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Apple's 2026 Smart Glasses: Five Key Features to Expect
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I mean I don't expect it to take off either, but I'm leaving the door open as I was wrong once before.
Especially looking at the rumored list of “capabilities,” the value added shrinks when you consider what the phone already does. Assuming they actually fix Siri and you normally wear AirPods (or some other audio device with microphone), you are left with only a few of those things actually being facilitated by the glasses in any way:
- Take photos
- Record video
- Describe your surroundings (What does this even mean?)
- Identify plants, animals, landmarks and more with Visual Intelligence
- Offer directions (at least you can see directions in your FOV)
- Translate languages (in written form)
Please make sure this one has a chance of flying, before you push it out of the nest...
Little do we know Tim’s has been wearing them for the last few keynotes. 
"Siri Will Play a Major Role"
Well, I'm out!
Well, I'm out!
No screen? Don’t understand what this can do that they couldn’t do with AirPods. Especially since AirPods have been rumored to be getting some kind of camera system. I assume such a system is for aiding in gesture control so you don’t need to speak directly. I think some of the AirPods rumors suggested IR cameras? I suppose you could do a little more with traditional cameras on the glasses, but without a screen they seem way less useful, and are still behind the competition from 2025 in late 2026 at the earliest?
But it is so much more convenient to wear glasses than hang an iPhone around your neck if you want to show off 😊
You'll need them both anyhow .. so much stuff to charge here!
The watch, the Airpods, the phone, the glasses now.. oof!
First version, H1 chip, no heart rate monitoring. We'll see heart rate monitoring in 2030.
the retail price for these will be around USD 350 or so. companies other than apple will launch similar glasses for about USD 189.
the Macrumors article does not indicate or hint or rumorize that there is any screen/display in these.
what these will be is simply a microphone and headphone system that allows you to interact with apps on your iPhone that you have with you in yr pocket or bag, via Bluetooth.
additionally there will be a camera with video capability as well, as the article says. like a Go Pro. the camera will provide info about the location you are in - the outdoor menu of the cafe, the mountains you see in the horizon what are those mountains names,
i don't think there will need to be an infrared camera, but that was rumored for AirPods to achieve the same thing.
not expensive.
your optician will be able to make standard optical lenses for these to fit your prescription and/or make them into sunglasses.
these glasses provide a way for you to record your surroundings as you move through them without holding up yr iPhone. so picture yourself playing with your dog, taking a video of it. picture yourself walking up the steps of Mont St. Michel.
however, these will not be released in the Macrumors rumored timeframe. Improved Siri will prevent them from being launched until more like 2027 Spring.
Vision Pro has the distinct disadvantage of your face being covered with a goggles kind of mask (even if an appearance of your eyes can be seen from the outside). these glasses allow you to be in the moment and interact with everyone at the party.
i hope apple would have the courage for there to be a small diode that would light up green to show people that you are in fact recording them. i hope it remains true to that.
an additional chip that would need to be built into the frames is a motion reducing sensor. so that your videos are not going left and right up and down so quickly or jaggedly with the motions of your head. apple already has a similar chip in the newer iPhones. non-apple versions of these frames would not likely have this motion reducing capability.
if the videos could be streamed, i imagine someone at the party/event could stream it to someone like grandparents who are not there, or someone in the hospital. or YouTubers doing live streaming in the streets of Tokyo.
the battery that is needed in the glasses would be AirPods sized. the heavy lifting done by the iPhone battery.
the Macrumors article does not indicate or hint or rumorize that there is any screen/display in these.
what these will be is simply a microphone and headphone system that allows you to interact with apps on your iPhone that you have with you in yr pocket or bag, via Bluetooth.
additionally there will be a camera with video capability as well, as the article says. like a Go Pro. the camera will provide info about the location you are in - the outdoor menu of the cafe, the mountains you see in the horizon what are those mountains names,
i don't think there will need to be an infrared camera, but that was rumored for AirPods to achieve the same thing.
not expensive.
your optician will be able to make standard optical lenses for these to fit your prescription and/or make them into sunglasses.
these glasses provide a way for you to record your surroundings as you move through them without holding up yr iPhone. so picture yourself playing with your dog, taking a video of it. picture yourself walking up the steps of Mont St. Michel.
however, these will not be released in the Macrumors rumored timeframe. Improved Siri will prevent them from being launched until more like 2027 Spring.
Vision Pro has the distinct disadvantage of your face being covered with a goggles kind of mask (even if an appearance of your eyes can be seen from the outside). these glasses allow you to be in the moment and interact with everyone at the party.
i hope apple would have the courage for there to be a small diode that would light up green to show people that you are in fact recording them. i hope it remains true to that.
an additional chip that would need to be built into the frames is a motion reducing sensor. so that your videos are not going left and right up and down so quickly or jaggedly with the motions of your head. apple already has a similar chip in the newer iPhones. non-apple versions of these frames would not likely have this motion reducing capability.
if the videos could be streamed, i imagine someone at the party/event could stream it to someone like grandparents who are not there, or someone in the hospital. or YouTubers doing live streaming in the streets of Tokyo.
the battery that is needed in the glasses would be AirPods sized. the heavy lifting done by the iPhone battery.
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Just what I want to do...charge my glasses every night. On a positive note...Belkin will love it.
DOA if this is all they have to offer. At least give us AR, or a semi-transparent (Liquid Glass???) display with notifications and widgets.
I tried using Siri in my car yesterday to go to a restaurant on GPS. It failed miserably and I was astonished how pathetic it is. Apple can't do anything in the "AI" world until they fix that... it's a complete embarrassment.
Exactly. That's the first feature of macrumors mentions. It's also vaporware as of now. A coming soon in spring 2026 supposedly to iphone 17. A feature promised with iphone 16. As other companies have competent AI apps out there. Apple has....nothing.
This isn't trivial. Not something to blow past wondering what other features Apple will have on its Glasses. Heck even THAT was boring. What, it'll do what Meta Glasses already does and can be bought as Ray Bans and others? Seriously? It better do more and do it much better. Apple at least is known for good hardware. Software integration and features on initial products? Not so much. See Vision Pro or apple watch 0. That will take awhile.
But oh man. AI. Siri. That's so vital for anything Apple does. And it's missing in action. It's what made them panic and make promises it knew it couldn't provide with iphone 16. That whole mess was embarrassing for Apple. It's worth a major lawsuit actually.
So let's assume a competent Siri comparable with ChatGPT comes out in Spring. Wouldn't that be a blow your mind moment on its own? Integrated with ios and your apple ecosystem. Can be customized like a chatbot. Call it whatever you want with its own "personality." It would pull info at least from your apple apps assuming. Cloud based for much but some on device. That's the hook. That's the draw. That's the wow moment for Apple. Not Glasses but it could be a device that can offer much more than a watch especially with such a wow Siri AI from Apple. But we need to see this wow moment first. It's hard to get excited about Glasses right now when Apple has shown nothing so far but intentionally misleading false promises and information regarding Siri AI in order to prop stock prices and sell iphone 16 and now once again iphone 17 with promises of coming soon when it has nothing and we're still hearing rumors apple could be in talks to acquire so and so AI company and losing much of its AI workforce.
What's more is that Siri has actually gotten WORSE as time goes on. I used to tell Siri "I need a drink" and the response? I've found 15 bars close to you! and list them in order. And they were the 15 bars that were, indeed, close -- stones throw to a couple miles. Now? Siri recommends some oddball store called "The Drink Shop" 20+ miles away.
Stupid.
Man, I wore glasses from the 3rd grade till college. Last thing I want to do is wear glasses again.
No thanks. An affordable AVP for the masses would be great as I love the idea of being fully immersed in work or a TV show/movie for a couple of hours, then putting it back into a drawer. Augmented reality glasses however are literally the last tech product I would ever want.