Apple's long-rumored camera-equipped AirPods just became a lot more real, surfacing in a leaked demonstration video buried within the macOS Tahoe 26.7 Release Candidate.
Discovered by MacRumors and shared by Aaron Perris on X, the clip shows a man wearing the upcoming earbuds while asking Siri to remember a book he is viewing. "With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later," a Siri voice-over explains in the footage. Although no lenses are explicitly visible in the video, the featured earbuds closely resemble the current AirPods Pro but sport a noticeably thicker stem.
Hardware and AI Capabilities
Industry insiders Ming-Chi Kuo and Mark Gurman note that Apple plans to embed tiny infrared cameras into the earbuds, borrowing technology from the iPhone's Face ID sensors. Nobody will be snapping photos or recording videos with these low-resolution modules. Rather, they exist strictly for spatial computing tasks and seamless interaction with an AI assistant.
By observing user surroundings and head movements, the infrared sensors act as the sensory foundation for Siri's "visual intelligence". Pairing the earbuds with an Apple Vision Pro headset takes this further, potentially enhancing spatial audio by amplifying sounds coming from whatever direction the user is facing.
Beyond audio trickery, these new modules unlock in-air hand gestures, allowing wearers to control volume or answer incoming calls with simple movements. To address privacy concerns, an LED indicator light illuminates whenever the cameras actively function.
Driving these capabilities is a reported upgrade to a new H3 chip, skipping past the current H2 processor to slash latency and elevate overall audio fidelity. Tapping into the Apple Intelligence suite requires serious processing power, meaning buyers must own at least an iPhone 15 Pro to use the device. Manufacturing is already gearing up, with Foxconn contracted to supply parts for the upcoming hardware.
Timelines and Pricing
Pinning down an exact release schedule for the camera-equipped AirPods remains tricky. Gurman previously floated the idea that Apple could launch a model codenamed B790 later in 2026. Backing this up, MacRumors uncovered concrete references to both the B790 codename and "image stream" code inside the macOS 26.7 Release Candidate.
Because this polished demo made it into the late-stage software, a formal unveiling at September's iPhone event now seems highly likely. Down the road, a completely separate camera-equipped model operating under the codename B798 is slated for a 2027 debut.
Mass production of infrared camera AirPods is on track for 2026, a move Kuo frames as a far more substantial hardware leap than the AirPods Pro 3 and its new heart-rate monitor. Following years of quiet internal development, Bloomberg confirms the device has finally reached a phase boasting a near-final design.
Pricing details remain hotly contested across the tech space. Leaker Kosutami claims the camera-equipped model will hit shelves at $249, perfectly matching the AirPods Pro 3. Competing sources paint a different picture, suggesting a significantly steeper price tag that positions the earbuds as an ultra-premium tier sitting far above the current lineup.