Apple Still Exploring Smart Glasses Similar to Meta's Ray-Bans

[MacRumors]

Apple is still discussing the possibility of making smart glasses similar to Meta's popular Ray-Ban glasses, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says that such a product wouldn't be a proper augmented reality device like Apple Vision Pro, but it would include AI, microphones, and cameras to create a "pretty good user experience."

"If Apple can bring its design prowess, offer AirPods-level audio quality and tightly integrate the glasses with the iPhone, I think the company would have a smash hit," reckons Gurman. "It's mind-boggling that Apple hasn't gotten there yet."

Apple initially wanted to create smart glasses that looked like regular glasses and had augmented reality capabilities, but Apple stopped development on the project earlier this year. Originally, Apple wanted the glasses to connect to the ‌iPhone‌, but the ‌iPhone‌ didn't have the power or battery life to support them. Apple then transitioned to using the Mac as a power source, but Apple executives weren't convinced a Mac-connected device was a good solution, leading to the shutdown of the project.

Gurman has previously reported that Apple is conducting user studies at its offices to gauge the appeal of features and interfaces, and that the company is working on a version of visionOS that will run on glasses. Codenamed "Atlas," the studies are being led by Apple's Product Systems Quality team, part of the hardware engineering division.

Apple's rationale seems to be that creating smart glasses could provide a stepping stone to developing true AR glasses, aka Apple Glass. There have been rumors about Apple's work on AR glasses for almost 10 years now, and the Vision Pro headset is what Apple built because the technology doesn't yet exist for the kind of augmented reality glasses that Apple is aiming for.

Meanwhile, Apple is still "actively developing" a product that would combine AirPods with cameras, according to Gurman. The cameras would help power AI features by gathering information on the surrounding environment, similar to the Visual Intelligence feature on supporting iPhone models.

Article Link: Apple Still Exploring Smart Glasses Similar to Meta's Ray-Bans

 

[ILoveCalvinCool]

Airpods with cameras. Great.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Apple then transitioned to using the Mac as a power source, but Apple executives weren't convinced a Mac-connected device was a good solution

Darn it
I would love such a thing

 

[Minato1990]

It probably would be normal glasses with an Apple logo sticked onto it with a promise of having the features in a year to delayed to a couple of years like Apple Intelligence.
I want my money back for my iPhone 16 pro max Tim Cook

 

[Big_D]

I wear varifocals and always wonder how the augmented reality bit is supposed to work...

 

[MacLoveMacHate]

With all the work Apple put into the AVP, the Meta glasses have been far more interesting to me at least

 

[nfl46]

Please don’t be that person that wants the AVP form factor changed into the size of regular glasses. We’re many, many years from that happening. Lol.

 

[revfife]

Look until Apple can figure out their software, their hardware is the least of my worries. This is the biggest concern under Cook is that Apple can't figure out who they are and what they are supposed to do.

Most of this stuff from a car to glasses is vaporware.

 

[UltimaKilo]

With current tech, this is just not feasible. Based on industry reports and research papers, it won't be ready for mass market until 2029 at the earliest and likely not until 3032, or later...

 

[javiazar]

Meta got it done, it just cost $10,000

Which means we're like 10 years away from the same device costing $1,000

 

[JOLoughlin]

"It's mind-boggling that Apple hasn't gotten there yet."

Thanks Mark for your input. 🙄 do people know how hard it is to make any product like this let alone a great one. I got rid of my Meta Ray-Bans (mostly because of their privacy policy).

 

[Total Respray]

With matching battery pack attached elegantly to the waist via a colour coordinated cord…

 

[Rogifan]

Apple needs to be less ambitious here. Put out their version of Meta’s Ray Bans or Amazon’s Echo Frames. Make it work seamlessly with other Apple products and price it competitively.

 

[rymc02]

Your going have to interact with these glasses somehow and it seems like voice is the only reasonable way to do it. If you need a bracelet or ring to go along with it, I think that is too much for the average consumer to worry about.

But I would argue when voice is good enough, you probably won't have much of a need to glasses. Getting feedback through your phone, watch or AirPods will be the easiest and least obtrusive way. Making sure to have glasses with you, when you don't need them for sight is not convenient. They are not easy to carry around and are super easy to lose, break or scratch.

I will never understand the use case for something like this item. I get a lot of flack for saying it and rightfully so given how bad Siri has been over the last 10 years, but Voice will be the future of tech interaction. If you have used ChatGPT voice function, it is extremely good and easy to interact with. Yes you will still need to text your device in certain environments, which again makes the glasses even more useless as texting on them would be a nightmare.

But overall Voice with a decent AI assistant that can handle basic queries will be the future. Not sure how I feel about that reality but it is the only obvious place for tech to go.

 

[telepheedian]

They have no business launching this until they fix Siri. Meta AI is already far better at answering general questions, and it's not even really competitive with other AI services at this point.

 

[Aeronauts]

It’s embarrassing how far behind the competition Apple is in these new technologies.

 

[hieranonymous]

There’s no need for Apple to overthink this. Release an Apple analogue to the Meta Ray-Bans with all the quality-of-life improvements that direct integration with iOS would bring, along with somewhat better cameras and audio. Simple as that. They’ll fly off the shelves.

 

[SAIRUS]

Let's not kid ourselves here.

Apple's managers are throwing a rather complex situation at users to stay employed. Instead of focusing on simplicity you get bloated and expensive objects like recent products like the iPhone 16e and Apple Vision Pro. Eventually Tim will put his foot down to get it to production to recoup costs, even if the project is a bloated mess.

 

[ThailandToo]

It probably would be normal glasses with an Apple logo sticked onto it with a promise of having the features in a year to delayed to a couple of years like Apple Intelligence.
I want my money back for my iPhone 16 pro max Tim Cook

This is what I think everyone should have a one-month opportunity to do right now. Apple flat out lied. They made it seem like this AI was going to be great - so far it’s been a complete **** show.

I read some crap by Gruber who defended Apple. And I thought such a wrong way to go about it. It’s a company. Defending the company makes zero sense, especially when they are this wrong.

I wonder if Apple marketing contacts people with a small bit of influence to please change the narrative from it’s not coming for another year to it’s really hard stuff to do and it’s going to take until maybe as long as the end of 2026??? Giving Apple, the company, an out.

I wish the board would take action against Tim. Let him retire with his golden parachute. Then find an innovator to bring the company back for the future. Tim built a lot value in the company, but I don’t see anything improving as a stakeholder other than shareholders. That’s a problem. The employees make less, the customers pay more, and the CEO spends billions on projects because he has no idea what technology they can really make work and what they can’t. He’s no Steve Jobs. This made tremendous value for the company over the last 13+ years, but I don’t see it rising now. I just don’t see how Apple can truly be Apple without a visionary. And what Tim has done only emboldened then shareholders and executives. All the other stakeholders got a raw deal. Apple is the IBM from their commercial so many years ago - but they’re worse.

 

[TechWhisperer]

There you have it: “Apple is still discussing the possibility of making…”. 🤡

 

[epox999]

Is every Apple product now going to be something from 5-10 years ago that another company tried and failed at? (Snapchat Spectacles came out in 2016)

 

[turbineseaplane]

I read some crap by Gruber who defended Apple. And I thought such a wrong way to go about it. It’s a company. Defending the company makes zero sense, especially when they are this wrong.

"crap by Gruber" is almost redundant - lol

I agree with you about folks defending the company

A company doesn't care about anything but itself.
It's always been so bizarre to me when people "defend Apple".

They don't need any defense.

What they actually need, as kids do as they mature, is some objective coverage and less fawning praise.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Is every Apple product now going to be something from 5-10 years ago that another company tried and failed at? (Snapchat Spectacles came out in 2016)

The product talent has mostly all "left the building", so probably is the answer -- yep

 

[CarAnalogy]

Look until Apple can figure out their software, their hardware is the least of my worries. This is the biggest concern under Cook is that Apple can't figure out who they are and what they are supposed to do.

Most of this stuff from a car to glasses is vaporware.

Basically every single article about every single new product release contains the same sentence. Amazing hardware, held back by software.

 

[rymc02]

The product talent has mostly all "left the building", so probably is the answer -- yep

Where is the tech world headed overall? It feels like they are running out runway. Everything kinda seems like it's reaching its peak.

With TV's, they have done studies to show that the average person can't tell the difference between 4k and 8k. The human eye can't see past 120Hz refresh rates. TV's are huge now and super bright with amazing black levels and color gamuts.

Cameras are now all moving to 40+mp and 4k120p recording. More than the average person will ever need.

The new M4 MacBook Air in its base configuration can easily edit 4k footage and will be more than 95% users will ever need for watching YouTube and looking at social media for 5+ years.

All these things can have minor upgrades but nothing that would warrant a large scale shift in tech. I think tech companies are really going to struggle to get people to buy their goods moving forward as there simply isn't a reason too. CES the last few years has been utterly pathetic in showing off anything game changing or even interesting for that matter.

It also seems that's why Apple is getting in to the home tech space. A space they have neglected and even seemingly looked down on, bc it's one of the few markets left to still sell hardware in. I don't know but it feels like the tech world is in for some troubling times as we head into the next decade.