Forget the Pin: Apple Wants You to Wear an AI ‘Pendant’
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Following a report last month that Apple might actually be developing an AI pin similar to the ill-fated Humane device, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has weighed in to suggest that this — or something like it — could be one of three new wearable AI devices the company has in the works.
We’ve already heard plenty of rumors about the first two categories Gurman shares — smart glasses and camera-equipped AirPods — but now there’s a third entry that’s shaping up to be a potential dark horse in Apple’s wearable AI race.
While The Information’s Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu described an Apple “pin” — “a thin, flat, circular disc with an aluminum-and-glass shell, [and] two cameras” — Gurman avoids using the same nomenclature, calling it a “pendant” instead.
That might be merely a semantic difference, but it’s significant as Apple undoubtedly wants to distance itself from Humane’s device, which turned out to be a massive flop. However, Gurman adds that the device he’s heard about will differentiate itself in other ways:
The device is reminiscent of the failed Humane AI pin, but it’s designed as an iPhone accessory rather than a standalone product […] Unlike the Humane AI Pin, the Apple device lacks a projector or a display system. It’s also designed to rely heavily on an iPhone for processing. Though it has a dedicated chip, the system is closer in computing power to AirPods than an Apple Watch.
Mark Gurman
The pendant is seemingly more about fitting into Apple’s objective of putting cameras and mics everywhere on a person’s body to effectively become the “eyes and ears” of the iPhone. It’s the same logic driving Apple’s pursuit of smart glasses — a product internally known as “N50” that’s notthe high-tech AR “Apple Glass” that was rumored for years but something more akin to Meta’s Ray-Bans or Amazon’s Echo Frames, designed to give Siri a set of eyes.
In fact, Gurman notes that Apple’s industrial designers came up with the pendant idea while they were working on the glasses, viewing it as an alternative for folks who might prefer something more subtle. With a set of camera-equipped AirPods Pro rounding things out, this would effectively allow Apple to offer an AI accessory for nearly every lifestyle, letting folks more naturally feed what they see into visual intelligence for analysis and talk to the conversational “Campos” Siri chatbot that Apple is expected to launch by next year.
It remains to be seen whether these would be two-way chats, as Apple’s engineering and design teams are reportedly still debating whether to include as speaker on the pendant. Users might still have to pop in a set of AirPods or other earbuds to hear what Siri has to say.
Names aside, the pendant Gurman describes sounds very similar to what Ma and Liu told us about last month, and Gurman links back to that report, indicating it’s essentially the same project.
Apple is aiming to make its pendant about the same size as an AirTag, but it may also have a feature that many wish the AirTag did: a hole for attaching it to things.
Apple is working to allow users to wear the AirTag-sized pendant in two primary ways: with a clip that can attach to clothing or via a necklace that can be placed through a hole inside the hardware.
Mark Gurman
Gurman cautions that the project “remains early-stage and could still be cancelled.” However, if the company decides to go for it, this could arrive as early as next year.
Apple has already reportedly cancelled the camera-equipped Apple Watch that Gurman reported on last year. This would have followed the same playbook as the AirPods, Smart Glasses, and Pendant in providing yet another way to feed visual data into Apple Intelligence, but it was deemed impractical as the cameras would often be covered by sleeves and the wrist doesn’t really provide the best angles.
We’ve been hearing about the camera-equipped AirPods for the longest, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo sharing supply chain info on them in 2024. At the time, Kuo assumed they were being designed to supplement the Vision Pro in some way, but that was also before Apple unveiled visual intelligence — a feature that all these camera-equipped AI devices appear to be made for. Unsurprisingly, those appear to be the furthest along, and could come this year, followed by the smart glasses and finally the pendant, assuming Apple pursues all three. However, Gurman also notes that Apple’s plans for the entire lineup remain “fluid” at this point.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
