Apple's Camera-Equipped AirPods Confirmed: See Them in Action

[eifelbube]

You got a link to this claim?

Just one of quite a few examples. This one is for the city of Potsdam (near Berlin) which recently started banning smart glasses at public beaches and pools as well as in saunas.

Potsdams Smart-Glasses-Verbot: Warum das Problem über heimliche Fotos hinausgeht

Smartglasses können unauffällig Fotos und Videos aufnehmen. Eine deutsche Stadt zieht nun Konsequenzen und verbietet Geräte wie die Meta Ray-Ban an bestimmten Orten.

www.netzwelt.de

 

[McNoise]

Well, personally, I can’t spot any new AirPods in the video. 🤣

 

[dannys1]

So you can not imagine what women would feel like? Women feel less safe in public spaces than men already, and at least they can tell most of the time when someone is recording or taking photos without consent. Now with smart glasses and camera ear buds they will feel even less safe. As someone who has kids and especially girls I say that people wearing and pointing recording devices at kids or women is not ok, no matter how safe you as a grown strong white adult man may feel.

Further problems for women is not acceptable no - but how about we teach men not to be creeps rather than ban all technology in case someone uses it in an inappropriate way? How about we actual punish men properly for doing that when they're caught instead of a slight slap on the wrists? Lots of technology can be used in inappropriate ways but that doesn't mean I shouldn't have access to it in case someone else does.

 

[dannys1]

This is comparing apples to not even oranges but more like to onions or potatoes. If all smartphone owners would be holding up and pointing the device while in public, there would be grave concern.

But you can and people do "pretend" to be on the phone whilst filming everything around them.

Lets be fair the AirPods are not going to allow you to take photos and add them to your camera roll, the quality will be appalling for a start - they'll be purely for working with Apple Intelligence, there will be no video, no pictures, nothing in the camera roll - that's clearly not what they are for.

But EVEN IF THEY WERE or COULD do this, people would still just use their phone and pretend to be on a call - the quality is going to be incomparably better.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Lots of technology can be used in inappropriate ways but that doesn't mean I shouldn't have access to it in case someone else does.

That's exactly what it can mean in reality.

I'm so disheartened to see so many men rallying around a defense of "discreet cameras everywhere" with so absolutely little regard for the externalities and those impacted by the implications of it.

I've noticed we don't see too many women (or any) defending this sort of tech.
Hmm ... I wonder why?

 

[SBlue1]

Lots of technology can be used in inappropriate ways but that doesn't mean I shouldn't have access to it in case someone else does.

Oh somebody just found out how the world works. This is exactly what happens. A few bad people misuse something and everybody else suffers. Before terrorist took down planes it was normal to take big bottles with liquids with you. Just because some idiot had a bomb in his shoes people have to take off shoes at airports. Heck in the 50s people used to take guns as cabin luggage. You could board a plane without being checked for anything in the 70s. You could buy Radium in the 50s. You could buy explosive chemicals in the 90s. Just because somebody bombed a building that doesn't mean I shouldn't have access to Ammonium Nitrate, does it?

 

[dannys1]

Oh somebody just found out how the world works. This is exactly what happens. A few bad people misuse something and everybody else suffers. Before terrorist took down planes it was normal to take big bottles with liquids with you. Just because some idiot had a bomb in his shoes people have to take off shoes at airports. Heck in the 50s people used to take guns as cabin luggage. You could board a plane without being checked for anything in the 70s. You could buy Radium in the 50s. You could buy explosive chemicals in the 90s. Just because somebody bombed a building that doesn't mean I shouldn't have access to Ammonium Nitrate, does it?

I'm not sure you can quite compare the atrocities of 9/11 with having a barely working camera for AI in Airpods mate. Might be the most ridiculous hyperbole i've heard - from a country that loves guns - maybe start with those eh?

 

[dannys1]

That's exactly what it can mean in reality.

I'm so disheartened to see so many men rallying around a defense of "discreet cameras everywhere" with so absolutely little regard for the externalities and those impacted by the implications of it.

I've noticed we don't see too many women (or any) defending this sort of tech.
Hmm ... I wonder why?

Well I don't know any men who have Meta's glasses, but I do know a woman who has them.

 

[Sill]

Oh somebody just found out how the world works. This is exactly what happens. A few bad people misuse something and everybody else suffers. Before terrorist took down planes it was normal to take big bottles with liquids with you. Just because some idiot had a bomb in his shoes people have to take off shoes at airports. Heck in the 50s people used to take guns as cabin luggage. You could board a plane without being checked for anything in the 70s. You could buy Radium in the 50s. You could buy explosive chemicals in the 90s. Just because somebody bombed a building that doesn't mean I shouldn't have access to Ammonium Nitrate, does it?

I had to lol and maybe rofl a little bit at that one... back in the 90s I paid a visit to a brewery out west owned by a very good friend. He was set up to fill kegs for his restaurant customers but hadn't gotten his bottling / canning up to speed yet. He gave me a gallon each of his best three brews to take back home to me, including one incredible craft that smelled like bubblegum. Not one person from check-in to boarding had any concern about me carrying 3 glass containers filled with tan liquid on board.

I'm not sure you can quite compare the atrocities of 9/11 with having a barely working camera for AI in Airpods mate. Might be the most ridiculous hyperbole i've heard - from a country that loves guns - maybe start with those eh?

He may have been off the track in his comparison, but your take is out somewhere in the middle of the Sargasso.

 

[dannys1]

He may have been off the track in his comparison, but your take is out somewhere in the middle of the Sargasso.

Right? Mentioning gun control to Americans is on par with telling them god doesn't exist.

Of course tiny cameras that won't take pictures to your camera roll in upcoming AirPods is the actual issue...

 

[eifelbube]

But you can and people do "pretend" to be on the phone whilst filming everything around them.

Lets be fair the AirPods are not going to allow you to take photos and add them to your camera roll, the quality will be appalling for a start - they'll be purely for working with Apple Intelligence, there will be no video, no pictures, nothing in the camera roll - that's clearly not what they are for.

But EVEN IF THEY WERE or COULD do this, people would still just use their phone and pretend to be on a call - the quality is going to be incomparably better.

No need to be “fair”. I am fully aware that there is a Big IF for these AirPod cameras to be full capture devices, I hope they will not be. I also would not deny the potential for them to be an assistive device in the accessibility sense.

But IF they can record and only at low resolution/frame rate, AI could be used to bump it up. I have a hard time envisioning how with a smartphone you could pretend to be on a call while actually secretly recording. I am in a cafe in Flagstaff, AZ. right now. When I started talking into the phone while recording a quick video sweep of the same area as seen in the panorama photo below (taken secs before the video), some people started turning their heads, one crossed her hands before her face with a friendly laugh (I apologized & explained).

The audio is a Wirrwarr * of speaking noises hopelessly competing with my dominant pretend-to-make-a-call voice (* German for mess+muddle+jumble+cocophony).

If my intention were to target a particular table, it would be so much easier to do so unobtrusively with respectively equipped earbuds, even easier than with smart glasses. Of course, eventually the word will spread about new capture devices and earbuds in environments like the one I am in now will no longer be socially acceptable.

Whatever these AirPods will turn out to be, I hope the focus is on assistive device to improve the quality of life, not just another convenience gadget. That is what I expect from 🍎.

 

[dannys1]

. I have a hard time envisioning how with a smartphone you could pretend to be on a call while actually secretly recording. I am in a cafe in Flagstaff, AZ. right now. When I started talking into the phone while recording a quick video sweep of the same area as seen in the panorama photo below

You put the phone to your ear, like you're on a proper phone call that people used to do before they walked around struggling to hear the loudspeaker in public for whatever reason.

Then you can actively turn away from the target you're trying to record.

 

[eifelbube]

Oh somebody just found out how the world works. This is exactly what happens. A few bad people misuse something and everybody else suffers. Before terrorist took down planes …

I'm not sure you can quite compare the atrocities of 9/11 with having a barely working camera for AI in Airpods mate. Might be the most ridiculous hyperbole i've heard - from a country that loves guns - maybe start with those eh?

I think S1Blue is concerned with the principle of a few with objectionable behavior/acts adversely impacting the lives of many who don’t engage in such behavior/acts.

I am already recorded by Flock cameras in public. I don’t want to be surrounded by an ever growing flock of Zeitgenossen (contemporaries), who were given an easy option most prominently by Meta to abuse consumer technology to the detriment of others. I do not want to see to see this profits-only driven innundation of controversial convenience tech Metastasize in the tech industry including Apple. Again, I am still confident that Apple knows how to escape the cancer.

 

[pizzafunghi]

Re-read the article and the above stood out for me, clearly it is recording, as in like "show me that drawing I looked at at store xyz this afternoon" - this is creepy, no other words for it.

Or, is Apple leaking this intentionally to see user reactions? Before a release?
And presumably all these new products will require the 27 version of the OS, so why all these reference in 26.7???

Couldn’t it be that, instead of the photo itself, a description of the image is stored? That could easily work locally. The result here would then be: You were holding a book with the title XYZ by the author X.

 

[Michael Cavada]

😱😛🤣 Will Apple's Colonoscopy Butt Plug be next?

sorry

 

[DBR2025]

Chiming in. This is a terrible idea

You made me want to chime in now.

This is an excellent idea.

 

[DBR2025]

😱😛🤣 Will Apple's Colonoscopy Butt Plug be next?

sorry

DUDE.

What ain't we seen yet?

THIS!

A level of health monitoring that no one is thinking about.

You are onto something.

 

[pdfu]

Turns out that macOS 26.7 also includes the software used to control the cameras in the AirPods themselves.

TLDR:

• One color camera on each AirPod, can take up to 1024×1024 images.
• The two cameras capture synchronized image pairs.
• The system supports one-shot and periodic still-image capture, with an active and passive mode.
• There's person detection, and a hardware indicator with controllable brightness.

More info:

macOS 26.7 reveals much more about Apple's upcoming AirPods with Visual Intelligence

You've probably seen the leak by now. macOS 26.7 RC includes a B790-SaveForLater.mp4 intro video showcasing a person presenting a book cover to their AirPods and saving information for later. Then, a localization table included the following strings: Set Up AirPods to Use Visual Intelligence...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[SnowCrocodile]

Nobody should have access to AI since it can be used for evil.

Do you support constitutional carry?

 

[Sill]

Right? Mentioning gun control to Americans is on par with telling them god doesn't exist.

Of course tiny cameras that won't take pictures to your camera roll in upcoming AirPods is the actual issue...

I think you have bigger issues.

 

[Luftkopf]

Right? Mentioning gun control to Americans is on par with telling them god doesn't exist.

Of course tiny cameras that won't take pictures to your camera roll in upcoming AirPods is the actual issue...

Not everyone you're disagreeing with is American...

This category of creeper devices so desperately need to be controlled. I hate to think of them becoming ubiquitous!

 

[Aslak3]

Oh my ..

So many concerns here.

I hope they don't get Airpods banned in gyms & locker rooms with stuff like this.

That would seem to be inevitable. If it is a camera then this is extremely worrying. Those glasses are bad enough, this is probably worse. I can’t see how any image is going to be even close to even HD but I’m probably wrong. 🙁

 

[dannys1]

I think you have bigger issues.

No, it's definitely not me that has the issues.

 

[Howard2k]

Do you support constitutional carry?

I was being sarcastic, and yes I do.

 

[Howard2k]

That's exactly what it can mean in reality.

I'm so disheartened to see so many men rallying around a defense of "discreet cameras everywhere" with so absolutely little regard for the externalities and those impacted by the implications of it.

I've noticed we don't see too many women (or any) defending this sort of tech.
Hmm ... I wonder why?

Guilt by association? Solid pass for me thanks.