original goal was to build a product that allowed you to leave the phone behind so you could be more present in the world.
  Problem is, processing and battery power clearly isn’t there yet, and it would require a separate sim for that.
  A product that leveraged the phone would’ve been a better V1. It’s kind of the obvious conclusion everyone comes to when they play with this thing in the wild.
- That's a lotta heat

Just to improve the spy ecosystem. Thanks

100% says it’s for gesture tracking and fully local
- The source code is closed so you cannot check Apple allegations only trust them and I don't trust a company who puts a advertising ID on its phones
- I suppose they really wanna use all that R&D that they did on gesture tracking with the vision somewhere.

I doubt it's for their fun headset since they've already abandoned it. I'm sure it's going to be taking data for mapping or some other dumb bullshit with AI to describe what's around you because you can't fucking use your eyes.

Apple is so bad now. Ugh.

Abandoned it? What?
- They’re just stopping development of the Pro to focus on the cheaper model so not necessarily abandoned
- https://futurism.com/the-byte/apple-gives-up-apple-vision-pro-headset

Ear pics now easier than ever

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The $3 trillion company intends to mass-produce revamped earbuds with built-in infrared cameras by 2026, according to a new report from analyst and longtime Apple insider Ming-Chi Kuo.

The cameras could help Apple shore up its current and future augmented-reality headsets with enhanced spatial audio features, the analyst wrote.

Citing a supply-chain survey, Kuo indicated that pairing these enhanced buds with Vision Pro goggles could make Apple’s spatial-computing experience more lifelike.

For folks not interested in dropping thousands on an Apple headset, the IR cameras could offer other perks, including bringing “in-air” gestures to AirPods, per Kuo.

The analyst’s report follows an earlier story from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, which noted that Apple was looking into the idea of camera-powered AirPods.

After turning its minimalistic white buds into status symbol in the iPod era, Apple has gradually made them smarter over the years, adding features such as wireless connectivity, noise cancellation, head tracking, touch controls and voice commands.

The original article contains 288 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 45%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

How about just better sound instead? You know, what headphones are actually for.

Airpods are more about convenience than sound quality. Not sure how cameras factor in there though.

The worst part is that these could be the only option. Since airpods are designed to go bad after a few years Apple will interpret all of the replacements as "very successful sales"

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