If you were tempted to make the comparison between Apple’s rumored AI pin and Humane’s notorious Ai Pin, let me stop you right there. There’s (reportedly) a big difference, and that difference is that Humane’s defunct AI gadget actually tried to be something other than an accessory to your phone.
According to Bloomberg, sources within Apple say that the company is indeed working on an “AI pendant” that you can pin to your shirt or wear as a necklace. For all intents and purposes, it sounds a lot like a pin formerly made by Humane. It reportedly has a camera for computer vision, a microphone so it can be operated by Siri, and potentially a speaker so that you could have a back-and-forth rapport with Siri as well (this last one is reportedly up in the air, though).
There is one thing that’s different between the two, though, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, and that’s the fact that Apple’s AI pendant likely won’t do much of anything on its own. Apple’s pinnable AI gadget will allegedly “rely heavily on an iPhone for processing” and will include a chip that is “closer in computing power to AirPods than an Apple Watch.” Translation? It’s not going to be doing any heavy lifting.
That’s probably fine, considering most people don’t have any expectations for an AI pin to begin with, but it is a little deflating to know that Apple is seemingly taking the idea of Humane’s Ai Pin and scaling it back. Maybe it’s for the best. Humane’s Ai Pin, as a quick recap, didn’t really do a lot of what the company promised—it was buggy, prone to overheating, and it also cost a lot of money. On top of the $699 price tag for buying the pin, you were required to pay a $24 monthly subscription for cellular service in order to use the device while out and about. No one said killing the smartphone was going to come cheap, okay?
Theoretically, Apple’s version wouldn’t be burdened by those issues as heavily, though, since it offloads computing to your iPhone and can also rely on its wireless connectivity for internet. Whether Apple can convince people to buy an AI pendant is another story entirely.
And speaking of uphill battles, Gurman also dropped more intel on Apple’s upcoming smart glasses. According to the report, Apple will have another archetype in mind for its first pair of smart specs, and this time, that role model is Meta. Apple’s alleged smart glasses will have two cameras, one for computer vision and another for pictures and videos. They’ll reportedly have speakers and microphones, allowing wearers to make calls, play music, and snap pics and videos by using Siri. On top of that, they’ll also apparently be able to use AI to do stuff like interpret text or provide turn-by-turn directions.
If you’re reading all of this and thinking, “Boy, that sounds awfully familiar,” that’s because those are mostly all things that Meta’s AI glasses can already do. Even if that’s true, though, Apple’s smart glasses might still take the crown due to their tight integration with the iPhone. As useful as Meta’s AI smart glasses can be, the process of interfacing with your phone still feels disjointed at times, to no fault of Meta’s. Something tells me an Apple-made pair won’t share that problem.
Both the smart glasses and the AI pin are tenuous, to be clear. Even Bloomberg reports that the pin is an “early stage” and “could be cancelled.” While smart glasses are much more likely to be released, what form they take is fluid, and so is the release date. For now, though, it looks like what we can expect is a bit more of the same, albeit with some Apple flourishes.
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