Apple Stops Work on Camera-Equipped Apple Watch Planned for 2027

The camera will be in the new mystery hardware they'll be licensing from Jony Ive's company, so it would be redundant in the watch, making it bigger and heavier.
 
I think the camera would have been too complicated to work properly. They may revisit the idea in a few years, though.
 
Apple should have another CEO, board members let him walk. It is not just the amount of money loss or invested in a particular project being shut down. The loss of time on another project is the factor. The car blunder tragically illustrates how a time line on another project suffers from lack of attention. The severe loss of R&D in AI has caused a tremendous problems for Apple
 
MacUser16. said:
Apple cancels another product, what else is new?
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It seems like it was a dumb idea.

Seriously do you really need to walk down the street and point your phone at a business to see its yelp page? I mean come on there are easy enough ways to do that now.
 
michaelk7 said:
Apple should have another CEO, board members let him walk. It is not just the amount of money loss or invested in a particular project being shut down. The loss of time on another project is the factor. The car blunder tragically illustrates how a time line on another project suffers from lack of attention. The severe loss of R&D in AI has caused a tremendous problems for Apple
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I think the one strategy he has promoted that is a real winner from Apple is the ease of integration. Using different Apple gadgets and an Apple account really makes things very seamless
 
iSmoggie said:
I don’t think this would be very intuitive anyway. It’d be awkward trying to point the camera at something with the watch being on your wrist. I’d prefer to use a feature like this on my phone.
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I could imagine it working if the camera was situated "above" the screen, and pointing "up", so that if you held your wrist out in front of you like you were checking the time (with the screen facing the sky), the camera would point out in front of you, and you could look at the screen to ensure it was pointing at the desired thing... the mechanics would work, but I still think it's a dumb idea, doing something that the phone is much better suited for. Give us more sensors for the attached human, instead (the watch is much for suited for the former than the phone is), and maybe for the environment (if the watch is on your wrist and the phone is in a pocket, the watch is better positioned to sample the current air temperature, for example).
 
Reason077 said:
LIDAR sensors might make more sense. They can scan for any obstructions in the surrounding environment and automatically apply the brakes, if necessary, to prevent accidents when you’re manoeuvring your Mac.
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I agree, they could do some cool stuff with that. LIDAR is pretty power hungry though, from what I understand, and Apple Watch is no friend of battery tech.
 
Let's not add a camera that would allow for easier communication between people, we need to add more spy devices instead. These devices are not about empowering the user, it's more about gathering data and keeping track of people. They don't want to risk someone using it shed light on what really goes on. So how in the world are they going to make glasses that don't spy on others, they just going to shut that off and focus on surveilling the user more instead?
 
reyesmac said:
Let's not add a camera that would allow for easier communication between people, we need to add more spy devices instead. These devices are not about empowering the user, it's more about gathering data and keeping track of people. They don't want to risk someone using it shed light on what really goes on. So how in the world are they going to make glasses that don't spy on others, they just going to shut that off and focus on surveilling the user more instead?
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Wut? A camera is a great spy device. They are making glasses.

What's "really going on"?
 
Glad of this and I know of no one who wants this. Bad enough with all the other cameras around without adding another one running around. Thank you Apple.
 
nutmac said:
I understand the appeal but I think it's an ergonomic nightmare. Holding your arm to make a video call, or angling it just so to take pictures.
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BelgianChoklit said:
There should never be a camera on the Apple Watch. Who would want to hold up his wrist long enough for a FaceTime call?
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Tell us you didn't read the story without telling us...

MacRumors said:
The camera in the Apple Watch would not have been used for features like FaceTime or snapping photos, but instead would have allowed Apple Watch owners to get information about objects and places near them.
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Howard2k said:
No. There's a very small number of places that don't allow cameras, and Apple iPhone cameras can be disabled in places like this. No reason to think that the camera in the watch cannot be s/w disabled to fit the same niche.
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What you think not many people pass through passport control zones at airports and border crossing points where no phones and cameras are allowed to be used.

It would be another inconvenience for travellers and security officers alike checking for watches with cameras.
 
Veinticinco said:
It seems wasteful that these inherently pointless ideas don't get aborted BEFORE they actually assign people and waste many many hours of time and resources just to come to the inevitable conclusion. Likely this nonsense was conceived in front of Tim Cook who has banged on about AR for the best part of a decade, with nothing of significance to show for it.
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That assumes that the rumor that Gurman started was actually not a rumor but fact. Do you believe that? I don’t.

And I am sure that in Apples R&D efforts this idea was toyed with but it never went to the product team
 
MacRumors said:


Apple is no longer planning to release an Apple Watch that includes a camera, reports Bloomberg. Apple was developing Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra models that had a camera to view the wearer's surrounding environment, but work on those projects ended this week.

Apple-Watch-Series-10-Jet-Black.jpg

The camera in the Apple Watch would not have been used for features like FaceTime or snapping photos, but instead would have allowed Apple Watch owners to get information about objects and places near them.

An Apple Watch might have been able to do things like provide hours when pointed at a restaurant or store, identify a plant, describe an object, or offer language translations. The wearable camera functionality would have worked much like Visual Intelligence, an AI iPhone feature that lets users point their camera at something to get more information.

Apple planned to release the camera-equipped Apple Watch models in 2027, but the plans are off. It's possible Apple could bring the technology back in the future, and it's not known why development ended.

Though Apple is no longer planning for an Apple Watch with a camera, it's still developing AirPods with tiny cameras inside. The AirPods cameras may be infrared sensors to enable features like enhanced spatial audio, in-air gesture control, and AI capabilities.

Article Link: Apple Stops Work on Camera-Equipped Apple Watch Planned for 2027
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Rumor is a previous rumor isn’t happening as rumored.

I don’t blame MacRumors for these (it’s right there in the name) but I do wish they were a little more discerning.
 
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