Apple's Camera-Equipped AirPods Confirmed: See Them in Action - MacRumors
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Apple's Camera-Equipped AirPods Confirmed: See Them in Action
Monday August 17, 2026 6:21 pm PDT by Juli Clover<br>Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods that appear to be nearly ready to launch, based on a video MacRumors found in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate.
In a short demo, a man holds a book up so the camera in the AirPods can see the title. "With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later," says the voiceover text.
Here is your first look at AirPods with Cameras in action using Visual Intelligence.<br>This video file came from macOS 26.7 RC pic.twitter.com/yo7RI4MCeu<br>— Aaron (@aaronp613) August 18, 2026
The camera on the AirPods will feed information to ‌Visual Intelligence‌, and Siri will be able to answer questions about the wearer's surroundings and log information. There is a direct reference to setting up ‌Visual Intelligence‌ on the AirPods.
If hair is covering the AirPods up, you'll receive an alert. "To get the most accurate information about things in your environment, make sure AirPods are not covered," it says.
The camera-equipped AirPods have the codename B790, which was also previously mentioned by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman suggested the AirPods could launch as soon as September, so we could see them at the iPhone-centric event where Apple will unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra.
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‌macOS Tahoe‌ 26.7 has multiple other mentions of the B790 product, as well as references to a long list of other unreleased Apple products.
Related Roundups: AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 3<br>Buyer's Guide: AirPods (Caution), AirPods Pro (Neutral)<br>Related Forum: AirPods
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Top Rated Comments
turbineseaplane<br>2 days ago at 06:31 pm
Oh my ..
So many concerns here.
I hope they don't get Airpods banned in gyms & locker rooms with stuff like this.<br>Score: 81 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane<br>2 days ago at 06:54 pm
I’m sure Apple will lean on private cloud compute to dispel the privacy issue, but it feels like they’re specifically designing hardware that’s so dependant on AI that they can lock you into an iCloud+ subscription in the future, or risk having all your shiny new gadgets become shiny new paper weights.
Kinda like how the iPod ushered in a new era of portable music that is now a miserable app and software experience unless you pay for Apple Music.
Count me out!
The problem with this kind of product is that the usual privacy assurances are inverted here.
As the owner/user/wearer of camera equipped AirPods, I'm not worried about privacy.
The concern is for everyone around me that didn't sign up or agree to be getting recorded, no matter what it's for.<br>Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Spock<br>2 days ago at 06:29 pm
This will be worse than the Meta Glasses that people are already complaining about, this isn’t a good idea.<br>Score: 54 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Eric_WVGG<br>2 days ago at 06:52 pm
I highly doubt it’s a camera. I would think it’s something like Lidar - a new tech that can use light to “read” but not to take photos etc and consumes less...