Apple reportedly gears up for Smart Glasses debut to rival Meta's Ray-Ban wearables: Launch timeline tipped
Apple is reportedly preparing to unveil its first pair of smart glasses by the end of next year, according to a Bloomberg report published on Thursday. The tech giant is said to be ramping up its efforts to expand its product range and bolster its position in the competitive field of artificial intelligence (AI).
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report indicates that Apple will likely begin large-scale production of prototype units later this year in collaboration with overseas manufacturing partners. The move marks a strategic shift as the company seeks to capitalise on growing interest in wearable technology with AI capabilities. You may be interested in
The development could follow the relatively modest public reception of Apple's Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, which struggled to gain traction due to its steep price and limited AI integration. In contrast, rival Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have gained popularity, offering consumers a more affordable and practical smart eyewear option. Meta has officially introduced its AI-driven smart glasses in India, developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica under the iconic Ray-Ban brand. Dubbed Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, the wearable device blends classic eyewear aesthetics with modern smart features, allowing users to capture photos and videos, enjoy music, communicate hands-free, and even interact with their surroundings using artificial intelligence.
Apple's upcoming glasses are expected to directly rival Meta's offering, potentially incorporating more advanced AI features to distinguish themselves in the market. However, details about the device's specifications and pricing remain under wraps.
In a related development, Apple has reportedly abandoned plans to release a smartwatch with a built-in camera designed to analyse the wearer's surroundings. The company had been actively working toward launching the innovative wearable by 2027, but the project has now been cancelled, according to the same report.
Apple has not issued an official statement in response to the Bloomberg claims.
(With inputs from Bloomberg and Reuters)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
US equity futures fluctuate amid worries over Iran's oil flow disruption
US equity futures fluctuated as investors weighed the risk of Iran disrupting Middle East oil flows in response to American strikes on its nuclear infrastructure. Crude prices trimmed earlier gains. S&P 500 contracts were little changed after swinging between losses and gains. Brent crude pared an advance of as much as 5.7% to less than 1%, trading near $77.50 a barrel. The dollar strengthened 0.5% to its highest level this month, advancing against all Group-of-10 peers as traders hedged against the risk of further oil price gains. Subscribe to the Stock Movers Podcast on Apple, Spotify and other Podcast Platforms. Oil, which has risen more than 10% since the onset of the Israel-Iran conflict, remained the central focus as any interruption to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz raises the specter of a spike in energy prices and higher inflation. Israel ratcheted up attacks on Iran on Monday after Tehran vowed to retaliate against US attacks on its nuclear facilities over the weekend. 'Markets are judging that the response may not be quite as dramatic, because Iran would risk antagonizing others who are not yet pulled in,' John Bilton, head of multi-asset strategy at JPMorgan Asset Management, told Bloomberg TV. The market is 'absorbing a geopolitical event that is going on and judging that this does not, on face value, change the direction of travel.' The market's reaction had been generally muted since Israel's initial assault on Iran this month. Even after falling for the past two weeks, the S&P 500 is only about 3% below its all-time high from February. Additional losses may be contained, as some investors had already positioned for an escalation in the conflict. Equity exposure among fund managers has been trimmed while stocks are no longer in overbought territory. The market's sanguine reaction offers investors an opportunity to reduce their risk exposure further, noted Mohit Kumar, chief European strategist at Jefferies International. 'We don't see a closure of the Hormuz strait but see possibility of disruption,' Kumar said. 'Our base case would be a period of uncertainty lasting a few weeks, but without a sharp escalation.' Global bonds swung to gains after earlier losses. The rate on 10-year Treasuries fell three basis points to 4.35%. If Iran was to close the Strait of Hormuz, 'a stagflation scenario with lower growth and higher inflation due to elevated oil prices is the main risk for markets,' said Ulrich Urbahn, head of multi-asset strategy and research at Berenberg. 'It would also curb the abilities of central banks to support markets.' Corporate Highlights: Hims & Hers Health Inc. sinks more than 15% in premarket trading after Novo Nordisk A/S ends partnership. Novo fell as much as 5% in Copenhagen. Tesla Inc. rolled out its long-promised driverless taxi service to a handful of riders Sunday, a modest debut for what Elon Musk sees as a transformative new business line. A takeover battle for London healthcare REIT Assura Plc took a new turn after the board switched its recommendation from an all-cash private equity offer to a sweetened one by a listed player. British Airways and Singapore Airlines Ltd. canceled flights to the Persian Gulf, increasing aviation disruptions in the region after the US struck three nuclear sites in Iran and Tehran vowed to retaliate. Technology investor Prosus NV swung into profit for the first time, as it switches strategy under Chief Executive Officer Fabricio Bloisi. Buyout firm Advent reached an agreement to buy Spectris Plc, a UK maker of precision and testing equipment and software, for about £3.8 billion ($5.1 billion). Nomura Holdings Inc. more than doubled Kentaro Okuda's pay last year, rewarding the chief executive officer for guiding Japan's largest brokerage to a record annual profit. Stellantis NV is reorganizing its top management ranks as new Chief Executive Officer Antonio Filosa begins his push to turn around the struggling automaker. Some of the main moves in markets: Stocks S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 8:28 a.m. New York time Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.4% The MSCI World Index fell 0.3% Currencies The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.5% The euro fell 0.5% to $1.1463 The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.3382 The Japanese yen fell 1% to 147.55 per dollar Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $101,205.39 Ether rose 2.7% to $2,248.33 Bonds The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 4.35% Germany's 10-year yield was little changed at 2.51% Britain's 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.51% Commodities West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $74.27 a barrel Spot gold fell 0.2% to $3,362 an ounce
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
16 billion passwords: How bad is the ‘world's largest data breach'?
New Delhi: On 19 June, a report by cybercrime and data breach reporting platform Cybernews said that a collection of 30 live databases was found with information stolen from individuals around the world—collecting what was claimed as 16 billion passwords and their corresponding credentials. The details reportedly belonged to users who had accounts on the most popular online services—Apple, Facebook, Google and others. Has the breach in question really put most users of the internet at risk? Perhaps not—Mint explains why. What really happened in the alleged data breach? Cybersecurity researchers that Mint spoke with said that the breaches in question were not strictly new or a single consolidated breach, as early reports had claimed. Instead, the new databases are more like master databases where breached information gathered over almost the past decade was put together by an unidentified group or entity. To put it simply, data breaches occur from either unsecured online databases that cyber criminals scrape to collect information, or as part of cyber attacks on large online platforms that lead to the leakage of sensitive information. The largest known data breach so far occurred in 2016, when cyber attackers breached the entire database of once-search and mail giant Yahoo—stealing over 3 billion passwords and related user credentials at one go. Also read: India's big AI test is here: Making sovereign language models work Four cybersecurity researchers that Mint spoke with said that the 'master' database with 16 billion passwords and other corresponding data—such as name, email addresses, dates of birth and other personally identifiable information (PII)—is likely a collection of multiple breaches, dating back to 2015. Is such a widespread data breach even possible? While no number of breaches is outside the realm of possibility, most researchers stated that a single breach exposing such a massive volume of sensitive information at one time is nearly unlikely. 'There are estimates of over 5.5 billion unique users on the internet. Given that any average individual would have at least two or three emails, plus accounts linked with around 10-15 online services—served by an average of around five unique passwords, an extrapolated hypothesis can be that a breach of 16 billion passwords would likely impact over 40% of all internet users globally. For this to happen in one single coordinated data breach would be akin to all of Europe, Asia and then some more being compromised at one go—which is nearly unthinkable even in today's cybersecurity climate," said an independent cybersecurity researcher who closely works with various government departments, requesting anonymity. Mint could not independently access the alleged database in question or verify whether the information is updated. However, a scroll through cyber breach tracker Have I Been Pwned by noted cyber security professional and Microsoft regional director for the US, Troy Hunt, signified that passwords that have been in use on Apple, Facebook and Google's platforms since at least 2018 have not surfaced online in the repository's list of breached passwords. Also read: Sovereign silicon: India targets indigenous 2nm, Nvidia-level GPU by 2030 To be sure, Have I Been Pwned is a public repository that regularly scrapes dark web databases for leaked passwords, such as the one mentioned here. What should users do in this regard? Cybersecurity experts stated that, irrespective of whether their passwords appear in breach trackers such as the one cited above, updating passwords once every six months is prudent. Heather Adkins, vice-president of security engineering at Google, said that as part of its global endeavours to ramp up cybersecurity, the company is in the process of collaborating with Apple, Microsoft and others in a global 'Fido Alliance'—which seeks to establish 'passkeys' as a standard for login. 'Passkeys reduce the dependency on passwords, and thus reduce how breaches occur by using the biometric authentication information that is stored on users' phones and laptops. The benefit here is that attackers cannot breach biometric information even if they want, since they require on-device authentication. Various emails and other logins are steadily shifting to passkeys in this regard," Adkins said. Sidharth Mutreja, cofounder and chief technology officer of homegrown enterprise security consultant Rockladder Technologies, added that a second step is to 'enable two-factor authentication." 'As a second layer of security, users should always either use one-time password-based additional verification or use authenticator apps to ensure that their accounts and personal information are not breached even if a password is compromised. Additionally, it's important to ensure that any caller or email sender is personally verified before they are responded to," he added. For now, though, each of the researchers agrees that no user is at 'immediate risk of losing access to all of their accounts"—even though initial reports projected widespread risk, unlike what was seen before. Can attackers still leverage the information? Unfortunately, yes. The presence of such databases means that attackers with deep pockets and ill intent can pay to access such databases and use the information for a wide range of tasks. These include actions such as 'spear phishing'—where attackers use available information about individuals to closely impersonate a potential acquaintance, and dupe them financially or otherwise. Also read: Eye in the sky: India to set up satellites to spy on satellites To be sure, such attacks have become common in India in the form of 'digital arrests' and originate from such databases. A single, coordinated database could thus be a crucial indirect resource for attackers, even if they do not immediately cause any direct harm to users. Will companies handle damages and fallouts, if any? Mutreja said that a coordinated database that collates all breached information under one umbrella 'could create significant liability for enterprises in terms of securing their own platform with database monitoring tools—and put the onus on consumers to instantly and continuously change their passwords." 'There's no one set law that dictates if a company should be liable for a public database—unless a breach in question directly correlates to a company specifically. In such a case, users can directly raise questions on whether companies should have better protected their data. In this case, though, this does not hold," he added. Apple, Facebook and Google—the three major service providers whose information was a part of the breach as per the original report—have not issued any statements or patches pertaining to a data breach of such stature.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Why Apple founder Steve Jobs believed teams should ‘argue' and ‘fight': ‘That's what it's…'
Apple founder Steve Jobs once said that building great teams requires friction – the one that leads to arguments and strong opinions, but resulting in better ideas and stronger people. In a 1995 interview with PBS's Triumph of the Nerds, Jobs recalled a story from his childhood when a neighbor showed him how a rock tumbler worked. He told interviewer Bob Cringely that a widower neighbor showed him a homemade tumbler consisting of 'a motor', 'coffee can' and a 'little band between them'. It was filled with "regular old ugly rocks," water and grit, Jobs told the interviewer, recalling that the stones emerged "amazingly beautiful" after a night of clattering. 'That's what it's like when you get a bunch of incredibly talented people working together,' Jobs said. ''They bump up against each other, they make some noise, they make some mistakes, they have arguments sometimes, they fight — but they polish each other,' he added. Jobs believed that real progress comes when people are forced to challenge each other, not just agree. At the time of the interview, he was running NeXT and was preparing to return to Apple. Former Apple employees, as per a Benzinga report, say Jobs often structured team spaces to encourage such interaction. Engineers and designers were placed close together so they had to confront issues head-on. Similar methods were used later in iPhone development and at Pixar, where open criticism in story sessions was part of the creative process. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Steve Jobs' work habit shared by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Pixar's Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter recently said that Steve Jobs would reportedly call colleagues at hours. As per a recent CNBC report, Docter told Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Gala that Jobs would phone colleagues 'at any time, day or night, three in the morning … you're on vacation, doesn't matter'. He further stated that Jobs' after-hours calls were non-negotiable and that the intensity often ignored personal boundaries. Docter's comments come amid ongoing discussions about tech's always-on work culture. He positioned his own leadership style as a contrast to that of Jobs — and to the hustle culture promoted by figures like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos . JOB SCAM ALERT! Don't Let Fake Recruiters Steal Your Money AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
