As we quickly approach Apple’s spring event and prepare for new iPads and maybe some new Macs, there is another sector that Apple, as far as we know, is paying a lot of attention to: wearables. According to Mark Gurman’s publication in his Power On newsletter, Apple is considering the development of several wearable devices that could revolutionize the market, including a smart ring, smart glasses, and improved AirPods with built-in cameras and more sensors.
Three projects that paint a very interesting panorama
The concept of an “iRing” focused on health and fitness was presented by Apple’s industrial design team to the company’s health team executives a few years ago, apparently. Although it is currently not in active development, this device promises to be a lower-cost alternative to the Apple Watch, capable of syncing health and fitness data with the paired iPhone and providing accurate measurements of various variables. It would directly compete with products like the Oura Ring and Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, offering a new form and format in monitoring our health.
On the other hand, the “iGlasses” represent Apple’s project to enter the field of augmented reality with a product that is technically less ambitious than the Vision Pro or the Vision Pro 2, but equally revolutionary. Gurman points out that Apple has considered the development of smart glasses that could replace AirPods, incorporating speakers, cameras, health sensors, and artificial intelligence capabilities. Apparently, the project is in the “technological research” stage, which suggests that we will still have to wait some time to learn more about this device.
To finish this round of rumors, Gurman tells us about AirPods with cameras, internally known as code name B798. These AirPods would include low-resolution camera sensors and could offer AI features that assist us in our daily tasks, from identifying objects to providing relevant real-time information. This project seems to be in a more concrete development phase and could mark, while we wait for the AirPods 3, a much greater integration of our devices in our environment.
As always, we are talking about rumors. Rumors regarding devices that are in the early stages of development, so changes can be quick and decisive. Regardless of whether we will see these devices in Apple stores, the mere existence of these projects reflects the decision to bring health monitoring and support, as well as AI, to our devices in an increasingly non-intrusive way. Projects that may not yield the expected results or, on the contrary, be more advanced and progress faster than we might suppose.
