AirPods with cameras show up in iOS 27 beta code

Code in the latest iOS 27 developer beta describes handling images from a pair of cameras, and hints that these are surely the expected AirPods with cameras.

AirPods with cameras may have long been expected, but the most recent leak claimed that Apple has "suspended" the whole project. Whether it has or not, the device got far enough that there are references to it in the latest iOS 27 developer beta.

That social media posting from coder Sam Henri Gold posits that the code in the screenshot hints at "smart glasses codenamed B790."

However, the code segment, called a response template, contains instructions for processing a very specific type of image. It concerns, and only concerns, "two images from cameras on either side of user's head (left first, right second)."

If it weren't for that, it could be for some future pair of smart glasses. Or it could as easily be code referring to the Apple Vision Pro.

However, specifying that there are two cameras and they are on either side of the wearer's head must surely mean that AirPods are more likely. The expected update to the AirPods Pro is believed to contain cameras in the stems of the earbud, arranged to face forward of the wearer.

There are all sorts of issues with this, starting with how these stems would surely need to be at least a little elongated. The stems on the current AirPods Pro are angled so that they only slightly protrude from the ear.

Then there are also concerns about privacy, and how Apple will indicate to people that an AirPods wearer is filming or photographing them.

Nonetheless, there are no other Apple devices that currently exist, or have been rumored. That includes the various future iterations of the Apple Vision Pro or its successors that have been mooted.

There could well be a device that hasn't leaked yet, or perhaps it's for a version of AirPods Max with cameras. But it seems certain that this code means AirPods Pro with cameras, which does not mean they are launching soon, but does bolster another recent claim that the devices have been in an advanced stage of testing.