You mainly use the AirPods to listen to music and make calls. Soon you will also be able to watch with them.
Apple released the new AirPods 3 last year. They are nice earbuds, but not really innovative. However, that may be very different with the next generation of AirPods.
Apple seems to want to apply something special to the earbuds: it wants to add a camera. But what really is the practical use of that?
This is what Apple wants with its new AirPods
A camera in your AirPods may sound strange, but it actually makes quite a bit of sense. It doesn’t help make your music better, but mostly offers benefits in terms of AI.
Although Apple Intelligence is not yet available in the Netherlands, Americans can already use it. Our country will follow in mid-April. One of the main features is Visual Intelligence, similar to Google’s Circle to Search. It lets you take a picture and instantly look up information about the subject on the Internet.
Your favorite earbuds (Image: Unsplash)
Now you still have to take your iPhone out of your pocket or purse to do that, but in the future that won’t be necessary if it’s up to Apple. AirPods could take on that task, so you won’t have to wear VR glasses to get live feedback from AI, Bloomberg reports. This would allow you to ask Siri questions about your surroundings. This is similar to what Human AI Pin tried, although that product has since died.
Even more benefits
In addition, the camera could provide another benefit: better communication between Apple devices. For example, if you have the Apple Vision Pro on, the AirPods would provide better spatial awareness. This should make images on Apple’s XR glasses even more realistic.
Suppose you turn your head, the direction the sound is coming from automatically adjusts. So you get a real 3D effect and feel like you’re in the middle of a movie or series. In addition, the AirPods can also be controlled with gestures because the cameras can detect them.
Still, it seems to be a while before AirPods with a camera hit the market. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, that won’t be until 2027 at the earliest. That probably means the next AirPods Pro will not have this feature yet.
