{"id":434021,"date":"2026-02-19T11:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/434021\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T11:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:15:14","slug":"apple-reportedly-accelerates-smart-glasses-development-amid-wider-push-for-ai-hardware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/434021\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Reportedly Accelerates Smart Glasses Development Amid Wider Push for AI Hardware"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple is reportedly accelerating the development of smart glasses, as the company is ostensibly making a shift toward AI-centric hardware.<\/p>\n

According to a report from\u00a0Bloomberg\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Mark Gurman, Apple is ramping up development of its forthcoming smart glasses, which are\u00a0slated to head into production as early as December 2026, with public release expected sometime in 2027.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s smart glasses are being positioned to compete with Meta and EssilorLuxottica\u2019s most recent smart glasses, the report maintains.<\/p>\n

While this mostly echoes previous\u00a0reports\u00a0from last October<\/a>, Apple appears to be accelerating development, having recently distributed a broader set of glasses prototypes within its hardware engineering division.<\/p>\n

According to an all-hands meeting with employees earlier this month, CEO Tim Cook supposedly also hinted that Apple would be pushing hard into AI devices, noting that the company was working on new \u201ccategories of products\u201d centered around AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re extremely excited about that,\u201d Cook said in the internal meeting, saying \u201c[t]he world is changing fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing people familiar with Apple\u2019s plans, the smart glasses (allegedly codenamed \u2018N50\u2019) are said to include two cameras: a high-resolution camera for photos and video, and\u00a0another dedicated to computer vision tasks. The high quality onboard cameras and overall build quality are expected to set it apart from competing products, the report maintains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Array of Meta smart glasses | Image courtesy Brad Lynch<\/p>\n

Similar to Meta\u2019s audio-only smart glasses though, Apple\u2019s N50 hardware isn\u2019t expected to include a display of any kind, instead\u00a0relying on cameras, speakers and microphones for things such as phone calls, AI queries, listening to music, and capturing images.<\/p>\n

Apple allegedly floated the idea of partnering with eyewear brands\u2014similar to Meta\u2019s partnership with EssilorLuxottica or Google\u2019s partnership with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster<\/a>\u2014the company seems to have more recently decided on developing in-house designs, which are said to arrive in a variety of sizes and colors.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly prototypes of the glasses connect via a cable to a standalone battery pack and an iPhone, but newer versions have the components embedded in the frame,\u201d Bloomberg reports. \u201cThe design uses high-end materials, including acrylic elements intended to give the glasses a premium feel. Apple is already discussing launching the device in additional styles over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comes as Apple is investing more heavily in AI in effort to better compete with Google and OpenAI, which comes part and parcel with a critical redesign of Siri. The report also maintains Apple is working on an AI-powered pendant and AirPods with expanded AI capabilities\u2014all three of which will rely on visual input.<\/p>\n

Notably, the report maintains that all three will rely on connection to iPhone. Apple did not respond to Bloomberg\u2019s\u00a0request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple is reportedly accelerating the development of smart glasses, as the company is ostensibly making a shift toward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[86,56,54,55,4297,4298,4299],"class_list":["post-434021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}