Apple is working on a new way for your gadgets to see the world

Apple’s Tim Cook is beginning to make some pretty heavy hints that its technology is going to get a whole lot better at seeing the world in the same way that we do. If his hints are to be taken at face value, it appears that we are on the verge of a new era of tech that doesn’t simply rest in our pockets but experiences the world right along with us.

Apple’s eyes on the future

In his latest newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that Apple is refocusing its efforts on a brand-new category that’s all based on Visual Intelligence. This is a type of AI that’s able to take a look at your surroundings and get a feel for the context of what’s going on. While we’ve already seen a glimpse of this technology in the iPhone 16 Pro, where you can take a picture of something and ask questions about it, the real goal here is to make this technology the center of a brand-new line of wearables.

Apple is looking at several different ways of bringing this into your life, from more advanced AirPods that use technology to help you navigate your surroundings, to smart glasses that can read signs and show them to you in your line of vision, to a pendant that’s a small device that’s worn around your neck that uses cameras and other technology to serve as a literal second set of eyes.

According to Gurman, the idea behind it all is to go beyond simply searching photos and into a more real-time level of assistance. So, instead of saying "walk 500 feet," the future device could say "turn left after the Starbucks." It could even recognize the ingredients of a meal on your plate of food or remind you to get your mail when it recognizes that you are walking up to your front door.

Why this shift matters for you

It’s interesting because it appears that Apple's direction is to make us want to stop staring at our screens all day long. By making the cameras and AI technology available on things like glasses or pendants, it becomes much more invasive in our lives.

When looking at the bigger picture, it’s obvious that Apple wishes to catch up to the competition by making their AI (courtesy of Google's Gemini, of course) more aware of the world around it. While other companies have tried similar products in the form of a wearable AI device, they have yet to succeed, mainly because they attempted to replace the phone that users already have.

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