Apple Glasses

For the past few months, there have been plenty of rumors and reports about Apple’s plans to release AI-enabled wearables. Currently, it looks like Apple’s direct competitors to the Meta Ray-Bans will be launched around 2027, alongside AirPods with cameras, which will offer their own set of AI-enabled features.

While it might be too early to know what exactly they will look like, Apple has just offered a peek at how their AI might work.

Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News that Apple is developing a chip intended for smart glasses that could come to market in the next two years. However, these smart glasses may not be the highly advanced augmented reality glasses that Apple envisions making someday.

Instead, Apple has set its sights on competing with Meta and its camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses. According to Gurman, the non-AR smart glasses will use a class of chip comparable to what’s inside the Apple Watch today. Based on Apple’s plans to mass produce the chip at the end of next year or in 2027, Gurman believes we could see the hardware arrive in the next two years.

A Bloomberg report over the weekend suggested that we may see Apple smart glasses as an interim step along the way toward a full AR-based Apple Glasses product.

Essentially, it would be a copy of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses – and as someone who uses those, my view is that an Apple version only makes sense if two key conditions are met …

Apple’s Vision Pro launched last year as a cutting-edge technological feat, yet it’s been plagued by issues like its high price and being too heavy for some. But the Vision Pro has one very big advantage in its favor that could make all the difference in the world: Tim Cook’s AR glasses goal.

An Apple patent has described extending the Apple Watch Fall Detection system to other wearable devices. This includes Vision Pro, a future Apple Glasses product – and even a smart contact lens.

The patent says that such wearables could be even more effective that the Apple Watch implementation, for two reasons …

Last week, Mark Gurman reported that Apple had canceled development of its AR glasses project following some unimpressive demos for executives. With Vision Pro struggling to build its own sales momentum, on the surface AR glasses seemed like the the best path forward for Vision products. But here’s why that may not be the case—at least not yet.

Bad news for fans of bad products. Apple won’t be shipping a pair of augmented reality glasses that require a tethered connection to the Mac after all. Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has the exclusive development, including a thorough description of how the product would have worked. Based on Mark’s reporting, this project was buried in compromises that ultimately made it undesirable.

Apple’s long-term goal for Vision Pro is believed to be an Apple Glasses product, in which an ordinary-looking pair of glasses will be able to display both text and AR content.

We’ve seen some competitors take early steps in that direction, and the RayNeo X3 Pro AR glasses look like the closest thing we’ve yet seen in a real-world product …

Ray-Ban Meta have been the most successful smart glasses to date, offering an appealing mix of features in a form factor which is visually indistinguishable from normal sunglasses.

So far, all of the AI functionality, notifications, and messaging features have relied on the glasses reading things to you through integrated speakers, but a new report says a future model will get a display, and that it could launch as early as next year …

A wide-ranging interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals him (kind of) denying OpenAI rumors; addressing the potential conflict between the power requirements of AI and Apple’s environmental goals; the journey toward Apple Glasses; and how Apple’s greatest legacy may be saving lives.

Cook kicks off by denying that Apple was late to AI, pointing out that the company first built a neural engine into its products back in 2017 …

It was back in September when Meta first revealed an early prototype of its Orion AR glasses, and while they are a long way from becoming an actual product you can buy, the company does believe it can achieve this.

Indeed, Meta’s wearables chief thinks that Orion can in time become the AirPods of augmented reality devices …

After announcing Vision Pro last year, Apple has reportedly been exploring more ways to provide AR and VR content to users – and it seems that the idea of smart glasses is growing within the company. A Bloomberg report on Monday revealed that Apple has been conducting a new internal study focusing on building smart glasses.

Apple is preparing some additional vision based products, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. We’re expecting smart glasses, similar to Meta’s collaboration with Ray-Ban, as well as AirPods with cameras. These products won’t launch until at least 2027, if they do at all.

My colleague Filipe Espósito yesterday said that the prototype Meta Orion glasses are what he wants for the future of Apple Vision, and I agree that they are an incredible step in the right direction.

I’ve long said that an Apple Glasses product is what I really want to see, but as impressed as I am by what Meta has shown us, I still think it will be a few years before any of us will be wearing a pair of Apple Glasses …

Replacing the iPhone might seem a strange goal for Apple; it’s been the most successful product the company has ever made, and one of the most successful premium products any company has ever made. But it’s been reported that this is the company’s long-term goal.

Specifically, Apple execs were said to believe back in 2019 that an Apple Glasses product would replace the iPhone in roughly a decade …

When I tried Ray-Ban Meta glasses last week, I described the AI features as largely a gimmick at this point, but still making me feel excited for a future Apple Glasses product.

Several commenters noted that the glasses do somewhat better when given follow-up questions, and I tried out this feature on another walk, to reveal a mix of hits and misses. But what’s really missing at present is integration …

While an expensive, bulky Vision Pro headset undoubtedly has its place for some, Apple’s longer-term goal is believed to be a product dubbed Apple Glasses: bringing AR capabilities into something with a similar form-factor and weight to conventional eyeglasses or sunglasses.

Squeezing that much tech into a much smaller device is, of course, a huge challenge – but researchers at Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab may have come up with at least part of the solution …

Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter suggests that Apple isn’t expected to launch a new Vision Pro (or Vision something) model until the end of 2026.

That follows another report last week, suggesting that demand for the spatial computer is far lower than Apple expected …

Apple and Meta won’t just be competing with their VR headsets – they are also likely to be gearing up for a later battle between Apple Glasses and Meta Glasses.

While both devices are believed to be years from launch, a new report today says that we’ll get a sneak peek at Meta Glasses later this year …

Vision Pro isn’t large enough to accommodate eyeglasses, so wearers will need prescription lens inserts instead. But that might not always be the case: A new Apple patent describes a way to electrically adjust the displays to suit your vision.

The system Apple describes is done dynamically, so it can effectively match a different prescription for each eye, and also allow switching the same device between multiple users with different prescriptions …

Mark Gurman’s latest newsletter says that Apple remains concerned about the Vision Pro’s weight and is working on making the next generation of the headset lighter.

Gurman also describes the difficulties the company is facing in dealing with the prescription lenses that will be needed for many customers …