In this week's Sunday Reboot, the AirPods Pro with cameras are probably the best alternative to smart glasses that Apple could've come up with.

Sunday Reboot is a weekly column covering some of the lighter stories within the Apple reality distortion field from the past seven days. All to get the next week underway with a good first step.

Confirmed and capable: AirPods Pro with cameras

There have been rumors about a new breed of AirPods Pro in development at Apple for quite some time. Personal audio devices that somehow dealt with visual elements, not just sound.

The rumors said that Apple was coming up with AirPods Pro with built-in cameras to capture images of the local environment. All to feed data into your iPhone's Visual Intelligence so you can ask queries about your local environment.

This isn't entirely out of pocket for Apple, really. We have got heart rate tracking in AirPods Pro 3, as well as some models of Beats earbuds too.

Adding extra sensors in earbuds wasn't hard to believe. That they would be sophisticated enough to read the outside world and to transfer that data to your iPhone, was a tiny bit of a stretch.

While we knew through the rumor mill that they were being worked on in some capacity, we didn't know just how far along the idea had progressed.

Cue a leak from Apple itself seemingly confirming they exist. A video in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate gave a demonstration of what the earwear could feasibly do.

Admittedly, the ones shown looked like normal AirPods Pro, and could easily be used as placeholders in the video without revealing the real hardware. However, based on the angle, it could mean the sensor is positioned in the tip where the microphone is usually placed.

The video itself showed a person looking at a book, getting Siri to recognize the cover, and then to save it for later. We can probably expect a lot more potential capability from it, but it's not a bad explanation that they have some form of imaging sensor onboard.

In the days that followed, more capabilities were raised, again from macOS. It was able to capture left and right-paired images, namely images from each AirPods Pro camera, and combine them into images seen by Visual Intelligence.

The stereoscopic view could give Visual Intelligence data about distance, which may give Apple's AI more of an idea of where things are in the world, relatively speaking.

They would also be able to compensate for head movements and have passive and active modes. Impressively, the AirPods may even be able to process some of the data onboard instead of letting the iPhone handle it.

Capable, but not too privacy-breaking

There's the obvious issue of privacy, as we have seen with practically all other smart glasses that have ever been created. Cameras on an item that seemingly hides them could lead to weird perverted behavior.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but the AirPods Pro with cameras will get the same sort of outrage over everyone's sacred right to privacy. To be fair, it's a justifiable outcry, but one that probably won't be as much of a problem for Apple.

For a start, the paired images will just be up to 1 megapixel in size, versus 12MP photos and 3D video on the Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

Smiling person with long dark hair and large black glasses looking slightly upward, softly lit in a close-up portrait with blurred lights in the background

Someone actually wearing Meta Ray-Bans - Image Credit: Meta

That's an absolutely tiny resolution in this day and age. With a lack of a proper zoom function, that makes it extremely limited for spying purposes.

There's also Apple itself, which does what it can to protect privacy as much as possible. It would be a really bad look for Apple to ruin the years of work on one badly thought-out product.

Realistically, you have little to fear of them being seriously used for privacy-breaking reasons.

These are incredibly capable earbuds. In my book, they're probably going to be the most capable AI-centric product on Apple's future wearables roster.

You just shouldn't expect much of a privacy scandal from them.

Glasses-free smart glasses

Apple's current wearables landscape is pretty much not futuristic at all. We have the Dick Tracy-style Apple Watch, we have the ability to talk to Siri with AirPods, and then we have the bulky headset that is the Apple Vision Pro.

When it comes to the future, we have a few options. There's the weird pendant or brooch, Apple Glass, and now AirPods Pro with cameras.

Apple Glass was meant to be the product that would combat Meta's smart glasses and usher in the personal AI revolution. To me, a committed wearer of spectacles, the AirPods Pro are the safer bet.

For a start, AirPods Pro with cameras are the same conceptually as smart glasses, except without the glasses bit. If you think about the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, they are basically a camera on each side, a microphone, and speakers for the wearer's ears.

That seems a lot like AirPods Pro with cameras, conceptually. Of course, smart glasses with display elements are a different breed, but for the cheaper consumer-focused smart glasses, there is more of a direct comparison.

As a glasses wearer, that means I could have all of the benefits of wearing smart glasses with the future AirPods, but without needing to replace my frames.

It sounds like I'm being picky, but there are a few good reasons for it.

Beige smart sunglasses with dark lenses and small cameras in the corners, resting in an open tan leather case against a plain light background

The thick frames of the Ray-Ban Meta range hide the electronics. It's just not thin enough for me. Image Credit: Meta

For a start, I really don't like the thick frames of the current Ray-Ban Meta collection. I like my thin frames, and most smart glasses on the market simply cannot match that styling.

The second and more practical reason is that if I don't want the "smart" element anymore, I don't have to change glasses. I just have to take out the AirPods from my ears, put them in the charging case, and put them away.

If I had prescription lenses in smart glasses, and someone was really insisting that the spying cameras on them had to go away, I'd have a problem. Either I'd have to change to a second pair of "dumb" glasses, or go glasses-free and see the world in soft focus for a bit.

I like having my vision, and I don't like having to carry a second pair of glasses around with me. Especially if the smart ones have thick frames that barely hide the tech.

If I suddenly had a pile of free cash and an itch to buy some smart glasses, the AirPods Pro's camera evolution would be the route I would take.

Sure, they're not smart glasses. But for my glasses-wearing face, they are the much better answer.

Last week's Sunday Reboot talked about Apple's lawsuit with Epic Games, requests for delays, and Epic Games complaining about EU fee changes.