Apple is considering making dramatic changes to the launch of its widely-rumoured smart glasses, according to a new report.
The company has long been thought to be working on its own smart glasses, likely to be eyewear that includes speakers, cameras and microphones so that users can wear them in daily life and interact with artificial intelligence.
As such, they are expected to be similar to Meta’s own smart glasses, made in collaboration with Ray-Ban. But those glasses have suffered a run of controversies in recent weeks – which are rumoured to have changed Apple’s plans for its own version of the product.
Much of the criticism around Meta’s glasses are centred on their use to film people, unknowingly, in public. A run of covert videos have led to a backlash against the glasses, including suggestions that they make it easier to invade people’s privacy and encourage people to take and share videos without people’s knowledge.
Apparently because of that concern, Apple is said to be re-considering the roll-out of its own version – which could bring dramatic changes, according to a new report in Bloomberg.
The first of those changes is that the glasses had been widely expected to launch later this year. But the new report, from usually reliable Apple reporter Mark Gurman, suggested that they might not arrive until Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June next year.
WWDC is usually focused on software, and so Apple might also be delaying the release so that it can focus on the AI experiences that the glasses enable, and encourage developers to make their own software for the platform.
But a perhaps more substantial change is that Apple is also said to be concerned about the privacy concerns from the glasses and any potential backlash that might result.
As such, Apple’s executives have debated turning off the video or photo recording capabilities of the glasses, Bloomberg reported. While the cameras would still be included, they could only be used for seeing the world around a user and giving that to AI tools so that it can be used to identify objects, for instance.
That is similar to a rumoured update to the AirPods which is said to bring cameras to the earphones. Because of the relatively low-quality of those cameras, they are thought to be mainly or only aimed at enhancing the AI experiences that are powered by Siri, Apple’s digital assistant.
The company is also working on a set of hardware and software-powered privacy features that would set it apart from current products, Bloomberg reported.
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